Link to your own pages whenever a reader would plausibly want the next step, use descriptive anchor text, and make sure every important page is reachable from at least one other page. That is most of what Google’s own documentation asks for. The rest is planning, so links reflect how your content is organised.
What Google actually says
Google’s documentation on crawlable links makes a few concrete points:
- Links should be
<a>elements with anhrefattribute. Google cannot reliably extract URLs from elements without one, andonclick-only orspanpseudo-links are not recommended. - Anchor text should be “descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant” to both pages. Generic phrases such as “click here” or “read more” are discouraged.
- “Every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site.”
- There is “no magical ideal number” of links per page. If a page feels overloaded, it probably has too many.
Google’s SEO starter guide adds that most new pages it finds each day are discovered through links, and that links can add context and point to supporting resources.
Hub-and-spoke architecture
A practical way to plan links is a hub-and-spoke model:
- Hub: a broad page on a topic, such as a guide to website performance.
- Spokes: narrower pages on sub-questions, each linking up to the hub and, where relevant, sideways to sibling pages.
- Hub links down: the hub introduces each spoke with a sentence of context, not a bare list.
This is the structure behind topic clusters and pillar pages. It helps readers because the path from a general question to a specific answer is clear.
Anchor text rules of thumb
| Do | Avoid |
|---|---|
| “how to plan a redesign without losing SEO” | “click here” |
| Anchor text that makes sense read alone | Stacking several links next to each other |
| Natural wording in a sentence | Repeating an exact keyword in every link |
| Meaningful alt text on image links | Empty alt text on a linked image |
Google notes that forced keywords can run into its spam policies, so write for the reader first.
A simple audit routine
- List your priority pages: the services, products or guides that matter most commercially.
- Check inbound links to each. A page with none is an orphan. Add links from related content.
- Read anchor text out of context. If it does not make sense alone, rewrite it.
- Look for dead ends. Each article should point onward, for example to a related guide or an enquiry page.
- Check rendering. If links are added by JavaScript, use Google’s URL Inspection Tool to confirm the anchor text appears in the rendered HTML.
- Review after changes. URL changes in a redesign can break links, as discussed in planning a redesign without losing SEO value.
Limits and trade-offs
Internal links help discovery and context, but they do not make thin content rank. Google’s helpful content guidance is clear that content should be created for people first. Do not insert links purely to push a page, and do not expect a precise number of links to produce a precise result. Navigation menus, footers and in-body links serve different purposes, and in-body links in context usually carry the most meaning for readers. Finding which pages to build next is a separate task, covered in how to run a content gap analysis.
Next step
Radiance Impact’s Growth and Marketing division works on search visibility, and the Technology division builds business websites. To discuss your site, get in touch.
Sources
- Link best practices: crawlable links, Google Search Central
- SEO Starter Guide, Google Search Central
- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, Google Search Central
