How to Connect Articles and Service Pages - Internal Link Design Basics

You added more articles, yet inquiries did not follow. The cause is usually not the content of the articles but a weak path leading back from an article to a service page.

The role of internal links goes beyond keeping visitors moving through a site. For readers they mark where to read next, and for Google they are clues to the relationships between pages. Google itself puts weight on crawlable links and anchor text that carries context.¹

An article hub like KomuraSoft’s Web & SEO topics exists to make it easy to move back and forth between articles and service pages. With that in place, building a path to website development becomes easier too.

Terms Used in This Article

“Pillar page” (the hub page at the center of a theme) and “article hub” are terms whose names shift from writer to writer. In this article they carry the following meanings.

A pillar page and an article hub play different roles. A pillar page is a page to be read; an article hub is a page to choose from. While the site is still small, it is fine for the pillar page to double as the article hub.

The Overall Structure

Drawn as a diagram, the relationships among the three look like this.

flowchart LR
    H["Article hub<br/>List of articles on a theme"]
    A["Article<br/>Answers one specific question"]
    S["Service page<br/>What you can be hired for"]
    P["Pillar page<br/>Catch-all for the whole theme"]
    Q["Contact page"]

    H --> A
    A --> H
    A --> S
    S --> A
    S --> P
    P --> S
    S --> Q

Figure 1: The overall structure tying together the article hub, articles, service pages, the pillar page, and contact. Most of the arrows run both ways.

What matters is not the number of arrows but that most of them run in both directions. Anywhere only one direction exists turns into a dead end later.

1. Internal Links Are There for Understanding, Not for Browsing

Internal linking is easy to read as a matter of lining up related articles to raise the number of pages people browse. The real point, though, is conveying what theme this group of pages covers.

For example:

• From an article back to a service page
• From a service page back to the pillar page
• From company information or the contact page onward into the consultation flow

Once this back-and-forth works, the pages read as a thematic cluster rather than a set of one-offs.

flowchart TB
    accTitle: Internal links exist for understanding
    accDescr: A diagram showing that the essence of internal linking is not lining up related articles to raise the number of pages people browse but conveying what theme this group of pages covers, and that once the round trip from articles to service pages and from service pages to the pillar page works, the pages read as a thematic cluster rather than a set of one-offs.
    a0["Purpose of internal links"] -.->|"not the point"| a1["Raise the number of pages browsed"]
    a0 -->|"the point"| a2["Convey what theme this group of pages covers"]
    a2 --> a3["Build a round trip between articles, service pages and the pillar page"]
    a3 --> a4["Pages read as a thematic cluster, not one-offs"]

Figure 2: Links are not a device for driving browsing but a design that conveys how a theme holds together.

Knowledge map for this article

The essence of internal linking is not to increase the number of pages a visitor browses but to communicate what theme each set of pages covers, namely articles, article hubs, service pages, pillar pages, and the contact page. What matters is a two-way structure in which articles lead to service pages and service pages lead back to pillar pages and the contact page, and anchor text should avoid generic phrasing such as click here and instead use descriptive wording that makes the role of the destination immediately clear. On the implementation side, links should be crawlable as an a element with an href attribute, nofollow should not be applied to internal links, and sponsored, ugc, and nofollow should be used selectively on outbound links according to their purpose. Breadcrumbs and the sitemap are also mechanisms that supplement internal links, and the results can be checked in the links report in Search Console.

flowchart LR
    accTitle: Internal link design
    accDescr: Diagram showing the two-way internal link structure among articles, article hubs, service pages, pillar pages, and the contact page, the recommendation to use descriptive anchor text, implementation points such as crawlable links and rel attributes, and the relationship to breadcrumbs and the sitemap
    internal_link["Internal Link"]
    service_page["Service Page"]
    blog_article["Blog Article"]
    pillar_page["Pillar Page"]
    contact_page["Contact Page"]
    article_hub["Article Hub Page"]
    descriptive_anchor_text["Descriptive Anchor Text"]
    generic_anchor_text["Generic Anchor Text"]
    crawlable_link["Crawlable Link"]
    rel_nofollow["rel=#quot;nofollow#quot; Attribute"]
    breadcrumb["Breadcrumb Navigation"]
    xml_sitemap["XML Sitemap"]
    isolated_page["Orphan Page"]
    search_console["Google Search Console"]
    rel_sponsored["rel=#quot;sponsored#quot; Attribute"]
    outbound_link["Outbound Link"]
    rel_ugc["rel=#quot;ugc#quot; Attribute"]
    blog_article -.->|"requires"| service_page
    service_page -.->|"requires"| pillar_page
    pillar_page -.->|"requires"| service_page
    service_page -.->|"requires"| contact_page
    article_hub -.->|"requires"| blog_article
    blog_article -.->|"requires"| article_hub
    descriptive_anchor_text -->|"recommended for"| internal_link
    generic_anchor_text -->|"not recommended for"| internal_link
    internal_link -->|"requires"| crawlable_link
    rel_nofollow -->|"not recommended for"| internal_link
    breadcrumb -->|"uses"| internal_link
    xml_sitemap -.->|"mitigates"| isolated_page
    internal_link -->|"prevents"| isolated_page
    internal_link -->|"verified by"| search_console
    rel_sponsored -->|"recommended for"| outbound_link
    rel_ugc -->|"recommended for"| outbound_link
    rel_nofollow -->|"recommended for"| outbound_link

