10 Internal Linking Tips For SEO Explained in Simple Language

In this article, you'll learn what internal links are and why they matter for both traditional search engines and AI answer engines. You'll discover 10 actionable strategies for building internal links that improve rankings, plus how to measure internal linking impact across Google and AI search. By the end, you'll have a complete framework for creating an internal linking system that compounds visibility over time.

What Are Internal Links in SEO?

Internal links are hyperlinks that connect one page on your website to another page on the same website. When you click a link that takes you from your homepage to your pricing page, that's an internal link. When you click a link that takes you to a completely different website, that's an external link.

The distinction matters because search engines treat these links differently. Internal links help search engines understand your site's structure and which pages are most important. External links signal trust and authority to other domains.

Here's what an internal link looks like on a live page:

In this example, the highlighted text "content strategy framework" is an internal link directing readers to a related article on the same website. The reader sees clickable text. Behind the scenes, search engines see a signal about how your content connects.

Internal links look identical to external links from the reader's perspective. Until they click, they won't know whether the link keeps them on your site or sends them elsewhere. And honestly, readers don't care about this distinction. They care about finding information relevant to their question.

Internal Links Explained Simply

Imagine reading a book where a sentence says, "To learn more about this topic, turn to page 47." That's essentially an internal link in physical form. The book is directing you to another section within itself.

On a website, a piece of highlighted text works the same way. Clicking it takes you to a different page about that topic, but you stay within the same website.

You wouldn't want every sentence in a book pointing you to different pages. That would make reading impossible. The same principle applies to internal links. They should guide readers to valuable related content without disrupting the reading experience.

Why Are Internal Links Important for SEO?

Internal links serve multiple functions that directly impact your search visibility. They're not just navigation tools—they're signals that tell search engines what your site is about and which pages deserve attention.

1. Internal Links Help Search Engines Crawl and Index Your Site

Search engine crawlers discover new pages by following links. When a crawler lands on your homepage, it follows the links it finds to discover other pages on your site. Without internal links connecting your pages, crawlers may never find content buried deep in your site architecture.

Google's own documentation confirms that text-based internal links are the most reliable way to ensure your content gets crawled. Images with links and JavaScript-based navigation are harder for crawlers to process.

Indexing happens after crawling. Once a search engine discovers a page, it decides whether to add that page to its index. Pages that receive more internal links from other indexed pages are more likely to get indexed themselves.

Think of internal links as pathways. More pathways leading to a page signal to search engines that the page is worth visiting and remembering.

2. Internal Links Improve Site Navigation

A well-structured internal linking architecture helps visitors find what they need. When someone reads an article about email marketing basics, internal links can guide them to related content about email automation, list segmentation, or deliverability best practices.

This exploration increases time on site. Visitors who click from one article to another engage more deeply with your content. They see more of your offerings, which can lead to higher conversion rates.

Google explicitly rewards good page experience in its ranking algorithms. When users can easily navigate your site and find relevant information, that positive experience translates to SEO benefits.

3. Internal Links Distribute Link Authority

When an external website links to one of your pages, that page gains authority (often called "link equity" or "link juice"). Internal links allow you to distribute that authority to other pages on your site.

If your homepage receives backlinks from 50 external websites, it accumulates significant authority. By adding internal links from your homepage to important product pages or blog posts, you share some of that authority with those pages.

This distribution works throughout your site. A blog post that earned backlinks from industry publications can pass authority to related content through internal links. The receiving pages benefit from the shared credibility.

4. Internal Links Directly Impact Rankings

The previous three benefits combine to produce measurable ranking improvements. Pages that are easy to crawl, well-connected to related content, and receive distributed authority tend to rank higher.

SEO manager Nicola Hughes documented a simple experiment: she added multiple internal links to an old blog post. Within four months, the post saw a 53% increase in search impressions and improved its average ranking position by 2.9 spots. No other changes were made to the content.

That's the power of internal linking in isolation. When combined with quality content and external backlinks, the compound effect becomes even more significant.

Why Internal Links Also Matter for AI Search

Here's what most internal linking guides miss: the same principles that help Google understand your site also help AI answer engines.

AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity don't crawl websites the way Google does. But they do analyze content structure, topical relationships, and authority signals when determining which sources to cite in their responses.

