Internal linking strengthens topical authority by clearly showing search engines how your content is connected and which pages matter most. A well-structured internal link network improves crawlability, user experience, and long-term search visibility.

In the Ask An SEO series, Search Engine Journal contributor Helen Pollitt has answered the question, ‘Is Your Internal Linking Helping Or Hurting Topical Authority?’.

She says, “In essence, topical authority is the concept of how a search engine may view a website’s ability to provide an authoritative answer for a topic, inferred from how consistently it covers that topic and how signals reinforce that coverage.

Although there is no single standard defined metric for topical authority, it is, in essence, a measure of a page or a whole website’s relevance to a specific knowledge area, and trustworthiness as a source of information.

How Is It Affected By Internal Links

Internal links are crucial in shaping topical authority. They influence how authority, relevance, and intent signals are distributed across a website or folder. If we think of backlinks as bringing topical authority into a website, internal linking then helps to disperse it across the site. Internal linking determines where that authority accumulates and aids search engines in interpreting a page’s topical focus.”

Is Your Internal Linking Helping Or Hurting Topical Authority? Ask An SEO

Search Engine Journal