Internal links are the links between pages on your own dental website, and Google says it uses links both to find new pages and to judge how relevant they are. A good internal linking plan makes sure every service and patient-education page is linked from at least one other page, uses descriptive anchor text instead of "click here", and keeps the wording inside the RCDSO's advertising rules.
Have you ever published a new page on your practice website and then wondered why nobody, including Google, seems to find it? As of October 2026, internal linking is still one of the least glamorous and most overlooked parts of dental SEO. It costs nothing, needs no plugin, and is entirely in your control. This guide continues our technical SEO series for practices in Toronto and the GTA, after title tags, Core Web Vitals, image alt text, sitemaps and plain language.
What is internal linking, and why does it matter for dental SEO?
An internal link is any link from one page on your site to another page on the same site: your home page linking to your services page, a blog post linking to your sedation page, a footer linking to your contact page. External links point to other websites.
Google is direct about why links matter. Its Search Central documentation says Google "uses links as a signal when determining the relevancy of pages and to find new pages to crawl." Its SEO Starter Guide adds that Google "primarily finds pages through links from other pages it already crawled." In other words, links are how search engines discover your pages and how they work out what each page is about.
For a dental practice, that has a practical consequence. A page about pediatric dentistry, emergency appointments or CDCP billing that no other page links to is hard to find for patients and crawlers alike. Google's own guidance treats links as the main way pages get discovered, so a sitemap is no substitute for linking.
How do you make sure every page gets found?
Google's guidance on links includes one line that works as a checklist on its own: "Every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site." A page that no other page links to is often called an orphan page, and orphan pages are common on dental websites. They usually come from three habits:
- A landing page was built for an ad campaign and never linked from the main navigation.
- A blog post was published but never linked from related service pages or older posts.
- A service was renamed, a new page was created, and the old menu link still points to the old URL.
Pro Tip: Export the list of URLs from your XML sitemap and, for each one, find at least one other page on your site that links to it. Any URL with zero internal links goes on a fix list.
Build a simple structure first
Most dental websites work well with a hub-and-spoke structure. Your home page links to a main services page (the hub). The hub links to each individual service page (the spokes). Each service page links back to the hub and across to patient-education articles that answer common questions about that treatment. Those articles, in turn, link back to the relevant service page.
Google's SEO Starter Guide discusses grouping similar pages in directories, though it frames that advice for sites with more than a few thousand URLs, which is larger than most practice websites. Even on a small site, keeping service pages under one folder (for example, /services/) and articles under another (for example, /blog/) gives the structure a tidy shape in the URL as well as in the navigation. The same guide recommends URLs with words "that may be useful for users," and warns that a URL made only of random identifiers "is less helpful."
How should you write anchor text on a dental website?
Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. Google's documentation describes good anchor text as "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to the page that it's on and to the page it links to." It suggests a quick test: read only the anchor text, out of context, and check whether it makes sense on its own.
Apply that test to a typical practice site:
- "Click here" and "learn more" fail. Out of context, they tell neither the patient nor Google anything.
- "Root canal treatment" and "what to expect at your child's first dental visit" pass. Both describe the destination page in plain words.
- "Best root canal dentist Toronto GTA cheap emergency" fails twice: it reads as keyword stuffing, and it uses a superlative (more on that below).
Google is explicit about the last point. Its guidance asks you to "write as naturally as possible, and resist the urge to cram every keyword," and states that "keyword stuffing is a violation of our spam policies."
Context and placement matter too
Google notes that "the words before and after links matter, so pay attention to the sentence as a whole." A link inside a helpful sentence ("If your tooth is sensitive to cold for days after a filling, our page on tooth sensitivity explains common causes") gives more context than a bare list of links. Google also advises against chaining links next to each other, because it is harder for readers to tell them apart. A footer with forty service links squeezed together helps nobody.
If you use images as links, such as a photo tile that links to your implant page, Google says it uses the image's alt attribute as the anchor text. That is one more reason to write real alt text, as covered in our earlier image SEO guide.
