Internal links are sometimes treated as a minor SEO task you complete after writing an article. Find a few related phrases, add some links, and move on.

That misses their real purpose.

A good internal link helps readers find useful supporting information. At the same time, it gives Google another path to discover a page and additional context for understanding how that page fits into the rest of your website.

I primarily add links from new posts to older content. I also go back and update older posts when a newly published article answers a relevant question. Doing both creates a better-connected site than only linking in one direction.

I’ve seen pages get discovered after receiving new internal links. That doesn’t mean the link was solely responsible for Google finding or indexing the page, but it can be an important part of the process.

Internal links help Google discover pages

Google has to find a URL before it can crawl and potentially index it. One of the ways it discovers URLs is by extracting links from pages it already knows about.

Google says that the vast majority of new pages it finds are discovered through links. It also recommends that every page you care about should receive a link from at least one other page on your website (source).

This is why orphaned posts can become a problem.

An orphaned post exists on your website but has no internal links pointing to it. It may appear in your XML sitemap, but it isn’t part of the normal path readers or crawlers follow through your content.

Adding a relevant internal link gives Google another route to the page. It also reconnects that page to the broader subject your website covers.

Discovery still isn’t the same as indexing. Google doesn’t guarantee that every page it discovers will be crawled, indexed, or shown in search results (source). Internal links help create the opportunity, but the destination page still needs to be accessible and worth indexing.

Anchor text gives Google context

Anchor text is the clickable wording used in a link. It helps readers predict what they’ll find after clicking, and it gives Google information about the destination page.

Google recommends anchor text that is descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to both the current page and the page receiving the link (source).

For example:

Learn more by clicking here.

That link may still be understandable when the surrounding sentence provides enough context. It isn’t automatically harmful, but the anchor text itself says very little about the destination.

A more descriptive version would be:

Learn how to find and fix orphaned pages.

The second version sets a clearer expectation. A reader scanning the article can understand where the link leads, and Google receives more useful context about the linked page.

That doesn’t mean you should force the exact target keyword into every internal link. Anchor text should fit the sentence naturally. Repeating the same keyword-heavy phrase everywhere can make the writing feel mechanical and may give readers less useful context rather than more.

Internal links show how your pages relate

Google doesn’t view every page as an isolated document. It analyzes the links between pages to better understand the structure of a website.

Google has explained that navigation and cross-page links can affect its understanding of site structure. It may consider factors such as how many links it must follow to reach a page and how many internal links point to that page when inferring its relative importance (source).

This doesn’t mean that adding 50 internal links to a page will make it rank.

It means your linking patterns send signals about relationships. When several articles about WordPress maintenance link to a detailed guide on updating plugins safely, the structure helps show that the guide is an important resource within that topic.

Internal links turn a collection of separate posts into a connected body of knowledge.

My practical approach to internal linking

My process is intentionally simple.

When publishing a new post, I look for older articles that provide useful background, answer a related question, or give the reader a logical next step. I then revisit older posts when a new article deserves to be connected from them.

The decision is mostly intuitive:

Would this link add value to the conversation and give the reader useful context?

That question is more helpful than trying to hit a fixed number of internal links.

Google says there is no magical ideal number of links for a page. Its guidance is essentially that when the number feels excessive, it probably is (source).

A 3,000-word tutorial may naturally need more internal links than a short opinion article. Relevance matters more than reaching an arbitrary target.

Common internal-linking mistakes

Leaving useful posts orphaned

A valuable article shouldn’t depend entirely on an XML sitemap or a direct search visit. Connect it to at least one relevant page readers and crawlers can already reach.

Using vague anchor text everywhere

Phrases such as “click here,” “read this,” and “learn more” depend heavily on surrounding context. Use descriptive wording when it fits naturally and makes the destination clearer.

Adding too many links

Internal links stop being useful when almost every sentence sends the reader somewhere else. Too many links can interrupt the article and make it difficult to tell which supporting resources are genuinely important.

Linking because a keyword appears

A matching phrase doesn’t automatically justify a link. The destination should expand the current idea, answer a likely follow-up question, or help the reader complete the next step.

Creating links Google may not crawl

Standard internal links should generally use an HTML <a> element with an href attribute. Google warns that it may not reliably extract URLs from elements that only behave like links through script events (source).

Most WordPress editors handle this correctly, but custom navigation, interactive tools, and JavaScript-heavy designs deserve closer attention.

Internal links should serve readers first

It’s easy to turn internal linking into an exercise in PageRank sculpting, exact-match anchor text, and link-count formulas. That usually makes a straightforward idea more complicated than it needs to be.

The better approach is to build intuitive paths through your content.

Link when another page adds something valuable to the conversation. Describe the destination clearly. Update older posts when a new resource deserves attention. Most importantly, make sure every article worth finding is connected to the rest of your website.

When internal links make the website easier for a person to understand, they usually make its structure clearer to Google as well.

Frequently asked questions

Do internal links help Google index pages?

Internal links can help Google discover a URL and understand its context, but they don’t guarantee indexing. Google may discover a page and still decide not to crawl, index, or serve it.

How many internal links should a post contain?

There is no universal number. Add links that provide useful context or a logical next step, and remove links that feel repetitive, distracting, or irrelevant.

Is “click here” bad anchor text?

It isn’t automatically harmful, especially when the surrounding sentence makes the destination clear. However, descriptive anchor text is usually more useful because readers and Google can understand the linked page more easily.