Internal Linking for Beginners is one of the first steps in ensuring that your visitors are navigating your website in a way that they can easily find the information they are looking for.
Imagine reading a useful page about growing tomatoes. It answers your first question, but now you want to know what soil to use.
If the website has a helpful soil guide but gives you no way to find it, the information exists without a useful pathway between the two pages.
That is the everyday purpose of an internal link: it connects one page on your website to another page on the same website, helping someone continue their journey.
Start with the reader’s next question
A good internal link has a reason to exist.
A guide might lead to a more detailed explanation. An explanation might lead to a practical checklist. A product page might link to instructions that help someone decide whether the product is right for them.
For example, someone reading about website structure might naturally want to understand whether every important topic needs its own page.
That would be a useful place to link to the relevant SEO Academy lesson.
Linking every page to every other page is not the goal. The connection should make sense to the reader.
Make the link understandable
The words you use for a link are called anchor text.
Descriptive anchor text helps readers understand what they will find before clicking.
Compare these two examples:
- “Click here to learn more.”
- “Read our guide to organising your website pages.”
The second example tells the reader what to expect.
Avoid forcing the same keyword into every link. A natural description that fits the surrounding sentence is usually more helpful.
Important pages need useful routes
A page can be published and still be difficult to discover if no other relevant page leads to it.
Think about the most important pages on your website. These might include your main guides, services, products or course lessons.
Can someone reach them through a sensible route?
For example, a beginner reading about SEO fundamentals might benefit from a link to a practical workbook. Someone exploring a product might want to see an explanation of the problem it solves.
Internal links help visitors navigate your website. They also help search engines discover pages and understand how related content fits together.
A practical three-page exercise
Choose one important page on your website.
Now find two other pages where a visitor might naturally benefit from discovering it.
For each possible link, ask:
- Is the destination genuinely relevant to the subject being discussed?
- Will the reader understand what they will find?
- Does the link offer a useful next step?
If the answer is yes, add a contextual link.
Then read the paragraph again. Does the link feel helpful, or does it interrupt the explanation?
You do not need to add links simply to reach a particular number.
The useful test is whether someone can move through your website without having to guess where to go next.
What should you remember?
Internal linking is not simply about connecting URLs.
It is about creating useful pathways between pages that serve related purposes.
A well-placed link helps readers find the next piece of information they need, while making your website easier for search engines to explore.
Your takeaway: Before adding an internal link, ask whether it helps someone take a meaningful next step.
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