Internal linking is the practice of linking from one page on your website to another page on the same website. It sounds simple, but it’s one of the most powerful and underused SEO strategies available to WordPress site owners.
Why Internal Links Matter
- SEO: They help search engines understand the structure of your site and which pages are most important
- Page authority: Links pass authority from one page to another
- User experience: They guide readers to related content, keeping them on your site longer
- Indexing: They help search engines discover pages that might not be linked from anywhere else
Best Practices
- Use descriptive anchor text that tells readers what the linked page is about
- Link from high-traffic pages to pages you want to rank better
- Add internal links naturally within the content, not just in footers or sidebars
- Aim for 2-5 internal links per article, depending on length
Tools to Help
Yoast SEO and Link Whisper are popular WordPress plugins that suggest internal links as you write. Link Whisper can even audit your existing content and show orphaned pages with no internal links pointing to them.
Related: On-Page SEO
Related: SEO
