What are internal links
Internal links are hyperlinks that lead from a page on one domain to another page on the same domain. Unlike external links (backlinks), they are entirely under the website owner's control.
<!-- Внутренняя ссылка -->
<a href="/services/tech">SEO-аудит сайта</a>
<!-- Внешняя ссылка -->
<a href="https://google.com" rel="noopener">Google</a>Why internal links matter
A well-planned internal linking structure serves several purposes:
SEO tasks
- PageRank distribution — distributes link equity among pages
- Crawling — helps Googlebot discover and crawl all pages
- Indexing — pages without internal links may not be included in the index
- Topical signals — connects topically related pages
UX tasks
- Helps users find related content
- Increases session depth
- Reduces the bounce rate
Internal linking architecture
Flat structure (recommended)
All important pages should be reachable within 3-4 clicks from the homepage:
Главная → Категория → Товар ← 2 клика (хорошо)
Главная → Кат. 1 → Кат. 2 → Кат. 3 → Товар ← 4 клика (плохо)
Hub pages
Hub pages receive many internal links and pass link equity to child pages:
Главная (много ссылок)
↓
/seo-tools (хаб-страница)
↓ ↓ ↓
/services/meta-tags /services/sitemap /services/tech
Internal linking rules
Use descriptive anchor text
<!-- Плохо -->
Узнайте больше о SEO <a href="/audit">здесь</a>.
<!-- Хорошо -->
Запустите <a href="/audit">полный SEO-аудит сайта</a>.Link to topically related pages
An article about H1 tags → a link to an article about meta tags. This creates topical clusters.
Crawl depth
The deeper a page is in the site structure, the fewer internal links it receives. Compensate with navigation, breadcrumbs, and “related articles.”
Contextual links are more important than navigational links
A link in an article's text (a contextual link) is more valuable than a link in the footer or navigation.
Tools for analyzing internal links
- Screaming Frog — crawling and link analysis
- Google Search Console → Links → Internal links
- reChecker Link Analyzer
Check internal links with reChecker
Use the Link Analyzer for a complete analysis of the links on a page. The tool will show:
- All internal links and their anchor text
- All external links and their attributes
- Broken links (404 errors)
- Links with nofollow
FAQ
How many internal links should a page have? Google does not set a strict limit. A guideline is no more than 100 links on a page (the old PageRank Sculpting limit). In practice, aim for 20-50 links per page, including navigation.
Do footer and nav links pass link equity? Yes, but less than contextual links. Google takes the link's position on the page into account — links near the beginning of the page and in article text are more important than footer links.
Should I use nofollow for internal links? Usually not. PageRank Sculpting (using nofollow for “unneeded” pages) does not work as intended. Use canonical and robots.txt if a page should not be indexed.