What is internal linking in on page seo?

What is internal linking in on page seo?Internal linking is the practice of connecting pages within your own website through hyperlinks, allowing users and search engines to navigate your content. It distributes page authority, establishes site hierarchy, and helps Google understand which pages are most important.AnswerInternal linking means adding hyperlinks from one page on your domain to another page on the same domain. Every navigation menu, footer link, contextual hyperlink in body content, and related post widget counts as an internal link. Google's crawler follows these links to discover pages, understand relationships between topics, and distribute ranking power across your site.The mechanics are straightforward but the strategy matters. When Page A links to Page B, it passes a fraction of its authority and signals that Page B is relevant for whatever anchor text you used. A homepage linking to your top service pages with descriptive anchors like "Ottawa SEO audits" tells Google those pages matter. Orphan pages with zero internal links pointing to them rarely rank, even if the content is solid.We see three main benefits in our portfolio. First, crawl efficiency improves because Google finds new and updated content faster through a logical link structure. Second, PageRank flows from high-authority pages to deeper content, lifting rankings for pages that wouldn't otherwise compete. Third, users stay on site longer when relevant links guide them to related articles or next-step pages, which indirectly signals content quality to Google.Most sites under-link. A typical blog post should have 2-5 contextual links to related content, using partial-match anchors that sound natural. Your main pages should appear in global navigation or get frequent links from high-traffic pages. Avoid over-optimization like linking the same keyword 40 times to one page or creating link wheels that look manipulative.At Ottawa SEO, we map internal link architecture during technical audits by exporting crawl data from Screaming Frog and identifying pages with strong external backlinks but weak internal support. We also build topic clusters where a pillar page links to 8-12 supporting articles, and those articles link back to the pillar and laterally to each other. That structure consolidates authority and makes it obvious to Google which page should rank for the head term.