In brief: Internal linking is the deliberate direction of links between pages on one website. It helps people continue with a topic and search engines understand the structure, relationships, and importance of URLs.
How I use internal linking in practice
In practice, I use internal linking as one part of acquisition. Before launching, I determine whom I do not want to address, what evidence the offer needs, and how I will recognise a relevant response. I continuously monitor search queries, placements, or comments by channel, and feed the findings back into both content and the offer.
What to watch out for
A cheap click or broad reach is not success in itself. With internal linking, it is easy to optimise activity that does not bring the right customers. Be careful with the platform's automatic recommendations without knowing the brand's margin, capacity, and constraints.
Questions for the decision
- Whom do we want to address, and whom do we want to exclude?
- Which hypothesis about the offer or message are we testing?
- What happens after the first response, and who owns that step?
- Are we measuring customer quality, or only activity in the channel?