Internal linking: connecting your pages to help visitors (and Google)

When someone walks into your shop, you don’t leave them stuck at the door: you point them to the counter, the new arrivals, the checkout. On your site, that job belongs to internal links. “Internal linking” is simply the art of connecting your own pages together to guide people. And, as a bonus, to help Google understand your site.

Linking your pages marks the path

A visitor reading your “About” page might want to see your services right after. If there’s no link, they have to search on their own, and often they give up. By placing a clear link to the right page at the right moment, you extend their visit and move them closer to the action you want. Each page becomes a door to the next.

Google, for its part, follows those same links to discover your pages and guess which ones matter most. A page that several internal links point to reads as important to you. So internal linking is a map you draw for your visitors as much as for the search engine.

Write links that say where they lead

The clickable text, what we call the anchor, should always make clear what awaits the visitor. “Click here” tells no one anything. “See our landscaping maintenance packages” tells everything, to humans and to Google alike. A good anchor is descriptive, honest and short.

• Use link text that describes the destination page.
• Avoid bare “click here” and “learn more” links.
• Connect each page to two or three other relevant pages.
• Send more links toward your key pages: contact, flagship services.
• Check now and then that no link leads to a page that’s gone.

Guide your visitors to what matters

Not all your pages hold the same value for your business. Your contact page, your most profitable service, your booking page: these are your star destinations. Make sure that, wherever someone lands on your site, they’re never more than one or two clicks from those pages. Linking to them often is how you naturally put them front and centre.

A good internal link doesn’t serve Google first: it serves the person reading, handing them exactly the next page they need.

Keep it simple and natural

No need to cram every sentence with links: it tires the eye and dilutes the message. Aim for useful links, placed where they make sense in the flow of reading. Three well-chosen links beat fifteen scattered at random. The goal stays the same: make the visit smoother, not heavier.

If you want us to look together at how your pages talk to each other (or don’t) and map out a clear structure that leads your visitors where it counts, write me. We’ll trace the path together, one page at a time.