Glossary

What Is Internal Linking?

Internal linking is the practice of hyperlinking from one page of a website to another page on the same domain. Unlike external links (to other websites), internal links help search engines discover and understand the relationship between pages, distribute link equity (ranking power) from high-authority pages to lower ones, and help users navigate to relevant content. A strong internal linking strategy is one of the most impactful and under-utilised on-page SEO techniques.

Why internal linking matters for SEO

Internal links serve three SEO functions: (1) Discoverability — links tell crawlers about new pages. A page with no internal links pointing to it may never be crawled or indexed. (2) Link equity distribution — PageRank flows through internal links. Deep pages gain authority when linked from high-traffic pages. (3) Topical relevance signals — linking between thematically related pages reinforces topical authority clusters.

Hub-and-spoke model

The hub-and-spoke (or pillar-cluster) model is the recommended internal linking architecture: a 'hub' page covers a broad topic comprehensively, and 'spoke' pages cover specific subtopics, all linking back to the hub and to each other. Example: a hub page 'Website Builder Guide' links to spokes 'Bootstrap 5 Templates', 'Landing Page Builder', 'Website Builder for Restaurants' etc., each linking back. This builds topical authority clusters Google rewards.

Internal linking best practices

Use descriptive anchor text (not 'click here' — use the target keyword). Link from high-traffic pages to important deep pages. Ensure every page has at least 2–3 internal links pointing to it. Don't over-link — 3–5 contextual internal links per page is typically sufficient. Prioritise deep linking (blog posts linking to tool and template pages) over shallow linking (everything linked from the homepage). Regularly audit for orphan pages — pages with no internal links.

Internal Linking & Canvas Builder

canvasbuilder.co uses a hub-and-spoke internal linking model — blog posts link to template pages and tool pages, template pages link to related templates and the compare page, and glossary pages cross-link to related terms — distributing authority across the site.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many internal links should a page have?

There's no strict limit, but 3–10 contextual internal links per page is a practical range for most content pages. Blog posts should link to related posts and relevant product/tool pages. Don't add links purely for SEO — every link should be genuinely useful to the reader.

What is link equity?

Link equity (informally called 'link juice') is the ranking power passed through hyperlinks. A link from a high-authority page passes more equity than one from a new, low-authority page. Internal linking allows you to direct equity from your strongest pages to the pages you want to rank.