A visitor reading about a school design project may want to see the practice’s education services or learn how its design process works. They should not have to return to the main menu to find either page. A link placed where the question arises gives them a useful route through the site. Internal linking helps people see how the site’s pages relate to one another, not just how to move between them.
An internal link leads from one page to another on the same website. Menus and footers provide general routes, while links in the body of a page can address a specific question. On an architecture or property site, a project might link to the service behind it, a technical article to a relevant project example, or a short answer to a fuller explanation.
Give related pages a clear structure
Start by deciding what each page is meant to do. A service page may explain scope, deliverables and decisions the client needs to make. A project page can show how particular constraints were addressed. An article can examine one issue in depth. Links should connect these roles without blurring them; if every page points to every other page, visitors get little help choosing what to read next.
Group pages by subject and identify a main page for each group. A practice with healthcare work, for example, might have a healthcare design service page, individual clinic projects and articles on patient flow or adaptable rooms. The service page can point to selected examples and technical explanations. Those supporting pages can link back when the service page adds useful context. Visitors can then move between an overview and its practical applications.
These groups need not be rigid. A building water strategy may be relevant to a school, a public facility and a residential development. Link across topics when the connection helps explain a decision, not simply to increase the number of links.
Link according to the next useful question
Before adding a link, consider what a reader might need at that point. Someone reviewing a proposed wellness facility may want more detail on how services and daily operations shape the plan. A link to wellness center design around people, services and operations addresses that need. An unrelated residential project would interrupt the task, even though both pages discuss buildings.
Some connections are especially useful:
- Service to evidence: link from a service description to a project that demonstrates the work described, provided the project supports the claim.
- Project to explanation: link from a brief project account to a fuller discussion of a design decision that needs more than a caption.
- Broad topic to specific issue: connect an overview of sustainable design to a focused discussion of water demand and drainage, where readers can examine the decision in more detail.
- Current page to prerequisite: if a technical article relies on a concept explained elsewhere, link to that explanation near its first relevant mention.
Readers should be able to understand the current page without clicking away. The link is there when they want more detail, not to force them along a set path.
Use link text that describes the destination
The clickable words should set a reasonable expectation of what the next page contains. “Building water strategy for demand, drainage and reuse” tells readers more than “learn more.” Descriptive text also helps people scanning a page, including those who use an assistive technology list of links. It does not need to repeat the destination’s title, but it should describe the page accurately.
For example, an article on how site planning affects rainwater management could refer to building water strategy across demand, drainage and reuse. Calling that destination a guide to obtaining permits would be misleading: permits are not its stated focus.
Keep the linked phrase short enough to read naturally in its sentence. A whole linked paragraph makes the destination difficult to identify. Repeating the same keyword-heavy phrase across different pages can also obscure why each link is there.
Make important pages reachable without making every page prominent
A published page may still be hard to find if no relevant page links to it. Older articles, specialist services and projects that have left the front page are easy to overlook. A content inventory can expose these isolated pages: record each page’s purpose, topic, current URL and incoming links, then ask whether a visitor with a related need has a plausible route to it.
That does not mean putting every page in the main navigation. A detailed article on material specification may be easier to find through a relevant service or project page than through a crowded menu. Contextual links let the navigation stay manageable while making specialist material accessible.
Search engines use links to discover pages and understand how site content relates. That is another reason not to leave useful pages isolated, but it is not a reason to add links indiscriminately. A clear page hierarchy, readable navigation and links that help visitors are more useful than a fixed target for links per page. An XML sitemap may help with discovery; it cannot replace routes people can follow.
Audit links when content changes
Links need checking as the site changes. A redesign may alter URLs, a service may be renamed, or a project page may be removed or merged. A link can then lead to an error—or to a working page that no longer matches its clickable text.
- List the key service, project and article pages, including their current URLs.
- Check for broken links, redirects and pages with few or no incoming contextual links.
- Read the sentence around each link as well as checking the URL. Does it still describe the destination?
- Add or update links where they answer a likely next question; remove links that do not.
- After publishing or moving a page, check its related main page and supporting pages rather than waiting for a full-site audit.
A redirect can keep an old address working after a move, but it should not stand in for updating a link you control. Linking directly to the current page avoids an unnecessary step and makes maintenance simpler. If a destination has been withdrawn, choose a genuinely relevant replacement or remove the link. A vaguely related page hides the gap rather than fixing it.
For a quick check, take one project page and follow every link in its description. Confirm that each destination opens, matches the linked words and helps explain the project. Then check whether the relevant service page links back to the project, if it is a useful example of that service.