Quick Links:
- What Is Internal Linking?
- Why Internal Linking Matters for SEO
- How to Build an Internal Linking Strategy
- The Content Pillar Linking Model
- How to Add Internal Links in WordPress
- How to Add Internal Links in Shopify
- Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Frequently Asked Questions
Internal links are hyperlinks that connect one page on your website to another page on the same website. That’s it. You already have them. The question is whether they’re working for you strategically or just existing with no purpose.
Most websites have internal links by accident. Navigation menus, footer links, the occasional “learn more” button. What they don’t have is thought behind them. And that’s the difference between a site that gets progressively stronger over time and one that keeps publishing content into a vacuum.
What Is Internal Linking?
An internal link is any link that goes from one page on your domain to another page on your domain. When you link from a blog post to your services page, that’s an internal link. When you reference a related article within your content, that’s an internal link. When you add a “you might also like” section at the bottom of a post, those are internal links.
They’re different from external links (which point to other websites) and backlinks (which are links from other websites pointing to yours).
In your HTML, an internal link looks like this:
<a href=”/services/fractional-cmo”>Learn about fractional CMO services</a>
Simple. But what makes them powerful is not the individual link — it’s the pattern across your whole site.
Why Internal Linking Matters for SEO
Internal links do three things that matter for search performance.
They help Google find and index your content. Search engines crawl your site by following links. If a page on your site isn’t linked to from anywhere else, Google may never find it — or may find it and decide it’s not important enough to index properly. Internal links are how you signal that a page exists and that it matters. (This is exactly why we cover anchor links and meta descriptions as part of this same Advice Hub series — these things connect.)
They pass authority between pages. This is the concept of “link equity.” When a high-authority page on your site links to another page, it passes some of that authority along. Your homepage typically has the most authority because it’s linked to most often. When your homepage links to a service page, that service page gets a boost. When that service page links to a blog post, the blog post benefits.
They tell Google what your content hierarchy looks like. The pattern of your internal links communicates which pages are most important. If you have ten blog posts all linking to one cornerstone piece of content, you’re signaling to Google that the cornerstone piece is authoritative and central to your site’s topic.
The AI search angle: AI engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity aren’t just pulling individual pages — they’re parsing the relationship between pages on your site. A well-linked site that clearly connects related content helps AI engines understand the depth and breadth of your expertise on a topic. This is one of the core reasons we built the Advice Hub series on Juicy Insights — each post reinforces the others.
A real example: We were working with a logistics client building out a new set of industry-specific landing pages — one for tire distribution, one for transloading, others for different verticals. Each page was solid. The problem was that none of their existing blog posts, case studies, or service pages linked to these new pages. From Google’s perspective, the pages existed in isolation. No link equity flowing to them, no signals connecting them to the rest of the site, no reason to rank.
We audited the existing content, mapped out where links needed to be added, and built out the internal link structure before the pages launched. That’s how you give a new page a running start. It’s the same reason that when we build out dedicated service pages for our fractional CMO offering, our marketing execution, and our team mentorship work, those pages need to be connected to each other — and to the content we publish. A page that exists in isolation isn’t doing its job.
How to Build an Internal Linking Strategy
A real internal linking strategy has three components: an audit of what you have, a content hierarchy map, and a plan for ongoing links as you publish.
Step 1: Audit what you already have
Before you add links, understand what exists. Use a tool like SE Ranking, Screaming Frog, or Ubersuggest to crawl your site and identify: pages with no internal links pointing to them (orphan pages), pages with very few internal links, and broken internal links (404s from links pointing to deleted or moved pages).
Orphan pages are the most urgent. If a page on your site has zero internal links pointing to it, Google has almost no way to find it. Fix those first. If you’re not sure where to start, get in touch — a site audit is often the first thing we do when we come into a new engagement.
Step 2: Map your content hierarchy
Think about your website in tiers:
Tier 1 — Your most important pages: Homepage, core service or product pages, category pages. These are the pages you most want to rank and convert. For us, that’s pages like our fractional CMO services and our full services overview.
