I have been doing SEO for over a decade now, and internal linking have always been (and still is) one of the main factors that can help you gain Quick SEO wins. So you might be asking, what’s all the buzzes about internal links recently if they have always been among important optimization factors? That’s a great question and I have the answer.
Let’s first zoom out a little bit and see where internal linking fall under in the Search Engine Optimization field.
Internal links happen within your website so it is part of the on-page optimization factors. You have full control over them yet a lot of site owners and marketers don’t utilize them to their full potential.
We know that title tag optimization is one of the most important factors when it comes to on-page SEO, maybe just after Content quality. Internal links, on the other hand, are also among the top factors that lead to an improved SEO performance (if done right of course.)
The ultimate goal for any search engine optimization campaign is to be where online searchers can find you.
One way to ensure this can happen is through increasing your visibility on Search Engines and internal links are one of the important factors that can help with that.
But what exactly is internal linking, why is it important, and how can you get started? Let’s briefly talk about why I am writing this article and what you will find in it.
I am the head of Allintitle.co. I’ve created numerous online ventures and have helped different businesses build their online presence and increase their revenue through online marketing. In this article I will offer some insight into how we use internal links, why internal linking matters for your SEO plan, and how it can improve the user experience and boost your online rankings. In this article, I will also cover the best internal linking tools, both free and paid.
Why is internal linking essential for SEO?
There are several reasons why internal linking should be an integral part of your SEO plan. But first, let’s look at what an internal link is to better understand how it can help.
An internal link is a link on your website that points to another page on your site. It is a way to help users navigate your site and keep them browsing for a longer time. Some examples include:
- A link from your home page to your About Us page
- A link from a blog post about “keyword research” to another blog post about “the role of keyword research in search engine optimization.
- A link in your navigation menu taking a user to a different section of your website
Here are the top five reasons why internal links are crucial to your SEO plan:
- Internal linking helps Google crawl your website more efficiently. These internal links act as a path for Google’s crawlers, helping them better understand and navigate your site. It allows them to discover all the pages of your site, even those that might be buried within the site’s structure.
- Internal links distribute link equity. When you link from a high authority page to a newer page or a less visible page, you distribute link equity and thereby the authority on those pages. This then boosts the visibility and thereby the ranking potential of these linked pages.
- Internal links help to create a clear hierarchy for your website, making it easier not just for the search engines to understand, but for your users, as well.
- Internal links enhance user engagement by making your site easier to navigate and helping users find related content. This can keep them on your site longer, increasing engagement and reducing bounce rates.
- Internal links reduce orphaned pages and improve page discoverability. Orphan pages are those that don’t have internal links pointing at them from other pages within the site, making them more difficult for users to find. Adding internal links makes all the pages of your site easy for a user to discover.
It’s important to differentiate between internal and external links (see internal vs. external links.) As we’ve explained, an internal link keeps the user on your website, navigating between different pages and sections of your site. And external links take users out of your site to a completely different site altogether. Internal links help build your website’s structure and hierarchy to allow website crawlers to better find your content.
Types of internal links
When it comes to figuring out the internal linking strategy best for your site, there are several things to keep in mind. Let’s look first at how we can create internal links.
- Contextual links are placed naturally within your content. You use the body of your text to naturally connect it to another page on your site. This helps search engines understand how your content is related to each other.
- Hierarchical links are used in site navigation, such as your menu. Hierarchical links help create a structured and logical flow of information on your website.
- Silo internal linking groups content around a specific topic or theme, creating distinct sections on your website.
- Cluster internal linking can group content around a much broader, more general theme, which can then have multiple subtopics.
How to create a winning internal linking strategy
There are many things to think about when it comes to creating a winning internal linking strategy.
- Utilize descriptive and relevant anchor text to clearly signal to the web user or search engine what the topic of the internal link destination is. For example, if you are linking to a page about clear aligners, don’t put the link in text that says traditional braces.
- Make sure you link to and from the pages you consider the most important. This will build page authority and tell search engines which content you think is most valuable to users.
