Internal linking for a small site: how service pages and articles should point to each other

"My blog gets read, but the enquiries come from people who never saw it." That can be a joining problem. Link every article to the one service page it leads to, and link every service page back to the two or three articles that answer its buyer's questions. On some small sites the articles exist and the service pages exist, but nobody has joined them, so a reader who finishes a useful post finds no road to the page where they could enquire. The fix is an hour of editing at a time, and a spreadsheet does it as well as a plugin.

Why do articles and service pages stay apart?

Because they are written at different times. The service page was done when the website was built. The articles came later, one at a time, each answering a question that came up that week. Nobody went back.

The visitor pays for it. Someone reads your post on why quotes for a second-hand lathe differ so much, nods, and then has to hunt for your "Machine reconditioning" page in the menu. Some will close the tab.

Search engines meet the same gap: a page that nothing on your own site points to is harder for them to find and gives them no sign that you think it matters.

Build the link map

Open a spreadsheet and list every service page and every article. Then fill this in for each article:

The last column is the one people skip. A link that goes only from the article to the service is half a road. When the service page also names the two articles a doubtful buyer reads before ringing, the buyer can find the reassurance without leaving your site.

Keep the map to one row per article. An article that could lead to two services is two topics in one post. Choose the service it serves better and mention the other in a sentence.

Which words should the link carry?

The words of the link should tell the reader what is on the other side. "Machine reconditioning" works. "Click here" does not.

Place the link where the reader's question turns into a need. In the quote-comparison article, that is the paragraph that says what a proper rebuild includes, not the opening. If you delete the link, the sentence should still read well.

Where should a service page send people?

Out to the articles that remove doubt, and not to everything you have written. A service page is where a visitor is deciding. Give it two or three links. Each goes to a post that answers something a buyer asks before they ring, such as what a mistake costs, how to compare suppliers or what to prepare for the first call.

Do not send the service page to a general post that wanders into another subject. The visitor who follows it may not come back.

A kitchen-equipment dealer in Mysuru

An invented example. A dealer in Mysuru sells commercial kitchen equipment to hotels, hostels and caterers. The site has six service pages (gas ranges, refrigeration, exhaust hoods, steel fabrication, installation, servicing) and fourteen articles. No article links to a service page, and no service page links to an article.

The dealer builds the map in an evening, one row to an article. Eleven of the fourteen articles have an obvious service. Three do not: one on opening a hostel mess, one on festival catering, one on the shop's own history. The history stays as it is, and the other two are rewritten so each leads somewhere.

Then comes an over-correction. Four articles link to the "Gas ranges" page with the same words, "best commercial gas range in Mysuru", in the first sentence of each. The articles read oddly, with a sales line before the reader has learned anything. The dealer moves each link to the paragraph that compares burner sizes and words it as the choice ("a heavy-duty range with a wider burner set"). The range page now has four different roads into it, and one article has to be rewritten twice before it reads like advice.

Do you need a pillar page?

Probably not on a small site. A pillar page is a long page at the centre of a topic, with articles around it linking in and out. On a site of a few dozen pages, your service page already plays that part, and a separate overview would compete for the same visitor. It earns its place when one subject, say reconditioning, has eight or ten articles and several service pages touching it, and a visitor cannot tell where to begin.

A one-hour routine that holds

Do this each time you publish, with the map open:

1. Publish or revise one article. Add its row.
2. Open the service page it leads to and add a link back, only if the article genuinely helps that page's buyer.
3. Open two older articles on the same subject and add a link to the new one where it fits a sentence.
4. Click every link you added. A link to a deleted or renamed page is worse than no link.
5. Look for pages that nothing links to. Search your own site for the page's title, or use the page list in your website editor and check each entry against your map. Each unlinked page is either a page to link or a page to retire.

Skip a link when it would send a reader away from a decision they are about to make. A page where someone is filling in a form needs fewer exits, not more.

Take the map to your own site

Start tonight with your three best-read articles. Find the service page each one should lead to, add the link in the paragraph where the reader's question turns into a need, and write the row in the map. These links carry readers from your marketing to the page where they can enquire. If your site has more than a few dozen pages, or the same topic is spread across several articles with no page leading them, see internal linking and pillar structure, or tell us what you need with the list of your pages if you have one.