Tier 2 — Supporting pages: Industry pages, location pages, use-case pages. These support and add specificity to your Tier 1 pages. For us, that includes our team mentorship and marketing tactics pages.
Tier 3 — Blog posts and content: Educational articles, how-to guides, case studies. These should funnel authority up toward Tier 1 and Tier 2 pages through strategic links. Every post in our Juicy Insights blog is designed to eventually link up to a service page. This post included.
Every blog post you publish should link up the hierarchy — to a relevant service page, a cornerstone piece of content, or a Tier 2 supporting page. Every Tier 2 page should link to the relevant Tier 1 page. This is how authority flows through your site intentionally instead of randomly.
Step 3: Build links as you publish
Going forward, every piece of content you publish should include at least two to three intentional internal links. Before you hit publish, ask: what other page on this site is this content related to? What service page does this blog post support? What related blog posts cover adjacent topics? Link to them naturally within the content.
The Content Pillar Linking Model
The content pillar model is the most structured version of an internal linking strategy, and it’s worth understanding even if you don’t implement it fully.
The idea: you have one comprehensive “pillar” page on a broad topic, and a cluster of related blog posts (“cluster content”) that cover specific subtopics. Every cluster post links back to the pillar page. The pillar page links out to each cluster post.
Example using Plum’s own site:
- Pillar page: Fractional CMO Services — the comprehensive overview of what we do and who we do it for
- Cluster posts (from our Advice Hub): How to add anchor links → how to write a meta description → how to add alt text → this post on internal linking — each one supports the broader case that strategic marketing leadership requires getting the execution right at every level
Each cluster post links back to the pillar. The pillar links to each cluster post. Google sees a dense, interconnected set of content around a single topic and starts to treat your site as authoritative on it.
For ecommerce: the pillar equivalent is a category page, with individual product pages as the cluster. Every product page should link back to its category. Blog posts about that product category should link to both the category page and relevant product pages.
We practice what we preach. Here’s the receipts.
Okay, we’ll go first. Here’s exactly how we linked this post.
Tier 1 links (our most important pages): We linked to our Fractional CMO services page three times using descriptive anchor text — because that’s the page we most want Google to understand as authoritative. We also linked to our full services overview as a broader entry point.
Tier 2 links (supporting service pages): We linked to Team Mentorship and Marketing Tactics once each — enough to pass equity, not enough to feel forced.
Tier 3 links (cluster content): We linked to two other posts in this Advice Hub series — anchor links and meta descriptions — because they’re directly related and help Google understand this series as a topical cluster.
The CTA link: One link to our contact page at the end. Not scattered throughout — just once, when it’s actually relevant.
Total intentional internal links: 9. Zero of them say “click here.”
That’s the strategy. Now go do it on your own site.
How to Add Internal Links in WordPress
In the Block Editor (Gutenberg):
- Highlight the anchor text you want to link (the words that will be clickable)
- Click the link icon in the toolbar (or press Cmd/Ctrl + K)
- Start typing the title of the page you want to link to — WordPress will search your existing posts and pages
- Select the correct page from the dropdown
- Save/update
Tip: When you start typing in the link field, WordPress searches post titles. If you know the title of the page you want to link to, this is fast. If not, you can paste the URL directly.
For existing content: Go back through your top-performing blog posts and add links to newer related content. This is called retroactive linking, and it’s one of the highest-leverage things you can do because you’re adding link equity from pages that already have authority.
Audit tools: Yoast SEO Premium suggests related posts as you write. SE Ranking’s site audit shows you pages with few or no internal links. Both are worth having in your toolkit — especially if you’re managing a site with a lot of published content.
