Below we have collated some of the most important internal linking best practices for you to follow.

Anchor text is the underlined text in a hyperlink. Making sure to add keywords as the anchor text will let users know exactly what the linked page is about. It also helps search engines understand what the page is about - which should help improve your SEO too.

TIP: Make sure that the anchor text is added naturally. Otherwise, it can seem spammy and you could be penalised by Google.

Strategically linking to the most important pages in your website, for example, the homepage or service pages, you guide users to the most critical information on your website. This also helps Google to understand the significance of these pages, therefore improving your chances of getting these pages to rank high in Google.

TIP: It’s important to ensure that all links provide genuine value to the user's journey.

By varying the anchor text, you alert both users and search engines on what each linked page is about.

It’s crucial to use different anchor text to link to different pages. If the same or similar anchor text is used to link to different pages, Google can get confused. This won’t help your SEO - so it’s always best to make sure the anchor text is very relevant to the page it’s linking to.

Google Search Console provides valuable insight into how Google crawls and indexes your website - this includes giving you information on internal links.

By auditing your internal links with Google Search Console, you’ll be able to identify issues such as broken links, crawl errors, or orphaned pages (pages without internal links). This will help you maintain a well-structured website and ensure that all your content is accessible to both users and search engines.

Putting links higher up the page means that they’re more likely to grab users' attention. This means that they’re more likely to be discovered and can therefore increase the click-through rate.

Furthermore, search engines may attribute slightly more importance to links near the top of a page, which reinforces the significance of the linked content.

By default, links are dofollow. This means that they pass on link equity and authority to linked pages. Nofollow links, however, do not pass on link equity or authority.

To maximise the SEO benefits of internal linking, ensure that the links are all dofollow.

You want to reserve nofollow links for instances where you don’t want to pass on link equity - for example, user-generated content or sponsored content.

The homepage is often the most authoritative and visited page on a website. By selecting and placing links from the homepage to other important landing pages, you can channel authority and visibility. This enhances user experience and signals which pages are most important to Google.

Tip: You want to strike a balance here. Don’t overload the homepage with excessive links as this can dilute their impact. Instead, focus on the most valuable pages.

It’s best to do internal linking manually to determine which pages should be linked, where they should link to and what anchor text should be used. This ensures that linking takes the needs of your users into account.

Orphan pages are pages with no incoming internal links. These pages are often isolated, making it difficult for search engines and users to find them.

To make your website more navigable, you’ll want to link from relevant pages to orphan pages.

When a page has only one internal link directing users to it, it may not get the recognition that it deserves. It’s advisable to provide multiple relevant internal links to important pages. This improves discoverability and distributes link equity more effectively.

Crawl depth refers to how deep a page is situated within the website structure, or how far away they are from the homepage and other high-authority pages.

If a page is buried too deeply in the site's hierarchy, it may be less likely to be crawled and indexed by search engines. This can impact its visibility in search engines.

A general rule of thumb here is to ensure that you’re never more than 3 clicks away from the homepage.