Internal Linking for SEO in 2025 

Internal linking is one of the most important elements of SEO. Not only does it help search engines understand your website's structure, but it also enhances the user experience by seamlessly guiding visitors to the content they need. Additionally, it allows you to establish a proper flow of authority throughout your site. In this blog post, we’ll explore the top internal linking strategies for 2025 and how to leverage them to boost your SEO performance.

What is internal linking?

Internal linking is the process of connecting one page of your website to another within the same domain. This practice not only helps search engines understand your website's structure but also makes it easier for visitors to find the content they are looking for. Additionally, it allows for the distribution of your website's authority across its pages, enhancing overall SEO performance.

As a key component of SEO, internal linking can improve your website's rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). By using internal links, you enable search engines to crawl and index your site more efficiently, increasing the likelihood of your content appearing in search results.

Internal links are especially effective for connecting related content on your site. For instance, if you have a blog post about SEO, you can link it to other posts on similar topics. This not only helps visitors find relevant information quickly but also encourages them to spend more time exploring your website.

Moreover, internal links signal to search engines the importance and relationship of your pages. By linking to related content, you indicate that the linked page is relevant and connected to the source page. This helps search engines determine which pages are most valuable for specific queries, improving their visibility in SERPs.

Types of internal links

Internal links are crucial for creating a user-friendly website by enabling seamless navigation and keeping users engaged. They come in various forms, such as text links, navigation menus, and image links. Below are the main types of internal links and their purposes:

Navigational or structural links:

These links help users navigate through your website’s structure, providing access to different sections of the site and allowing them to return to the homepage. They may also include links to related pages, such as social media profiles or external sites.

We can differentiate between:

• Menu links: Typically located at the top of a website, menu links offer a structured way for users to navigate the site. Organized into categories and subcategories, these links are often highlighted or include visual cues to grab attention and make navigation intuitive.

• Footer links: Found at the bottom of a website, footer links provide additional information about the site. These links often direct users to related pages, useful resources, or legal and policy information such as terms and conditions, privacy policies, and contact details.

• Sidebar links: Sidebar links are displayed in the sidebar of a website and offer quick access to specific pages or sections. Frequently organized into categories or menus, they are ideal for guiding users to targeted content efficiently.

• Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs are a navigational aid that helps users trace their steps through the site. They provide a visual trail showing the user's current location on the site and how they arrived there. This makes it easy for users to backtrack to previous pages if needed.

The incorporation of structural links is essential for any website, as they form one of the fundamental pillars of its architecture and enable smooth and efficient navigation.

Contextual Links

Contextual links are hyperlinks embedded within the body of a web page that are directly related to its content and provide additional, relevant information. These links serve to guide readers to other pages, websites, or resources, enriching their understanding of the topic.

Contextual links play a critical role in search engine optimization (SEO), as they help search engines understand the relationships between content on a website, improving indexing and boosting rankings on search engine results pages. They also enhance the user experience by making it easier for readers to find supplementary information, keeping them engaged and encouraging longer visits.

In addition to improving SEO and user experience, contextual links increase visibility and drive traffic to specific pages or sections of a website. They can be strategically placed to highlight products, services, or promotional content, drawing attention to key areas. Furthermore, linking to authoritative and relevant sources builds credibility, while internal contextual links help distribute authority within a website, strengthening its overall structure and performance.

By effectively utilizing contextual links, companies and websites can enhance their visibility, drive more traffic, and provide a more engaging experience for their audience.

Image Links

Image links are generally considered less impactful than text links for SEO purposes. While advancements in image recognition technology have improved, Google crawlers still rely heavily on textual information to understand an image's content. For this reason, it is essential to include descriptive alt text and captions when using image links. These elements provide context to the crawlers, allowing them to interpret the image and the link it represents accurately.

Despite their limitations, there are scenarios where image links can be beneficial or even necessary:

• Images working as a reference for other resources.

• Icons or companions images on a navigation link.

• Technical charts or graphs that need to be zoomed in.

While not as SEO-friendly as text links, image links can still play a valuable role in enhancing the user experience and improving website navigation when implemented thoughtfully.

Why are internal links important?

