The practice of linking from one page on a website to another page on the same website, as distinct from a backlink, which comes from an external site.
Why it matters
Internal linking helps search engines understand a site's structure and the relative importance of different pages, and helps distribute authority from strong, well-linked pages to newer or less visible ones — it's also one of the few SEO levers a site fully controls, unlike earning external backlinks.
In a sentence
"We added internal links from our highest-traffic blog posts to the pricing page, which meaningfully increased traffic to a page that wasn't getting much direct search visibility on its own."
Related terms
- Antonyms: Backlink (an external link pointing into the site, rather than a link between two pages on the same site).
- Often confused with: Backlink (see above).