Internal Linking
The practice of linking between pages within the same website to establish content hierarchy, distribute link equity, and help users and search engines navigate your site. Strategic internal linking strengthens important pages and clarifies topical relationships.
Internal links are one of the most underutilized SEO levers because they are entirely within your control. Unlike backlinks that require external cooperation, you can adjust internal linking at any time to redirect link equity toward priority pages, clarify topical relationships, and improve crawl efficiency. Search engines use internal links to discover new pages, understand content relationships, and distribute ranking power across your site.
For growth teams, implement internal linking as a deliberate strategy rather than an afterthought. Link from high-authority pages to pages you want to boost. Use descriptive anchor text that includes target keywords naturally. Create a hub-and-spoke pattern within content clusters. Audit internal links regularly to identify orphan pages (no internal links pointing to them) and bottleneck pages (too many links diluting equity). Tools like Screaming Frog and Sitebulb provide internal link analysis. For large sites, consider automated internal linking systems that dynamically add contextual links based on content similarity and keyword targeting.
Related Terms
Core Web Vitals
A set of three Google-defined metrics that measure real-world user experience for loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. Core Web Vitals are a confirmed ranking factor in Google Search.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
A Core Web Vital that measures the time from page load start until the largest visible content element (image, video, or text block) is rendered on screen. Good LCP is 2.5 seconds or less.
Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
A Core Web Vital that measures the latency of all user interactions (clicks, taps, keyboard input) throughout the page lifecycle, reporting the worst interaction. Good INP is 200 milliseconds or less.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
A Core Web Vital that measures the total amount of unexpected layout shifts that occur during a page's entire lifespan. Good CLS is 0.1 or less, where layout shifts are calculated from the impact and distance of moving elements.
Time to First Byte (TTFB)
The duration from the user's request to the first byte of the server response reaching the browser. TTFB measures server-side processing speed and network latency, directly impacting all subsequent loading metrics.
Crawl Budget
The number of pages a search engine bot will crawl on your site within a given timeframe, determined by crawl rate limit and crawl demand. Crawl budget optimization ensures important pages are discovered and indexed efficiently.