SEO's least sexy secret
When you ask an SME owner what they know about SEO, they mention keywords, backlinks, sometimes Hn tags. Nobody mentions internal linking. Yet it's one of the three most powerful SEO levers, and the only one that depends 100% on you (no need to wait for others to cite you).
Internal linking is the art of connecting your own pages with descriptive contextual links. Done well, it tells Google: "here's my site's logical structure, here are the important pages, here's how they connect". Done badly (or not done), it's like a book with no table of contents.
The real-estate agency that didn't get it
A Dakar real-estate agency contacted us in October 2025. Site with 240 pages (90 active listings + 150 blog articles). 14 keywords in top 10, 600 visits/month. Frustration: "We've done everything, I don't understand."
Audit: of the 240 pages, 78% had zero internal incoming links. Blog articles relied only on the top nav menu. Listings had no links from articles. The pillar content on "investing in Dakar real estate" was pointed to by nobody.
So Google saw 240 disconnected pages. None received "juice" from the others. Result: none had authority.
The numbered diagnosis
With Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs), we calculated:
- Pages with 0 internal incoming links: 187 (78%)
- Pages with 1 incoming link: 32 (13%)
- Pages with 2-5 incoming links: 16 (7%)
- Pages with 6+ incoming links: 5 (2%)
Of the 5 well-linked pages, 4 were in Google top 10. Of the 187 with no links, 0 were in top 10. The correlation is brutal.
The rules we applied
Rule 1: 3 to 5 contextual descriptive links per article
Not in a menu, not in a sidebar — directly in the body text, on anchors that describe the target page. Bad anchor: "click here". Good anchor: "complete guide to rental investment in Dakar".
Rule 2: silo structure
We organized the site into 6 thematic silos (rental, sales, investment, legal, financing, Dakar neighborhoods). Within a silo, pages link heavily to each other. Between silos, links are sparse.
Rule 3: every page receives at least 3 incoming links
No important page should be orphan. We audited 240 pages and added links from existing articles to target pages.
Rule 4: money pages get the most links
The 12 most commercially important pages (premium listings, contact page, quotes) each receive 15 to 30 contextual internal links.
The concrete work
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| Action | Volume | FCFA budget |
|---|---|---|
| Screaming Frog audit + mapping | 1 audit | 180,000 |
| Thematic silo definition | 6 silos | 90,000 |
| Adding 380 new internal links | 380 links | 380,000 |
| Rewriting existing anchors | 120 anchors | 90,000 |
| 5-month monitoring | 5 months | 150,000 |
| Total | 890,000 |
890,000 FCFA to transform a site that already exists — best price/effect ratio in SEO.
5-month results
- Top 10 pages: 14 to 71 (+407%)
- Organic traffic: 600 to 2,900 visits/month (x4.8)
- Viewing requests from site: 8/month to 34/month
- 11 mandates signed directly traceable
- Revenue generated: 23 million FCFA in 5 months
And all that without publishing a single new article.
The 5 winning linking patterns
- Hub & spoke — a pillar article at the center, satellites around pointing to it and to each other
- Smart breadcrumb — visible breadcrumb with descriptive anchors, not just "Home > Category"
- Contextual related posts — not a random widget, but 3 articles truly related to the topic
- Upward/downward links — child silo links to parent silo and vice versa
- Varied anchors — don't always use the same anchor for the same page, Google dislikes it
The fatal mistake
Putting too many links. Beyond 10 internal links per 1,000-word article, Google dilutes transmitted authority. Golden rule: 1 contextual internal link every 200-300 words, not more.
FAQ
How long until effect is visible?
30 to 60 days after linking overhaul. One of the fastest SEO levers to manifest.
Should we redo linking regularly?
Light audit every 4 months, targeted overhaul when adding >20% new content.
Do footer links count?
Very little. Google knows these are "technical" links. Favor body-text links.
What about links to social networks?
External, not internal. Useful for UX but no direct SEO effect.
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We can audit your linking and identify orphan pages in 72 hours.
WhatsApp: +221 77 596 93 33 — free quote: /en/free-quote
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