- Keep a natural flow by placing internal links naturally into a page’s content. This not only ensures your content stays easy to read, but it also makes links easy for users to find.
- Make sure your anchor text is different for each page. Using the same anchor text can be confusing to both users and search engines.
- Make sure you regularly check your website for broken links, so your strategy stays effective.
- Use your internal linking strategy to help convert viewers to clients. Link from highly trafficked pages to conversion pages, such as a contact form or appointment request form.
- Know when is enough. Too many links can be overwhelming and take away from the importance of the links you have.
- Make your navigation easy, ensuring users don’t have to take too many clicks to get to the page they are looking for.
Internal linking can be especially important for larger websites to ensure users can easily find the information they are looking for and to help search engines properly crawl and index your site. Establishing a clear hierarchy and topic clusters can be extremely helpful. Descriptive and keyword-rich anchor text will help search engines and accurately explain where the link is taking a user.
So, how many internal links are enough?
There is no set number on how many internal links are correct for any given website. It’s important not to overwhelm the user, but it’s also important that you help the user find the relevant content they are looking for. A good rule of thumb is 5-10 links per 2,000 words.
Can you nofollow internal links?
let’s first see what are nofollow links and how can they help your internal linking strategy.
If you’ve been at the SEO game for a while, you’ve probably heard of nofollow links but may not understand how they fit into your strategy. A nofollow link is a link within your site that tells a search engine to ignore that page and not include it in link authority.
You should not usually add no follow links to internal pages but you can use nofollow links for:
- Non-essential pages
- User generated content (such as blog comments)
- Low-quality or irrelevant pages
- External links
Do not use nofollow links for core content. And remember that overusing nofollow links can actually end up hurting your internal link strategy by limiting the flow of link authority.
The Best Internal Linking Tools for SEO
Luckily, you don’t have to take on the task of internal linking all on your own. There are several great tools available to help you. Here, I’ll break down some of the top tools for internal linking, giving a brief overview as well as key features and pricing information. I’ve spent hours and hours reviewing and testing them for you so you can save some time.
Twylu is a top-rated internal linking tool that helps you find, fix, and optimize internal links. Twylu helps you find broken links, orphan pages, irrelevant anchor text, and pages that are either over or under linked. It has a tiered pricing plan with seven options, in addition to a custom option. The starting price is $29/month, and the top price is $397/month.
Features:
📌 AI-driven automated internal link suggestions
📌 Natural language processing (NLP) link suggestions
📌 Works with all types of websites (CMS Agnostic)
📌 Smart link suggestion (NLP and AI combination)
📌 Traditional Keyword-based link suggestion
📌 Google Search Console integration.
📌 Task management with automatic link placement verification
📌 Advanced anchor text analysis
📌 Sophisticated Internal Authority Scoring system
📌 Context-aware anchor text optimization.
📌 Bulk internal link editing and reporting.
📌 Project sharing, unlimited Users, project merging
Link Whisper is a very popular internal linking tool that allows for SEO interlinking automation in WordPress and Shopify. People like this tool because it offers a free option, as well as a paid upgrade version. There are different pricing options for Link Whisper, but the paid version starts at $97/year for a single site license.
Features:
📌 AI-powered real-time link suggestions
📌 Automatic internal linking as you write
📌 Works with WordPress & Shopify
📌 Natural language processing for advanced link suggestions
📌 Keyword-based link suggestions
📌 AI-powered anchor text that is contextually relevant
📌 Link metric reporting
📌 Integration with Google Search Console
📌 Cross-site interlinking suggestions
It is important to note that the more advanced features of Link Whisper do require the paid version.
InLinks uses natural language processing to understand your content and then automate contextual linking between pages. It automates the time-consuming process for you so you can focus on other things. Monthly pricing for freelancers is $49/month, agency pricing is $196/month, and there is also an enterprise option.
Features:
📌 Entity-based semantic internal linking.
📌 Content optimization + interlinking.