In the diagram a solid line marks a relation that always holds and a dashed line marks a conditional one (the conditions are given per relation on the detail page). The full list of relations (17 in total, with evidence and certainty) and the definitions of the main concepts are collected on the knowledge map detail page (in Japanese). Data: JSON-LD / Turtle

2. Write Anchor Text That States the Role of the Destination

The most common failure with internal links is falling back on Learn more or here. With those, there is no telling what page the link leads to.

Good anchor text makes the role of the destination clear on its own.

Google uses link text as a clue for understanding a page. That is exactly why putting the destination’s own name in the anchor, as with website development, gets the point across.²³ Google itself describes good anchor text as “descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to both the page it sits on and the page it links to,” and advises avoiding generic phrasing such as click here.¹

flowchart TB
    accTitle: What separates good anchor text from bad
    accDescr: A diagram showing that wording such as here or learn more leaves the reader unable to tell what page the link leads to, that because Google uses link text as a clue for understanding a page the text should be descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both the source and destination pages, and that stating the role of the destination as it is gets the point across to readers and search engines alike.
    b0{"Anchor text"}
    b0 -.->|"here or learn more"| b1["No way to tell what page it leads to"]
    b0 -->|"states the role of the destination as it is"| b2["Gets through to readers and search engines"]
    b2 -.-> b3["Test: pull out the text alone and see if the destination is clear"]

Figure 3: The only test is whether the destination is clear from the link text pulled out on its own.

2.1 What This Looks Like in Other Industries

To make the wording easier to swap for your own, here are examples from other industries. These are not live links, just a comparison of the wording itself.

There is only one test. When you pull out the link text and line it up, can you tell where each link goes? A site whose list reads nothing but “Learn more” and “Our work” already fails at that point.

3. Three Paths Leading from an Article Back to a Service Page

Articles and service pages are strong when they are connected in at least three places.

1. Within the article body
2. In the related articles at the end of the article
3. In the related articles on the service page

With all three in place, readers move on naturally once they finish an article. From this article, for example, the natural step back is website development.

flowchart TB
    accTitle: Three paths connecting articles and service pages
    accDescr: A diagram showing that articles and service pages become easier to move between when paths exist in at least three places - inside the article body, in the related articles at the end of the article, and in the related articles on the service page - and that with all three in place readers move on naturally once they finish an article.
    c1["1. Link inside the article body"] --> c4["All three in place"]
    c2["2. Related articles at the end of the article"] --> c4
    c3["3. Related articles on the service page"] --> c4
    c4 --> c5["Readers move on naturally after reading"]

Figure 4: The join is not one place but three: the body, the end of the article, and the service page.

4. From a Service Page Back to the Pillar Page

The service-page side needs a path back to the pillar page as well. This matters most when an individual service and the pillar page are separate pages, where being able to move between them is what counts.

At KomuraSoft, website development sits as the consultation entrance on the web side, and the structure branches from there into build scope, SEO, and the inquiry flow. With that shape, people arriving from an article and people arriving from a service page can both be gathered at the same consultation entrance.

5. Common Failures

The common failures with internal links run along these lines.

• Every page uses the same “Learn more”
• Only the articles carry links, with no way back from the service pages
• A pillar page exists, but nothing leads back to it
• The contact page sits isolated on its own

In that state, someone who finishes an article cannot tell where to go next. Submitting a sitemap does help an isolated page get crawled, but that only tells search engines the page exists; it is no substitute for a path a reader can follow onward.⁴ With internal links, what matters is not the count but whether every article has a clear way back to the main hub or service page.

flowchart TB
    accTitle: Common failures and their shared symptom
    accDescr: A diagram showing that every page using the same learn more wording, links only on the articles with no way back from the service pages, no path leading back to the pillar page, and an isolated contact page all lead to the same symptom of readers being unable to tell where to go next after finishing an article, and that what matters is not the count of links but whether every article has a clear way back to the main hub or service page.
    d1["Every link says Learn more"] -.-> d5["Readers cannot tell where to go next"]
    d2["No way back from the service page"] -.-> d5
    d3["No path back to the pillar page"] -.-> d5
    d4["Contact page isolated"] -.-> d5
    d5 --> d6["Clarity of the return path over sheer count"]

Figure 5: All four failures come down to the same thing: no fixed place to return to.