Pro Tip: Ask a team member who did not write the website to read only the link text on your home page and services page aloud. Any link they cannot describe the destination of is a link to rewrite.
How do the RCDSO advertising rules apply to internal links?
For Ontario dentists, anchor text and the pages it points to are part of your practice's advertising. The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO) Advertising Guidelines say dentists should "personally control any and all printed and/or electronic material about your practice," and the guidelines define professional advertising to include material produced by someone on a practice's behalf. That covers your web developer and any agency writing pages for you.
The guidelines list content that could breach the advertising regulation, including superlative or comparative terms such as "state of the art" or "cutting edge", testimonials or statements that can only be verified by a person's personal feelings or views, incentive programs such as giveaways, contests, draws or free products or services, statements that are unclear, untrue or misleading, and statements that create an expectation of favourable results. For internal linking, that means:
- No superlatives in anchor text. "Best," "leading," "#1" and "most advanced" do not belong in links any more than in headlines.
- No links that showcase testimonials on your own site, and no links to pages offering free consultations, giveaways or contests. If you advertise a fee, the guidelines set conditions for doing so; read them first.
- Disclose your registration on service pages. The guidelines say that if an advertisement refers to an area of dental practice, a procedure or a treatment, you must clearly disclose whether you are registered with the College as a general practitioner or a specialist, and if a specialist, in which specialty. A page and anchor text such as "children's dentistry" on a general practice site should make that status clear.
- No promise of outcomes. Anchor text like "pain-free implants" or "guaranteed whiter smile" creates an expectation of results.
- Accurate destinations. A link labelled "CDCP patients welcome" should go to a page that explains, accurately, how your practice handles the plan.
Where a phrase sits in a grey area, check the full guidelines or contact the RCDSO before publishing. Descriptive, factual anchor text is both the safest choice under the guidelines and the one Google's documentation recommends.
What about links to other websites?
Your patient-education pages will sometimes point outward: to the Canadian Dental Association, to the Government of Canada's Canadian Dental Care Plan pages, or to a public health unit in Peel, York or Toronto. Google's guidance says "linking to other sites isn't something to be scared of," and asks you to use nofollow "only when you don't trust the source, and not for every external link on your site." Its starter guide adds a simpler test: make sure you trust the resource you are linking to.
For a dental website, authoritative Canadian sources such as regulators, government pages and professional associations are usually the right choice when you cite a fact. They also reinforce the accuracy patients expect from a health care provider.
An internal linking checklist for your practice website
- Every service page is linked from the main services page and from at least one other relevant page.
- Every blog or patient-education article links to the service page it relates to.
- No link uses "click here," "read more" or "learn more" as its only text.
- No anchor text contains superlatives, outcome promises or keyword strings.
- Links are standard HTML links (Google says it can generally crawl a link only if it is an
<a>element with an href that resolves to a real web address). - Old URLs in menus and footers point to the current pages, not to retired ones.
- Image links have meaningful alt text.
- External links point to sources you trust, with
nofollowreserved for those you do not.
Internal linking will not transform your search visibility overnight, but it removes a common and avoidable reason good pages go unseen. What is the oldest page on your practice website that nothing links to, and what would it take to give it a home this week? For more practical marketing guides written for Canadian dental practices, visit EBIKO Dental.
Sources
- Google Search Central. Link best practices for Google.
- Google Search Central. SEO Starter Guide.
- Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario. Advertising Guidelines.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why are internal links important for a dental practice website?
Google says it uses links to find new pages and as a signal of how relevant pages are. Internal links help patients and search engines reach your service and patient-education pages; Google advises that every page you care about should be linked from at least one other page on your site.
Q: What is good anchor text for dental website links?
Google describes good anchor text as descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both pages. Use plain descriptions such as "root canal treatment" instead of "click here," and avoid stuffing keywords, which Google says violates its spam policies.
Q: Do RCDSO advertising rules apply to website link text in Ontario?
The RCDSO Advertising Guidelines say dentists should personally control all printed and electronic material about their practice, and they restrict superlatives, testimonials and incentive programs. Keep anchor text factual and avoid words like "best" or promises of results.