one-line definition
Internal linking is connecting pages within your own site using hyperlinks, which helps search engines understand your content structure and distributes ranking power across pages.
formula: No formula. Best practice: every page should have 3-5 contextual internal links, and no important page should be more than 3 clicks from the homepage.
tl;dr
Internal linking is the most underrated SEO tactic for bootstrapped sites. Most builders publish content and never link it together. Spend 30 minutes per month linking new articles to old ones and old ones back to new. It costs nothing and compounds over time.
Simple definition
Every time you link one page on your site to another page on your site, that is an internal link. Search engines follow these links to discover new pages, understand how topics relate to each other, and distribute "link equity" — the ranking power that flows through your site. A well-linked site tells Google which pages matter most and how they fit together. A poorly-linked site leaves pages orphaned, with no way for crawlers or users to find them naturally.
How to calculate it
Track internal linking health with a few checks:
- Orphan pages: Use Google Search Console or Screaming Frog (free for up to 500 URLs) to find pages with zero internal links pointing to them. These are invisible to crawlers.
- Click depth: Count how many clicks it takes to reach any page from your homepage. Anything beyond 3 clicks is too deep.
- Links per page: Check your average. Below 2 internal links per page means your content is disconnected.
Review these monthly. Every time you publish a new article, add 2-3 links from existing relevant articles to the new one, and 2-3 links from the new article to existing ones.
Example
You have a SaaS blog with 25 articles about email marketing. Your best post — "email deliverability checklist" — ranks #8 but has only 1 internal link pointing to it. You go through your other 24 articles and find 6 where deliverability is mentioned or relevant. You add a contextual link from each to the checklist post. Over the next 4 weeks, it climbs from #8 to #4. Google got a clearer signal that this is an important page on your site. Total effort: 20 minutes of editing existing content.
Related reading
Related terms
- Topical Authority
- Domain Authority
- Bounce Rate
FAQ
How many internal links should each page have?+
Aim for 3-5 contextual links per article — links that genuinely help the reader go deeper on a related subtopic. Avoid stuffing 20 links into every post. Google cares about relevance, not volume.
Should I use exact-match anchor text for internal links?+
Use descriptive, natural anchor text. If you're linking to your churn rate page, 'reducing churn rate' or 'how churn impacts growth' are better than 'click here.' Unlike external links, Google does not penalize exact-match anchor text for internal links, so be descriptive.