techniques
Internal link graph
The network of links between your own pages — engines use it to discover content + transfer authority within your site.
Definition
The internal link graph is the directed graph formed by all <a href> links between pages on the same domain. Engines crawl pages by following links; pages with no internal links pointing to them ('orphan pages') are systematically under-discovered. Pages with many incoming internal links get treated as more important. The internal link graph also distributes authority — a strong pillar page can lift weak supporting pages.
Example
A blog post about 'AEO best practices' linked from the /aeo pillar page + 5 related posts will rank higher than a post with zero internal links pointing to it.How to optimize
Audit orphan pages. Ensure every page has 3+ incoming internal links from related content. Use a contextual link strategy: link from body text, not just sidebars.