Connect Your Services and Supporting Pages

Maple Street CPA has drafted a clearer homepage and a separate Monthly Accounting & Advisory page. The homepage introduces the practice; the service page explains what ongoing support involves.

Now imagine a business owner reading the improved homepage. They've come across the words monthly accounting and advisory, and they're interested. But they still want to know what the service includes and whether it's right for their business.

Where should they go next?

The homepage can't answer every question. That's why Maple Street needs to make it easy for visitors to move from a short introduction to more detailed information.

There's one practical complication: both improved pages are still drafts. The live homepage still has its older wording, and the new advisory page isn't published. Maple Street can decide where links should go without pretending those links already work.

An internal link takes someone from one page of a website to another page on the same website. It's how a reader can move from an overview to the details they need.

A navigation menu also contains internal links. But a link doesn't have to appear in the menu. It can sit naturally within a sentence when one subject leads to another.

For example, Maple Street can plan this sentence for its improved homepage:

If you need continuing help with reports and understanding your business finances, explore our monthly accounting and advisory services.

The words monthly accounting and advisory services would become a link to the dedicated service page once that page is published. Until then, the sentence is part of the draft, not a working link on the website.

The words people can click are called anchor text. Good anchor text gives a useful idea of the destination. Someone should understand what they'll find without having to guess.

This matters to search engines too. Google uses links to discover pages and understand how they relate to one another. That doesn't mean inserting more links automatically improves rankings. The links still need to be useful and the pages need to be accessible.

Let's look at four moments where someone might need another page on Maple Street's website. Select each situation to see what the firm should do next.

Notice that not every situation ends with adding a link immediately. Sometimes the right next step is to check whether the destination exists, read an article before editing it, or confirm how people can contact the firm.

Start with the homepage and priority service

Once Maple Street's new advisory page has been reviewed and published, the updated homepage can include a short service summary with a descriptive link to it. The service page then answers the more detailed questions: what's included, who it's for and how the working relationship starts.

The connection makes sense because the two pages do different jobs.

The homepage says: “Here's what our accounting practice helps with.”
The service page says: “Here's what our monthly accounting and advisory work involves.”

A person might arrive directly on the service page from Google and never visit the homepage. That's fine. The service page should still make sense on its own and provide a way to enquire once the enquiry route is verified.

Check other service pages instead of guessing

Maple Street also offers business tax preparation and bookkeeping support. But the team hasn't confirmed whether it already has suitable dedicated pages for those services.

It would be a mistake to add Business Tax Services to the menu and send visitors to an address that hasn't been checked. The next step is to inspect the existing website, find any relevant live page and decide whether it needs improving.

The same applies to a contact link. A button is only useful if the email, form, phone number or booking route behind it actually works.

Use articles when the connection is helpful

Maple Street has 15 short tax articles on its website. That doesn't mean all 15 should link to the new advisory service page.

Imagine one article discusses keeping business financial records organised throughout the year. A link to ongoing accounting support could help a reader who wants assistance with that work. But an article about a narrow filing deadline may not need the same link at all.

First read the article. Then ask: Would this link help someone take a sensible next step from the information they're reading? If not, leave it out.

Maple Street has also considered a new guide comparing bookkeeping with monthly financial reporting. That's still just an idea. The team shouldn't add a menu item or link to it before it exists.

Here's another sentence for Maple Street's homepage draft:

Growing businesses may need more than basic bookkeeping. Learn about our ________.

Which wording would best help someone understand the page they'll reach?

Natural wording is usually better than repeating every search phrase you hope to rank for. The best link describes the destination rather than trying to squeeze in extra keywords.

No. A menu is there to help people find the most important parts of a website. It shouldn't turn into a list of every service variation and every article.

Maple Street could consider adding Monthly Accounting & Advisory to its main navigation because that is an important service it wants to make easier to find. But that decision only makes sense after checking the site's existing navigation and making sure the new page has a working published address.

Other useful connections might belong in the page content instead. A relevant tax article could link to the service page from a paragraph. The service page could direct someone with a different need to the appropriate tax information, once that destination is verified.

This is a simple way to think about the difference:

A page can use more than one kind of link. The question isn't “How many links can we add?” It's “What does a visitor need next?”

Before Maple Street changes the website, the team makes four simple checks.

1. The destination exists. The target page is published, or the team knows a suitable live page already exists. An unpublished draft isn't a public destination.
2. The destination fits the promise. A link labelled Monthly Accounting & Advisory shouldn't lead to a generic tax page.
3. The link works. Someone can click it on a phone or computer and reach the intended page, without an error or an unwanted detour.
4. The surrounding page still makes sense. The link helps a reader and doesn't replace a clear explanation with a string of repeated keywords.

If a published page is difficult for Google to access, adding links alone may not solve the problem. Keep any technical issue identified in your website review on your action list.

Google can generally follow ordinary website links when they lead to real addresses. If your website uses a special menu, button or page builder, it is worth testing the live result rather than assuming the editor's preview is enough.

The advisory page draft is complete but unpublished. The homepage revision is also a draft. Maple Street hasn't confirmed its other service-page addresses or the enquiry route.

What is the most sensible next action?

Maple Street can review the service copy and check the enquiry route first. Once the firm approves and publishes the page, it can verify the live address and add relevant links.

Clear service pages and useful internal links help make a website easier to explore and understand. Google's guidance says these ordinary SEO practices still matter for its AI-powered Search features.

But an internal-link plan cannot guarantee that ChatGPT, Google or another AI service will mention or recommend an accounting firm. Accurate, accessible pages and useful connections are a sound foundation, not a special AI recommendation trick.

Use your earlier service choice and drafts if you have them. Otherwise, pick a service you genuinely offer and identify the page or section where visitors can learn more. Your priority may be business tax preparation, bookkeeping, advisory or something else you genuinely offer.

You might already have a service page that only needs a clearer link from your homepage. You might have a new page draft, as Maple Street does. Or you might need to check which pages are already live.

Start with just one useful connection: Where should a visitor go after reading about your priority service on your homepage? Write the link sentence, then record what must be checked before you add it.

If you don't have a website yet, that's fine. You're planning the route a future visitor should take, not claiming that a page is already live.

Maple Street now has a sensible connection plan. A visitor can move from the firm's overview to a detailed service explanation when the new page is live, then towards an enquiry route once the firm confirms it works. The team will review existing tax articles individually and confirm other pages before linking to them.

For your own chosen service, you can now plan a useful path with clear link words and a practical check before anything is published.

Next: Lesson 8, Local SEO for Accounting Firms. We'll look at when a real local accounting practice can appear in local search, and what changes for an online-only firm.