Edip Kilinc is the founder of Webwavers. Together with his team, he develops websites, brands, and digital presences for ambitious companies – with over 250 completed projects and accolades including the German Design Award 2026.
Internal links serve three purposes at the same time, and only one of them is obvious.
They guide readers further. That is the visible function. A good link in the text takes someone to the next relevant piece of information, instead of leaving them stranded at the end of the page.
They show connections. Search engines recognize which pages belong together topically based on the linking. A page that is linked to by twelve other pages on the same topic is considered the central document for that topic.
They distribute authority. Pages that are linked to from the outside pass on a portion of this strength through internal links. A strong page that does not link to anything completely wastes this effect.
The third point is the reason why internal linking achieves more than most expect. It is the mechanism by which strength is directed to where it is needed.
Internal links serve three purposes at the same time, and only one of them is obvious.
They guide readers further. That is the visible function. A good link in the text takes someone to the next relevant piece of information, instead of leaving them stranded at the end of the page.
They show connections. Search engines recognize which pages belong together topically based on the linking. A page that is linked to by twelve other pages on the same topic is considered the central document for that topic.
They distribute authority. Pages that are linked to from the outside pass on a portion of this strength through internal links. A strong page that does not link to anything completely wastes this effect.
The third point is the reason why internal linking achieves more than most expect. It is the mechanism by which strength is directed to where it is needed.
Randomly placed links achieve very little. What actually works is a conscious structure, and the simplest functioning form is the topic cluster.
A cluster consists of a pillar page that covers a topic broadly, and several sub-pages that delve deeper into specific aspects. All sub-pages link to the pillar. The pillar links to the most important sub-pages. The sub-pages link to each other where it makes sense content-wise.
The result: search engines recognize that the pillar is the central document, and all sub-pages support it. At the same time, the sub-pages benefit from the strength of the pillar.
Without this structure, the opposite happens. Five articles on similar topics that do not refer to each other compete for the same search terms – and none of them succeed.
Anchor text is the linked text. It tells search engines and readers what is on the target page. Accordingly, every link with the anchor text "here", "learn more", or "read more" wastes exactly this information.
Three rules are enough:
The anchor text describes the goal. Not "more on this", but "how a website relaunch works".
Vary the wording. If twenty links have the same anchor text, it looks unnatural. Different formulations for the same goal are better than one that appears twenty times.
No link without benefit. A link that was only placed to link disrupts the flow of reading and helps no one. If you hesitate while writing whether a link makes sense, leave it out.
There is no fixed number, but there is a useful guideline.
Three to five text links per article are appropriate for most content. At least one of these should link to the pillar of your own cluster.
Every important page needs at least three incoming links from the body text of other pages. Links from the navigation and footer hardly count – they appear on every page and therefore say nothing about relationships.
No orphaned pages. A page that is only linked from the navigation signals: it is not important enough to be mentioned in the text. Search engines treat them accordingly.
The quickest test: Take your five most important pages and count how many text links point to them from other pages. If the answer is zero, you have your first task.
Adding internal links to an existing inventory afterwards is tedious. Keeping them in mind while writing costs almost nothing.
A simple process that has proven successful: Before writing an article, write down three existing pages that it will link to, and two existing pages that should link to it. After publishing, you add the two incoming links.
This takes ten minutes per article and prevents having an unstructured inventory after twenty articles.
For those who already have a larger inventory: Start with the pages that bring visitors. That is where the authority is that can be distributed. And work your way forward from there, instead of proceeding alphabetically.
A glossary is more than just a reference work. Properly linked, it is the densest part of the internal structure.
Every technical term that appears in articles can link to its definition on its first occurrence. Conversely, every definition links to the articles in which the term plays a role. This creates a network that becomes denser with every new article – without any additional effort.
Importantly, the definitions must be in the delivered HTML, not loaded later via JavaScript. Otherwise, some search engines and practically all AI crawlers will see neither the definition nor the link.
This is a point where many websites leave behind potential that has already been worked for.
