I was digging through a client’s analytics last week. Dental practice. Three locations. Decent traffic. Zero phone calls from their service pages.
Know what I found? They had 47 different service pages, each targeting a specific neighborhood. Good content too. But every single page was an island. No links connecting them. No way for Google to understand which pages mattered. Just 47 lonely pages floating in digital space, wondering why nobody visits.
This isn’t some isolated or unheard of case. I see this all the time. Local businesses spending thousands on new websites, then treating their pages like they’re in witness protection. No connections. No context. No wonder they’re invisible.
Your internal links are the roads Google uses to understand your business. Mess them up, and you might as well not have a website. Get them right? That’s when interesting things happen.
What Internal Links Do for Your Local Business
Internal links connect pages on your website to other pages on the same website. Revolutionary concept, I know.
But here’s what actually matters: Google uses these links to figure out which of your pages are important. When you link from your homepage to your “emergency plumbing Seattle” page, you’re voting for that page. When you never link to your “drain cleaning Ballard” page? Google assumes you don’t care about it either.
I watched a roofing company go from page three to position two just by fixing how their pages connected. No new content. No backlinks. Just internal links that made sense.
Why Google Cares About Your Internal Links
Google’s crawlers are lazy. They follow links. If they can’t find your page through links, it might as well not exist.
But it goes deeper. Internal links pass authority between your pages. Your homepage usually has the most juice. When it links to other pages, it shares that power. When those pages link to each other, they build a network of relevance.
Think about it. If you run an HVAC company in Phoenix and your homepage doesn’t link to your “AC repair Scottsdale” page, what message does that send? Either you don’t serve Scottsdale, or it’s not important enough to mention. Neither helps your rankings.
Building Your Local Internal Linking Strategy
The Geography of Your Website
Your website needs a hierarchy that matches how customers think about your business. Not how YOU think about it. How THEY think about it.
Most local businesses get this backwards. They organize by service type when customers search by location and problem. Someone with a burst pipe doesn’t care about your corporate structure. They care about getting a plumber to their neighborhood fast.
Here’s what works:
Start with your main service pages. These are your money makers. Emergency plumbing. AC repair. Whatever pays the bills.
Then create location-specific versions. Not thin, copy-paste garbage. Real pages about serving real neighborhoods. The plumber who mentions the old pipes in Victorian Village. The HVAC guy who knows why houses near the airport need different filters.
Connect them logically. Your main plumbing page links to all your location-specific plumbing pages. Your Seattle page links to all services available in Seattle. Your blog post about frozen pipes links to your emergency plumbing pages in cold-weather neighborhoods.
Distance Matters
Any page that makes you money should be three clicks or less from your homepage. Four clicks? You’re hiding it. Five clicks? It doesn’t exist.
I audited a landscaping company last month. Their highest-revenue service, commercial snow removal, was buried six clicks deep. Six! Their biggest money maker was harder to find than Waldo.
Test this yourself. Start at your homepage. Try to reach your most important local service pages. Count the clicks. If it’s more than three, you’ve got work to do.
Anchor Text Without the Keyword Stuffing
The words you use in your links matter. But not in the spammy way SEO blogs taught you in 2015.
Don’t do this: “For Seattle plumbing services, our Seattle plumbing team provides Seattle plumbing solutions.”
That’s not how humans write. Or talk. Or think.
Do this instead: Mix it up. Use variations. Sound human.
- “emergency plumbing in Capitol Hill”
- “our Seattle team”
- “24-hour plumber near downtown”
- “fix that burst pipe fast”
Real variety. Natural language. The way actual customers describe what they need.
That Weird First Link Rule Nobody Mentions
Google only counts the first link’s anchor text when you link to the same page multiple times. Link to your Seattle plumbing page five times on your homepage? Only the first one’s anchor text matters for SEO.
Most people don’t know this. Now you do. Use it wisely.
