Glossary · Technical
Internal linking
Definition. Internal linking is the practice of linking between pages on your own site. It distributes ranking signals, tells search engines which pages matter most, and gives crawlers and readers a path between related content.
The two rules that matter: link from pages with authority to pages that need it, and use anchor text that describes the destination rather than 'click here'.
Orphan pages, those with no internal links pointing at them, are frequently the reason a page never gets indexed. A crawl finds them in minutes.
AI linking tools map page topics and suggest links automatically. They need guardrails: unconstrained, they create irrelevant links and over-link the same target.
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Related terms
Anchor text
Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a link. It tells search engines and readers what the…
Crawl budget
Crawl budget is the number of URLs a search engine will fetch from your site in a given period, set by…
Content cluster
A content cluster is a group of pages covering one topic completely: a pillar page defining the subject…
Orphan page
An orphan page is a page with no internal links pointing to it. Search engines can only find it through…
More in Technical: Anchor text · Orphan page · Crawl budget · Indexation · Canonical URL · Duplicate content · Keyword cannibalization · Core Web Vitals
Frequently asked questions
What does Internal linking mean?
Internal linking is the practice of linking between pages on your own site. It distributes ranking signals, tells search engines which pages matter most, and gives crawlers and readers a path between related content.
Why does Internal linking matter for AI SEO?
The two rules that matter: link from pages with authority to pages that need it, and use anchor text that describes the destination rather than 'click here'.
What is the most common mistake with internal linking?
AI linking tools map page topics and suggest links automatically. They need guardrails: unconstrained, they create irrelevant links and over-link the same target.
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