Internal Linking Mistakes: What’s Quietly Hurting Your Blog Growth

Let me guess: at some point, you were told:

“Internal links are good for SEO.”

(Or maybe you just noticed other bloggers have internal links in every other paragraph…)

So you did what any responsible blogger would do.
You linked everything.

Every sentence became an opportunity.
Every keyword got an anchor.
Every post (or section/H2) ended with:

• Related:
• You may also like:
• Read next:

And yet…
Traffic didn’t improve. Readers didn’t click.
And somehow, internal linking became exhausting.

That’s because there’s a quiet internal linking mistake that hurts SEO more often than people realize:

There is such a thing as 🌈✨too many internal links✨🌈.
Let’s talk about it (as I just emerged from a full internal linking makeover).

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So let’s ensure your site is not getting outdated:
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Why “More Internal Links” Became Bad SEO Advice

This advice didn’t come from nowhere.

Years ago, internal linking was often treated like:

• spreading link equity everywhere
• making sure Google crawled everything
• maximizing keyword signals

But modern SEO doesn’t work like that anymore.

Google is no longer impressed by:

• volume
• repetition
• forced relevance

It’s looking for clarity.

And too many internal links create the opposite.

What Actually Happens When You Overlink

Overlinking doesn’t look “spammy” in the obvious way.
It looks busy.

Here’s what it quietly does:

1. It Dilutes Topical Signals

When one post links to 20 different topics, Google struggles to understand what that page is really about.

If everything is connected to everything…
nothing stands out.

2. It Creates Decision Fatigue for Readers

When readers see too many links:

• they stop noticing them
• they stop clicking
• they keep scrolling

Ironically, more links often mean fewer clicks.

3. It Hurts User Experience (Without You Realizing)

Links interrupt reading flow when they’re:

• irrelevant
• repetitive
• obviously forced

That affects:

• time on site
• pages per session
• overall engagement

All things modern SEO does care about.

My Overlinking Era (A Short, Honest Confession)

I used to link 15–25 internal posts per article. Yeah… 💀

Not because it made sense —
but because I felt like I had to.
It was like I’d feel anxious that I could, possibly, maybe lose an opportunity to guide a reader to every possible page they could, maybe, find interesting. Maybe.

I’d:

• hunt for excuses to add links
• force awkward anchor text
• sprinkle “related posts” sections everywhere

And the worst part?
Readers clicked on almost nothing.

I was spending hours editing posts…
for links nobody used.

That’s not strategy.

The Shift That Changed Everything

Eventually, I stopped asking:

“Where can I add another link?”

And started asking:

“What actually helps here?”

The answer was… fewer links.
But better ones.

The “Less Is More” Internal Linking Rule

Here’s what I do now:

• 3–6 internal links per support post
• Only when they’re:
  • topically relevant
  • helpful in that exact moment
  • natural in the sentence
    (this last one is HUGE in importance)

No forced anchors.
No link dumping.
No obligation to link just because a post exists.

And yes — this change mattered.

Within weeks of rebuilding my internal links this way:

• Google traffic increased significantly (108% actually ✨)
• Pageviews per session went up
• Active users increased
• Readers actually started clicking links again
• Average session duration went from 10 seconds (yeah… embarrassing, I know💔) to 1:43 minutes!

All because the links finally made sense.

Why This Works (From an SEO Perspective)

This approach works because it aligns with how Google evaluates content now:

• Clear topical focus
• Strong relationships between related pages
• Intentional site structure
• Better user behavior signals

See, this is what Google says about internal links:

(…) internal links can help both people and Google make sense of your site more easily and find other pages on your site. Every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site.

Instead of overwhelming Google with connections, you’re giving it clear paths.

And that’s exactly what internal links are meant to be.

Internal Linking Works Best With Structure (Not Guesswork)

This strategy only works because I rebuilt my site around a clear internal linking structure, so links are no longer random.

They’re guided by:

• topic clusters
• pillar and support content
• intentional site hierarchy

When you know where a post fits, you know:

• what to link to
• what not to link to
• and when to stop

Which, honestly, is a huge relief.
Before that, linking was one of my least favorite blogging tasks — too much wasted time trying to add two dozen posts from another two dozen posts.

The Hidden Benefit Nobody Talks About: Sanity

This change didn’t just help SEO.

It helped me.

• Editing old posts takes a fraction of the time
• Internal linking feels obvious instead of stressful
• I’m no longer trying to “optimize everything at once”

Clear strategy = calmer brain.

And for burned-out bloggers?
That matters more than any SEO trick.

What to Do Instead of Overlinking

If you want a simple starting point:

1. Identify your core topics
2. Link support posts up to their main page
3. Add only contextual links that help the reader right now
4. Ignore everything else (for now)

You don’t need perfection.
You need intention.

TL;DR (Because Of Course)

• Too many internal links dilute SEO signals
• Overlinking hurts UX and engagement
• Fewer, clearer links perform better
• Structure beats volume
• Your sanity is allowed to matter

Internal linking shouldn’t feel like a chore.
When done right, it’s one of the calmest parts of modern SEO.

FAQ

Read Next:
→ How to Keep Your Blog Updated & Growing (Without Burnout)
(I promise this ☝🏻 is not a fluff link, it’s in this post for an actual reason 😂)