Internal Linking for B2B Blogs: Product Pages, Guides and a Worked Example

Link from a blog post to a product page when the post helps a buyer choose, specify or use that product. Link from a product page to a blog post when the post answers a question the buyer has to settle before sending an enquiry. In both directions, the test is whether the reader's next step is on the other page. If it is not, leave the link out.

What counts as an internal link

An internal link is a link from one page on your site to another page on the same site. Menus, footers, breadcrumbs, "related posts" boxes and links inside a sentence are all internal links. They do different jobs.

Type	Where it lives	What it is good for
Navigation	Header menu, footer	Reaching the main sections from anywhere
Breadcrumb	Top of a product or post	Showing where the page sits in the catalogue
Automatic lists	"Related posts", "latest news"	Keeping recent pages reachable without editing
Contextual	Inside a sentence in the body	Sending a reader to the exact page that answers their next question

Most of this article concerns the last row. Contextual links are the ones an editor chooses, and their surrounding sentence explains why the destination matters.

Why internal links matter

Three reasons, each stated in Google's own documentation.

Discovery. Google's explanation of how Search works says it finds new pages partly by following a link from a page it already knows, and gives a category page linking to a new blog post as the example. A post nothing links to depends on the sitemap alone.

Context. The link best practices page says anchor text tells people and Google something about the page being linked to.

Relative importance. Google's guide to ecommerce site structure says Google can use the number of links it must follow to reach a page, and the number of links pointing to a page, to infer how important that page is within your site. It suggests linking to a best-selling product from the home page or from other content such as blog posts.

A manufacturer's catalogue is not a shop, but the logic carries over. The products you most want enquiries for should be reachable in few clicks and linked from the posts that discuss them. None of this predicts where a page will rank. It makes your own priorities visible in the site's structure, and it gives a reader a route.

The decision rule

Use this table when you edit a post or a product page. Read it top to bottom and apply the first row that fits.

You are editing	The other page is	Link?	Where on the page
A post that compares options or explains how to choose	The product page for one of the options	Yes	In the sentence where that option is named
A post that explains a problem	The product that solves it	Yes, once	Where the fix is described. Not in the first paragraph
A post about a standard, a material or a test	A product you make to that standard or from that material	Yes, if the product page states the standard or material	At the point the standard is discussed
A post on a general industry subject	Any product	No	The home or category page is enough
A product page	A post that answers a pre-purchase question: sizing, compatibility, material choice	Yes	Next to the specification the question is about
A product page	A post that explains a term used in the spec table	Yes	Beside the term
A product page	A general post, company news, a trade-show recap	No	It leads the buyer away from the enquiry form
A category page	The buyer's guide for that category	Yes	Above the product grid

Two rules sit above the table.

Every page needs at least one way in. Google's link best practices say every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site. Check your posts first, because an old post is often reachable only through the blog archive.

Link to the main URL. If a product is reachable at several addresses through filters or parameters, always link to the one you want found. Google's page on duplicate URLs says to link within your site to the canonical URL, not to a duplicate.

Anchor wording

The link text should tell the reader what is on the other side. Google's link page describes good anchor text as descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to both pages, and gives "click here" and "read more" as examples of text that is too generic. It also suggests a test: read only the anchor text and check that it makes sense by itself.

Linking to	Weak	Better
A product page	"our products", "click here"	"24/410 lotion pump"
A post from a product page	"read our blog"	"how to match a pump to product viscosity"
A category page	"learn more"	"airless bottles"

Practical limits:

• Name the thing. Use the product or the question, in the words a buyer would use. Advice to use "keyword-rich" anchors amounts to this and no more: the natural name of a product page is usually the phrase people search for.
• Keep it short. A few words. Do not turn a whole sentence or a heading into a link.
• Vary it naturally. If five posts link to one product, they do not all need identical wording. Each should describe the product in its own sentence. Google's page tells you to resist cramming every related keyword into the anchor text, and reminds readers that keyword stuffing violates its spam policies.
• Give linked images alt text. When an image is the link, Google uses the image's alt attribute as the anchor text, according to the same page. A linked product photo with empty alt text is a link with no wording.
• Space links out. The page advises against chaining several links next to each other, since each one loses the sentence that explains it.
• Use a real link. Generally, Google can crawl a link only when it is an a element with an href attribute. A button that navigates with a script may never be followed.

How many

Google's documentation says there is no ideal number of links for a page, and adds that if you think it is too many, it probably is. So a count cannot be a rule. These are working defaults, and they are our suggestion, not Google's:

• In a post: one or two product links and two or three links to related posts. Link a given product once, at the place it is most useful.
• On a product page: one to three post links, each tied to a specification. More than that competes with the enquiry button.
• The check: remove a link and ask whether any reader would miss it. If nobody would, it was there for you, not for them.

