Internal Linking Guide: How to Connect Your Website Pages

Internal linking means linking from one page of your website to another. Good internal links help visitors find the next useful page and help Google discover new pages and understand which pages matter most. For a business site, the work is simple: connect related pages with clear, descriptive anchor text, and make sure no important page is left without links.

What do internal links do for your visitors and for Google?

Internal links guide visitors to the next page they need and give Google a path to find and understand your pages. A page nothing links to is hard for both to reach.

Someone reading about teeth whitening at a dental clinic in Riyadh may next want the price or a booking page. If the page links to both, the visitor keeps moving. If not, they go back to Google.

Google follows links from pages it already knows to pages it has not seen yet, and the words in and around a link help it understand the linked page. The SEO Starter Guide describes links as a core way Google finds content. A sitemap helps too, but links also show how pages relate.

How should you organise pages into hubs and clusters?

Group your content around a few main topics. Each topic gets one hub page (also called a pillar page) that covers it broadly, and several cluster pages that each go deep on one part of it.

Take a furniture store in Cairo. A hub page might be "Office furniture". Cluster pages under it could cover choosing an ergonomic chair, desk sizes for small offices, and caring for leather upholstery. The linking pattern is:

• The hub links to every cluster page in its topic.
• Each cluster page links back to the hub.
• Cluster pages link to each other where a reader would genuinely want the next one.
• Product or service pages are linked from the articles that discuss them.

This makes your site easier to browse, shows Google which page is the main one for a topic, and stops you writing three articles that compete for the same search. If you are planning new articles inside a cluster, our guide on writing articles that rank covers how to choose the angle for each one.

How do you write good anchor text in Arabic and English?

Anchor text is the clickable words of a link. Good anchor text tells the reader, before they click, exactly what they will get.

Compare these:

• Weak: "click here", "read more", "this page"
• Better: "teeth whitening prices in Riyadh"
• Weak in Arabic: «اضغط هنا», «المزيد»
• Better in Arabic: «أسعار تبييض الأسنان في الرياض»

Then follow four rules:

• Write the anchor in the language of the page. An Arabic paragraph gets an Arabic anchor.
• Keep it short, usually a few words, and make it fit the sentence naturally.
• Describe the destination page, not the action of clicking.
• Do not repeat the exact same keyword phrase on every link to a page; it reads as forced. Vary it the way people talk: "our prices", "how much whitening costs", «قائمة الأسعار», «تكلفة الجلسة».

In Arabic, people search with and without hamza («أسعار» and «اسعار»). You do not need every variant in your anchors; use the natural, correctly spelled form and let the page cover the topic well.

Should you link from strong existing pages to new ones?

Yes. The quickest way to help a new page get found is to link to it from pages that already get visits.

These are usually your homepage, main service or category pages, and older articles that bring steady visits. Search Console's Performance report shows which pages get the most clicks; our Search Console guide walks through where to look.

Then do this every time you publish:

1. Find two or three existing pages on the same topic.
2. Add a link to the new page inside the body text, where it helps the reader.
3. Make sure the new page links back to its hub and to one or two related pages.

Links into the new page matter more than links out of it. An article that links everywhere but receives no links is still hard to find.

What are orphan pages and how do you find them?

An orphan page is a page that no other page on your site links to. Visitors cannot reach it by browsing, and Google may find it only through the sitemap, if at all.

They often come from ad campaign landing pages, old posts removed from the menu, or forgotten service pages. To find them:

• Export the list of URLs from your sitemap.
• Compare it with pages that receive internal links. Search Console's Links report shows your most linked pages, and a site crawler lists every page it reached through links.
• Any URL in the sitemap that the crawl never reached, or that shows no internal links, is likely an orphan.

For each orphan, decide: if the page is useful, link to it from its hub and from related pages. If it is outdated or duplicates another page, redirect it to the better page or remove it.

Broken internal links

A broken link points to a page that no longer exists. It wastes the visitor's click and sends Google to a dead end. Broken links usually appear after you change a URL, delete a product or move domains.

Check for them during every site audit. Update each one to the correct page. If many old links point to a removed page, redirect it to the closest replacement, and still update the links you control to the final URL.

Menus, footers or in-text links: which matter, and how many?

Both kinds matter, but they do different jobs. Menu and footer links appear on every page, so they are good for your main sections: services, products, about, contact. They are not the place to list every article.

In-text links carry more context: the sentence around the link explains why to follow it. Most of your topic connections should live here.

How many internal links should a page have? There is no fixed number. Ask: would a reader want this link at this point? A long guide may have many; a short service page may need a few. What hurts is a page so packed with links that none stand out.

How should Arabic and English versions link to each other?

If your site has Arabic and English versions, each page should link to its equivalent in the other language, usually through a language switcher.

• The switcher should take the reader to the same page in the other language, not to the other homepage.
• Inside the body text, link Arabic pages to Arabic pages and English pages to English pages. Mixing them confuses readers who chose a language.
• Tell Google that the pages are language versions of each other. Google explains how in its guide to localized versions of pages.
• Keep the structure parallel, so the Arabic hub links to the Arabic versions of the same cluster pages.

Our WordPress technical SEO guide covers how language versions are usually set up on WordPress.

An internal linking checklist you can do today

You need nothing beyond Search Console and a spreadsheet.

1. Write down your main topics and pick one hub page for each.
2. Check that every hub links to its cluster pages and every cluster page links back.
3. Find your most visited pages in Search Console and add a link from each to one newer, related page.
4. Search your site for "click here" and «اضغط هنا» and rewrite those anchors to describe the destination.
5. List the pages that appear in your sitemap but receive no internal links, and link or retire each one.
6. Fix any broken internal links you find, pointing them to the final live URL.
7. Confirm your language switcher goes to the matching page, not the homepage.
8. Make adding two or three internal links part of your routine every time you publish.

Frequently asked questions

Do internal links help SEO?

They help Google discover your pages and understand how they relate, and they help visitors find what they need. That supports your SEO, but internal links alone do not decide rankings. Content quality, relevance and competition matter too.

Is it bad to link to the same page many times?

Linking to an important page, such as contact or pricing, from many places is normal. Avoid using the identical keyword anchor every time, or repeating one link several times on a page without reason.

Should internal links open in a new tab?

Usually not. Visitors expect your own pages to open in the same tab, and new tabs clutter the browser, especially on mobile.

How often should I review my internal links?

Check them whenever you publish, and do a fuller review during regular site audits. Also check after any change to URLs, menus or structure, when broken links and orphans tend to appear.

Internal linking is one part of a wider plan; our practical SEO guide for businesses in Saudi Arabia and Egypt shows where it fits. If you want to see where your site stands first, Rankshoot gives you a free SEO audit of your site, a look at your competitors and a content plan; you create a free account and no card is needed.