Glossary · Internal linking
What is internal linking? How links between your pages help SEO
What internal links do
An internal link is a link from one page of a site to another page on the same site. It does three jobs at once.
It helps crawlers find pages: search engines find most URLs by following links, and a page nothing links to may never be crawled. It gives context: the link text and surrounding sentence say what the target is about. And it shows importance: pages linked from many relevant places look more central.
For a link to count, a crawler has to be able to follow it. Google is clear: use a normal link, an anchor element with an href. A button that only works through JavaScript is invisible to a crawler.
Types of internal link and what each is good for
| Dimension | What it does well | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|
| Links in the body text | Carry the most meaning. The sentence explains why the target matters, and readers follow them. | Someone has to write and maintain them, page by page. |
| Main navigation | Makes the most important sections reachable from every page. | The same on every page, so it says little about any single one. |
| Breadcrumbs | Show where a page sits in the site and link it to the pages above. | Only ever link upwards. |
| Hub and listing pages | Gather related pages under one topic so none gets left out. | Turn into lists of links with no explanation if nobody writes them properly. |
| Footer links | Give lesser pages a path from everywhere on the site. | Carry the least context, and turn into a keyword dump when overloaded. |
Internal linking mistakes that leave pages stranded
- Orphan pages: published and in the sitemap, but linked from nowhere on the site.
- Links a crawler can’t follow, such as JavaScript buttons with no href.
- Links to redirects or dead pages, which waste crawling and lose the context the link was meant to carry.
- Links to the non-canonical version of a page, which contradict your own canonical tag.
- The same exact-match link text added hundreds of times by a plugin.
- Important pages you can only reach through site search or a filter, which crawlers don’t use.
A working rule for internal links, and how this site checks it
Every page should be linked from somewhere a reader would expect to find it, and link on to what a reader would want next: its parent page, its closest related pages, the service or guide that goes deeper, and one clear next step.
This site checks that automatically. The build fails if any editorial link points to a page that doesn’t exist, and a check flags any indexable page nothing links to, any page with no links in its text, and link text used so often it has stopped meaning anything.
BOOSTD treats adding a safe internal link as low-risk, reversible work, so it can run by itself in “Small fixes on their own”. Navigation or template changes are bigger and wait for your approval.
Questions about internal linking
How many internal links should a page have?
Google doesn’t set a number. Link where a reader would want to go next, and stop there.
As a working rule, this site aims for five to fifteen useful links within the text of a page, fewer on a short one. Beyond that, we ask whether each link earns its place.
Do navigation and footer links count?
Yes. They’re real links, and crawlers follow them. Because they appear on every page they carry less context, so they help search engines find pages more than explain them.
Should anchor text match the target keyword exactly?
It should describe the target page accurately, which often includes the words people search for. The same exact phrase on hundreds of links looks forced; natural variety is safer and more useful.
References
Sources for internal linking
The official documents and research this page is based on. Platform rules change, so check the source before you act on a detail.
Last updated · Published by Zubair Afzal, responsible editor
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