6. What to Watch for in the Implementation

Even when the design is right, the way a link is written can leave search engines unable to follow it. Google states plainly that it can crawl a link only when the link is an a element carrying an href attribute.¹

So there are three things to check in the implementation.

Inserting links dynamically with JavaScript is not a problem in itself. Google states that it can crawl them as long as the result takes the HTML form above.¹

For rel attributes, the guidance splits them by purpose: sponsored for ads and paid placements, ugc for links coming from user posts and comments, and nofollow for anything else you do not want to be associated with.⁵ All of them exist to qualify outbound links, and when you do not want a page on your own site shown to search engines, the guidance is to use a disallow rule in robots.txt instead.⁵ In other words, going around adding nofollow to internal links is a design mistake from the start.

flowchart TB
    accTitle: The form a crawlable link takes
    accDescr: A diagram showing that Google states plainly that it can crawl a link only when the link is an a element carrying an href attribute, that insertion by JavaScript is fine as long as the final markup takes that form, and that rel attributes exist to qualify outbound links so adding nofollow to internal links is a design mistake.
    e1{"How the link is implemented"}
    e1 -->|"a element + href attribute"| e2["Crawlable (fine when inserted by JS if the final markup is this)"]
    e1 -.->|"span or div with only a click event"| e3["Search engines cannot follow it"]
    e2 -.-> e4["rel qualifiers are for outbound links. nofollow on internal links is a mistake"]

Figure 6: However right the design is, nothing gets followed unless the markup takes the a plus href form.

7. Site Structure and Breadcrumbs

Internal links are not only the links inside the body text. A breadcrumb trail is a permanent internal link that shows where a page sits in the site hierarchy. Google explains that breadcrumbs help both with understanding a site and with moving through it, and expressing them as structured data can also carry them into the search results.⁶

A hierarchy holds up as long as you keep to two rules.

1. Put exactly one pillar page on each theme. With two similar pillar pages, the return target for an article shifts every time.
2. Every article reaches a pillar page or a service page within two clicks. Put another way, do not let articles chain endlessly into other articles and nothing else.

flowchart TB
    accTitle: Two rules that keep a hierarchy from collapsing
    accDescr: A diagram showing that keeping one pillar page per theme and making sure every article reaches a pillar page or service page within two clicks keeps the hierarchy from collapsing, since two similar pillar pages make the return target for an article shift every time and the two-click rule prevents chains that run from article to article only.
    f1["Rule 1: one pillar page per theme"] --> f3["The hierarchy holds up"]
    f2["Rule 2: a pillar page within two clicks"] --> f3
    f1 -.-> f4["Two pillar pages make the return target drift"]
    f2 -.-> f5["Prevents chains of articles only"]

Figure 7: Keeping just these two rules is enough to stop the return target from drifting.

Note that Google’s guidance is about making links crawlable and anchor text descriptive; it is not a cap on the number of links per page.¹ Rather than aiming at a number, it is more practical to settle on your own operating rules. For example:

• Do not link to the same destination twice within a single paragraph
• Keep links in the body to a level that does not stop the reader mid-paragraph
• Fix the number of related articles at the end of an article in advance, and give their order meaning as well

8. How to Apply This to Your Own Site

Turned directly into a work procedure, everything above comes to four stages. On a site that has already built up a fair number of articles, even the first two stages move things forward.

8.1 Take Stock of the Articles

Start by building a single table. No elaborate tooling is needed.

Every row where the return target is blank is a row to fix.

8.2 Decide the Pillar Pages and Article Hubs

Tallying the theme column shows which themes have collected the most articles. Pick one pillar page for each of those themes. Reusing an existing service page as the pillar page is fine.

At this point, three or more articles whose theme came out as “none” are a candidate for a new pillar page. A theme with only one article, on the other hand, does not need a pillar page forced into existence; fold it into an existing pillar page.

