Internal linking strategy: silos, anchors and click depth
By Anis Harbaoui, SEO specialist
An internal linking strategy decides which pages link to which, with what anchor text and where on the page, so that search engines understand your site’s structure and authority flows to the pages that matter. Done well, it groups related content into clear topics, keeps every page reachable within a few clicks and tells Google which page answers which question.
- Child pages link up to their parent; siblings link only when they share an entity.
- Keep every important page within three clicks of the homepage.
- Vary anchors: mostly descriptive entity anchors, few exact-match ones.
- Measure with click depth, orphan count and Search Console data, not just link counts.
Why internal links matter
Internal links do three things: they help crawlers discover pages, they pass authority (PageRank) between pages, and their anchor text and surrounding words tell search engines what the target is about. Google’s “reasonable surfer” patent describes links in the main content as weighing more than links in footers or boilerplate, which is why contextual links matter most.
Silo structure: how to organise links
| Link direction | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Up (child → parent) | Always: every child page links to its hub | Organization schema guide → Schema markup guide |
| Down (parent → child) | Hub links to every child it introduces | Guides hub → each guide |
| Sideways (sibling ↔ sibling) | Only when they share an entity or the reader needs the next step | Duplicate schema ↔ Schema not showing |
| Across silos | Only through a shared entity | WooCommerce Product schema ↔ WooCommerce SEO page |
| To product pages | From the most relevant feature page, not from every post | Schema guide → Schema module page |
Anchor text rules
| Anchor type | Share | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Entity / descriptive | About 40% | “Organization schema” |
| Question or attribute | About 25% | “why schema is not showing in Google” |
| Natural phrase | About 20% | “the module that builds the graph” |
| Exact commercial | 10% or less | “WordPress schema plugin” |
| Brand | About 5% | “NexalSEO” |
Link once per target per page; the words around the link (roughly a sentence on each side) should mention the target entity too. Never use “click here”.
Click depth and link counts
- Click depth: important pages at depth 3 or less. Hubs, breadcrumbs and category pages keep depth low.
- Links per page: there is no fixed limit, but a focused 1,500-word guide rarely needs more than 5–10 contextual links.
- Navigation vs content: menus help users; contextual links carry the topical signal.
- Faceted navigation on stores: keep filter URLs out of the index and link to category pages, not to every filter combination.
Finding orphaned and weak pages
Crawl the site
Use a crawler to list every URL with its inlink count and click depth.
Compare with the sitemap
URLs in the sitemap but with zero inlinks are orphans.
Add contextual links
From two or three related pages in the same silo.
Re-crawl
Confirm depth and inlinks improved.
NexalSEO flags orphaned posts and suggests related pages as you write; the full method is in finding and fixing orphaned pages.
How to measure the impact
- Record click depth and inlinks for target pages before changes.
- In Search Console, track impressions and average position for the target pages over 28-day windows.
- Watch for cannibalisation: two of your URLs swapping for the same query means the links and content do not make the hierarchy clear.
Further reading: Google guidance on crawlable links.
Frequently asked questions
Do internal links pass PageRank?
Yes. Links within the main content are the most valuable; nofollow on internal links wastes authority rather than redirecting it.
Should I use exact-match anchors?
Sparingly. Descriptive entity anchors are safer and more informative.
How many internal links should a page have?
As many as are useful to the reader; for a typical guide, 5–10 contextual links plus navigation.
Related guides
Finding orphaned pages
Reconnect stranded content.
What is semantic SEO?
The topical map behind silos.
How Google understands a website
Why discovery depends on links.
NexalSEO surfaces related pages while you edit and flags posts with no inbound internal links.
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