My name is Rameez and I'm the Director of Link Building at HAROServices.com. When we audit sites, internal links are often the quiet one lifting much of the SEO efforts. There isn't a set amount of links that makes every page work. Google can handle a lot, but people can't. I'll put anywhere from 3 to 6 links in a normal 1,200-1,800-word article if they are useful. 10-15 is a good number for a main page or hub. Every link should lead the reader to the next question they want to know, and all of your important pages should be within three clicks of the home page. You have gone too far when the page starts to look crowded or too much. I start with what the reader wants to do when I choose where to link. I guess what they'll want to know next, and then I add links to more in-depth guides, related themes, and the main hub page. I also make it a point to send authority to money pages or new content that needs more exposure. Also, I check that the anchor text matches the page's main question. Most of the time, people make big mistakes when they think too much or take too many short-cuts. An awful lot of sites use the same link text over and over, which can hurt their rankings and make them look spammy. Important links are sometimes hidden in accordions or JavaScript elements that don't load right away. This means that search engines might not find them. I've also seen sites put hundreds of links in the bottom, making the links in the body hard to read, or make multiple pages that all want the same anchor. And one of the most common mistakes is putting out new posts without adding links from older, more reliable posts. In the end, the best internal linking approach is the one that makes sense to a person reading the site. Rankings generally take care of themselves if the links really make the user journey better.
In my experience, there isn't a fixed "ideal number" of internal links, it's more about relevance, not quantity. The best approach is to link whenever it adds genuine value for the reader, guiding them to deeper or related information. That might mean one link every few sections on some pages, or one per paragraph on more comprehensive guides. A good rule of thumb is to avoid overloading a single paragraph with more than two links to keep the experience natural. When I decide where to link, I prioritize pages that support the reader's next step—whether that's understanding a concept in more depth, like step-by-step guides, exploring related topics, or progressing toward conversion. The biggest mistake I see is misleading or unnatural anchor text (like an exact keyword). I prefer to use more natural and descriptive anchor text so it reflects the page it links to. This also helps increase the clicks on the links and encourages the reader to stay on my site longer. When I add a link, I always ask: "If someone clicks this, will the content meet their expectation?" If not, then I would rewrite the anchor.