How to Add Internal Links in Shopify
In product descriptions:
- Open the product in Products
- In the description editor, highlight the text you want to link
- Click the link icon in the toolbar
- Paste the URL of the page you’re linking to (use relative URLs like /collections/trunk-liners for internal links)
- Save
In blog posts:
- Go to Online Store → Blog Posts
- Open the post
- Highlight the text, click the link icon, paste the URL
- Save
Strategic Shopify linking: On product pages, link to the relevant collection page. In blog posts about a product type, link to the collection and to specific products. In your About page or homepage content, link to your top product categories. This creates a clear path for both Google and customers to navigate from broad to specific.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Linking with generic anchor text. “Click here” and “learn more” are wasted links. The anchor text tells Google what the destination page is about. “Learn about our fractional CMO services” is infinitely better than “click here.” Be descriptive.
Orphan pages. If you’ve published a page and never linked to it from anywhere, it’s essentially invisible to Google. After publishing any new page, immediately add links to it from at least two to three existing pages. This is one of the most common things we flag in new client audits — and it’s always fixable.
Linking to the same page too many times on one page. Once you’ve linked to a page, linking to it again on the same page adds diminishing returns. One good contextual link per destination page is enough.
Not auditing for broken internal links. When you delete or move a page and don’t update the links pointing to it, you create dead ends. These waste link equity and create a bad experience. Run a crawl audit quarterly to catch these. (This is exactly what happened with a manufacturing client’s blog navigation — their links pointed to URLs that no longer existed after a site rebuild, and nobody knew until we audited.)
Only linking down the hierarchy, never up. Blog posts should link to service pages. That’s the point. A blog post that only links to other blog posts is leaving authority on the table.
Ignoring your existing content. Every new page you create should immediately get links from relevant existing pages. Don’t wait for it to happen organically.
Linking to your homepage too much. Your homepage already has the most authority on your site. It doesn’t need more links. Spread the equity to the pages that actually need it — your service pages, your specific offering pages, your Juicy Insights posts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is internal linking? Internal linking is the practice of connecting pages on your own website to each other through hyperlinks. It helps search engines discover and understand your content, passes authority between pages, and guides users to relevant information.
How many internal links should a blog post have? Two to five contextual internal links per post is a reasonable range for most content. The links should feel natural and relevant — don’t force them in. Quality of placement matters more than quantity.
What is the best anchor text for internal links? Descriptive anchor text that reflects the topic of the destination page. Instead of “click here” or “read more,” use the actual subject: “our guide to meta descriptions” or “fractional CMO services for manufacturers.” This gives Google context about what the linked page covers.
Do internal links help SEO? Yes, significantly. Internal links help Google find and index your content, pass authority from strong pages to weaker ones, communicate your site’s hierarchy, and establish topical depth. It’s one of the most impactful on-page SEO tactics you have direct control over.
What is an orphan page? An orphan page is a page on your website that has no internal links pointing to it. Google can still find it via your sitemap, but without internal links, it receives no link equity from the rest of your site and is unlikely to rank well.
What is a content pillar strategy? A content pillar strategy organizes your content around a central “pillar” page on a broad topic, supported by a cluster of related posts on specific subtopics. Each cluster post links back to the pillar, and the pillar links to each cluster post. This creates a dense topic cluster that signals to Google that your site is authoritative on that subject. It’s the model we use across our own Juicy Insights content.
How do I find broken internal links on my site? Use a crawl tool like Screaming Frog, SE Ranking, or Ubersuggest. Run a site audit, filter for 4XX errors, and look at which internal links are pointing to pages that no longer exist. Fix them by updating the link to the correct URL or redirecting the old URL to a new one.
How is internal linking different from backlinking? Internal links connect pages within your own website. Backlinks come from other websites pointing to yours. Both matter for SEO, but you have direct control over internal links — you don’t have to earn them or wait for them.
Most websites publish content consistently and then wonder why it’s not gaining traction. Often the answer isn’t the content itself — it’s that the content is isolated. No links in, no links out, no connection to the pages that actually matter for ranking.
Internal linking is how you turn a collection of pages into a website that works together. It’s not a one-time fix — it’s a habit that compounds over time.
If auditing and mapping this out sounds like exactly the kind of thing you don’t have time for, that’s what we’re here for.
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