Short answer
Internal links, the links between pages on your own website, help SEO in three ways: they let Google discover and crawl your pages, they tell Google what each page is about through the link text, and they pass importance from strong pages to weaker ones. They also guide visitors to the next useful page. There is no magic number of links; relevance and clarity matter more.
Why does internal linking help SEO?
Google finds and understands pages by following links, so your internal links are a map of your website that you draw yourself. Four things follow from that:
- Crawl paths. Google discovers a page more reliably when an ordinary link leads to it. A sitemap helps but is no substitute.
- Context. The words in a link, and the text around it, tell Google what the target page is about.
- Authority flow. In simple terms, a page that earns links from other sites can pass some of that strength on to the pages it links to. Link from your strong pages to the ones you want to rise.
- Users. Visitors who can see the next useful step are more likely to find what they came for.
How should I write anchor text?
Anchor text is the clickable words of a link. Google's link guidance asks for text that is descriptive, reasonably short and relevant to both pages.
| Weak | Better | Why |
|---|---|---|
| click here | how long SEO takes | It names what the target page is about |
| read more | our guide to meta descriptions | A reader can tell where the link goes |
| sourdough bread pune bread delivery pune | sourdough delivery in Pune | Stuffed anchors read as spam |
Vary the wording the way a person would, rather than repeating one exact phrase. And use real links: an a element with an href. Buttons that work only through scripts may not be followed by crawlers.
What are hub-and-spoke links and topic clusters?
A topic cluster is a group of pages about one subject: a hub page that covers the topic broadly, and spoke pages that each go deep on one question. The hub links to every spoke, and each spoke links back to the hub and to its closest siblings. That shows how the pieces fit together.
This FAQ section works the same way. The FAQ page lists every question under its topic, each answer lists three to five related questions, and the text links on to other answers and to site pages such as the glossary, so a reader or a crawler is never more than a click from the next step.
How many clicks deep should a page be, and what is an orphan page?
Click depth is the number of clicks from the home page to a page. A common rule of thumb is to keep important pages within about three clicks. It is not a Google rule, but pages buried deeper are usually crawled less often and are harder for people to reach. An orphan page is the extreme case: no other page on your website links to it. Google may still learn about it from a sitemap (see how XML sitemaps work), but your own site gives it no context and no signal of importance.
What is a simple method for a small website?
- List your key pages
Write down the 5 to 10 pages that matter most: main services, products and best guides.
- Find where they are already mentioned
Search Google for
site:yourdomain.complus the topic to find pages that already talk about each one. - Add the link in the sentence
Turn the words that are already there into a link. A few relevant links to each key page is a sound start.
- Link new pages on the day you publish
Link to the new page from at least one older, related page and from your hub, and from the new page to older ones.
- Fix dead ends
Make sure your menu reaches the key pages, and repair broken links (see broken links and SEO).
- Review every few months
Look again for pages that no other page links to.
Is there a magic number of internal links?
No. Google gives no target, and you may still see advice to keep links under 100 per page. That dates from old technical limits and is not a current Google rule. What counts is that each link helps the reader on that page: ten relevant links beat sixty random ones. Links in the main text usually carry the most context; menus and footers mainly help with reach.
How can I find pages with too few internal links?
A crawler can list how many pages link to each page, and the Links report in Search Console shows which of your pages are linked most. Arcline does the same during its scan. It flags a page in your sitemap that no other page links to, and an important page with only one link, then suggests links from pages whose own text already mentions the topic, with natural anchor text. Where your website is connected through WordPress or Ghost, the autopilot (Premium) can add small ones itself; otherwise you get exact steps. See the features page.