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Glossary

What is internal linking?

Definition

Internal linking is linking from one page of your site to another, which helps visitors and search engines find pages and understand how they relate.

Links are how search engines discover pages and how they infer which pages matter and what they are about. A page with no internal links pointing to it is hard to find; a page that many relevant pages link to, with clear anchor text, is easy to find and easy to understand.

Good internal linking is contextual. The link sits in a sentence where the reader would want the next page, and the anchor text says what that page is. Topic clusters formalize it: supporting pages link to their pillar, the pillar links to each supporting page, and related pages link to each other. This site adds many of its internal links automatically from a curated phrase map, capped so no article is over-linked.

Why does it matter to your business?

It is the cheapest ranking help you control completely. New pages get found faster, important pages get more weight, and readers stay longer.

Last reviewed September 11, 2026 by Joseph Nicholas Abear.

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