Someone reading about a proposed clinic may want to know whether the practice also handles planning approval. If the page describes the design but leaves approval services buried in the menu, they have to search again. A link beside the relevant passage gives them a direct route to the answer.
Visitors to an architecture or property website bring different questions. A developer may be checking whether a team can work within a cost limit. A facilities manager may want evidence of refurbishment experience in occupied buildings. A homeowner may be looking for ways to make compact rooms work day to day. Internal links help each person find the detail they need without forcing everyone through the same sequence of pages.
Links work best as answers to the next question
A main menu shows the site's broad structure. A link within a page can respond to something more specific. If a project description mentions a restricted site beside an operating school, a link about construction phasing or work around occupied buildings could help a school client assess the experience. An unrelated residential project would interrupt that assessment, even if it belongs to the same practice.
Before adding a link, ask what the visitor is likely to wonder next. Does the destination offer more detail, a concrete example, or another kind of evidence? If it simply repeats the current page, the extra choice offers little. Nor should a link stand in for basic information: a project page ought to state the building type and the practice's role without sending visitors elsewhere to find out.
Page types offer different routes. An overview can lead to detailed services; a service page can point to a project that shows the work in practice. A project page might link to an explanation of a technical decision that would slow down the project account. An article can direct readers to a fuller discussion of one planning issue. The route has to make sense at the point where the visitor encounters it.
Match the destination to the visitor's decision
Shared keywords are a poor test of relevance on their own. A school extension and a hospital wing may both involve accessibility, but someone assessing school circulation needs information about pupil movement, supervision, and entrances—not healthcare zoning. The useful destination is the one that addresses the decision at hand.
From a general page to a specific answer
A residential design overview might introduce site assessment, layout, materials, and building services. It need not explain each subject in full. When a paragraph turns to storage and circulation in a small footprint, it could point readers to guidance on planning a compact home around daily routines. That page develops the layout question raised in the overview.
Readers who only need a quick account can stay where they are. Those dealing with a tight floor area have somewhere more useful to go, without the overview becoming a collection of loosely connected advice.
From a claim to supporting detail
Architecture websites often say they consider whole-life costs or choose durable materials. A relevant link can make those claims easier to examine. If a project page names embodied carbon, maintenance, and replacement as selection factors, an explanation of comparing sustainable building materials in practice can show how those criteria are assessed. The project page should still identify the material chosen when that fact matters to the account.
The route can work in reverse: a materials article might point to a project where a choice was made under a particular brief. But the project must record enough to support the point. A photograph and a general caption do not establish why a material was procured or how it performs.
Make link text describe the destination
The words in a link help people decide whether to follow it. “Planning approval stages for a new building” is clearer than “learn more,” particularly for someone scanning the page or moving through links with a screen reader. It also sets a more accurate expectation of what they will find.
Good link text names the subject in ordinary language; it does not have to repeat the destination's title. “How the planning application was prepared” works if the page explains that process. “The approved drawings” does not, if the destination contains only general guidance.
The sentence around a link should still make sense to someone who does not click. “The project required a staged handover; see our services” leaves the reason unstated. Better: “The project required a staged handover so the existing building could remain in use; our construction-phase service page explains how site decisions are reviewed.” The reader understands the basic point without taking a detour.
Give visitors a route, not a maze
Linking every other phrase makes people sort important routes from incidental ones. Add a link where it fills a real gap: an unfamiliar process, a qualification that affects the decision, or an example that helps a visitor judge whether the work is relevant.
When reviewing possible destinations, it helps to ask what each link would do:
- Explain: clarify a process or technical issue mentioned briefly on the page.
- Demonstrate: show a relevant completed project or documented decision.
- Continue: take a visitor from an overview to the detail needed for their next step.
- Clarify limits: identify scope, responsibilities, or dependencies that affect the decision.
If two links in a paragraph do the same job, one may be enough. And if visitors must follow several links to learn a basic fact—such as whether the practice works on public buildings—the starting page needs clearer information, not another route away.
Place links where the need becomes clear
A link is easiest to assess beside the point it expands. On a commercial retrofit page, information about maintaining access during construction belongs near the discussion of tenants and phased work, rather than in a mixed list at the bottom. On a planning service page, a project example may be most useful beside an explanation of how site constraints were handled.
A short selection of projects after a service description can also help visitors compare experience, provided the connection is clear. An unlabelled row of thumbnails makes them guess why the projects were chosen. A label such as “occupied-building refurbishments” or “small constrained sites” gives them a reason to look.
On mobile screens, text and images take up the full width. A destination placed far below the passage that introduced it may be missed. A link in a meaningful sentence is often easier to use than a small, vaguely labelled button. Buttons have their place for clear next actions, but informational routes should say what lies ahead.
Check whether each route still works
A link can become misleading without breaking. A project may be updated, a service may change scope, or an article may be revised while links elsewhere still promise the old information. When a destination changes, check the pages pointing to it. If it no longer answers the question implied by the link, revise the wording, choose a better destination, or remove the link.
Test the route as a visitor would. Start on a page someone might reach directly through search, rather than on the homepage. Read the passage before the link and predict what the destination will contain. Open it: is the answer easy to find? Can the visitor continue or return without losing the thread? This walkthrough catches links that are broadly relevant but poorly placed or vaguely labelled.
Analytics can offer clues, though click counts alone say little about usefulness. A frequently clicked link may signal interest—or reveal that the starting page omits an essential fact. A rarely clicked link may be unnecessary, or it may answer an important question for a small group. Look at the page's purpose and the destination's content before changing a link based on the count.
Build a small number of deliberate paths
There is no need to connect every related page at once. Begin with a few likely entry points: a service overview, a project, and an explanatory article. For each, identify the next question a visitor might have. Check that the destination exists, is current, and contains the promised detail. Then place the link in the sentence where that question arises.
On a school extension page, for instance, the passage about keeping the campus operational might link to a construction-phasing service page. If that page explains how access, safeguarding boundaries, and handover stages are considered, the link text can say so. If it does not, leave the link out until the destination can answer the question.