Internal links that connect your site
A homepage that never points anywhere else is a brochure with no doors. Internal links are how a stranger walks from the offer to proof, people, and contact.
What this is
An internal link goes from one page on your site to another page on the same site. The menu, the footer, and links in the body all count. Three or more on the home page is a modest, useful bar.
The link text should say where it goes. “About,” “Tax planning,” and “Contact” are clear. “Click here” is not. A link that points at a missing page is a dead end, which is a different problem.
Links to other companies do not connect your own site. They can be fine. They are not a substitute for paths inside the firm.
Why it matters for trust
Strangers do not memorize your sitemap. They follow what they can see. If services, people, and contact are not linked, those pages might as well be unpublished.
Search tools use the same paths. A page with no internal links is harder to find even when the writing is good.
Write links the way you would point in a conversation. “See the tax planning work” beats a bare URL. Link the words that name the destination, and make sure those pages exist. A homepage that only links to social networks sends the stranger off your site before they have read who you are. Keep at least the core pages one click away. Then follow one path yourself: home, service, contact. If you get stuck, the stranger will too.
Do this
- From the home page, list the three pages a stranger needs: who you are, what you do, how to reach you.
- Link each one in the nav or in the body, with words that match the destination.
- Add links from a service description to a related case or FAQ when you have one.
- Use the same host you picked as canonical. Do not send half the menu to a second domain.
- Click every new link. Fix any that 404.
- Keep the set small. A menu of forty items is not clearer than six honest ones.
How Free Trust Score treats this
Free Trust Score helps when the home page has several links to other pages on the same site. It does not require a huge menu.
Broken key links are scored separately. A healthy count of links does not cancel a Contact link that lands on an error.
Related
See what a stranger can already see.
Run a Free Trust Score, or book a short fit call if you want help reading it.