Internal linking architecture: rebuilding navigation without losing link equity

Module 49: Redesigning Your Wix Site Without Losing Rankings | Lesson 551 of 687 | 44 min read

Internal linking is the circulatory system of your Wix site SEO. It distributes authority from your homepage and high-authority pages to deeper pages, helps Google understand your site structure and topic relationships, and guides users through your content. During a redesign, navigation changes, page reorganisation, and content restructuring can break this circulatory system, cutting off pages from the authority they need to rank. This lesson covers how to rebuild your internal linking architecture during a redesign without losing the link equity your pages depend on.

How Internal Links Affect Rankings During a Redesign

Google distributes PageRank (link authority) through internal links. Pages linked from your homepage receive the most authority. Pages three or more clicks deep receive less. During a redesign, changing your navigation can move pages from 2 clicks to 4 clicks from the homepage, dramatically reducing their authority and ranking potential.

Mapping Your Current Internal Link Structure

Document your existing internal link architecture before the redesign

Run Screaming Frog and export the Internal Link report showing every internal link on your site
Note the click depth of every page: how many clicks from the homepage to reach it
Identify your most-linked-to internal pages (highest InLinks count in the crawl)
Map your current navigation structure: main menu items, submenu items, footer links, and sidebar links
Document contextual links (links within body content) on your top 20 pages
Identify any orphan pages (pages with zero internal links pointing to them)

Planning the New Internal Link Architecture

The redesign is your opportunity to build a better internal linking structure. Plan it deliberately rather than letting it emerge from design decisions.

Every important page should be reachable within 3 clicks from the homepage
Your main navigation should link to your highest-priority category or service pages
Create topic clusters: hub pages linking to related spoke pages and vice versa
Ensure every blog post links to at least 2-3 related blog posts and 1 service/product page
Every service or product page should link to related services/products and relevant blog content
Footer links should include high-priority pages not in the main navigation
Breadcrumb navigation should be implemented showing the full page hierarchy

Preserving Critical Link Equity During Redesign

Steps to preserve and improve internal link equity

For every page in Group A (high-traffic, ranking pages), ensure the number of internal links pointing to it does not decrease
If a page currently receives 15 internal links and the redesign reduces that to 5, add contextual links from relevant pages to restore the count
Maintain or reduce click depth for high-priority pages (they should not move further from the homepage)
If merging pages, ensure the merged page receives internal links from all the sources that previously linked to the separate pages
Update all contextual links within body content to point to new URLs (do not rely solely on redirects for internal links)
After the redesign, crawl the new site and compare internal link counts per page against the pre-redesign data

Internal Links Should Not Rely on Redirects: While 301 redirects preserve authority for external backlinks, internal links should always point directly to the current URL. If an internal link goes through a redirect, it is slightly slower and may lose a small amount of authority. During your redesign, update all internal links to point to the new URLs directly.

Internal linking architecture infographic for Wix redesign showing link equity flow mapping click depth analysis topic cluster planning and preservation strategies for maintaining page authority during restructuring — Internal links distribute authority through your site. Rebuilding them deliberately during a redesign prevents ranking losses from broken link equity flow.

Complete How-To Guide: Rebuilding Internal Links During Your Wix Redesign

Follow these steps to rebuild your internal link architecture

Export your pre-redesign internal link data from Screaming Frog
Create a spreadsheet showing each page with: current internal links in, current click depth, current internal links out
Plan the new navigation structure on paper or in a tool before implementing in Wix
Verify every Group A page will have equal or more internal links in the new structure
Verify every important page is within 3 clicks from the homepage in the new structure
In the Wix editor, build the new navigation matching your plan
Update all contextual links within body content to point to new URLs (not through redirects)
Add breadcrumb navigation using Wix native breadcrumbs or custom implementation
Add related links sections to product and service pages linking to related offerings
Add internal links within blog posts to relevant service pages and related articles
After the redesign launches, run a new Screaming Frog crawl and compare internal link metrics
Identify any pages that lost significant internal links and add links from relevant pages to restore equity

Final Checkpoint: Every Group A page should have equal or more internal links than before the redesign. No important page should be more than 3 clicks from the homepage. All internal links should point to current URLs, not through redirects. Zero orphan pages should exist.

This lesson on Internal linking architecture: rebuilding navigation without losing link equity is part of Module 49: Redesigning Your Wix Site Without Losing Rankings in The Most Comprehensive Complete Wix SEO Course in the World (2026 Edition). Created by Michael Andrews, the UK's No.1 Wix SEO Expert with 14 years of hands-on experience, 750+ completed Wix SEO projects and 425+ verified five-star reviews.