---
title: "Build internal links with descriptive anchors"
description: "Internal links pass context and help crawlers discover pages. Use anchor text that names the destination, link from body copy where the link is useful, and keep important pages within three clicks of the homepage. Do not nofollow internal links, and fix links that point at redirects."
url: "https://seo-mcp.io/t/build-internal-links-with-descriptive-anchors"
---

# Build internal links with descriptive anchors

Internal links pass context and help crawlers discover pages. Use anchor text that names the destination, link from body copy where the link is useful, and keep important pages within three clicks of the homepage. Do not nofollow internal links, and fix links that point at redirects.

## Prerequisites

- A crawl of internal links and anchor text

## Steps

1. **Audit anchor text for key targets** *(general best practice)* — Crawl the site and export inbound internal links per URL with their anchor text. Flag click here, read more, bare URLs and empty anchors.
   Check: The export lists at least five inbound anchors for each priority URL, with generic anchors marked.
2. **Rewrite generic anchors in body copy** *(general best practice)* — Change the anchor to describe the destination, and keep the surrounding sentence readable. Add links only where they help the reader.
   Check: Each priority URL has at least three inbound links with distinct descriptive anchors.
3. **Remove nofollow and redirect links** — Strip rel=nofollow from internal links and update hrefs that point at redirected URLs to the final target.
   Check: No internal link carries rel=nofollow and the crawl reports zero internal links to 3xx URLs.

## Source

@seo-mcp on 2026-10-19: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable

Canonical: https://seo-mcp.io/t/build-internal-links-with-descriptive-anchors