Internal links are hyperlinks connecting different pages within the same website domain. When you link from your homepage to your services page, or from a blog post to a product page, you're creating internal links. They're the opposite of external links, which point to other domains. Internal links serve two critical functions. For users, they create navigation pathways and guide people through your content logically. For search engines, they're the primary way crawlers discover new pages on your site and understand your site's hierarchy. Google's crawler follows internal links to map your entire site structure, which is why orphan pages with zero internal links often never get indexed. The anchor text you use in internal links matters significantly. Descriptive anchor text like "Ottawa web design services" tells both users and search engines what the destination page covers, while generic "click here" links waste an opportunity to reinforce topical relevance. You want variation but consistency in how you describe important pages across your internal linking. At Ottawa SEO Inc., we typically see three internal linking patterns across our portfolio. Navigation links in headers and footers provide site-wide accessibility to key pages. Contextual links within content connect related topics and distribute authority to important pages. Breadcrumb links show hierarchy and help users understand where they are in your site structure. The distribution of internal links directly impacts how PageRank flows through your site. Pages with more internal links pointing to them typically rank better, assuming the content quality supports it. This is why your homepage usually has the most authority, it receives links from every page via your main navigation. Common mistakes include overlinking, using the exact same anchor text repetitively, and neglecting to link to older but still-relevant content. A healthy site typically has 2-5 contextual internal links per page of content, though this varies based on content length and topic depth. The key is making links helpful first, then optimizing them for SEO second.