What is Internal Linking?

Internal links are hyperlinks that point from one page on your website to another page on the same website. Unlike external links (pointing to other domains), internal links are entirely within your control and are one of the most underutilized SEO levers.

Internal links serve three critical functions: discovery (helping search engine crawlers find and index your pages), authority distribution (passing "link equity" or "PageRank" from high-authority pages to others), and context (telling search engines what a page is about through anchor text and the linking page's topic).

Effective internal linking strategies include: linking from high-authority pages to important pages you want to rank, using descriptive anchor text (not "click here"), creating topic clusters with strategic interlinking, ensuring every page is reachable within 3 clicks from the homepage, and regularly auditing for broken internal links and orphan pages.

The anchor text of internal links is particularly important. Unlike external link anchor text (where over-optimization can be penalized), internal link anchor text can and should be keyword-rich and descriptive. It provides a direct signal to Google about what the linked page is about.

Internal linking is one of the few ranking factors you have complete control over. Strategic internal links can significantly boost the rankings of important pages by directing authority and relevance signals to them. They also improve crawl efficiency, reduce orphan pages, and increase user engagement by guiding visitors to related content. Sites with strong internal linking consistently outperform those that neglect it.

Every Ascend content brief includes internal linking recommendations tailored to your target keyword. The AI identifies which existing pages on your site are most relevant to link from and to, helping you build a strategic internal linking structure that reinforces topical authority and distributes page authority effectively.