For a Singapore SME adding a new service, begin with a practical question: which existing page would a potential customer reasonably visit before needing this information? Our recommended starting points are the services overview, a closely related service page and an article that explains the problem the new service addresses. Treat these as candidates to assess, rather than mandatory placements on every website.

Google recommends making content easily findable through internal links. Its sitemap guidance also explains that proper linking lets important pages be reached through navigation or links placed on other pages. Sources: Google AI features guidance, Google sitemap guidance.

Create a short working list with four fields: existing page, reader’s question, proposed link wording and destination. Reject a proposed link if you cannot explain why someone reading that paragraph would want to follow it. For a small team, nominate one person to approve the placements and one person to implement them; these can be the same person.

Hypothetical example: an office-cleaning company introduces post-renovation cleaning. Assess its services overview and an office-reopening checklist as potential entry points. Do not add the new link to an unrelated recruitment article simply to increase the total. Our editorial recommendation for this hypothetical Singapore cleaning business is to ask the service owner to confirm its actual service area, work scope and enquiry contact route before publication.

2. Give each placement a specific job

Google’s sitemap guidance describes proper linking as making important pages reachable through navigation or links on other pages. Source: Google sitemap guidance. Our editorial recommendation for applying that principle is to use the services overview to help readers choose between services. Place the new entry beside the most relevant category and add a short explanation of the need it addresses. In our workflow, reserve a main-menu position for a service you deliberately choose as a primary route. These placement choices are our editorial interpretation of the discovery principle.

Use a related service page to explain a meaningful relationship. Write the distinction before the link: when should a visitor continue with the current service, and when should they inspect the alternative? Avoid presenting two differently named services as interchangeable unless that accurately reflects your offering.

Google’s helpful-content guidance asks whether readers learn enough to achieve their goal and whether content serves an intended audience. Source: Google helpful-content guidance. Our editorial recommendation is to put an article link where the reader moves from understanding the problem to deciding what to do next. Use those self-assessment questions to judge whether a commercial link helps the article’s intended reader.

Hypothetical example: a reopening checklist could say, “If renovation work has finished, review our post-renovation cleaning scope before planning the handover.” Link the service name to the relevant page. Keep the checklist useful even for someone who decides not to enquire.

For this workflow, write link text that names the service or the decision the destination helps someone make. Prefer “Post-renovation cleaning scope” to an isolated “Learn more”. Read the surrounding sentence aloud: it should explain why the link appears there without requiring a promotional slogan or repeated location keywords.

Next, open the destination and compare its first visible heading and opening explanation with the link wording. If the link promises a scope comparison, provide that comparison or change the promise. If the destination only invites an enquiry, do not describe it as a detailed planning guide. This is an editorial consistency check, not a claim that a particular phrase produces higher rankings.

Keep essential service information in text on the destination page. Google includes making important content available in textual form among its SEO fundamentals. A clearly named link is therefore only one part of this proposed workflow; also check what readers find after following it. Source: Google AI features guidance.

Hypothetical example: a link labelled “Compare routine and post-renovation cleaning” should lead to a page that actually explains those options. If the page only covers post-renovation work, relabel the link accordingly. Ask the service owner to verify the distinction before publication.

4. Test the route and keep a maintenance record

Before publishing, start at your homepage on a phone and try to find the service without typing its URL or using a search engine. Repeat the exercise from each proposed article or related service page. Check whether the link opens the intended page, whether the wording still makes sense in context and whether the destination offers a relevant next step. Ask someone unfamiliar with the edit to try the same task and note where they hesitate.

Save the approved source pages, destination URL, link wording and responsible owner in your working list. Revisit this list when a service is renamed, combined with another service or withdrawn. Our suggested acceptance check is simple: every approved route works, every placement has an explained purpose and every destination fulfils its link’s promise.

Do not treat a sitemap entry as proof that this navigation task is finished. Google says sitemaps help discover URLs but do not guarantee crawling or indexing. Source: Google sitemap guidance.

Likewise, do not sell the exercise as a guaranteed AI citation technique. Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode need no special optimization beyond relevant SEO foundations, and eligibility does not guarantee inclusion. This guidance concerns Google Search’s AI features, not every independent AI assistant. Judge this workflow first by whether customers can find and understand the service. Source: Google AI features guidance.

Our recommendation is to assess main-menu placement for each service. Use the services overview as a clear route to individual services, and reserve a main-menu entry for a service you choose as a primary route.

Google’s supporting principle is that important pages can be reached through navigation or links on other pages. Source: Google sitemap guidance. The menu checklist above is our editorial recommendation.

How many internal links should I add to the new page?

Our recommendation is to assess each proposed link by relevance, rather than set a fixed quota. Add a link when you can name the reader’s question and explain why the destination helps. Start with the services overview and assess related pages individually.

Google recommends making content easily findable through internal links. Source: Google AI features guidance. That is the supporting principle; the relevance checklist is our editorial recommendation.

No. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode require no special optimization beyond relevant SEO foundations, and meeting requirements does not guarantee inclusion. Use this linking exercise to establish useful routes to your service information, rather than promising a citation or ranking outcome. Source: Google AI features guidance.