Why Internal Linking Is the Most Overlooked Part of a Real SEO Content Strategy
If I had to name one SEO lever that small businesses completely underestimate, but have almost total control over, it would be internal linking.
Not backlinks.
Not keywords.
Not publishing more blog posts.
Internal linking.
And the reason it’s so often overlooked is because it doesn’t feel exciting. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t come with instant gratification. And it’s usually treated like cleanup work instead of what it actually is: strategy.
Here’s what most people don’t realize (I’m gonna make it big and bold here):
The entire point of having a blog on a business website is to support the pages that matter most.
Your products.
Your collections.
Your services.
Internal linking is how that actually happens.
Blogging without internal linking is just publishing content
I see this all the time when I audit websites.
There are blog posts getting traffic. There are service pages that exist. There are product or collection pages that should be priorities.
But none of it is connected.
Blog posts sit there like dead ends.
Important pages are buried three, four, five clicks deep.
And Google (and users) are left to guess what actually matters.
That’s not a just content problem.
That’s an internal linking problem.
A real SEO content strategy doesn’t stop at “hit publish.” It asks:
Where should this page send people next?
What page is this content meant to support?
How does this move someone closer to a decision?
Those answers live in your internal links.
This idea builds directly on what I talked about in What a Real Blog Content Strategy Actually Looks Like, because strategy only works when the pieces connect.
Internal linking is how Google understands your priorities
At a technical level, internal links help Google:
understand your site structure
identify which pages are most important
crawl your content more efficiently
distribute authority (often called “link juice”)
But the bigger issue isn’t the mechanics, it’s the intent.
When a page has more internal links pointing to it, Google sees it as more important. That means it gets crawled more often, indexed more reliably, and has a better chance of ranking.
This is why it’s so common to see a blog post with several internal links outranking a service or collection page with only one or two.
Not because the blog post is better, but because you accidentally told Google it mattered more.
Internal linking is one of the highest-impact SEO actions you can take because it’s fully within your control. You don’t have to do outreach. You don’t have to wait.
You just have to make decisions of how to link strategically.
Internal links aren’t just for bots. They also shape the customer journey
This is where internal linking shifts from “SEO tactic” to strategy.
Internal links don’t just help Google crawl your site, although that’s super important. But they also guide people.
They move someone from:
curiosity → clarity → conversion
problem aware → solution aware → solution ready
In other words, internal links are what turn blog content into funnels.
A strong internal linking structure might look like:
a top-of-funnel blog post linking to a related mid-funnel post
that mid-funnel post linking to a bottom-of-funnel post
that bottom-of-funnel post linking to a service or product page
Now your content isn’t just informative, but it’s also directional.
No blog post should ever be a dead end
I see this a lot. Blog posts that go nowhere. No call to action, no related blog posts, no recommended products. It’s one of the most common signs that I see when I know a client really needs a content strategy. Here are some other signs.
One of my core rules is this:
Every blog post should link to something else, ideally something more important.
That might be:
another related blog post at the same funnel level
a post further down the funnel
a service page
a booking page
What it should not do is end without guidance.
If someone finishes reading a post and there’s nowhere intentional for them to go next, you’ve missed an opportunity, for both SEO and conversions.
This is why blogs are such powerful assets when used correctly. They give you far more internal linking opportunities than static pages ever will.
Internal linking isn’t just for blogs
While blogs are a great place to build internal links, this strategy applies across your entire site.
Service pages should link to related services
Collection pages should link to complementary collections
Product pages should link to related products
Navigation and footer links should reinforce priority pages
The key rule stays the same: don’t send people up the funnel once they’re ready to act.
If someone is on a sales page, don’t link them back to an informational blog post. Keep moving them forward.
This kind of thinking is what separates “pages that exist” from a site that actually works.
How to check your internal linking (without doing a full audit)
If you want a quick reality check, Google Search Console makes this very easy.
Inside GSC:
go to Links
click on Internal Links
look at which pages have the most links
look at which pages have the fewest
Then ask yourself:
Do these match my business priorities?
Are my most important pages actually being reinforced?
Are there pages I care about that barely have any internal links pointing to them?
This isn’t a full audit. It’s just a visibility check. But for many businesses, it’s a wake-up call.
The pages with the most links pointing to it are the ones that Google will think are the most important. Does that match with your business goals?
Internal linking often becomes the fastest SEO win for businesses.
Strategy beats volume every time
One of the biggest mistakes I see is people trying to “fix” SEO by adding more content, when what they really need is better connections.
Linking to everything dilutes impact.
Linking intentionally compounds it.
A few well-placed internal links from the right pages can do more than dozens of new posts created without a plan.
This is also why internal linking should come before backlink strategies. External authority only helps if your internal structure is ready to distribute it properly.
This is what turns content into a system
When internal linking is done intentionally:
your blog supports your services and products
your important pages gain authority over time
your site becomes easier to crawl and understand
your content starts working together instead of in isolation
That’s the difference between “having a blog” and having a content ecosystem.
And this is exactly the kind of thinking I teach step by step inside The Content Strategy Blueprint, not as a checklist, but as a system you can apply to your own business.
👉 If you want to learn how to build internal linking funnels as part of a real SEO content strategy, you can explore the course here.
And of course, if you’d rather have help applying this directly to your site, I also offer SEO and content strategy services where we map and implement this intentionally.
Because content doesn’t drive growth on its own.
Strategy, and how everything connects, does.
