Pages that connect.

Why pages should be linked to each other

Internal linking is the system of links between pages of one website: the menu, breadcrumbs, links in the text, "related services" and "read also" blocks. For a search engine it is a map. The Yandex robot finds pages by following links, and the Webmaster help pages warn plainly that the robot may never learn about a document no links point to. For a visitor, internal linking is the next step: from an article to a service, from a service to prices and examples of work.

We have already touched on the basics in our guide to on-page optimisation and in our article on links in SEO. This article treats internal linking as a system: what kinds of links there are, which direction to place them in, how to word them and how to check that nothing is broken.

What internal linking consists of

• Navigation - the menu and the footer. They lead to the main sections and appear on every page.
• Breadcrumbs - the path from the home page to the current one. They show the hierarchy to both people and search engines.
• Links in the text - the most precise kind: they sit next to the idea they continue and are worded by meaning.
• Topical blocks - "related services", "similar products", "other articles". They work when they contain a few genuinely related items rather than the whole catalogue.
• Links from sections and the home page - this is where you put what brings in money: the main services and categories.

There is also a technical condition: a link has to be an ordinary link. Google says it can reliably crawl only <a> elements with an href attribute, and Yandex asks that every document be reachable through an ordinary link and recommends making links to sections text-based. A button that opens a page via a script works for a visitor, but for the robot it may turn out to be a dead end - it is worth checking with your developer.

How to build the scheme: from money pages to articles

Internal linking is easiest to design from the top down. First comes the structure: the home page, sections, service or category pages, articles and case studies. How to split services into separate pages and build the hierarchy, we covered in our article on a website for a service company. Then come the directions of the links:

• a section links to all its subpages, and the subpages link back to the section;
• related services or categories link to each other;
• blog articles link to the services that solve the problem described;
• case studies link to the service the project was done for, and the service links to the case studies;
• important pages receive links from several places, not just from the menu.

Watch the depth. The Yandex help pages note that the deeper a page is nested, the longer it may take to be included in the index. If a service can only be reached through several intermediate pages, it needs links from a higher level.

And the main rule: one topic, one target page. If links for the same phrase lead sometimes to an article and sometimes to a service, it is harder for the search engine to tell which page to show - that is how keyword cannibalisation begins. A simple table helps: the page address, its main query and the anchors used to link to it.

Anchors: how to word links

An anchor is the text of a link. Google's documentation describes good anchor text as descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to the page it is on. In practice this means:

• The anchor says where it leads: "roof repair prices", not "here", "this" or "read more".
• The anchor is part of a sentence, not a separate line with a keyword: the link should read naturally.
• No keyword stuffing. Google specifically warns against cramming every keyword related to the page into the anchor. Anchor text half a line long is also a bad example.
• Wording can vary. A service page can be linked with "roof repair", "how a roof repair works", "roofing prices" - depending on the context.

There is no exact rule on the number of links. Google says there is no ideal number of links per page and suggests relying on common sense: if it feels like too many, it probably is. A link is justified when the reader may genuinely need to continue.

Common mistakes

• A hundred links in the footer. A site-wide block with every service and city on every page helps neither people nor search engines understand what matters here.
• Links to old addresses. After URLs change, texts still contain links to the previous addresses. A redirect will rescue the visitor, but it is better to replace the link with the new address straight away.
• One anchor for different pages. If the words "roof repair" link both to the service and to an article, it is harder for the search engine to understand which one is the main page.
• Orphan pages. A landing page for a promotion was created, but nothing on the site links to it: once the ads stop, it is hard for both people and the robot to reach.
• Links only in the menu. An important service is in the drop-down menu, but no article or case study links to it.

How to check your internal linking

Once a month - and always after a redesign, a change of addresses or deleting pages - check three things:

1. Broken internal links. In Yandex Webmaster, the "Links" section has an "Internal links" report listing the site's broken links: where the link is, where it leads and what its text is. Such links are excluded from search. Restore the page, point the link to the current address or remove it.
2. Pages with no incoming links. Crawler programs go through the site the way a search robot does and show which pages no link leads to and how many clicks each one is from the home page. Compare their list with the sitemap: anything that is in the sitemap but cannot be reached through links is a candidate for linking.
3. Which pages receive the most links. In Google Search Console, the "Links" report shows which pages of the site internal links point to most often. If utility pages lead the list and key services are at the bottom, the scheme needs rebuilding. Keep in mind that the report shows only some of the links.

How to build this check into a regular site review, we described in our article on Yandex Webmaster. If there are hundreds of pages, internal linking is designed together with the structure and the keyword map - it is part of SEO promotion.

In short

• Internal linking is a system: the menu, breadcrumbs, links in the text and topical blocks.
• The robot finds pages through links: a page with no incoming links risks not being indexed.
• Links should be ordinary HTML links, not script-driven transitions.
• Sections are linked with their subpages, articles and case studies lead to services, related pages link to each other.
• The anchor describes the target page and reads as part of a sentence; one topic, one target page.
• Look for broken links in Webmaster and for pages with no incoming links with a crawler.

Frequently asked questions

How many links should one article have?

As many as the reader needs. There is no ideal number: a link is justified if it leads to the continuation of a thought or to the service being discussed. A dozen links in one paragraph makes reading harder and devalues each of them.

Does a small website need internal linking?

Yes, it is just simpler: the menu, links between services, links from articles to services and from services to contacts and prices. Even on a twenty-page site it is easy to leave an important page without a single link.

Can internal linking be automated?

The CMS builds "similar articles" and "related products" blocks itself, and that is convenient. Links in the text are better placed by hand: automation does not understand context and can easily point to the wrong page or repeat one anchor hundreds of times.

Will internal linking improve rankings?

It helps the search engine find a page and understand its topic from the link text. But it does not replace content: a weak page will not become the best answer to a query just because more links point to it.