When your internal linking creates clear topical clusters, AI engines can more easily identify your site as an authoritative source on specific subjects. A website with hundreds of disconnected pages looks less credible than a site where content on similar topics links together in logical ways.

Our analysis of 83,670 AI citations across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity found that AI engines heavily favor sources with clear topical authority. Sites that rank well in Google for topic clusters tend to receive more AI citations for queries in those same topic areas.

This means internal linking isn't just a Google strategy. It's a visibility strategy that works across both traditional and AI search channels.

10 Internal Linking Strategies for SEO

These strategies work for improving visibility in traditional search and building the topical authority that AI engines look for when selecting sources to cite.

1. Link to Relevant Content

Relevance is the foundation of effective internal linking. Search engines evaluate whether the pages you connect actually relate to each other. Random links between unrelated content don't help—they dilute the topical signals you're trying to create.

When linking internally, ask yourself: would a reader of this content genuinely benefit from visiting the linked page? If someone reading about email subject lines would naturally want to learn about email deliverability, that's a relevant internal link. If they're reading about email subject lines and you link to an article about social media scheduling, that connection is weak.

Relevant internal linking builds what SEO practitioners call topic clusters or content silos. You group related pages together through links, creating a network of interconnected content on specific subjects.

For example, if you have a main pillar page about "content marketing," you would link from that page to supporting articles about content strategy, content calendars, content distribution, and content metrics. Each supporting article would link back to the pillar page and to each other where relevant.

How to find relevant pages to link:

The simplest method is a Google site search. Type site:yourdomain.com "keyword" to find pages on your site that mention a specific term.

This works, but it only shows pages that contain the exact keyword phrase. It misses semantically related content that might not use those exact words.

For better results, use tools that understand semantic relationships between content. These identify pages that cover related concepts, not just matching keywords.

Finding relevant content for AI search visibility:

AI engines prioritize topical depth. When Perplexity or ChatGPT answers a question about CRM software, they tend to cite sources that have comprehensive coverage of CRM topics—not just a single page mentioning the term.

To identify internal linking opportunities that strengthen your AI visibility:

1. Review which prompts you're tracking in your AI search analytics

2. Look at which of your pages get cited for those prompts

3. Identify content on your site that relates to those topics but doesn't link to the cited pages

If your "CRM comparison guide" gets cited when users ask AI engines about CRM recommendations, but your "CRM implementation checklist" doesn't link to it, you're missing an internal linking opportunity that could strengthen the cluster.

2. Use Links That Add Value

Not every internal link adds value. Some links exist purely for SEO manipulation and provide nothing useful to readers. Search engines have become adept at identifying these low-value links.

A value-adding internal link helps readers accomplish their goal or answers a natural follow-up question. When discussing marketing automation, linking to a detailed guide on email sequence timing provides value—it's information the reader might want next.

Here's what a value-adding internal link looks like:

This link appears naturally within the content. It relates directly to what the reader is learning about. Clicking it would help them go deeper on the topic.

Compare that to a forced link:

This link doesn't serve the reader. It exists only to pass authority or hit an internal linking quota. Readers notice when links feel unnatural, and so do search engines.

SEO consultant Steve Toth emphasizes this distinction in his guidance on natural link building. If a link doesn't fit naturally within the sentence flow and wouldn't interest someone reading that section, it doesn't belong there.

When you must link to a page that doesn't fit naturally in your narrative, consider adding a short sentence that creates context. Don't just force a hyperlink into an unrelated phrase.

3. Use Descriptive Anchor Text

Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. It tells readers and search engines what to expect on the linked page.

Generic anchor text like "click here" or "read more" provides no context. The reader has to guess what they'll find if they click. Search engines can't determine what the linked page is about from those words.

Google's own documentation recommends descriptive anchor text that helps users understand where links lead.

Poor anchor text examples:

• "Click here to learn more"

• "Read this article"

• "Check it out"

• "This page"

Strong anchor text examples:

• "Our complete guide to email segmentation strategies"

• "The 2024 benchmark report on conversion rates"

• "How to set up automated email sequences"

Strong anchor text is specific enough that you could guess the page topic without clicking. It uses natural language that fits within the sentence rather than awkward keyword stuffing.

