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Internal linking

Internal linking is the set of links between a site's pages that visitors and Google follow to find pages and that Google uses to judge each page's importance.

How it works

Google finds new pages by following links and uses links as a signal of relevance. It reliably reads only <a> elements with an href, and may miss navigation that runs on JavaScript events. Google generally reads a site’s structure from links, not from URLs: as a rule, the more internal links a page gets, the more important it is relative to the rest of the site.

For a store, Google suggests links from the menu to category pages, from categories to sub-categories and on to every product. Googlebot generally doesn’t type into a search box, so it may not find a product that only site search leads to. If you can’t link every product, use a sitemap or a Merchant Center feed.

Links should point to the canonical URL. There is no ideal number of links per page, but every page that matters needs at least one.

The same category tree can serve the feed: Google recommends giving product type as the full “breadcrumb” path of categories, and Shopping campaigns can use it to organise bidding and reporting. Internal linking for online stores shows how to build that tree.

Where you see it

  • Search Console, Links report: the top internally linked pages and, for each, which pages link to it.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop’s crystal wine glass is three clicks from the home page: Glassware, Wine glasses, product. The breadcrumb reads Glassware > Wine glasses, and the feed’s product type repeats it. The Teapots page shows 24 of 40 teapots. The other 16 load through a “Show more” button that runs a script, not a link, so they need a link Google can follow or a place in the sitemap.

Not to be confused with

  • XML sitemap — a list of addresses that helps Google find pages. It doesn’t say which pages matter more: Google ignores its priority field.

Sources