Internal Links: SEO Work You Can Do Yourself

You want your site to rank better, but you don't have the time or budget to build backlinks, and you can't rewrite every page. There's an SEO task you can do right now, for free, without anyone's permission: fixing your internal links.

Internal linking is the most underused SEO lever on most small sites. It's entirely in your control, it doesn't require a developer, and it helps both search engines and real visitors find your most important pages. Yet most businesses never do it, because it's not glamorous and nobody sells it as a service.

This is about links between your own pages. For links from other sites, see what backlinks are and how small businesses earn them.

Internal links are the highest-leverage SEO task most small sites never do. They tell search engines which of your pages matter most, how your content connects, and what each page is about. And unlike backlinks, they're entirely under your control. You don't need anyone's permission to add them.

What internal links do

Internal links do two jobs. First, they help visitors move around your site. A blog post that links to a service page gives a reader a natural next step. Second, they help search engines understand your site's structure and which pages are important.

Search engines like Google discover pages by following links. If a page has many internal links pointing to it, Google treats it as more important than a page with few or none. If a page has no internal links pointing to it at all, it's an orphan, and Google may struggle to find it or may assign it little value.

This is why your most important pages, your services, your main commercial offers, should be linked from multiple places. Not because more links always means better rankings, but because a page that's hard to find from within your own site is a page you're telling Google doesn't matter much.

Hub pages: the structure that works

A hub page is a page that covers a topic broadly and links out to more detailed pages on sub-topics. Think of it as the centre of a wheel, with the sub-pages as the spokes.

Say you run an accounting firm. You might have a hub page about "small business tax" that links to separate pages about self-assessment, VAT, payroll, and expenses. Each sub-page links back to the hub, and they link to each other where relevant.

This structure does two things. It gives visitors a clear path from a broad topic to the specific thing they need. And it tells search engines that these pages are related and that the hub page is the authority on the topic.

Most small sites don't have this structure. They have a flat list of pages, each one standing alone, with no links between them. That's how you end up with service pages that nobody can find and blog posts that never link to the thing you're actually selling.

Anchor text: the words that carry the signal

The clickable text of a link, called anchor text, tells both users and search engines what the destination page is about. "Our bookkeeping services" is a better anchor than "click here," because it describes the page you're sending people to.

Keep it natural. Don't stuff keywords into every link. A link that says "read our guide to keyword research" is fine. A link that says "best keyword research tool small business SEO" reads as manipulation, and search engines are good at spotting it.

The goal is descriptive, natural language. If you wouldn't say it in a conversation, don't write it as anchor text.

Orphan pages: the silent problem

An orphan page is a page with no internal links pointing to it. It exists on your site, but nothing connects to it. Visitors can't reach it by clicking around, and search engines may never find it unless they discover it through an external link or a sitemap.

Orphan pages are common after a site rebuild, when old pages are migrated but never linked into the new navigation. They're also common when a business publishes blog posts but never links them to each other or to the service pages.

To find them, list every page on your site and check which ones have no internal links pointing to them. If you find a page you care about that's an orphan, link to it from somewhere relevant. That single change can be the difference between a page that ranks and one that doesn't.

Link depth: how many clicks from the homepage

Link depth is the number of clicks it takes to reach a page from your homepage. A page that's one click from the homepage is more prominent than one that's four clicks deep.

Your most important pages should be reachable in two clicks or fewer. If a potential customer has to click through five pages of navigation to find your main service, you're making it hard for both them and search engines.

This isn't about cramming everything into the homepage. It's about making sure your structure leads people to the things that matter. If you have a blog, your most important posts should be linked from a category page that's reachable from the main navigation, not buried at the bottom of an archive.

Why this beats chasing backlinks

Backlinks matter, and we cover how to earn them in what backlinks are and how small businesses earn them. But backlinks are hard. They require relationships, outreach, and content worth linking to. Internal links are free, instant, and entirely in your control.

If your site isn't ranking and you haven't checked your internal linking, start there before you spend a single hour on link building. A site with strong internal structure and no backlinks will outperform a site with weak structure and a few backlinks, because search engines can't understand a site that doesn't understand itself.

If your pages aren't even indexed, that's a separate problem, covered in your pages aren't ranking because Google hasn't indexed them. Fix indexing first, then internal links.

What to do this week

1. Find your orphan pages. List every page on your site. For each one, check whether any other page links to it. Any page with no internal links pointing to it is your first fix.
2. Create one hub page. Pick your main service area and write or update a page that covers it broadly and links to your more specific sub-pages. Make sure each sub-page links back.
3. Add three internal links using descriptive anchor text. Find three blog posts or pages that don't link to your main service pages, and add a natural link in each one.

Want help structuring your site so search engines and customers can find your most important pages? The $99 growth audit reviews your internal linking alongside the rest of your search presence and comes back with a prioritised plan in a few business days, credited in full towards any work you book within 30 days.

Frequently asked questions

What is an internal link?

It's a link from one page on your site to another page on the same site. A navigation menu link, a link in a blog post pointing to a service page, and a 'related articles' section are all internal links. They help visitors move around your site and help search engines understand which pages are connected and which matter most.

How many internal links should a page have?

There's no fixed number. What matters is that every important page is linked from somewhere relevant, and that the anchor text (the clickable words) describes what the destination page is about. A page with zero internal links pointing to it is an orphan, and search engines struggle to find and rank orphan pages.

What's the difference between internal links and backlinks?

Internal links are links from your own pages to your own pages. Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. Internal links are entirely under your control and free. Backlinks require earning or building relationships with other sites. We cover backlinks separately, because the strategy is different.

Does anchor text matter for internal links?

Yes. The words you use as the clickable text tell both users and search engines what the destination page is about. 'Our bookkeeping services' is more useful than 'click here,' because it describes the page you're sending people to. Keep it descriptive and natural, not keyword-stuffed.

Sources

• Google Search Central, Internal links: https://developers.google.com/search/docs
• Google Search Console Help, Links report: https://support.google.com/webmasters