Why do internal links matter for SEO? Why should we optimize our site’s internal linking structure?
Internal links connect one page on your website to another. They are critical for SEO and GEO because they guide search engine and AI bots through your site, helping them discover new content and understand the relationship between pages. Internal links are also one way of signaling which pages are the most valuable on the website. The more links there are, the more valuable the page likely is.
Technical issues can disrupt how bots crawl your site and how users navigate it. Here is a breakdown of common internal link problems to watch out for:
Orphan Pages
- What they are: Indexable pages with zero internal links pointing to them.
- Why it’s a problem: These pages are effectively cut off from the site’s structure. If bots can’t find them via links, they may not index them. Even if they do find the page (from an external link or a listing in an XML sitemap), the lack of links signals that the page is unimportant, making it harder for that page to rank or earn citations.
- Fix: If you want to keep the page, add relevant internal links to that page. If you don’t want to keep the page, delete it.
Learn more about how to find and fix orphan pages.
Near-Orphan Pages
- What they are: Indexable pages with very few internal links.
- Why it’s a problem: While not completely cut off, a low link count suggests to search engines that the content is not critical, which can negatively impact rankings and citations.
- Fix: Same as above. Keep and add links. Or, delete the page and remove the few internal links that exist.
Broken Internal Links
- What they are: Links pointing to pages that do not exist (pages returning 404s or 410s).
- Why it’s a problem: They create a dead end for users (bad UX) and cause bots to waste crawl budget on error pages instead of valid content.
- Fix: Remove the broken links or update the internal link to go to a working page.
Learn more about how to find and fix 404 errors.
Redirected Links & Chains
- What they are: Internal links pointing to a URL that redirects to another URL (example: linking to Page A which redirects to Page B, instead of just linking to Page B directly).
- Why it’s a problem: Bots must process the redirect’s multiple steps or hops to reach the destination, wasting resources. Long chains risk bots stopping before they reach the final page.
- Fix: Update redirected internal links to point directly to the final destination.
Learn more about how to fix common problems with redirects.
Irrelevant Links
- What they are: Linking to pages that have no topical relationship to the source content, often done just to increase link counts.
- Why it’s a problem: This can confuse users and robots regarding the context of your pages and reduce the overall quality of your site structure.
- Fix: Remove irrelevant links from the website. Replace with links that are related to the source content.
JavaScript/Button Links
- What they are: Using <button> tags or onclick events instead of standard <a href> HTML tags.
- Why it’s a problem: Bots generally do not trigger click events like humans do. If a link is hidden behind a script or button, the bot may never see it or follow it.
- Fix: If a bot is supposed to find the page, link to it with <a href> HTML tags instead.
Main takeaway: Regularly audit your internal links. Ensure your important content is linked to in a way bots can crawl from relevant pages and that you aren’t sending bots into dead ends or redirect chains.