The balance matters. "Our complete guide to email segmentation strategies best practices tips 2024" is too long and reads like keyword spam. "Email segmentation guide" is concise while remaining descriptive.

4. Use Varied Anchor Text for the Same Page

When linking to the same page from multiple locations across your site, vary the anchor text you use. Repetitive anchor text looks unnatural and provides limited semantic context to search engines.

Suppose you have a page about "competitor keyword analysis" that you want to link to from several articles. Using the same anchor text every time creates a pattern that looks manufactured.

Instead, use natural variations:

• "Research your competitors' keywords"

• "Analyze competitors' search visibility"

• "Competitor keyword research process"

• "Find keywords your competitors rank for"

Each variation provides slightly different context while pointing to the same destination. Search engines aggregate these signals to understand the full scope of what the linked page covers.

This approach also creates a better reading experience. When the anchor text matches the natural flow of each article's language, links feel organic rather than templated.

5. Place Important Links Near the Top

Page hierarchy affects how search engines evaluate link importance. Links placed prominently near the top of a page receive more weight than links buried in the footer or deep within the content.

Readers scan pages from top to bottom. Content at the top gets the most attention. Search engines factor this behavior into their algorithms, prioritizing links that appear in high-visibility positions.

For your most important pages, ensure they receive links from prominent positions on your site. This doesn't mean cramming your homepage navigation with dozens of links—that dilutes the signal. It means strategically placing links to priority pages where they'll be visible and useful.

Search Engine Land documented an experiment with an ecommerce site. By adding links to product subcategories in a visible section near the top of the homepage, the site improved rankings across 165 search terms and gained 56 new rankings in the top 100.

The test involved adding a few links in a prominent position. Not a complete site restructure—just strategic placement of important links where users and crawlers would find them immediately.

Apply this principle to your own site:

• Link to cornerstone content from your homepage

• Place important internal links in the first few paragraphs of blog posts

• Use the sidebar or featured content sections for priority pages

• Avoid burying critical links in footers where they carry less weight

6. Link from High-Authority Pages to Pages That Need a Boost

Some pages on your site have accumulated more authority than others. Maybe they've earned backlinks from external sites. Maybe they rank well for competitive terms. Maybe they receive significant traffic.

These high-authority pages can share their strength with other pages through internal links.

Identify your strongest pages using SEO tools that measure page authority, backlinks, or traffic. Then add internal links from those pages to content you want to boost.

This works because link authority flows through internal links. A page with 50 backlinks pointing to it has accumulated trust. When that page links to another page on your site, some of that trust transfers.

The transfer isn't unlimited. You can't just create one powerful page and link to everything else expecting equal distribution. But strategically linking from strong pages to important content you want to rank provides a measurable boost.

Important caveat: only add relevant links. A high-authority page about financial planning shouldn't link to your blog post about email marketing just because the email post needs help. The link needs to make sense contextually, or it provides little value and may look manipulative.

7. Link from Your Homepage

Your homepage typically carries the most authority on your site. It receives the most backlinks, the most traffic, and represents the foundation of your site architecture.

Google recommends that your most important pages should be directly linkable from your homepage. Search crawlers commonly start at the homepage and follow links from there. If a page is only reachable through multiple clicks from the homepage, it may not get crawled as thoroughly.

Don't rely solely on navigation menus. Crawlers don't always process dropdown menus or complex navigation structures reliably. Text-based links in the body of your homepage provide clearer signals.

Authority Hacker's homepage demonstrates this approach well. You can access all their primary content categories and important blog posts directly from homepage links.

For most sites, this means:

• Link to your primary service or product pages from the homepage

• Feature your most valuable blog content or resource pages

• Include direct links to category or pillar pages that organize your content

• Avoid making users navigate through multiple menus to find core content

8. Keep Links Sounding Natural

Anchor text optimization can go too far. If you stuff keywords into every link, your content starts reading like spam rather than helpful information.

Google's spam policies explicitly penalize keyword stuffing, and that includes unnatural anchor text. Links should fit grammatically and contextually within your sentences.

Natural internal linking sounds like regular writing. The linked phrase could appear in the sentence whether it was a link or not. Readers shouldn't notice that they're encountering an optimized link—they should just find it helpful.

