Internal linking means connecting the pages on your website to each other with normal links. This lets visitors and Google move between them. Every page you care about needs a link from at least one other page on your website. Use words that describe what the link leads to.
Why internal links matter to Google
According to Google Search Central, Google uses links to judge how relevant a page is and to find new pages to crawl. Google can generally only follow a link if it is an <a> element with an href. Links made only from script events may not get followed at all.
Most of the new pages Google finds each day come through links. Google's in-depth guide to how search works explains how it discovers new pages. It often finds them when a hub page, such as a category page, links to a new post.
What makes anchor text good or bad
Google says anchor text "tells people and Google something about the page you're linking to." It should be descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to the page it points to.
Google gives its own examples of weak anchor text: "Click here", "Read more" and "website." A good test is to read the link text by itself. See if it still makes sense without the rest of the sentence around it.
Google also warns against cramming keywords into anchor text, since this counts as keyword stuffing under its spam policies. For image links, Google uses the image's alt text as the anchor text.
How many internal links a page needs
"There's no magical ideal number of links a given page should contain," Google Search Central states plainly. Its guidance is that "Every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site."
The goal is making sure nothing important gets left without a link pointing to it from somewhere else on your website.
Finding pages with no links pointing to them
Some marketers call these unlinked pages orphan pages, though that isn't Google's own wording. Google describes them plainly as pages without links from other pages on your website.
List your key pages, including each service, location, about and contact page. Confirm each one has at least one link from another page. Replace generic "click here" and "learn more" links with words that name the service or topic instead. From each blog post, link to the service page it relates to, in the sentence where it fits naturally. Ask whoever maintains your website to confirm that menus and buttons use <a href> links, since Google may not follow script-only buttons.
Where sitemaps and page structure fit in
If your pages are linked well, every important page is reachable from your menu or from other page links. Google can usually find most of your website on its own. Google's guide to sitemaps notes that websites of about 500 pages or fewer that are well linked may not need a sitemap at all.
Grouping similar pages into directories, such as /services/, helps Google learn how often each section changes. This mainly matters on websites with more than a few thousand URLs, according to Google's SEO Starter Guide.
Google also learns breadcrumbs from the words in your URL. It supports BreadcrumbList structured data, as described in its guide to breadcrumb structured data. Breadcrumb rich results currently appear on desktop only.
When you link to a page on your own website, point the link at the canonical URL. This is explained in Google's guide on canonical URLs.
Internal links and AI answers
Google's own guide to AI features and your website lists making content findable through internal links as one of the fundamentals behind AI Overviews and AI Mode. Microsoft Bing holds a similar standard for Copilot. Every important URL should be reachable through crawlable <a href> links with relevant anchor text or alt text, according to Bing Webmaster Guidelines.
A service page with no links pointing to it can be hard for Google and Bing to find. That makes it hard for AI answers to find as well.
Our guide to service area pages and doorway page rules covers Google's doorway page rules for service area pages. Our guide to why Google rewrites page titles covers how Google picks the titles it shows.
Frequently asked questions
How many internal links should a page have?
There's no magic number. Google only says every important page needs at least one link pointing to it from somewhere else on your website.
What makes anchor text good or bad?
Good anchor text describes the page it points to in a few clear words. Weak anchor text, like "click here" or "read more," doesn't say anything about the destination on its own.
What is an orphan page?
An orphan page is a page with no links pointing to it from anywhere else on your website. Google doesn't use this exact term, but it does say every page you care about needs at least one internal link.
Do I need a sitemap if my website is small?
Maybe not. Google says websites of about 500 pages or fewer may not need a sitemap. This is true as long as every important page is reachable through your menu or page links.
Do internal links affect Google's AI Overviews?
Google lists findable internal links as one of the fundamentals behind its AI features, including AI Overviews. A page without links pointing to it may be harder for these systems to find.
Linking every page you care about gives Google and AI tools a clear path through your website. Use anchor text that describes where each link leads. Owners who want help reviewing their internal links can look at TygerLabs' SEO services.
