How should related pages link to each other?

Place links where readers need the next answer and make important pages easy to find.

An internal link connects one page of your website to another page on the same site. It helps customers continue reading and helps Google discover pages.

The basics to remember

Important pages should receive links from relevant pages on the site. An address alone is not a useful entry if nobody can find it.
Anchor text is the clickable wording. “See our home-visit coverage” explains the destination more clearly than “click here.”
Links should fit the context. A relevant repair link after an explanation of faults is more natural than repeatedly linking every service keyword.

See Google: Link best practices .

Connect the homepage, directories and details

Give important sections and current priorities clear homepage links. Directories list services or resources; details link back to parents and related help. Breadcrumbs are location links such as “Home > Services > Current service” that help readers return to a parent. Introduce new content briefly on the homepage rather than placing entire question-and-answer articles there.

Click depth is the minimum number of clicks from an entry to a page. If important content requires a long journey, add useful categories or direct links. There is no universal three-click or four-click ranking threshold. Sitelinks are extra shortcuts Google sometimes displays under a search result. Its systems choose them; clear structure helps, but owners cannot guarantee particular links appear. See Google: Sitelinks .

For large collections, offer pagination with real URLs and next-page links. Infinite scrolling loads more content as you reach the bottom. Google’s crawlers generally do not click buttons like customers do, so do not hide all deeper material behind scrolling or an internal search box. See Google: Pagination and incremental loading .

Check context when adding links automatically

Automatic internal linking can reduce repetitive work, but limit its scope and exclude unsuitable pages. After publishing, sample natural wording, relevant destinations, repeated links and whether customers can open them. There is no universal best count, and changing anchor text should not distort a sentence’s meaning.

For a broken link, record the source page, clickable text, destination and exact error. An HTTP status code is the server’s numbered response: 404 means not found and 410 means gone. Update or remove links to unavailable outside resources. If another website links to your missing old page, check for a corresponding new page and appropriate migration. A total of ten broken links does not locate the repairs. See Google: HTTP status codes and Search .

Walk through an example

Check	Before (hypothetical)	After or appropriate action
Fault explanation	No service entry	Link to the related repair page
Service directory	New service missing	Add a real entry
Link wording	“More”	“See how to book a repair”

Suppose someone reads about air-conditioning leaks and wants help. A “See our air-conditioning repair service” link gives both the customer and Google a route to the service page.

Common misunderstandings

Internal link counts vary by page. Fix broken links, which fail to reach their destination. Leaving them creates dead ends for readers and makes discovery along those links harder.