Backlinks get all the attention, but internal links are what distribute authority across your site. A good internal-linking architecture can move category pages up 3–5 positions on its own, without a single new backlink.
The hub-and-spoke model
Treat each top-level category as a hub. The hub gets linked from:
- Main navigation (you already have this).
- Every product within that category (via breadcrumb).
- Related blog and guide content (the spokes).
- Related sibling categories (cross-sells).
The spokes get linked from:
- Their hub category page.
- Other spoke content on the same topic.
- Related products where natural.
Anchor text variation
Don’t use the same anchor every time. Mix:
- Exact match (‘winter coats’) — 20-30% of links.
- Partial match (‘our winter coat collection’) — 30%.
- Brand + topic (‘{Brand}’s winter coats’) — 20%.
- Generic (‘shop now’, ‘see more’) — 20%.
What to internally link
From PDPs: link to category, sibling products, complementary categories, supporting buyer guides.
From category pages: link to top sub-categories, the most popular individual products, supporting blog content.
From blog posts: link to the most relevant category and PDP, plus 2-3 other blog posts on the same topic.
Common mistakes
- Orphan pages — pages with no internal links pointing to them. Run a crawl to find them.
- Over-optimised anchors — every link saying ‘buy winter coats’. Looks manipulative.
- Footer link bombs — 200 links in the footer dilute authority distribution.
- Broken cross-sells — links to discontinued products or 404s.
Tools and process
We use Ahrefs Site Audit, Screaming Frog, and Search Console’s ‘Links’ report to map internal-link structure. Then we ship in two phases:
- Fix orphan pages (add at least one internal link to each).
- Optimise high-traffic pages with smart contextual links to commercial targets.
This is bread-and-butter Technical Ecommerce SEO work. The wins compound — six months of disciplined internal linking can lift catalog-wide rankings noticeably.
