Start with source, destination, and purpose
An internal-link recommendation is incomplete until it names three things: the source page, the destination page, and why a reader on the source benefits from moving to the destination at that point.
This prevents a common failure: adding links to satisfy a count while leaving the site's real page relationships ambiguous. Navigation, a discovery index, and contextual links perform different jobs. A footer link can make a page reachable; it rarely replaces a useful editorial connection.
Write the anchor from the sentence
Anchor text should set an accurate expectation before the click. “How we decide whether to merge overlapping pages” is more useful in the right sentence than “click here,” but forcing the same exact phrase into every source page makes the prose worse and discards local context.
- Describe the destination at the level relevant to this reader.
- Keep enough surrounding text that the reason for the link is evident.
- Avoid chaining several unrelated links through one sentence.
- Do not link the same destination repeatedly when the later links add no new purpose.
Let page ownership come first
Internal links cannot resolve cannibalization if two destinations still claim the same job. Decide which page owns the coherent intent, whether the other page has a distinct reader need, and whether it should be merged, redirected, or removed. Then update links to point directly at the final owner.
Likewise, a “topic cluster” diagram is not a reason to create pages. The pages must earn their existence independently; links express the useful relationships that remain.
Keep the technical boundary visible
The same link can help discovery and express page relevance. The page-level question here is contextual: why this source should direct this reader to that destination, and what the anchor communicates. Crawl depth, rendering, orphan detection, canonicalization, and large-site link architecture belong in a technical SEO review.
When the problem spans page ownership, copy, and contextual links, on-page SEO services can address the page and its relationships together.
Do not prescribe a universal number of internal links per page. A short answer may need one. A complex guide may need several. The useful constraint is whether every link helps a reader understand the relationship before they click.
If source and destination still appear to own the same job, resolve that conflict in the page audit before adding another link between them.
Primary reference: Google's link best-practices documentation, including crawlable HTML links, concise descriptive anchor text, and the role of surrounding context.