# Internal Linking and Crawlable Site Architecture > Link your own pages together so people and search engines can find your most important pages and understand how they relate. Canonical: https://vassalmarketing.com/information/internal-linking/ **Maintained by Vassal Marketing** · Last updated on September 26, 2026 Reviewed at least quarterly and whenever a platform or rule it cites changes. General information, not legal or professional advice. Check rules that affect your business with a qualified professional. Internal links tie your pages into one clear system, so visitors and search engines can reach the pages that matter most. ## Why this matters Search engines find most pages by following links. They use link text and the surrounding words to understand what each page is about. Pages reachable only through a search box or script may be crawled less. Links also move visitors from a question to the related service, location, or contact page. Good linking is editorial: add links where a reader needs them, not blocks of keyword links everywhere. ## Recommended practices ### Keep key pages a few clicks away Make important pages reachable through clear navigation from a relevant hub page. How deep a page sits should follow your site's logic, not a fixed click limit. ### Write link text that says where it goes Hypothetical example: instead of “click here,” write “see our drain-cleaning prices.” Vary the wording naturally with the sentence rather than repeating one exact phrase. ### Build hubs around relationships Connect each service to its locations, guides, examples, and policies. A hub should help visitors choose a path, not list every page on the site. ### Keep links crawlable and working Use standard links with real URLs for navigation. Fix broken links, links that pass through redirects, and navigation that only works after a script runs. ### Find pages that need more links Links from your own pages help Google find a page and judge its importance within your site. Use a crawl tool to find pages with no links pointing to them, then decide each new link by hand. ## What to do next 1. Crawl the site and list pages with no internal links or buried many clicks deep. 2. Choose a hub page for each main service, location, and guide topic. 3. Add links where a reader would naturally want an explanation, proof, or next step. 4. Replace broken, redirected, and script-only links with direct standard links. 5. Recheck navigation, breadcrumbs, and footer links after every major content update. ## Avoid these shortcuts - Adding sitewide exact-match link text to inflate a page's importance - Linking every mention of a phrase whether or not it helps - Leaving important pages with no links from navigation or hubs - Using buttons or scripts without real URLs for essential navigation ## Questions business owners ask ### How many internal links should a page have? As many as genuinely help; there is no ideal number. Hub pages need more than focused articles. Avoid overwhelming readers with repeated or irrelevant links. ### Does internal link text need exact keywords? No. Link text should briefly describe the destination in natural language. Varied, clear wording is healthier than forcing the same phrase into every link. ### Are breadcrumbs useful for SEO? Yes, when they reflect a real hierarchy and work as links. They help visitors orient themselves and help search engines understand structure. Breadcrumb markup should match the visible trail. ## Primary guidance - [Google: Links crawlable by Google](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable) - [Google SEO Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide) - [Google: Breadcrumb structured data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/breadcrumb) Search visibility, rankings, calls, leads, and revenue are not guaranteed. ## Related SEO guides - [Technical SEO and Website Health](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/technical-seo.md): Make sure search engines can crawl and index your important pages, and that those pages load quickly and work well on phones. - [Content Strategy and Topical Coverage](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/content-strategy.md): Write service pages and helpful articles that answer real customer questions with your own experience, instead of publishing many thin pages. - [On-Page SEO for Clear, Useful Pages](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/on-page-seo.md): Write titles, meta descriptions, headings, and page copy that make each page's purpose obvious to searchers and search engines. [Explore all SEO guides](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/seo.md).