The first version of our AI review site’s internal linking left useful paths missing. An excerpt from the case study describes an eight-post series with no links among its posts or to the rest of the site, plus a set of AI video-tool reviews linked in a triangle rather than across the relevant reviews. The lesson is not to link every page to every other page. It is to preserve a clear site hierarchy while adding links wherever they help readers move between related pages.
What was missing in the first linking structure?
The available excerpt from Adil Sadqi’s case study identifies two problems: an eight-post series that was disconnected from both itself and the rest of the site, and an AI video-review group whose internal links formed only a triangle. The excerpt does not establish what changes followed or what results they produced, so it cannot support claims about traffic, rankings, or AI citations.
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These examples point to different kinds of weak connectivity. A series with no internal links is isolated: readers arriving at one post have no on-page route to the others. A triangle has some connections, but it can still leave relevant pages out of the route a reader might take. Categories and URL patterns alone do not fix either problem; the links themselves need to create useful, crawlable paths.
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Grouping related pages gives a site structure and helps readers understand where a page belongs. But a rule that forbids links between topic groups can hide a useful next step. Ahrefs’ guidance favors a hierarchical structure with contextual links between pages when the relationship makes sense, rather than treating silos as sealed compartments: Ahrefs on SEO silo structure.
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The practical distinction is between a link that serves the reader and one added merely to increase link count. A review in another topic group may be a good destination if it helps someone compare tools or continue researching. An unrelated commercial page is not made relevant by adding it to the same cluster.
How should a hub-and-supporting-page structure work?
Give readers a clear starting point
Identify a broad topic hub, such as a guide to AI video tools, and the supporting reviews or explainers that answer narrower questions. Link from the hub to its important supporting pages so readers can move from an overview to the detail they need.
Give supporting pages a route back
Each important review or guide should link back to its relevant hub. That return path helps readers regain the broader context instead of reaching a dead end after one narrow answer.
Connect supporting pages when there is a real next step
Link related reviews to one another when doing so supports a comparison or another sensible part of the reader’s journey. A link across topic groups is appropriate when the destination is genuinely relevant; the site’s hierarchy should guide that link, not prohibit it. SEOJuice describes this hub-and-spoke approach alongside checks for internal-link structure and descriptive anchors: SEOJuice’s content-silo audit guidance.
How to audit the links without relying on categories alone
- List the intended structure. Write down each topic hub and the supporting pages that belong beneath it. Mark the cross-topic connections that would help readers compare or continue their research.
- Check for crawlable routes. Confirm that every important page can be reached through an internal link, not merely through a category label or a URL that resembles the topic.
- Check both directions. Verify that hubs link to key supporting pages and that those pages link back to the relevant hub. Where related supporting pages should connect, confirm that the connection exists.
- Review anchor text in context. Use wording that tells readers what the destination covers, and make sure it accurately describes that page. The sentence around a link should explain why the destination is useful at that point.
- Find isolated or weakly connected pages. Look for pages with no internal links pointing to them, as well as pages with only one narrow route when readers would benefit from another relevant path.
- Reassess pages whose role has changed. For off-topic or outdated pages, decide whether to move them in the structure, rewrite them, consolidate them with another page, or remove them from the intended route.
- Repeat after meaningful changes. Revisit the links after significant publishing or site-structure changes, since new pages and changed page roles can make an old map incomplete.
SEOJuice’s audit article discusses crawlable relationships, orphan-page checks, anchor clarity, and maintenance. It also reproduces guidance attributed to Google Search Central, but is a secondary source rather than the original Google documentation. The cited articles support a practical structural approach; they do not establish a performance result for this case study.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What a better first pass would have done
For the eight-post series, the first pass should have connected the posts to one another where relevant and linked them to an appropriate broader hub. For the AI video reviews, it should have checked whether each review had a useful route from the hub, a return route to it, and any relevant links to other reviews—not simply whether a triangle of links existed.
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The correction is a reader-centered network with a visible hierarchy: hubs point to important supporting pages, supporting pages point back, and contextual links cross topic boundaries when they help. That avoids both extremes—isolated content and indiscriminate linking—without pretending that a larger number of links is itself a success metric.
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