8.3 Priority Order for Placing Links

There is no need to fix everything at once. In order of what pays off fastest:

1. Link from the highest-traffic articles back to a service page. This is what takes effect the soonest
2. Link from the service page back to that article. This turns one-way into a round trip
3. Tidy up the article hub and link from it to each article
4. Link the pillar page and the service page to each other
5. Work through the remaining articles from the top

8.4 Always Build the Reverse Direction

Once you reach step 3, keep filling in the return target column of the table from 8.1 as you go. If you stop after adding one-way links, you reproduce exactly the state described in section 5: links only on the articles, with no way back from the service pages.

flowchart TB
    accTitle: Four stages for applying this to your own site
    accDescr: A diagram showing the four-stage procedure of building a table that takes stock of the articles, deciding the pillar pages and article hubs from the theme tally, placing links starting with what pays off fastest on the highest-traffic articles, and finally always adding the reverse direction so every link becomes a round trip.
    g1["8.1 Build the table taking stock of articles (find the blank return targets)"] --> g2["8.2 Decide pillar pages and article hubs from the theme tally"]
    g2 --> g3["8.3 Place links in order of what pays off fastest"]
    g3 --> g4["8.4 Always add the reverse direction to make it a round trip"]
    g4 -.-> g5["Stopping at one-way reproduces the failure"]

Figure 8: The procedure runs in four stages - taking stock, deciding the pillar page, placement, reverse direction - and is finished only once the round trip exists.

9. How to Judge the Effect

The effect of internal links can be checked, ahead of rankings, by asking whether the structure came out the way it was designed.

The Links report in Search Console shows which pages carry the most internal links and what the linking text says.⁷ Two things to look at here.

• Whether the pillar page and the service pages appear near the top of the pages with the most internal links. If they do not, the return targets you designed are not actually in place
• Whether the linking text is nothing but “here” and “details”

On top of that, compare impressions and clicks for the pages you fixed, before and after, over periods of equal length. How much they move depends on the size of the site and the competition, so it is better not to borrow benchmark numbers from another company.

flowchart TB
    accTitle: How to read the effect of internal links
    accDescr: A diagram showing that the effect is checked ahead of rankings by asking whether the structure came out as designed, looking in the Search Console Links report at whether the pillar page and service pages appear near the top of the pages with the most internal links and whether the linking text is nothing but here, and then comparing impressions and clicks before and after over periods of equal length.
    h1["Check the structure in the Links report"] --> h2["Are the pillar page and service pages near the top"]
    h2 --> h3["Is the linking text nothing but here"]
    h3 --> h4["Compare impressions and clicks before and after over equal periods"]
    h4 -.-> h5["Do not borrow benchmark numbers from other companies"]

Figure 9: Ahead of rankings, confirm in the Links report that the structure came out as designed.

Summary

The basics of internal link design are not about adding more articles but about building the round trip between articles, service pages, and the pillar page. Start by leading readers from Web & SEO topics back to website development, branching where needed into the inquiry flow or article-design consultation, and the paths through the site steady out.

Once the destination of every link in an article can be chosen without hesitation, the site becomes kind to search engines and readers alike.

Related Articles

• The Three Places to Fix First on a Site That Gets No Inquiries
• How to Build Service Pages - An Organizing Procedure for Technical B2B
• Web & SEO Topics
• Website Development

References

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about the topic of this article.

Why do inquiries fail to follow even after I add more articles?

The cause is usually not the content of the articles but a weak path leading back from the articles to the service pages. The essence of internal linking is not raising the number of pages people browse but conveying what theme a group of pages covers. Once the round trip works - from an article to a service page, and from a service page to the pillar page, the hub page at the center of a theme - the pages read as a thematic cluster rather than a set of one-offs.

How should I write anchor text for internal links?

Use wording that states the role of the destination as it is. The most common failure is falling back on 'Learn more' or 'here', which tells the reader nothing about the page behind the link. Because Google uses link text as a clue for understanding a page, putting the destination's own name in the anchor - as in 'See the process for website development' - gets the point across to readers and search engines alike.

Where should articles and service pages be connected?

Paths in at least three places make it easy to move from an article to a service page: inside the article body, in the related articles at the end of the article, and in the related articles on the service page. With all three in place, readers move on naturally once they finish an article. Links only on the article side, with no way back from the service page, is one of the common failures.

What are the common failures with internal links?

Four are typical: every page using the same 'Learn more', links only on the articles with no way back from the service pages, a pillar page that exists with nothing leading back to it, and a contact page left isolated. In that state, someone who finishes an article cannot tell where to go next. With internal links, what matters is not the count but whether every article has a clear way back to the main hub or service page.

Author Profile

Profile page for the article author.

Go Komura

Representative of KomuraSoft LLC

Focused on Windows software development, technical consulting, and investigations into failures that are difficult to reproduce.