📌 NPL powered
📌 Helps eliminate irrelevant links and keyword stuffing
Ahrefs has been around for more than a decade, and its content explorer can not only track web mentions it can also find link prospects. The AI Content Helper can improve your content. With Ahrefs, you can find content ideas and link prospects. Price points are $129/month, $249/month, and $449/month.
Features:
📌 Internal linking reports in Site Audit.
📌 Find orphaned pages & weak link structures.
📌 See link opportunities by page
📌 Filter opportunities by keyword
Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider can calculate the crawl depth of each of your site’s pages, ensuring all your content is easy to find. There is a free version that allows limited services, as well as a paid service for $199/year with much more comprehensive features.
Features:
📌 Internal link audits & broken link detection.
📌 Not built specifically for internal link optimization
📌 Can discover duplicate content
📌 Can schedule an audit and export data to any location
Yoast SEO is the most used SEO plugin for WordPress websites. The free version of Yoast includes internal link analysis, but the paid version includes internal link suggestion and a placement feature. Yoast premium is $99/year, which includes full access to Yoast SEO Academy.
Features:
📌 Internal link suggestions & orphaned content finder.
📌 Works best with WordPress sites.
📌 Can count both incoming and outgoing internal links
📌 Offers on-page internal link analysis
📌 Does not automatically create and insert new internal links.
📌 Does not require being connected to GSC to collect internal link data.
📌 Can work in conjunction with other WordPress plugins, like Link Whisper, which can import keywords directly from Yoast
Rank Math is relatively new but offers features such as AI for content optimization. As with most of these tools, Rank Math offers different pricing levels. Pro is $6.99/month and is best for bloggers and individuals. Business is ideal for freelancers, agency owners, and small businesses and is $20.99/month. Agency is best for large agencies with high volumes and is $49.99/month.
Features:
📌 keyword based link suggestions.
📌 Anchor text recommendations.
📌 Internal link builder automates internal link-building process.
Frase connects directly to Google Search Console and makes smart suggestions based on GSC link data and your target keywords. Frase has a multi-tier pricing system, with a basic plan starting at $45/month, which includes only one user and one site. The Team plan is $115/month and allows for up to three users and unlimited sites. The Enterprise plan scales to fit your needs and includes unlimited users.
Features:
📌 AI-powered content clustering and interlinking.
📌 Has a strong SEO focus
📌 Includes AI writing assistants to help with long-form content and search optimization
SEOClarity’s internal linking tool can analyze information from every page that links within your site. You can extract and filter data by many different factors to help inform your internal linking strategy. Custom pricing is available with a quote.
Features:
📌 Enterprise-level internal linking automation.
📌 Creates a proactive internal linking strategy
📌 Provides insights on what new linking opportunities can do for visibility and user experience
📌 Understand page authority with internal links rank score
Google Search Console provides free internal link analysis reporting in its toolkit. It has basic link analysis features and is divided between external and internal links.
Features:
📌 Basic internal link analysis.
📌 Free
📌 Not platform-specific, making it readily available for all websites
📌 Helps you understand what Google knows about your internal link structure
📌 Does not show anchor text used for the internal link
SEO PowerSuite is a website auditor application that includes internal link analysis. It has a free plan that allows you to work on one project with no saving. The professional plan for small businesses is $59.67/month and allows you to work on unlimited projects. The Enterprise plan is $139.67/month and is best for agencies and experienced SEO professionals.
Features:
📌 Comprehensive link analysis & audits.
📌 Includes visualization tool to better understand site structure and link details
📌 Does not provide internal link automation or link insertion
📌 Will work best paired with an intentional internal linking tool
Internal Link Juicer is a plugin for WordPress users that has both free and paid options. The Pro version offers the most flexibility and starts at $69.99/year for a single site.
Features:
📌 WordPress plugin for smart link automation.
