Internal linking explained: the SEO lever you fully control
Internal links are the links from one page of your own website to another, and fixing them costs nothing but time if you can edit your site. If you would rather hand it over, an internal link review is part of an SEO foundation at EUR 450-750 one-off, and SEO growth at EUR 500-800/mo keeps new pages linked in as they are published.
Plenty of SEO depends on someone else: another site deciding to link to you, a customer deciding to leave a review. Internal links depend only on you, which makes them the first thing worth getting right.
What internal links do
They do four jobs.
- They help Google find pages. Google discovers pages by following links. A page nothing links to, called an orphan page, can go unfound or be treated as unimportant, even when it is listed in your sitemap.
- They tell Google which pages matter. A page linked from your menu, your homepage and several related pages sends a stronger signal than one reachable only through an old blog post.
- They explain what a page is about. The clickable words, called anchor text, describe the page they point to. "Emergency boiler repair" tells Google and the reader something. "Click here" tells neither.
- They move visitors toward an enquiry. Someone reading about a problem is one link away from the service that solves it, and that page is one link away from contacting you.
Where internal links sit on a page
| Link type | Where it sits | What it does | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main menu | Every page | Shows which pages matter most | Service pages buried in a dropdown, or missing |
| Links in body text | Inside paragraphs | Adds context through the sentence around the link | None at all, or only "read more" and "click here" |
| Footer | Bottom of every page | Reaches contact, legal and location pages | A long block of keyword links nobody reads |
| Breadcrumbs | Top of deeper pages | Shows where a page sits in the site | Missing on sites with sections, such as services or a blog |
| Related pages | End of an article or service page | Keeps readers moving and gives older pages a way in | Picked at random, pointing to unrelated topics |
The menu makes your main pages reachable from everywhere. Links in body text add what a menu cannot: a sentence that says why the next page matters.
A worked example
Take a physiotherapy practice with a page for sports injuries, a page for back pain, a booking page and a few articles.
- The article on knee pain from running links to the sports injury page, with "sports injury treatment" as the link text.
- The sports injury page links to booking right after the prices and what a first appointment involves.
- The back pain page links to the article on desk posture, and that article links back.
- The homepage links to both service pages in its own text, not only through the menu.
None of this needs a developer. Each link is a sentence edited in the CMS.
How to check your own internal links
- List the pages that bring in work. Service pages, the booking or contact page and any location pages. These should receive the most internal links.
- Open the Links report in Search Console. Under internal links, "Top linked pages" shows which pages your site links to most. If your privacy policy sits above your main service, the links point the wrong way.
- Find the orphans. A crawler such as the free version of Screaming Frog lists every page reachable by following links. Any page in your sitemap or CMS that the crawl does not reach has no links pointing to it.
- Read your link text. For every link to a service page, check that the words name the service. Replace "read more", "here" and "this page".
- Add links where a reader would want them. From each relevant page, link to the page that answers the next question, inside a real sentence. If a reader would not click it there, leave it out.
- Check for broken links after any redesign or address change. The same crawl shows links that return an error. Point each one at the new address rather than leaving it to a redirect.
One technical trap
Google follows links built as ordinary HTML links with a web address inside. Menus that only work through JavaScript, with no real link underneath, can look fine to a visitor and still hide pages from Google. Clicking around will not reveal it, but a crawl will: if it stops at your homepage, suspect the menu. On a site built with Next.js, the framework's link component outputs a real HTML link, as the Next.js development page covers.
When the structure is the problem
Internal links can only connect pages that exist. If your site has one "Services" page covering everything, there is no sports injury page to link to. The fix is more pages, not more links.
- Step 02, mini-site, EUR 900-1.500, 2-3 weeks. Two to three pages with a contact flow and a basic CMS, enough to give a main service its own page.
- Step 03, business website, EUR 1.500-3.500, 3-6 weeks. Four to seven pages with a CMS, service pages and booking or contact, which gives internal links somewhere to go.
On a new build, links between pages are planned with the page list, and breadcrumbs or related-page blocks are designed in from the start, as the design and engineering page explains. You own the code, the repository and the database. Each step is set out on the packages page, and a fixed quote always follows scoping.
What you can pay for, and what it covers
- SEO foundation, EUR 450-750 one-off. Search Console, analytics, indexation, technical hygiene, titles and internal links, finished with a 3-6 month plan. Done once.
- SEO growth, EUR 500-800/mo. Ongoing technical and on-page work, new service and location pages, internal links to and from them, and reporting.
- Care, EUR 100-300/mo. Updates, monitoring, backups and small fixes, such as repairing a broken link. It does not cover new pages, new features or a redesign.
When to spend less
If your site is a step 01 single-page landing at EUR 600-900, there are no pages to link between. Skip this topic entirely.
If you have CMS access and a small site, run the six checks above yourself. Pay for a foundation only if you also suspect trouble with indexation, tracking or titles. Otherwise, do not hire anyone for this, us included.
If you plan to rebuild soon, do not pay to fix links on the old site. Make sure the new page list keeps the pages that bring in work, with redirects for every address that changes.
Questions about internal linking
How many internal links should a page have?
There is no correct number. Every important page should be reachable by more than one route, and every link should help the reader who meets it. A long guide can carry several links in its text, while a short service page may need only a couple plus a clear route to contact.
Are internal links as valuable as backlinks?
They do different jobs. Backlinks bring in trust from other sites, which you cannot create yourself. Internal links move the trust your site already has toward the pages that matter and show how those pages relate. They are free and under your control, so fix them before chasing links elsewhere.
Does a sitemap do the same job?
No. A sitemap tells Google that an address exists. It says nothing about which pages matter more or how they connect. Keep the sitemap, and link every page in it from somewhere a visitor would find it.
Will changing my menu hurt my rankings?
Reorganising a menu is fine as long as every page stays linked from somewhere. The risk comes from removing a page from the menu and from every other link at once, or changing addresses without redirects. Before a menu change, list which links disappear and put the important ones back in body text.
If you want a second opinion on how your pages link together, send your site address and the pages that bring in work.
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