Internal linking

The four types of internal links

1. Navigational — header, footer, breadcrumbs. Sitewide. Lower per-link weight but consistent.
2. Contextual / in-content — links inside the body copy with descriptive anchor text. Highest per-link weight.
3. Cluster cross-links — between related pages in the same topic cluster (pillar ↔ cluster, cluster ↔ sibling cluster)
4. Related posts / “see also” — automated widgets surfacing tag/category-matched pages

What separates good internal linking

• Keyword-rich descriptive anchors — “enterprise SEO playbook” not “click here”
• From topically relevant context — link from where the topic is actually discussed
• Bidirectional cluster integrity — pillar links down to clusters, clusters link up to pillar
• No orphans — every important page receives ≥1 in-content inbound link
• Reasonable density — 3-7 internal links per 1000 words; over-linking dilutes

Common mistakes

• Generic anchors (“read more,” “click here,” “learn more”)
• Same exact-match anchor 50+ times — over-optimization signal
• All links to homepage/contact — wastes equity on already-strong pages
• Linking only from blog to commercial without reverse direction
• Orphan clusters — pages that no other page links to
• Excessive footer links — sitewide footer to 50+ pages dilutes signal per link

How to audit

• Tools — Screaming Frog (All Inlinks report), Sitebulb, Ahrefs Site Audit
• Metrics to track — average click depth from homepage, orphan page count, anchor text distribution per target, top inbound-link recipients
• Cadence — quarterly for stable sites, monthly for high-velocity content programs

In practice

Resocial’s internal-linking-agent runs this audit continuously across the site and surfaces both quick wins (orphan fixes) and strategic moves (rebalancing anchor distributions). Most agencies treat internal linking as an afterthought; we treat it as a primary lever.