📌 Pro version provides control over how and where automated links are placed, allowing for targeted and customized placement
📌 Uses a link index to maintain internal links
📌 Can diversify anchor text
📌 Statistics dashboard allows you to stay on top of your link strategy
📌 Fully automated
📌 Can configure keywords directly in the content editor
📌 Can exclude specific content areas from linking
LinkStorm is an AI-powered internal lining tool that allows you to optimize your internal linking strategy. It provides a clear picture of your internal linking by crawling your site and analyzing your content. Plans are $30/month, $60/month, $120/month, and $200/month.
Features:
📌 Smart anchor text control and bulk internal linking.
📌 Suggests relevant links between pages
📌 Can place links directly into content
📌 Provides complete audit to your site’s linking
📌 Can find and correct internal link issues such as broken links, redirections, and nofollows
WebCEO allows you to streamline your link flow effectively and ensures they are SEO-friendly. If paid annually, monthly fees are $99/month for a startup, $83/month plus scanning fees for agency unlimited, and $251/month for corporate.
Features:
📌 SEO platform with internal link optimization tools.
📌 Review anchor text to ensure internal links are diversified and relevant
📌 Page authority analysis available
📌 See how much “link juice” each page is passing and receiving
LinkVector can implement a precise internal linking strategy to help boost your rankings. It uses NLP, LLM, and Big Data technology to ensure contextual understanding of your website. Plans are currently $9/month, $37/month, and $87/month.
Features:
📌 Automated internal link tracking and suggestions.
📌 Fixes linking flaws
📌 Automatically implements optimized internal linking structure
📌 Supports all websites, not just WordPress sites
📌 Compatible with a wide range of content management systems
Squirrly SEO is another WordPress plugin feature with internal linking support. Squirrly has a free option that is fairly limited, but has additional plans available. Pro, Web Dev kit, and Business plans are also available. Pro is $9,99/month, Web Dev is $51.20/month, and Business is $71.99/month.
Features:
📌 AI-powered internal link optimization.
📌 Inner links assistant helps you find opportunities for all previous content and helps build new internal links
📌 Inner links helper is a research assistant that can help create additional content to grow your internal link strategy
📌 Focus page internal links checks incoming internal links for your focus pages (most important content)
Inline related posts allow you to automatically insert inline related posts within your WordPress articles. Related post plugins can simplify building internal links between related posts and articles.
Features:
📌 Automatically adds contextual internal links in articles
This tool allows you to discover contextual connections between pages. It works in conjunction with Screaming Frog’s website crawler.
Features:
📌 Uses Google’s BERT model to suggest internal links
ChatGPT-Based Internal Linking Method uses AI to suggest internal links, anchor text, and new content ideas based on your existing pages. Ideal for manual, context-rich linking strategies.
Features:
📌 Using AI-generated suggestions to build internal links.
📌 Use ChatGPT to analyze existing content, then look for internal linking opportunities
📌 Look for keyword opportunities, then find related internal links
📌 Suggest topics and related keywords to create new content
📌 Recommend anchor text for internal links
NeuronWriter uses AI to develop and optimize content, with internal linking tools as part of its toolkit.
Features:
📌 Content optimization plus internal linking strategies
Internals (by Positional) is an AI-driven internal linking tool that maps your entire site and automates smart internal link suggestions. Ideal for growing websites focused on SEO scalability and precision.
Features:
📌 AI-driven internal link mapping and automation
This tool was designed for WordPress sites, but works primarily as a SaaS tool with a WP plugin. LinkBoss uses a credit system for internal link generations, and like other options has a multi-tier payment system. A one-month free trial is available, then there is the option to pay-as-you-go or choose from different tiers for monthly subscriptions. Annual payment plans are also available, providing a 25% discount versus monthly plans. LinkBoss starts at $11/month, which includes 200 credits and can support three websites.
Features:
📌 AI-Powered Automated Internal Linking
📌 Can provide internal link suggestions from your site’s existing content
📌 Can us AI and NLP to generate completely new content for contextual link placement
📌 Can help build topic clusters
📌 Provides bulk interlinking
📌 Can support more than one website with only one subscription
📌 Provides comprehensive site reports
LinkBot is the only fully automated internal linking assistant. Each plan offers a 14-day free trial period, with plans running $49/month, $99/month, and $299/month.
