01
Step-by-step
- 01
Identify the next useful page
Link to supporting detail, a related decision, the next step, or the relevant service.
- 02
Write descriptive anchor text
Explain the destination rather than using vague phrases repeatedly.
- 03
Use real links
Implement an anchor with an href so people and crawlers can follow it.
- 04
Link from strong contexts
Place links where the relationship is clear.
- 05
Audit the graph
Find broken links, redirects, excessive repetition, deep pages, and orphans.
02
Verification
- The visible page matches the intended topic and audience.
- The page can be crawled, rendered, and indexed when intended.
- Claims, examples, code, and links have been checked.
- The page has a measurable next action or outcome.
- A future reviewer can understand what changed and why.
03
Before you change the website
- Define the purpose and expected result of internal links.
- Capture the current state using discovery paths, response codes, rendering, directives, canonicals, internal links, sitemaps, duplication, and selected URLs.
- Identify the source template, component, plugin, content owner, and release path that controls the output.
- Prepare a test case, approval path, backup or rollback method, and post-release verification plan.
04
Quality-control checks for internal links
- Recrawl the affected patterns, inspect rendered output and directives, and monitor indexation and search behaviour over time.
- Check representative page types and edge cases instead of confirming only the example used during implementation.
- Confirm the change did not create fixing one URL while leaving the template or generation rule unchanged.
- Record the implementation date, owner, release reference, evidence, and next review trigger.
Next useful action
Turn internal links into an accountable record.
A tested implementation of internal links with deployment notes, rollback context, and retained verification.