Unnatural: "If you want to learn about best email marketing strategies tips for beginners 2024, click on our guide."

Natural: "Our guide to email marketing fundamentals covers everything you need to get started."

Also avoid clustering multiple links close together. A sentence with three consecutive linked phrases creates a poor reading experience and looks like manipulation.

Google recommends spacing links with context. If a paragraph naturally discusses multiple related topics, separate the links with explanatory text rather than stringing them together.

9. Avoid Link Stuffing

More links isn't always better. Excessive internal linking creates what Google's John Mueller calls "one giant mass of pages" where the search engine can't determine which pages are important.

In a Google SEO office-hours session, Mueller explained:

When every page links to every other page, there's no clear structure. Search engines can't identify hierarchy or importance. The site becomes a flat network where nothing stands out.

This dilutes the value of each individual link. If one page links to 200 other pages, each link carries minimal weight. If one page links to 5 highly relevant pages, each link carries significant signal.

There's no magic number for how many internal links a page should have. Some pages naturally reference many related topics and need more links. Others cover narrow subjects and need fewer.

Use judgment based on reader value:

• Does each link serve a genuine purpose for the reader?

• Could someone follow the links and find useful related content?

• Does the linking structure reflect the actual importance of different pages?

Tools like Screaming Frog can visualize your internal link structure, showing whether your site has clear hierarchy or resembles an undifferentiated mass of connections.

10. Audit and Update Existing Links

Internal links require ongoing maintenance. Content changes over time—pages get deleted, URLs get restructured, topics get consolidated or expanded.

Broken internal links hurt user experience and waste crawl budget. When a visitor clicks an internal link that leads to a 404 error page, they've hit a dead end. When a search crawler encounters the same broken link, it's wasted a crawl opportunity.

Regular audits catch these issues before they accumulate. Check for:

• Broken links pointing to deleted or moved pages

• Redirects chains where a link points to a page that redirects to another page

• Outdated anchor text that no longer accurately describes the destination

• Orphan pages that receive no internal links at all

When you find broken internal links, update them to point to current relevant content or implement 301 redirects. Redirects preserve link equity by automatically sending visitors and crawlers to the correct destination.

John Mueller has explicitly recommended fixing internal redirect chains rather than leaving them in place. Direct links to the final destination are cleaner for users and crawlers alike.

Audit schedule:

• Monthly: Run a crawl to identify new broken links or redirect chains

• Quarterly: Review internal link distribution to ensure important pages receive adequate links

• After major content changes: Update internal links when you delete, consolidate, or restructure content

How to Measure Internal Linking Impact

Strategy without measurement is guesswork. These approaches help you quantify whether your internal linking efforts are working.

Measuring Traditional Search Impact

Track the following metrics for pages where you've made internal linking changes:

Crawl stats: In Google Search Console, monitor how frequently Googlebot crawls pages you've linked to more prominently. Increased crawl frequency suggests improved discoverability.

Indexation status: Check whether pages that previously weren't indexed become indexed after receiving internal links from other pages.

Organic impressions: In Google Search Console, compare impressions before and after internal linking changes. Nicola Hughes' experiment showed 53% impression growth from internal linking alone.

Ranking positions: Track target keywords for pages receiving new internal links. Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or your preferred rank tracker can monitor position changes over time.

Click-through rates: If internal linking brings more impressions, monitor whether clicks follow. Improved rankings should drive more organic clicks.

Measuring AI Search Impact

AI engines don't provide webmaster tools equivalent to Google Search Console. Measuring visibility in AI search requires tracking whether and how AI engines mention or cite your content.

Track brand visibility across AI engines:

Monitor how often your brand appears in AI responses to relevant queries. If you've strengthened topical clusters through internal linking, you should see more frequent mentions for queries in those topic areas.

Monitor citation sources:

AI engines cite sources when generating responses. Track which of your pages get cited and for which types of queries. Pages with strong internal linking to related content may receive more citations as the AI engines recognize topical authority.

Compare visibility by engine:

Different AI engines have different citation patterns. Track whether your internal linking improvements affect visibility consistently across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, or whether the impact varies by platform.

Track AI referral traffic:

Connect your analytics to see actual traffic from AI engines. If your AI visibility improves, the traffic data will show whether that visibility converts to site visits.