Features:
📌 Internal linking report suggests new content links
📌 LinkBot automatically creates internal links
📌 AI-generated contextually relevant snippets that link to key conversion pages
SEO Review Tools Internal Link Analyzer is a free online tool that scans your web pages to show internal and external links, anchor texts, and link types. It helps identify linking patterns and missed opportunities to improve your internal link structure. No signup or plugin is needed, making it a quick and easy solution for manual audits.
Features:
📌 Free internal link analysis
📌 Highlights anchor text and link targets
📌 Shows link status (follow/nofollow)
📌 No installation required (web-based)
📌 Useful for quick audits and small websites
SurferSEO’s internal linking tool can help you ensure the strength of your site’s structure by inserting contextual internal links. It has two modes, Semantic Internal Linking and Basic Internal Linking.
Features:
📌 Semantic Internal Linking (AI-powered suggestions based on meaning and context)
📌 Basic Internal Linking (manual selection and placement)
📌 Topic cluster creation support
📌 Internal link suggestions during content editing
📌 Integration with Surfer’s Content Editor
📌 Anchor text optimization for SEO
Internal Linking Best Practices
Creating an effective internal linking strategy is key to setting yourself apart from the competition. Here are some best practice tips:
- Plan your site’s structure. Decide which pages are going to be your pillar pages and which are the supporting pages, and how they relate to one another. Improve user navigation by grouping related content around central themes using topic clusters. Make sure you’ve created a clear hierarchy, which the most important pages being easy to access.
- Use descriptive anchor text. Don’t use generic phrases for your anchor text and be sure your anchor text is descriptive, but also concise and relevant. Examples:
Good anchor text examples:
- Learn more about our services (with a link to service page)
- Check out our blog on internal links (link to a blog post about internal links)
You can also link to a page or blog using direct text. For instance, if you want to internally link to a blog post on how to pay for orthodontic treatment, use direct text on your financial information page.
Bad anchor text examples:
- Anything generic, such as “click here,” “read more,” etc.
- Anything misleading, using text that makes the reader think the link will take them to something different
- Keyword stuffing, trying to fit too make in one anchor text link
- Empty link text
- Anything too long
Be sure the text surrounding the anchor text is relevant and natural, and be sure you are balancing your keywords with natural-sounding language. It’s also important to be sure your anchor text links to high-quality pages.
- Make sure your connections are relevant. This means making sure you are only linking to pages that are relevant to the topic of the page searchers are navigating from. For example, if you have content about Invisalign, it makes sense to link to a blog post about Invisalign treatment, but might not make sense to link to a page about patient forms. Linking pages that are contextually relevant helps the user’s experience and helps search engines understand how topics are connected within your site.
- Balance the number of internal links per page. If we know internal links are helpful, then lots of internal links must be extra helpful, right? Not so fast. Overdoing it can be confusing and dilute the quality of your links. Make sure your links are natural within the page.
- Make sure you prioritize your important pages. You want to be sure your visitors can find the information they need, as easily as possible. Use your internal linking strategy to ensure visitors and search engines can find your most valuable content. Use your internal linking strategy to link to service pages, blog content, and the information that will help convert your visitors.
- Check your links regularly. Building an internal linking system only works if your links work. Tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, and others can help you identify broken links. Use these tools to help redirect, update, or remove broken links. If you find a broken link, there are a few things you can do:
- Use a 301 redirect to pass link juice on to a new placeUpdate the link to point to a current URL
- Remove the link if it is no longer relevant.
- Track your link performance. Using Google Search Console’s links report, you can monitor your internal linking system’s performance. You’ll be able to see which pages have the most incoming and outgoing links. Then, you can see if any pages are underlinked, and you can build those up. Google Search Console can easily help you find opportunities to improve your internal linking strategy.
