Internal links are links between pages of your store. They help visitors navigate, help the search engine discover pages and understand the structure, and at the same time distribute authority across the store - links from strong pages reinforce the ones they point to. Recently, internal linking is considered one of the most powerful levers: often it is not new content that brings progress, but a better internal structure. Below is how to link, what to watch for, and how to handle it in Magento.
Why internal links matter
For an online store, internal links improve product discovery, reduce the depth to pages, speed up indexing, and guide the customer to important pages. They also direct authority: a page that many internal links from good pages point to is understood by the search engine as more important.
Anchor text
The anchor text (the visible link text) should be descriptive, concise, and relevant, ideally with the target page's keyword - so the user and the search engine know where the link leads. Avoid generic text such as "click here". At the same time, do not overdo exactly the same keyword anchor; a few generic and varied anchors are natural.
Shallow depth and no orphan pages
Important pages should be at most about three clicks from the homepage. Watch out for orphan pages - pages that no internal link points to: the search engine struggles to find them and passes them no authority. Every page that matters to you should have a link from at least one other page.
Contextual links are the strongest
The strongest are contextual links - those embedded in the body of the content (for example in a category description or a guide), since they carry a descriptive anchor and clearly signal to the search engine the connection between two pages. In a store, internal links arise in several places: in the navigation, breadcrumbs, from a category to products, through related products, in category descriptions, and from the blog to products and categories.
How to handle it in Magento
Basic internal links are provided by the navigation and breadcrumbs; additional ones you create with related products and with links in category descriptions. A note about Magento and breadcrumbs: since a product can be in several categories, the breadcrumb path is not always unambiguous - for a more consistent structure a dedicated module is often used. For mass, automatic linking across the whole store (for example automatically turning certain keywords in descriptions into links to the relevant categories or products), a dedicated internal-linking (cross-linking) module is required. Such a module adds relevant links by rules on its own, which saves manual work and ensures a consistent structure. After enabling it, check that the links lead to the right pages and that the anchors are not overly identical.
How to measure whether it works
In Google Search Console, in the links report, check the internal links: which pages have the most and which too few. With a crawler find orphan pages and pages with too much depth and link them better. The goal is for all important pages to be shallow and well linked, and authority directed where it counts most.
Frequently asked questions
What are internal links and why do they matter?
Internal links are links between pages of your store. They help visitors navigate, help the search engine discover pages and understand the structure, and at the same time distribute authority - a page that many internal links from good pages point to is understood by the search engine as more important. For a store they improve product discovery, reduce the depth to pages, and speed up indexing. Recently, internal linking is considered one of the most powerful levers for rankings.
What should the anchor text of an internal link be?
Descriptive, concise, and relevant, ideally with the target page's keyword, so the user and the search engine know where the link leads. Avoid generic text such as "click here". At the same time, do not overdo exactly the same keyword anchor - a few generic and varied anchors are natural.
What are orphan pages and why are they a problem?
Orphan pages are pages that no internal link points to. The search engine struggles to find them and passes them no authority, so they rank poorly. The rule: every page that matters to you should have a link from at least one other page. In addition, important pages should be at most about three clicks from the homepage.
Which internal links are the strongest?
The strongest are contextual links - those embedded in the body of the content (for example in a category description or a guide), since they carry a descriptive anchor and clearly signal to the search engine the connection between two pages. In a store, internal links also arise in the navigation, breadcrumbs, from a category to products, through related products, and from the blog to products and categories.
How do I handle internal linking in Magento?
Basic links are provided by the navigation and breadcrumbs, and additional ones by related products and links in category descriptions. For mass, automatic linking across the whole store (for example automatically turning certain keywords in descriptions into links to the relevant categories or products), a dedicated internal-linking (cross-linking) module is required, which adds relevant links by rules on its own and ensures a consistent structure. After enabling it, check that the links lead to the right pages and that the anchors are not overly identical; track the effect in Google Search Console (the internal links report).