Internal Linking for Affiliate Sites: Where to Put Links and What to Write in Them
Most affiliate sites know they should link internally and do it badly: a "related posts" widget, a few "click here" links in old posts, and sixty guides that don't mention each other.
The structure post explained the shape a site should have. This one is about the links themselves: where on the page they go, what the link text says, and how to keep up with it when you're publishing every week.
The short answer
Put links in body text, not widgets. Every guide links up to its hub in the first few paragraphs, across to a related guide where the reader would want it, and down to the review of each pick from inside that product's section. Reviews link back to every guide they appear in.
Anchor text is the target page's keyword in natural wording, varied across the site. Spend twenty minutes a week connecting the posts you just published.
Where links go on the page
Google weights a link by where it sits and what surrounds it. A link in a paragraph about hydration packs, pointing at a hydration pack review, is a strong signal. The same link in a sidebar list of recent posts is a weak one. The reader behaves the same way: they click the link that appears at the moment they want more.
| Placement | Value | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Inside a paragraph, on-topic | High | Every deliberate link |
| Inside a product section | High | The review of that product, the comparison it's in |
| Intro paragraph | High | The hub for this topic |
| Conclusion | Medium | The next guide a buyer would read |
| "Related posts" cards at the end | Low to medium | Two or three, hand-picked, not automated |
| Sidebar, footer, tag clouds | Low | Navigation, not ranking |
The links every page needs
Buyer guide
- Up: the hub page for the topic, from the intro, with the topic as anchor text.
- Down: from each product section to the review of that product, where one exists. The natural place is the sentence that says what makes it different.
- Across: one or two related guides, where the reader might be in the wrong guide ("if you need one for two children, see the double trailer guide").
- Out: the Amazon link with your tag on each product. That's the earning link; the ones above keep the reader.
Single review
- Up: every guide this product appears in, from the first paragraph ("our pick for budget commuters in the bike lights guide").
- Across: the comparison it's in, and the review of the product it's most often weighed against.
Hub page
- Down: every guide in the topic, each with a line on who it's for.
- Across: the other hubs on the site, once, at the end.
Informational post
- Down: the guide a reader of this question would buy from. "How to choose drill torque" links to the cordless drill guide where torque is mentioned.
Anchor text
The link text does two jobs: it tells Google what the target is about, and it tells the reader what they'll get by clicking. Both want the same thing, the target page's subject in natural words. For a guide targeting "best bike lights for night riding", good anchors are "bike lights for night riding", "our night riding light picks", "the best lights for riding after dark".
Bad anchors are "click here", "this post", "read more", and the exact title in quotation marks every time.
Vary it. Ten links to one guide with ten identical anchors looks mechanical to Google and to readers. Ten links with five or six phrasings looks like a site that refers to its own pages the way a person would.
One keyword per anchor. "Best bike lights, helmets and locks" as the text of a link to the lights guide tells Google the target is about three things.
Links inside product sections
This is the placement most sites miss, and it's the most valuable. A product section in a guide is the most on-topic context a link to that product's review can have. The sentence that explains the product's trade-off is the natural spot: "lighter than the X but with half the battery, which the full review goes into".
The reader who wants depth gets it; the one who's decided clicks the Amazon button.
Do the reverse in the review. Its first paragraph says which guides it's a pick in and links to each, so the review isn't a dead end and the guides get a link from the page most specifically about one of their products.
Common mistakes
- Automated related-post widgets as the only linking. They link by date or category, not meaning, and Google discounts them.
- Linking only downward. Guides link to reviews; reviews link to nothing. Half the structure.
- Linking the same page from the same anchor everywhere. Reads as a template.
- Linking the affiliate URL in text and button. The text link should go to your review; the button to Amazon.
- Never linking old posts to new ones. A new guide gets links from the posts around it, or it's an orphan until someone remembers.
The twenty-minute weekly routine
- List this week's new posts. Usually two to five.
- For each, add its three links out (up, across, down), if the generator didn't already.
- Find three older pages that should link to it. The hub, the guide it's most related to, and any review of a product it ranks. Add a sentence with the link in each.
- Search the site for the new post's keyword. Any older page that mentions the topic without linking gets a link.
- Check the hub lists the new guide. Hubs go stale fastest.
That's it. Twenty minutes a week keeps a growing site connected; skipping it for three months produces the orphan problem the not-ranking post describes.
Doing it with AffSERP
AffSERP's X Best Review tool adds internal links when it writes a guide, to related guides already published on the same site, placed in the body text on the matching topic rather than in a widget, and falling back to a short related-guides block only when no natural anchor exists. That covers the new post's links out.
The links back in from older posts, the hub page, and the anchor wording that carries your opinion are steps 3 to 5 of the routine, and they stay with you. The shape it all follows is the one in the site-structure post.
FAQ
How many internal links should a buyer guide have?
At least three (up to the hub, across to a related guide, down to a review of a pick), and then one per product section where a review exists. A ten-product guide with reviews for six of its picks reasonably has nine or ten. More than that isn't harmful if each one has a reason; what hurts is zero.
Does anchor text matter for internal links?
Yes. It tells Google what the target page is about and tells the reader what they'll get. Use the target's keyword or a natural phrase containing it, and vary the wording across the site. Never 'click here', and never the identical phrase on every link to the same page.
Are sidebar and footer links worth anything?
A little, for crawling. Much less than a link in the body text, for ranking. Google treats navigation links as navigation. The links that move a page are the ones inside a paragraph that's about the thing being linked to.
Should I link to Amazon or to my own review from a product section?
Both, for different jobs. The 'Check price' button goes to Amazon and earns. A text link in the section goes to your review of that product and keeps the reader on your site. A reader who isn't ready to buy reads the review; one who is clicks the button.
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