Internal links are hyperlinks that point from one page to another page on the same domain. They create your site's navigation structure, distribute link equity (PageRank) across your pages, and establish topical relationships. A typical enterprise site might have 40–120 internal links per page when you count navigation, footer, sidebar, and in-content links. Strategic internal linking means prioritizing your money pages with contextual anchor text from high-authority pages on your own site. External links point to pages on different domains. When you link out, you're vouching for that resource, which is why Google considers your outbound link patterns when assessing your site's expertise. Linking to authoritative sources like Statistics Canada, industry research, or reputable news sites can actually boost your own credibility. Most SEO-focused pages should have 2–5 relevant external links to support claims or provide additional context. The functional differences matter for SEO: - Internal links: You control anchor text, destination, and placement. Use them to push authority toward conversion pages and establish topic clusters. A well-structured site passes 85–95% of link equity through internal links versus letting it leak unused. - External links: You signal what ecosystem you're part of. Linking to spammy or irrelevant sites damages trust. Earning external links (backlinks) to your site is the hardest and most valuable SEO signal. At Ottawa SEO, we audit internal link graphs to find orphaned pages (zero internal links) and over-optimized anchor text patterns that trigger manual reviews. We also check that external links to authoritative sources open in new tabs and use descriptive anchor text, not naked URLs. Both link types should serve users first, search engines second. If you're adding links just to hit a quota, you're doing it wrong.