When I build a website, I make sure the pages link to each other. It’s one of the cheapest things you can do for SEO, and one of the most often skipped. This guide covers what internal links do, how to audit your own in an afternoon, and how to check the result in Google Search Console.

An internal link is a link from one page of your site to another page of your site. Menus, footers, buttons and links inside paragraphs all count.

What internal links do

They help Google find pages. Google discovers pages mostly by following links from pages it already knows. Google’s documentation says it can reliably follow links that are anchor elements with an href attribute. A button built with a script and no href may never be followed.

They give pages context. The clickable words, called anchor text, tell Google and the reader what’s on the other side. Google recommends anchor text that is descriptive and relevant. “Residential snow removal pricing” says something. “Click here” says nothing.

They show which pages matter. A page with many links pointing at it signals importance. A page with one link in the footer signals the opposite.

What a recent audit showed

We recently audited a small business website with 76 published blog posts. Most of the links it appeared to have were the same sidebar and menu links repeated on every page, which tell Google nothing about how two articles relate. Counting only links inside the article text:

57 of the 76 posts had no links to any other page on the site.
39 posts had no other article or page linking to them.
The footer and menu carried links to pages that no longer existed, and because they sat in the footer, every page on the site carried them.

None of it was hard to find. It took a spreadsheet and an afternoon. The fix was a simple rule: every post links to its main topic page, one related article and one related guide, and every post gets linked from at least two others.

A four-part audit you can run yourself

A spreadsheet with one row per page is enough.

Find orphan pages. An orphan page has no internal links pointing to it. They usually come from old service pages after a redesign, ad landing pages, and posts nobody added to a menu. Export your page list from WordPress or your sitemap, then check which pages receive at least one internal link. Link each orphan from a relevant page, or redirect or remove it.
Find buried pages. Count the clicks from the homepage to each important page. Google sets no limit, so treat three or more clicks as a rule of thumb for a closer look. Move important pages closer through the main menu or a hub page.
Replace vague anchors. Search your content for “click here,” “read more” and “learn more.” Replace each with words describing the destination.
Check your key pages. List the pages that bring in business: service pages, the quote request page, the contact page. Count how many other pages link to each. A page with only one or two inbound links is where to start.

Hub-and-spoke

One main page covers a topic broadly (the hub), and narrower pages go deeper (the spokes). Every spoke links back to the hub, and the hub links to every spoke. A lawn care company might use “Lawn Care Services” as the hub, with spokes for mowing, aeration, overseeding, fertilization and seasonal cleanup. The hub introduces each in a short paragraph and links to the full page. Each spoke links back and, where it makes sense, to one neighbor, such as aeration to overseeding. Google can then see which pages belong together.

The mistake I see most: nofollow on your own pages

The nofollow attribute tells Google you don’t vouch for a link. That’s useful for outside links you didn’t choose, such as user comments or paid placements. A lot of people don’t know what it does, and it shows up on internal links more than you’d expect. The usual cause is a page-builder setting, an SEO plugin option or a menu copied from somewhere else.

On your own pages it works against you, because you’re telling Google you don’t vouch for your own content. To check, view a page’s source (right-click, View Page Source), search for rel="nofollow", and see whether any of those links point to your own site. Then look at your page builder’s link settings, your menu settings and your SEO plugin.

Other mistakes worth a look:

Stale footer and menu links. After a redesign, footer links often still point at old addresses. Because the footer repeats on every page, one bad link shows up hundreds of times. Click every footer link once a quarter.
Stuffing links. A dozen links on a short page dilutes each one.
Repeating one exact anchor. If every link says “snow removal Des Moines,” it looks forced. Vary the wording.
Breaking links when a URL changes. A renamed or deleted page leaves internal links pointing at a 404. Redirect the old address to the new one with a permanent redirect, then update the links to point at the new address.

Check your work in Google Search Console

Search Console is free. Three reports help:

Links report. Look at the internal links section and the top linked pages. Your most important pages should be near the top.
Page indexing report. Shows pages Google found but didn’t index, and pages that returned errors such as 404.
URL Inspection. Paste a page address to see whether Google has indexed it and how it found it.

Google has to recrawl before reports change, and timing varies. If you’d like a second set of tools, SE Ranking’s site audit also reports orphan pages, broken and redirected internal links, nofollow internal links and missing anchor text.

FAQ

How many internal links should a page have? Google publishes no required number. Aim for links a reader would use: a few in the body, plus the menu and footer.

Do internal links help with local search? They help Google understand which pages cover which services and service areas. They work alongside your Google Business Profile, not instead of it.

Should I add nofollow to internal links? Generally no.

What if I change a page address? Set a permanent redirect from the old address to the new one, then update every internal link. Check Search Console afterward for 404s.

You can see the idea in practice in why your best-ranking page might not be your homepage, how keyword research works and how local SEO rankings actually work.

Co-authored by Brandon Sheriff and ARION, the digital presence and search platform from Intelligent Analytics and Data Management.