Internal links are one of the most underutilised SEO tools available. They cost nothing, require no outreach, and are entirely within your control. Yet most sites either ignore them completely or add them randomly with no strategic intent. Done correctly, internal linking distributes authority from your strongest pages to the ones that need it most, improves crawlability, and strengthens your topical authority signals. Here is the complete strategic approach.

Quick Answer: Build internal links by identifying your highest-authority pages (most external backlinks, most internal links already received), then linking from those pages to the pages you most want to rank. Use descriptive, keyword-relevant anchor text that describes the destination page accurately. Aim for two to five internal links per piece of content, prioritise contextual body links over navigation links, and avoid linking from a single page to the same destination more than once.

Step 1: Identify your most authoritative existing pages

Internal links pass authority from the linking page to the destination. Links from high-authority pages are more valuable than links from low-authority pages. Before adding internal links, know which of your pages are your strongest authority sources.

  1. In Google Search Console → Links → Internal links, see which pages receive the most internal links — these are your most internally authoritative pages
  2. In the External links section, see which pages receive the most external backlinks — these are your most externally authoritative pages
  3. Your homepage is almost always your highest-authority page

These high-authority pages are your best sources for internal links to pages you want to rank.

Step 2: Identify which pages need more internal link authority

Use our internal link checker to find:

  • Orphan pages — pages with zero internal links pointing to them. These are completely cut off from your internal authority flow.
  • Pages with only one or two internal links — important pages that are under-supported by your internal architecture
  • Pages ranking in positions 8–20 in Search Console — near-page-one pages that might benefit from additional internal equity

Step 3: Find natural linking opportunities in existing content

The best internal links are contextual — they appear naturally within body text where the link genuinely helps the reader learn more about a related topic.

  1. Open each of your high-authority pages
  2. Read through the content looking for any mention of a topic that you have a dedicated page about
  3. Where you find a natural mention, add a hyperlink to that dedicated page
  4. If the topic is not yet mentioned but is closely related, add a sentence that introduces it and links to the relevant page

The link must feel natural to the reader — if you are forcing a link into a sentence where it does not belong, it is the wrong place to link.

Step 4: Write descriptive anchor text that matches the destination

Anchor text — the clickable text of the link — signals to Google what the destination page is about. This is one of the clearest relevance signals available for internal linking.

Good anchor text: "as covered in our guide to finding and fixing broken links"

Poor anchor text: "click here for more information" or "this article explains it"

The anchor text should describe what the reader will find on the destination page. This both helps Google understand the destination page's topic and helps the reader decide whether to click.

Can you use exact-match keyword anchor text for internal links?

Yes — internal exact-match anchors do not carry the same over-optimisation risk as external exact-match anchors. Google understands that you are linking to your own pages and uses the anchor text as a genuine relevance signal. However, vary your anchor text naturally — do not link to the same page ten times using identical anchor text. Use the primary keyword, semantic variations, and descriptive phrases across different internal links to the same destination.

Step 5: Prioritise contextual body links over navigation links

Internal links in three positions carry different authority weights:

  • Body content links — highest authority. A link within the main text of a relevant article signals topical relevance and editorial endorsement.
  • Navigation links — moderate authority. Menu and sidebar links are sitewide and signal importance but not topical relevance.
  • Footer links — lowest authority. Site-wide footer links are heavily diluted because they appear on every page.

Focus your internal linking strategy on contextual body content links. Navigation and footer links help with discovery but do not need to be strategically managed in the same way.

Step 6: Implement a hub-and-spoke internal linking structure

The most effective internal linking architecture for topical authority is hub-and-spoke:

  • Hub page (pillar) — your comprehensive guide on the broad topic. Links out to every spoke article.
  • Spoke pages (cluster articles) — individual articles covering specific subtopics. Each links back to the hub page and to related spoke pages where natural.

This creates a reinforcing authority structure where every article strengthens every related article, and the hub page accumulates authority from all the spoke articles linking back to it.

Step 7: Avoid over-optimisation signals

  • Do not link to the same destination more than once per page — Google counts the first link to a URL on a page; additional links to the same URL are ignored
  • Do not force irrelevant links — a link that does not help the reader is not helping your SEO either
  • Do not add dozens of internal links to a single page — this dilutes the value of each individual link. Two to five contextual links per article is appropriate for most content.
  • Do not use identical anchor text for all links to the same destination — vary your anchor text naturally across different articles

Summary: Building internal links correctly

  • Step 1: Identify your highest-authority pages using Search Console Links report
  • Step 2: Find under-linked pages with our internal link checker — orphan pages and positions 8–20
  • Step 3: Add contextual links naturally where the destination is genuinely relevant to the surrounding content
  • Step 4: Write descriptive, keyword-relevant anchor text — avoid "click here" and generic phrases
  • Step 5: Prioritise body content links over navigation and footer links
  • Step 6: Build hub-and-spoke architecture — pillar pages link to cluster articles and receive links back
  • Step 7: No duplicate destination links per page, no forced links, no excessive link counts per article

Continue reading: How do I create an SEO strategy from scratch for a brand new website?