Free vs. Paid Internal Linking Tools
Utilizing an internal linking tool can help you streamline your process and optimize your website. As I covered earlier in this post there are many free and paid options available, here is a short list of top three tools I that recommend, but feel free to explore all the options depending on your needs.
Best Free Internal Linking Tools: There are a few internal linking tools you can use for free:
Google Search Console Screaming Frog SEO Spider (Limited free version) Yoast SEO (Free version with limited suggestions)
These options provide free, basic internal link analysis. Screaming Frog and Yoast SEO also have paid options for more in-depth analysis.
Best Paid Internal Linking Tools: If you have the ability to pay for internal linking tools, there are several that can provide excellent assistance to boost your internal linking strategy:
Twylu (Premium AI-powered) Link Whisper (Premium) Ahrefs (Paid SEO suite) SEOClarity (Enterprise)
How to set up an internal linking strategy
Follow these steps to start your internal linking strategy:
1. Identify key pages that need links. Plan your site’s structure in a hierarchy, with main topics and subtopics. These pillar pages and cluster pages should then be linked contextually, seamlessly allowing a visitor to navigate your site. Determine which pages can be linked together to encourage your visitors to stay browsing and to help search engines better understand your site. Use descriptive anchor text that will help users and search engines understand the context of the link, and avoid overlinking in your pages.
2. Use AI-driven tools to automate linking. AI tools can help streamline your internal linking strategy by analyzing your site’s content to identify linking opportunities and then providing suggestions for relevant links. Some of the AI tools available can even automate the linking – automatically inserting links into your content for you.
3. Monitor and fix orphaned pages. Once you’ve started your strategy, it is important to monitor it to be sure it is successful and to correct issues that may arise. The tools we’ve discussed in this guide can be helpful to keep your internal linking strategy effective.
4. Optimize internal anchor text. Use keyword-rich text that describes where you’re linking to. This improves the user experience and ensures you’re linking to a relative page. Be descriptive and concise, making the link appear natural and easy to understand. Always avoid generic text and be sure you are always keeping the user experience in mind.
5. Regularly audit internal links for broken or missing links. Once you’ve created your internal linking strategy, the work hasn’t stopped. You’ll want to continue to monitor your links to be sure you can catch broken or missing links.
Let’s wrap it up
Luckily, there are many tools available to help you ensure you have the best strategy possible. Take advantage of products like Twylu and Link Whisper to help automate your internal linking strategy. This can then allow you to focus on reaping the benefits of your strategy.
Internal links are a crucial way to help users navigate your website and easily find the content they are looking for. But they also help search engines find, index, and understand your website. A good internal linking strategy is not only good for your visitors, but it can also help boost your rankings by:
- Allowing search engines to more easily index and crawl your site
- Providing a clear hierarchy to your website and allowing search engines to understand the relationships between your site’s content.
- Providing a clear and intuitive way to navigate your website and ensure content can be found easily
- Reducing bounce rate and improving engagement because users can navigate to related content that they’ll find valuable
- Making content user-friendly and easier to navigate
- Creating page authority by passing link juice from one page to another, thereby helping pages rank higher
- Improving keyword relevance and ranking potential through keyword-rich anchor text
Finally here are my compact key takeaways for internal linking success:
- Make sure your anchor text is both relevant and descriptive, avoiding generic words and phrases and clearly reflecting what page is being linked to.
- Only link to high-quality content to enhance the user experience
- Make sure your website is organized in a clear hierarchy and use your internal links to connect pages and topics that are related.
- Don’t forget to audit your links and update any that are broken or no longer relevant.
- Take advantage of the tools available to help you streamline your process.
Remember that a good internal linking strategy is an important tool in your toolbelt to improve your SEO and the user experience of your website. A well-thought-out internal linking strategy can not only improve your rankings, but it can also ensure your visitors can find the information they need as easily as possible. Following the tips in this guide can help search engines and users better understand your site, and boost your rankings and conversions.