Internal linking: a simple strategy that boosts rankings

Backlinks get the attention, but internal links are the part of link building you fully control. They help search engines discover pages, understand how topics relate, and decide which pages are most important.

The rules

1. No orphans. Every indexable page needs at least one internal link from another page.
2. Shallow depth. Important pages should be reachable within three clicks of the home page.
3. Descriptive anchors. Use the words people search for: “compare email marketing tools”, not “read more”.
4. Relevance over volume. A few contextual links from related pages beat dozens of footer links.
5. Follow your own links. Don't add rel="nofollow" to internal links.

A simple system

1. List your money pages and pillar pages.
2. Find the pages that already rank or attract links (Search Console › Links).
3. Add 2–5 contextual links from those pages to the money and pillar pages.
4. Within each topic cluster, link every supporting article to the pillar and to one or two sibling articles.
5. Fix links that point to redirects or broken pages.

Measure

Track the number of inlinks for each important page and how deep it sits. BoostSEO reports orphan pages, pages with few links, link depth, broken and redirected internal links, generic anchors and the interlinking ratio inside each keyword cluster.