Internal linking is often underestimated, but it is a powerful strategy that plays a key role in improving website performance. Far from being a minor detail, internal links are essential for enhancing website navigation, boosting SEO, and increasing overall visibility.

Here are a few reasons why internal linking matters!

Internal linking brings value to users

Internal linking provides value to users by organizing a website’s structure, enabling them to quickly and easily find the information they need. By linking related content, internal links add context and improve the user experience, encouraging visitors to explore further.

While internal linking may not directly drive conversions, it plays a crucial role in the marketing funnel. By directing users to relevant landing pages, internal links subtly guide them toward conversion opportunities.

Internal linking provides hierarchy to the web site

Google bots rely on a hierarchical structure to understand and crawl a website effectively. Internal links act as "gates," helping search engines navigate between pages and understand their relationships and importance. This facilitates better crawling, indexing, and overall search engine performance.

Internal linking spreads authority

Internal links also play a key role in distributing authority or PageRank across a website. PageRank, a metric used by Google to assess the significance of web pages, flows through internal links. For example, if Labelnone's homepage receives high authority from external links, it can distribute that authority to other pages on the site through internal links, boosting their visibility in search results.

How to build an internal linking strategy

Creating an effective internal linking strategy begins with producing high-quality content. Focus on providing valuable, relevant information for users and then link this content together in a logical hierarchy. This structure ensures users can easily find what they need while helping search engines better understand your site.

If you’re looking to learn more about creating top-notch content, check out ourSEO content creation guide.

The optimal format for internal linking

An internal link is made up of several components, each playing a specific role in its functionality and impact:

1. Anchor tag: The anchor tag, also known as the link tag, signals to search engines and browsers that a link to another resource is about to follow.

2. Href attribute: The "href" (hyperlink referral) attribute defines the destination of the link. It can point to a URL, an image, a downloadable file, or even a specific section within the same page (indicated with a #).

3. Anchor text: This is the clickable text that users see on the page. It is usually formatted (e.g., underlined or colored) to distinguish it from regular text. To maximize SEO benefits, the anchor text should include descriptive keywords that indicate the topic or relevance of the linked page.

4. Closing anchor tag: This tag marks the end of the link, ensuring that search engines understand where the link terminates.

This is how internal links look like:

The optimal structure for internal linking

When determining the best internal linking structure for your website, it is essential to understand that each project is unique and that the linking strategy must be tailored to the specific characteristics and goals of the site.

For instance, an e-commerce site with thousands of products will require a different internal linking structure compared to an informational blog or a corporate website. However, there are general principles that can serve as a guide to creating an effective internal linking structure:

• Clear hierarchy: Organize your site into levels, starting with the homepage, followed by categories, subcategories, and individual pages. This setup makes navigation easier for users and improves crawling for search engines.

• Content relevance: Ensure internal links connect pages that are thematically related. This enhances the user experience and reinforces topical authority for search engines.

• Balanced link distribution: While certain pages, such as the homepage or high-conversion pages, may receive more links, avoid overloading some pages while leaving others isolated.

• Strategic use of anchor text: Link text should be descriptive and relevant, helping both users and search engines understand the content of the linked page.

• Navigational links: Include menus, sidebars, and footers with links to the most important sections of your site. This ensures that all key areas are easily accessible.

• Crawl depth control: Maintain an appropriate crawl depth so that important pages are only a few clicks away from the homepage. Ideally, no key page should be more than three clicks deep, as this facilitates crawling by search engines and improves user navigation.

Once these concepts are clear, we can proceed to implement our strategy. 

SEO Pyramid formation

Generally, most websites follow a pyramid-like structure, with a hierarchical distribution that starts at the homepage. The homepage serves as the top level and typically links to the main category pages, which, in turn, link to subcategories or individual pages.

This descending hierarchy ensures that the site is well-organized, both for users and search engines. The homepage acts as the central hub, distributing authority and guiding navigation to the most critical areas of the site.

• Homepage: The top-level entry point for all visitors and the most authoritative page.

• Main Categories: Represent the key sections of the site, such as product categories, blog topics, or services.

• Subcategories: Narrower segments under each category, grouping similar content for better user navigation.

