// services / structure and content
Internal linking service that sends rank where the money is
My internal linking service starts from a simple finding: most WordPress sites don't have too few internal links. They've got thousands pointing at tag archives, the blog index and last year's posts. Book a call and I'll show you where yours go, then move them toward the pages that earn enquiries.
// what it costs
- US$149Deep audit and growth report, one off, on Upwork
- US$999Audit and fixes, one off, on Upwork
- US$299 or US$750month to month, with a report every month
Audits from US$149, audit and fixes from US$999, and month to month plans at US$299 for maintenance or US$750 for growth. Booked and paid on Upwork.
What does an internal linking service fix on WordPress?
Internal linking means the links between pages on your own site. An internal linking service checks what those links tell Google about which pages exist and which ones matter, then changes them: links help Google discover URLs and pass PageRank, the link equity it still uses. A page nothing links to can sit in the sitemap for months without being crawled often, while a tag archive linked from every post gets treated as central.
The fault I see most is links spread evenly across menus, footers and related posts, so a service page that pays the bills gets the same weight as a 2019 news post. An internal linking strategy decides which pages should rank, and then I'll make the link graph agree. The audit comes first and is part of the job, not a separate sale.
How would I diagnose this on your site?
This is the order I check it in on a WordPress or WooCommerce site, before changing anything. You'll get the findings back in writing, each tied to a number in your own Search Console.
See my full diagnosis process- i.
Search Console's Links report
Top linked pages shows whether Google counts more links to archives than to pages that earn enquiries.
- ii.
A rendered crawl with the sitemap connected
Orphan pages, pages four clicks deep, and Elementor buttons or builder cards that aren't real a href tags.
- iii.
Impressions against inlinks per target
A money page with steady impressions on page two and almost no contextual links is where new links move something.
Your best pages buried four clicks deep?
Book a call on UpworkWhat are the two main types of internal links?
Contextual and navigational. External links, from other sites to yours, are a different thing, and building them isn't part of this service.
Contextual links
Written into body copy, and they carry the most meaning because the sentence says why the page matters.
Navigational links
Menus, footers, sidebars and breadcrumbs. A 60-link mega menu on every URL spreads link weight across all 60 pages, whatever they earn.
Breadcrumbs, the cheap fix
Yoast and Rank Math breadcrumbs add a consistent link up the hierarchy, one of the cheapest structural fixes there is.
How do you find internal linking opportunities?
Search Console shows what Google counted, and a crawler shows what's in the HTML. The opportunities are where the two meet: pages that earn impressions but get almost no links.
| Where I look | What it shows | What I'm checking for |
|---|---|---|
| Search Console Links report | Google's internal link count per URL | Money pages ranking below archives and the blog index |
| A crawl with the sitemap connected | URLs the crawl never reached | Orphan pages, live and linked from nowhere |
| Crawl depth and inlinks | Clicks from the homepage, with anchors | Pages four or more clicks deep, and 'read more' links |
| Impressions against inlinks | Pages Google already shows, beside their link count | Page-two pages with steady impressions and few contextual links |
Which client pages show what internal links are doing?
These don't prove links caused anything. They show the pattern I'm looking for, like the hub table in the Bright Pathways ABA case study.
The Laredo and Victoria pages under it click at 5.55% and 5.57% from 9.6 and 9.2. When children beat the hub, the links around it need rethinking.
Read the case study →
Car make pages rank 6.7 to 7.7, with Vauxhall at 7.0 on 13,915 impressions. Two page types with results this far apart is where a link map starts.
Read the case study →What anchor text should your internal links use?
Anchor text tells Google what the linked page is about. Internally, descriptive anchors are safe, but if every link uses the same exact phrase, it'll read as automated.
| Anchor type | Example | Use it |
|---|---|---|
| Exact match | WordPress speed optimization | For a few key contextual links |
| Partial or descriptive | how I fix slow WooCommerce checkouts | For most links, it reads naturally |
| Generic | read more, click here | Rarely, since it doesn't say anything about the page |
| Image link | The image's alt text stands in | Only with alt text that describes the target |
Which internal linking tools do I use, and will a plugin do the job?
Search Console's Links report and a crawler, Screaming Frog on most jobs, do the finding. If you want the method end to end, I've written up how I run an internal link audit step by step. A plugin can help with suggestions, not decisions. Link Whisper, Yoast Premium and Rank Math find matching text and offer a link, but none of them know which page converts. I'll work with whichever internal linking plugin you run, set to suggest only, because sitewide auto-linking puts identical anchor text on hundreds of posts and it's hard to undo.
What's in the internal linking service, and what isn't?
Pages that aren't indexed at all need crawlability and indexing first. When two pages chase one query, the free cannibalization checker will flag the split, and I'll settle which page owns each query before I touch a link.
In this service
- Orphan page and crawl depth fixes
- Contextual links written into existing content
- Menu, footer and related posts cleanup
- A before and after report per target URL
Not in it
- Backlinks, guest posts or outreach
- Writing new articles as link sources
- Redesigning navigation or templates
What happens after you book an internal linking call?
- i.
Your money pages named
You tell me which pages bring enquiries or sales, because no crawler knows that.
- ii.
A link map from the crawl
Where links point now, which targets are starved and which archives soak up the most.
- iii.
A quote per page group on Upwork
The pages to support and the links to add or remove, agreed before editing starts.
- iv.
One group per window
Changes land in batches, so each group's movement in Search Console can be read on its own.
What else do people ask about internal linking?
How much does an internal linking service cost?
It scales with the number of target pages and how much existing content has to be edited, so there's no figure here. You'll get a quote on Upwork once the money pages are named.
Should internal links be nofollow?
No. Nofollow on your own links doesn't push value elsewhere, it just tells Google not to follow them.
How many internal links should a page have?
There's no set number. Google handles thousands, but each extra link thins the rest, so a page should link to what a reader needs next, and broken links get fixed first.
How long before internal linking changes show?
Google has to recrawl the linking and linked pages, which takes days on a busy site and weeks on a quiet one. I compare each URL after four to eight weeks.
How I set up breadcrumbs in WordPress covers the one trail of links every page should have, and the site crawl I run before changing anything is how I find the pages nothing links to. Both are among the WordPress setup posts.
Are your best pages getting any links?
Send me the URL and read-only Search Console access. I'll find the pages that already earn impressions but get almost no internal links, and point the right links, with the right anchors, at them.
Book a call on Upwork