Internal links for SEO: a small business checklist

List the pages that explain your main services, products and useful supporting guides. For each one, ask where a visitor would naturally discover it. A guide about choosing a service can lead to the relevant service page; a service page can link to requirements, pricing information or an example. Keep the relationship useful to the reader. Repeating the same unrelated commercial link in every paragraph does not create a coherent site structure.

An orphan page has no internal route pointing to it from the pages you are examining. Compare a list of known URLs with a crawl and with your navigation. Be explicit about the scope: a small crawl cannot prove that a page has no links anywhere. A sitemap helps discovery but does not replace a useful link in the site itself. Check important pages manually before deciding to delete, merge or redirect them.

Google recommends links using an anchor element with an href. A button or scripted click handler is not automatically equivalent. Use concise anchor text that explains what the destination offers. Prefer “weekly website monitoring checklist” to “click here” when that is the actual destination. Keep surrounding text helpful and do not hide links or force repeated exact-match keywords into awkward sentences. Use the weekly monitoring checklist as a practical example of a descriptive destination.

Give each topic a useful starting page and link from it to the more specific answers. Link back where it helps readers orient themselves. Breadcrumbs can show the hierarchy, while contextual links explain relationships that a menu cannot. There is no universal ideal number of links for every page. Choose enough to support the task without overwhelming the reader. A short focused article and a large reference guide naturally need different structures.

Follow each changed link on a phone. Confirm that it opens the intended page, uses the expected language and does not unnecessarily pass through redirects. Avoid linking English readers to a Dutch fallback when you promise an English guide. Check canonical and indexability settings on an important destination, but remember that a working URL does not prove Google has indexed it. Investigate that separately with Search Console URL Inspection when you have access.

Record the changed pages, links and date, then compare meaningful Search Console periods. Look at queries, impressions, clicks and landing pages alongside any other content or technical changes. More clicks after a link change do not by themselves prove that the link caused the increase. Small samples and seasonal demand can mislead. A Marketing Scan account helps organise website work; our methodology explains what public checks can and cannot establish.