Internal Linking Strategy: Spread Authority Across Your Site

Earning links is only half the job. Once authority arrives on your site, an internal linking strategy decides where it flows. Smart internal links help visitors find what they need, help search engines understand your expertise, and lift the pages that matter most to your business.

This guide is part of our authority link building series.

Why internal links matter

• Discovery: search engines find pages through links
• Context: links and anchor text show how topics relate
• Authority flow: pages that earn backlinks can pass value to others
• User journeys: readers move from learning to buying

The hub-and-spoke model

1. Hub (pillar) page: a comprehensive guide to a core topic
2. Spoke pages: focused articles on subtopics
3. Links: hub links to every spoke; spokes link back to the hub and to related spokes
4. Conversion links: hubs and spokes link to relevant service pages

This blog is built exactly this way. For example, our radio advertising hub links to supporting guides, and they link back. See long-form content.

Link from strength to priority

1. Find pages that earn the most external links (often research, guides or news)
2. Identify priority pages (services, key offers)
3. Add relevant contextual links from the strong pages to the priority pages

This is how the Authority Stack turns earned links into business results.

Write natural anchor text

Use descriptive anchors that tell readers what they'll find: "our billboard ROI guide," not "click here." Vary phrasing naturally. See anchor text guide.

Fix orphan pages

Every important page should have at least one relevant internal link. Audit regularly with a site crawler.

Keep links healthy

• Fix broken internal links
• Update links after changing URLs, and use redirects (rebranding and SEO)
• Avoid long redirect chains

Don't overdo it

Too many links in one paragraph, or links unrelated to the content, confuse readers. Link where it genuinely helps.

An internal linking audit

• [ ] Each hub links to all its spokes
• [ ] Each spoke links back to its hub
• [ ] Strong pages link to priority service pages
• [ ] No orphan pages
• [ ] No broken internal links
• [ ] Descriptive anchor text

Example: routing authority to a service page (illustrative)

A research page on local advertising habits earns links from three news sites. The team adds a short paragraph to that page, "Want to put these insights to work? See how we plan radio campaigns," linking to the radio services page. The service page now benefits from the authority the research earned, and readers have a natural next step.

Measure

Watch rankings and traffic for priority pages after internal linking updates, and track how readers move between pages in your analytics. Internal links are the foundation layer of authority, and they're entirely in your control.