PRACTICAL GUIDE
Internal linking: structure, meaningful anchors and checks
Connect services, articles and products so visitors can find the next useful page and search engines can discover the content.
Give each link a purpose
An internal link leads to another page on the same website. An article about choosing footwear can link to a relevant category, while a service page can link to a project illustrating the work. This aids navigation without guaranteeing indexing or a purchase.
Organise important pages
Map the relationship between main sections and their pages. An important service should be reachable from navigation or a relevant section, not only a sitemap. Link to deeper resources when they answer the next question.
Write descriptive anchor text
The visible link text should explain the destination. “Image optimization” is more useful than “here” when that is the topic. Avoid long strings of keywords and promises the destination does not fulfil.
Check the implementation
Use normal HTML links with href attributes. A canonical is a hint about the preferred version of similar content, not a replacement for navigation. Link directly to final URLs. Pagination should make older materials reachable through actual links.
Find pages with no incoming links
Compare a crawl with your full content inventory and sitemap. A page without internal links may still be discovered through other routes, but is harder for visitors to reach. Add links where they make thematic sense rather than placing them arbitrarily in the footer.
Maintain links when content changes
Check broken URLs, redirects, missing anchors and accidental language changes. When publishing a new resource, revisit related existing pages. Usefulness matters more than a fixed number of links per paragraph.