When Kylian AI implemented content improvements based on AI search data, they saw AI referral traffic grow from 200 monthly sessions to over 1,000—a compound growth that happened across multiple AI engines simultaneously.

Identify which pages receive AI traffic:

Understand which specific pages AI engines send traffic to. This reveals whether your internal linking is successfully highlighting your most valuable content.

How AI Search Changes the Internal Linking Equation

Traditional internal linking advice focuses exclusively on Google. But as AI engines become a significant source of traffic and brand discovery, the strategy needs expansion.

AI Engines Evaluate Topical Authority Differently

Google uses links as one of many ranking signals. AI engines use a different calculation entirely. They're trying to answer questions accurately, which means identifying sources with genuine expertise on topics.

Our research analyzing 83,670 citations across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity found that AI engines favor content that demonstrates topical depth. Sites with scattered, disconnected content on many topics get cited less frequently than sites with comprehensive coverage of specific subjects.

Internal linking is one way to demonstrate that topical depth. When your content on a subject forms a cohesive cluster with clear interconnections, AI engines can more easily identify your authority on that topic.

Different AI Engines Prefer Different Content Types

Not all AI engines behave the same way. Our data shows significant variation in what content types each engine prefers to cite:

• Claude favors blog content (43.8% of citations) over product pages (10.5%)

• ChatGPT favors product pages (60.1%) over blog content (16.7%)

• Perplexity falls between, citing product pages (54.3%) and blog content (36.8%)

This has implications for internal linking strategy. If you're targeting visibility in Claude, ensuring your blog content links well to other blog content may help more than linking from blogs to product pages. If you're targeting ChatGPT, linking from authoritative blog content to product pages may transfer more signal.

Third-Party Sources Dominate AI Citations

Our analysis found that 83% of AI citations come from third-party sources, not brand websites directly. Only 17% of citations point to a brand's own domain.

This means earning mentions on external sites matters enormously for AI visibility. But internal linking still plays a role. When your site structure clearly demonstrates topical authority, external sources are more likely to cite and link to you—which then increases your presence in AI responses.

The breakdown varies by engine:

• Claude cites brand websites directly 22.2% of the time

• Perplexity cites brand websites 17.0% of the time

• ChatGPT cites brand websites only 13.5% of the time

Claude's higher first-party rate correlates with its preference for blog content. Company blogs are first-party content, so Claude's blog preference naturally increases direct citations.

Identifying AI-Specific Internal Linking Opportunities

To optimize internal linking for AI search in addition to Google:

Review which pages AI engines currently cite:

Look at the specific URLs receiving citations. Are there related pages on your site that should link to these high-citation pages?

Track prompts where competitors appear but you don't:

When competitors get mentioned in AI responses for queries relevant to your business, examine what content helps them appear. Do they have topic clusters you lack? Can you build similar authority through content and internal linking?

Analyze sentiment across AI engines:

AI engines don't just mention brands—they characterize them positively, negatively, or neutrally. If your sentiment scores vary significantly across engines, your content structure may be getting interpreted differently.

Our data shows the same brand can receive sentiment scores up to 79 points apart across different AI engines. This variation comes from each engine drawing on different sources. Strengthening your internal linking around positive content can influence which sources AI engines prioritize.

Key Takeaways

Internal links connect pages within your site and serve as pathways for search engine crawlers. Without them, valuable content may never get discovered or indexed.

Beyond crawling, internal links distribute authority from high-performing pages to others. A single well-linked page can boost rankings across related content.

Relevance matters more than volume. Only link between genuinely related content where readers would benefit from the connection.

Anchor text should be descriptive but natural. Readers and search engines both need context about what to expect from a link.

Position signals importance. Links placed prominently near the top of pages carry more weight than links buried in footers.

Avoid stuffing pages with excessive links. When everything links to everything, search engines can't determine what's actually important.

Internal linking requires maintenance. Audit regularly for broken links, redirect chains, and orphan pages.

The same principles that help Google understand your site also help AI engines identify topical authority. Strong topic clusters with clear internal linking improve visibility across both search channels.

Measure impact in both environments. Track traditional SEO metrics through Google Search Console and rank tracking tools. Track AI visibility through dedicated AI search analytics platforms that monitor mentions, citations, and sentiment.