Worked example

Example. Northfield Packaging is a fictional supplier, invented for this article. It sells lotion pumps, airless bottles and closures to cosmetics brands. Its site has these pages:

• Product pages: 24/410 lotion pump, 30 ml airless bottle, disc-top cap
• Category page: dispensing closures
• Posts: "Lotion pump or airless bottle: how to choose", "How viscosity affects pump output", "Notes from our spring trade show"

Applying the decision rule:

From	To	Anchor text	Why
"Lotion pump or airless bottle" post	24/410 lotion pump	"24/410 lotion pump"	The post compares options and this page is one of them
"Lotion pump or airless bottle" post	30 ml airless bottle	"30 ml airless bottle"	The other option
"How viscosity affects pump output" post	24/410 lotion pump	"the pump tested here"	The post discusses this product's output
"How viscosity affects pump output" post	"Lotion pump or airless bottle" post	"choosing between a pump and an airless bottle"	A reader with a thick formula needs that decision next
24/410 lotion pump page, beside the output figure	"How viscosity affects pump output" post	"how viscosity changes output"	It answers a question the buyer has before enquiring
30 ml airless bottle page	"Lotion pump or airless bottle" post	"pump or airless: how to choose"	A pre-purchase decision
Dispensing closures category page	"Lotion pump or airless bottle" post	"which dispenser suits your formula"	A buyer's guide above the product grid
Trade-show post	Any product page	No link	A general post. The category page is enough
Any product page	Trade-show post	No link	It leads away from the enquiry

After this pass each product page has at least two links pointing in from posts, each post has a route to a product, and the trade-show post is still reachable from the blog index without sending buyers to it.

The disc-top cap page received nothing. No post discusses it, so the rule produced no link. That gap is a content decision: either a buyer question about disc-top caps deserves a post, or the category page is enough for that product.

Using the pages other sites already link to

Some of your pages have earned links from other websites: a trade directory listing, a customer's supplier page, an article that cited one of your guides. Those pages are the ones outside visitors and crawlers reach first, so a contextual link placed on them is seen more often than one on a page nobody arrives at.

To find them, open the Links report in Search Console and look at the top linked pages under external links. For each of the first ten or so, ask one question: does this page link onward to the product or guide a visitor arriving here would want next? Often it does not. An old guide that a university course page cites may end without a single link to the product it describes.

Add the link only where the decision rule above says it belongs. A well-linked page about corrosion testing has no business pointing at an unrelated product, and this step makes no promise about rankings. It puts a route where your visitors already are.

Finding orphans and thin spots in Search Console

The Links report is the free way to see your internal linking as Google has recorded it.

1. Open Links in the left menu. Under internal links, open the full list of top linked pages.
2. Sort ascending. Pages at the bottom have the fewest internal links recorded.
3. Compare that bottom section with your list of pages that matter: main products, category pages, buyer's guides. Any that appear there go on the work list.
4. Click a URL to see which pages link to it. If the only sources are the blog archive and a tag page, the page has no contextual link at all.
5. Export the table if you want to work in a spreadsheet.
6. Check for pages missing entirely. A page you care about that does not appear in the list may have no internal links recorded for it. Open the page and check by hand.

Google's help page describes the report's data as a sample, not a complete list of every link, and caps tables at 1,000 rows. Use it to find candidates, then confirm each one by opening the page.

Adding the links on WordPress

You do not need a plugin to start. The first pass is manual and takes an afternoon for a site of a few dozen pages:

1. List your product and category pages in a spreadsheet, one per row.
2. For each product, use the site's own search to find posts that mention it by name or by the problem it solves. Write those post URLs in the row.
3. Open each of those posts in the editor. Select the words that name the product, press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac) or the link button in the toolbar, type the product's name to search your own pages, and choose it from the results. Picking from the results avoids pasting a preview or parameter URL by mistake.
4. Open each product page and add the one to three posts that answer pre-purchase questions.
5. Update and view the page signed out. Click each new link once.

Repeat the second step whenever you publish a post. A new post needs links from older pages as well as links going out. That half is the one most often skipped.

Keeping links working

Links decay when URLs change. Three habits prevent most of it:

• Renamed or merged page: redirect the old URL, then edit the internal links so they point at the new address directly. Leaving them to pass through the redirect works, but Google's guidance to link to the canonical URL applies here too.
• Deleted page: search the site for its URL before deleting and remove or repoint every link to it.
• Discontinued product: decide whether the page stays as a reference with a pointer to the successor, or redirects to it. Either way, the posts that linked to it need a look, because their sentences still name the old product.

Frequently asked questions

What is internal linking in SEO?

It is the practice of connecting pages on your own site with links so that readers and search engines can move between related pages. Google uses links to discover pages and reads anchor text as a description of the destination.

How many internal links should a page have?

Google's documentation says there is no ideal number. Our working default is three to five contextual links in a post and one to three post links on a product page, adjusted by asking whether a reader would miss each one.

Is external linking good for SEO?

Linking to a source that supports your sentence helps readers check it, and Google's link page says linking to other sites is nothing to be scared of and that citing sources is good practice. The same page asks you to mark links you were paid for with sponsored or nofollow. Whether to link to another supplier is a separate question, covered in linking to other suppliers.

How does internal linking differ from link building?

Link building usually means earning links from other websites. You do not control those. Internal links are entirely yours to place, which is why they are the sensible place to start, and Google's spam policies treat buying links for ranking purposes, and excessive link exchanges, as link spam.

Where drafting tools fit

If you draft with Blogo, each draft arrives with internal-link suggestions to pages already published on your site, and link text longer than six words is shortened before the draft is handed over. You still decide which links stay, because Blogo creates a WordPress draft and does not publish. It does not audit links across the whole site, so the Search Console pass above remains a manual job.