• Individual Pages: The final layer, containing specific content such as blog posts, product pages, or detailed service descriptions.

This structure allows search engines to understand the relationship between pages while enabling users to find the information they need quickly and intuitively. However, it’s important to adapt this model to your specific project, ensuring the hierarchy fits your content and audience needs.

Trying to keep this pyramidal structure is kind of utopic, as no website can follow it completely. Both contextual and structural links are a cornerstone of any website and need to work together. 

Reasons why web pages might not be reachable

Here are a few reasons why your internal linking strategy might not be working:

• Unreachable links: Links contained in forms that require submission cannot be accessed by search engines as they do not have the ability to submit forms. This results in any links or content within these forms being invisible to search engines. Similarly, links that can only be accessed through internal search boxes are estimated to be inaccessible to search engines, with millions of pages potentially hidden behind these search box walls.

• Broken links: Including an incorrect URL, one that is missing a character, has spaces or goes directly to a page that has been deleted and whose URL has been modified will result in a 404 error.

• Pages crowded with links: Search engines generally have a cap on the number of links they crawl per page, with a limit of around 150 links. However, this limit can be flexible and pages deemed particularly important may have a higher crawl limit, up to 200 or even 250 links. Nevertheless, to ensure that additional pages linked from the original page are crawled, it's recommended to limit the number of links per page to 150 or less.

• Pages blocked by Meta Robots tag or Robots.txt: The Meta Robots Tag and Robots.txt file are two methods used to control how search engines interact with your website. If a page on your website is restricted by them, search engines will not be able to access it, and any links pointing to that page will be effectively useless. This can result in reduced visibility for your website and a decrease in organic traffic.

• Links embedded in non-HTML elements: Links housed within non-HTML elements such as Flash, Java, and other plug-ins are often not visible to search engines. As a result, these links might not be able to contribute to the visibility or ranking of a website in SERPS. It's important to ensure that all links, especially those leading to important pages, are properly coded in HTML so they can be easily discovered and followed by search engines.

• Not having a sitemap: This is not mandatory, but submitting a sitemap to your website will help Google crawlers understand and crawl your website’s URLs, benefiting your website.

• Links implemented in frames or i-Frames: These links present structural issues for search engines, making it difficult for them to properly index and follow the links. It's best to use clean, spiderable HTML links for internal linking.

• Orphan pages: Orphaned pages are those pages that are not linked to from any other page of a website. Therefore, they are isolated, making it difficult for users to reach them, unless they know the exact URL, and for Google bots to crawl them.

• Multiple links to the same URL on the same page: Having multiple links to the same URL on the same page can reduce the value of your internal linking strategy. Search engines typically count only the first link for ranking signals like anchor text relevance, which may limit the effectiveness of additional links to the same URL. For users, it can also create redundancy and clutter, impacting their navigation experience.

Internal Linking for SEO: Best Practices in 2025

• Create high-quality content: Producing valuable and engaging content is the foundation of a successful internal linking strategy. Quality content attracts users, increases dwell time, and boosts search engine rankings.

• Link high-authority pages to new ones: Leverage your high-authority pages to support new or less-established pages on your website. This practice helps pass link equity ("link juice") to new pages, enhancing their authority and visibility in search results.

• Use descriptive and keyword-rich anchor text: Ensure your internal links include clear, relevant anchor text that incorporates targeted keywords. This helps search engines understand the context of the linked page and improves its chances of ranking for those keywords.

• Avoid excessive linking: Including too many internal links can overwhelm users and diminish the value of each link. Focus on quality over quantity by using a reasonable number of well-placed links to guide users effectively.

• Position links strategically: Place important internal links near the top of your pages. Links placed higher up are more likely to catch users' attention and be crawled by search engines, maximizing their effectiveness for both usability and SEO.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, internal linking is a crucial aspect of SEO and should not be overlooked. It helps search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your website, improve crawlability, and distribute page authority throughout your site. By implementing best practices such as using descriptive anchor text, linking to relevant pages, and avoiding broken links, you can create a solid internal linking strategy that will boost your website's search engine visibility and performance. Remember to continually monitor and adjust your internal linking as your website evolves to ensure optimal results.