Making Your Strong Pages Work Harder
Your homepage has the most authority. It’s where most external links point. Use this power.
Link from your homepage to your biggest money makers. Not buried in the footer. Not hidden in some dropdown menu nobody uses. Right there in the main content where humans and Google can see it.
I had a client, pest control company, buried their termite inspection page three levels deep. Termite inspections were 40% of their revenue! We moved that link to their homepage navigation. Traffic to that page tripled in six weeks.
Supporting New Pages
Creating a new service page? Great. Publishing it without any internal links? Stupid.
Every new page needs connections. From your homepage if it’s important. From related service pages always. From relevant blog posts when it makes sense.
That pest control company started serving a new wealthy neighborhood. We created the page, then went back and added links from:
- Their main termite page
- Their service area page
- Three blog posts about termite damage
- Their homepage (in the service area section)
The page started ranking in two weeks. Because Google could find it and understand its importance.
What Breaks Your Internal Linking
Dead Links Kill Trust
Broken internal links are like having a “Grand Opening” banner on a store that closed two years ago.
Run Screaming Frog (free version works) on your site quarterly. Find the 404s. Fix them. This isn’t advanced SEO. It’s basic maintenance.
Orphaned Pages
Pages with no internal links pointing to them are orphaned. They exist but nobody can find them. Including Google.
I find these constantly. Usually old service pages someone forgot about. Or location pages from before a redesign. Each one is lost revenue.
Google Search Console shows which pages Google knows about. Compare that to your full page list. The missing ones? Orphaned. Link to them or delete them.
The Nofollow Mistake
Some developers add “nofollow” to internal links. Usually because they read something scary about link sculpting in 2012.
For internal links, you want “follow” (which is the default). Check your internal links. If they have rel=”nofollow”, remove it. You want to pass authority between your own pages.
Next-Level Local Internal Linking
Neighborhood Link Networks
Serving multiple areas? Create a web of connections between related location pages.
Your North Denver plumbing page should link to:
- Main Denver plumbing page
- South Denver plumbing page (people might be flexible)
- Specific services available in North Denver
- Blog posts about North Denver plumbing issues
This creates topical relevance around geography. Google loves this.
Seasonal Link Updates
HVAC companies push heating in winter, cooling in summer. Landscapers switch from mowing to snow removal. Your internal links should follow.
October homepage should prominently link to heating services. June homepage should feature AC repair. This isn’t manipulation. It’s serving customers what they need.
Blog Posts as Connection Points
Every blog post is an opportunity to link to service pages naturally. Writing about signs you need a new water heater? Link to your water heater replacement pages for different neighborhoods.
But make it natural. A post about frozen pipes should link to emergency plumbing. A post about AC maintenance should link to your maintenance plans. Obvious connections that help readers.
Auditing Your Internal Link Mess
You need three tools:
Google Search Console – Shows what Google sees. If important pages aren’t here, you have linking problems.
Screaming Frog – Crawls your site. Finds broken links, orphaned pages, and shows your link structure.
Your Brain – Look at your site like a customer. Can you find what you need quickly? If not, neither can Google.
Audit quarterly. Fix problems immediately. This isn’t a “when I get time” task. It’s a “why am I losing money” priority.
Just Do It
Internal linking isn’t sexy. It’s not the latest hack. It’s just connecting related pages in ways that make sense.
But here’s the thing: I’ve never seen a local business fix their internal linking and NOT see improvement. Ever.
Start here:
- Link from your homepage to pages that make money
- Connect services to locations
- Fix broken links (today, not someday)
- Link to new content when you create it
Your competitor with the 2003 website might be eating your lunch because their pages actually connect to each other. While you’re reading about the latest SEO trends, they’re making their fundamentals bulletproof.
Stop treating your pages like strangers. Connect them. Watch what happens.
Your internal links are either helping Google understand your business or confusing the hell out of them. Which one sounds better for your bottom line?