TL;DR
- An internal link points from one page on your site to another. It helps visitors move around and helps Google find pages and judge which ones matter.
- Use descriptive anchor text, link where it helps the reader, and make sure every important page has at least one link from another page.
- On a store, link blog posts to the products and collections they mention, and link related posts to each other.
An internal link is a link from one page on your site to another page on the same site. Internal links help visitors find what they need, and they help Google discover your pages and understand which ones matter most.
Why Internal Links Matter
They help Google find your pages
Google discovers most pages by following links. Its link best practices say that every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site. A page with no internal links, often called an orphan page, is easy to miss.
They show which pages are important
Google’s guide on ecommerce site structure explains that Google uses the number of internal links to a page as one signal of how important it is. It suggests linking to your best-selling products from places like your home page and blog posts.
They help visitors keep going
A reader who finishes a post and sees a link to the next useful page stays on your site instead of going back to Google.
Internal Linking Best Practices
Write descriptive anchor text
Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. Google recommends text that’s descriptive and reasonably short. “How to remove rust from cast iron” tells readers and Google what’s on the other side. “Click here” tells them nothing.
Use real links
Google can reliably follow only <a> elements with an href. Buttons or cards that navigate with JavaScript alone may not be followed, so check that product cards and buttons link to real URLs.
Build a clear structure
Link your home page to your main collections, your collections to their products, and your blog posts to the products and collections they mention. This gives every page a clear path from the top of the site.
Link related posts to each other
Group posts by topic and link them together. A main guide links to every post on the topic, and each post links back to the guide and to one or two closely related posts. Read more: How to build topical authority for your Shopify store.
Use navigation and related posts too
Links in the text are the most useful, but menus, breadcrumbs, related articles and “you may also like” sections help visitors and Google find more pages.
Common Internal Linking Mistakes
- Generic anchors. “Read more” and “here” waste the link’s chance to describe the page.
- Forced links. If a link doesn’t help the reader at that point, leave it out.
- Exact-match anchors everywhere. Repeating the same keyword-stuffed anchor on every page looks unnatural. Vary the wording and keep it descriptive.
- Broken links. Products get deleted and URLs change. Check for broken links from time to time, and redirect old URLs. Shopify can create a redirect when you change a page’s URL handle.
Link blog posts to your products
Add product cards, collection grids and related articles to your Shopify blog posts.
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