Do Internal Links Help a Page Rank? Yes, and How to Place Them

By Katleen, Founder of PARCHMNT · Updated October 29, 2026

Yes, internal links help a page rank. Google's documentation says it primarily finds pages through links from pages it already crawled, and that anchor text tells Google what the linked page is about. A page with no internal links can still be indexed, but a page linked from pages Google ranks, with descriptive anchors, is found faster and understood better.

This post is built on Google Search Central's SEO Starter Guide, its link best practices page and its explanation of how Search works. It also draws on the linking rules we built into PARCHMNT.

Do internal links help a page rank?

Internal links help a page rank in three ways Google documents. They get the page found, they tell Google what the page is about through the anchor text, and they show which pages on your site belong together. Google does not publish how much ranking weight they carry, and nobody outside Google can measure it.

The yes is sourced to Google's own documentation, not vendor claims. As of October 2026, the SEO Starter Guide says "Google primarily finds pages through links from other pages it already crawled". Its link best practices add the rule that follows: "Every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site".

Meaning comes next. The Starter Guide says anchor text "tells users and Google something about the page you're linking to". A page that ten of your other pages call "billable hours calculator" is a page Google has been told about ten times.

Ranking is where honesty matters. Google's explanation of ranking says one quality factor is "understanding if other prominent websites link or refer to the content". That sentence is about other sites, and Google publishes no equivalent for your own. What we see is that pages stuck between positions eight and twenty sometimes move after we link to them from posts that rank, and sometimes do not. That is an observation, not a statistic.

Which anchor text works best for internal links?

The best anchor text says what the linked page is about and would make sense on its own. Google's link best practices say good anchor text "is descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to the page that it's on" and to the page it links to. "Click here" and "Read more" are its examples of what to avoid.

Google offers a test worth keeping: read only the anchor text, out of context, and "check if it's specific enough to make sense by itself". It adds that "the words before and after links matter, so pay attention to the sentence as a whole".

• Use the phrase the target page is written for. If the page answers "how to round billable hours", link it as "rounding billable hours", not as "this guide".
• Vary it a little. We write each anchor to fit its sentence, so one post links "rounding billable hours" and another "the six-minute rounding rule".
• Keep it to a phrase. Google's own bad example is a whole sentence turned into a link.
• Avoid generic words. "Website", "article" and "here" say nothing about where the link goes.

Where should internal links come from and point to?

Links should come from pages Google already ranks and point to the pages that need help. Place them in the body where the phrase already appears, and never inside the opening answer of a section. Google's advice is to link to pages that help readers understand the current page, "in context".

From pages that rank, because Google crawls them often and sees a new link there soon. To pages that need it: new posts, posts sitting between positions eight and twenty, and orphan pages nothing links to. The opening paragraph of a section is the passage snippets and AI answers lift, so we keep links out of it; a quoted passage that drags a link reads worse. That placement rule is ours, not Google's.

PARCHMNT is a writing tool that researches what ranks for a search, writes the page, checks every claim and tracks where it lands in Google and AI answers. Its internal linking links only a phrase already in the text, up to three outgoing links per article. It never touches a heading, a table, an existing link or the first paragraph of a section. When Search Console shows an article between positions eight and twenty, it runs the linking again once every 28 days so newer articles point at it too.

Which kinds of internal links count?

Every crawlable internal link counts, but each kind does a different job. Navigation and footer links say what the whole site is about, and breadcrumbs show where a page sits. Links inside body text carry the most meaning, because their anchor and surrounding words describe the target. Google publishes no separate weights for these.

The table is why a blog post is the best place to link a service page: a paragraph can explain, in a customer's words, why the page is worth opening. Clockbird, a fictional time-tracking app we use as an example, would link its billable hours feature from a post on rounding hours, in the sentence that explains it.

How many internal links are too many?

There is no number. Google's link best practices say "There's no magical ideal number of links a given page should contain. However, if you think it's too much, then it probably is". A page where every other sentence is a link reads badly, and reading badly is the problem.

Our working limit is three outgoing body links per article, each on a phrase already in the text. A hub page or a glossary legitimately carries many more, because listing pages is its job.

The tradeoff runs the other way too. A post with no links out is a dead end, and a page nothing links to is an orphan page Google may only know from your sitemap. Two to four links out and at least one link in is the shape we aim for. Our post on one page per keyword or several covers keeping the linked pages distinct.

How do you find the pages that need links?

Search Console shows which pages are close to page one and which get no impressions at all; those are the pages to point links at. Filter Performance by Pages, look for average positions between eight and twenty with real impressions, and link to those pages from posts that already rank.

1. Open Performance, Pages, last 28 days. Sort by impressions. Pages with impressions and an average position between eight and twenty are almost there.
2. Find two ranking posts that mention the topic. Search your own site for the phrase and add the link on it, in the body.
3. Look for orphan pages. Compare your sitemap with the pages your posts link to; a page no page links to needs one, by Google's rule.
4. Check for two pages competing. When two of your pages show for one search, link the weaker to the stronger. Our post on telling whether two pages compete for the same search shows how to spot it.

If you have never used the report, our guide to tracking where your pages rank for free starts from the first login.

What makes a link crawlable?

A link is crawlable when it is an HTML <a> element with an href attribute pointing to a real address. Google's documentation says it "can only crawl your link if it's an <a> HTML element" with an href. Links built from buttons, spans or script events may never be followed.

Google's description of how Search works puts the consequence plainly: "Other pages are discovered when Google extracts a link from a known page to a new page". A link Googlebot cannot extract does not exist for discovery.

Check the links you rely on by viewing the page source. A menu that writes no href into the HTML, a "load more" button driven by a script, or a card clickable only through JavaScript all fail the test. Each important page should be reachable through plain links.

Key takeaways

• Internal links get a page found, describe it through the anchor text, and show which pages belong together; Google documents all three.
• Google says every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site.
• Good anchor text is descriptive and concise, and makes sense read on its own; "click here" and "read more" do not.
• Link from pages that already rank to the pages that need help, in the body, outside the opening answer.
• There is no ideal number of links; Google's rule is that if it feels like too many, it is.

Frequently asked questions

Should you nofollow internal links?

No. Google's Starter Guide describes nofollow for links you do not vouch for, such as links posted by users, so they do not affect your rankings. Your own pages are pages you vouch for. A nofollow on an internal link throws away the one signal the link was placed to send, and gains nothing in return.

Should you link to the same page twice on one page?

Once in the body is enough, and twice is fine when the two mentions sit far apart and serve the reader. Google gives no rule on repeats. Our practice is one body link per target page per article, plus whatever the navigation adds. A second link on a different phrase is a convenience for the reader, not a ranking tactic.

Do links from blog posts help service pages rank?

Yes, and they are often the best links a service page can get. A post that ranks for a question your customers ask can link the service page in the sentence that answers it, with an anchor that says what the service is. That is a described, in-context link from a page Google already crawls, which is what Google's documentation prefers.

Do internal links help a page rank? The short version

They get the page found, describe it, and connect it to the rest of your site, which is as much as Google documents. Place them from pages that rank, on descriptive phrases, outside the opening answer, and recheck Search Console monthly. If you would rather have the linking done and the monthly push run for you, try one article free.