Internal linking is extremely important to the success of SEO and play an important role on any website. Its course of action enables search engines, likewise users easily discover contents, but yet it receives a trival part of the credit.
Inbound links, usually called backlinks [links from one site to different sites], more often than not get the most attention and credit in SEO. Let's get started on the basics every beginner should be aware of with respect to linking and how to get started.
What is an internal link?
An internal link is a link [mostly text-based hyperlink] from the [source] page that points to another [target] page on the same website– establishing a connection between the two pages. The navigation links in the main navigation menu are typical examples of internal links.
Although this article is based on links on the pages; internal links are still used to navigate between these pages. Internal links provide a unique opportunity for websites to improve user experience, online presence, and SEO strategies. Internal links are used not only for navigation, but also for search; used for optimization purposes.
Content marketing focuses more on links from one article to another, but internal links can be found in many places on a typical web page. In addition to publisher links, internal links also include navigation links, image links, call-to-action buttons, links in banner ads; basically any link to another page on your website.
Advantages of internal linking?
Before you begin to develop the internal linking strategy and structure of the site, you should understand the benefits of the internal linking. Take a look at some of these benefits:
- Search Engine Optimization: SEO is all about getting pages to rank higher in search engines such as Google. Internal links bring performance from one page to another, that is, more authority will be passed on to your most important pages (because the subpages link to the central page and vice versa.); spreading link equity around the website.
Internal links convey authority between the pages of your website. They do not increase the authority of your domain, but pass "page authority" between pages. Internal links allow pages to help each other rank in search engines.
- Behavioral Indicators: These behavior are observable and they indicate the presence of the particular competency. Because your links point to your entire website, your audience is more likely to follow them. This reduces the bounce rate and increases the number of pages per session, and the time spent on the site.
- The above indicators can improve your SEO statistics and help your website rank in the long term for corresponding search query.
- Internal links can also help increase PageRank on your website. Generally speaking, the more internal links on the page, the higher the PageRank. However, it is not just quantity that matters; the quality of the connection also plays a decisive role.
- Easy to use (usability/user experience): Linked pages allow your audience to navigate from one related page to the other. They guide visitors to relevant and valuable content and the experience of users on your website is much better because it is easier for users to find their way out.
- It makes it easier for crawlers to understand the structure of your website.
- Both your users and search engines use links to find content they want on your website. Search engines also use links to browse your website; if there is no link to a page, search engines will not find the page.
- Conversion Rate Optimization: Your content linking can lead visitors to different pages, i.e., they enable you to direct visitors to revenue generating pages.
The advantage of non-internal links:
- Links from other websites "backlinks" to your website will be passed to domain authority, which will increase the authority (and ranking potential) of all pages on your website.
Transfer of the ranking potential of a link from one website to another, and from one page to another; when a page links to another page, it transfers some of its credibility to that page and gives a second page the possibility of being ranked.
The purpose of internal linking?
Good question! Why are internal links so important?
- They help in navigation of the website.
- Distribute page authority and rankings throughout the website.
- Create a structure and information hierarchy on the website.
For all the different articles and pages you publish on your website, making the most of your website and your work depends on how you link the pages. Internal links are very important for link building because you can control everything through them, from their position on the page to the text anchor.
This is ignored by most consultants, huge mistake! Be sure to cite your content to other posts or pages so that you can link to them.
What is the SEO purpose for adding links throughout your content?
- Adding affiliate links to your content will bring more revenue to your business.
- Linking to your product pages will increase your sales and increase the number of visits on these pages.
Are internal links good for search engine optimization?
Internal links are most useful in structuring a website and promoting link equity. This is useful because link equity can flow through the site, increasing the ranking potential of each page.
Why is internal linking important to Google for SEO?
Internal links are an important factor for Google and other search engines, but why?
Google will use links to find content on the site and rank it in search results. If a post or page receives a large number of links, it indicates to Google that this is an important or valuable article.
Internal links are controlled by you as the website owner. With correct internal links, you can direct visitors and Google to your most important pages. Google crawls websites by tracking internal and external links using bots called Google bots. The bot logs on to the homepage of the website, starts rendering the page, and follows the first link. By clicking on the link, Google can determine the relationship between different pages, posts, and other content. This is how Google can find out which pages of your website cover similar topics.
Google also uses internal links to find new content because it must constantly look for new pages and add them to its list of famous pages. Some pages are known because Google crawled them before. When Google follows a link from a known page to a new page, other pages will be found. Pages without internal links are called "orphaned" pages.
What role do internal links play in SEO?
The most valuable quality of internal links is that they can convey linking juice-they can tell Google which pages on your site are most important. Internal links as opposed to backlinks do not completely increase the authority of your website, but they can help you rank certain pages in search.
This is mainly for user-friendliness, but the logical structure of the website has also been simplified, which allows search engines to index more pages per visit. Google will also look at the anchor text of internal links to better understand the context. A particular topic does not necessarily mean it is worth ranking for related keywords. Google also claims that the structure of internal links affects site links. This is not important, but it should be kept in mind anyway.
Types of internal links?
There are different types of internal links. In addition to adding links to the homepage, menus, news feeds, etc., you can also add links to content. We call them contextual links. Contextual links direct your users to interesting content. In addition, they allow search engines to see what content on your website is linked to and determine the value of that content. The more links an important page gets, the more important it is in search engines. Therefore, good internal links are essential.
What is the value of links?
Google not only understands the relationship between content, but also shares the link value between all links on a web page. In many cases, the link value of the homepage of the website is the highest because it has the most backlinks. The value of the link passed to the next page is split between the links on that page, and so on. There's the importance of optimizing your blog posts to keep them in sync with related content, because when you switch from the homepage to a new blog post on the site, these links have a high link value. So be sure to do this, because Google will also find new posts.
In short, Google likes pages with a lot of valuable links because they also convey their value. Ultimately, in this case, your website will rank higher.
What SEO tools do you need?
In order to create internal links, you need some high-quality SEO tools to save time and get the best results.
How to use internal links to drive organic traffic?
This is an important factor in search engine optimization. Search engine robots (called crawlers) rely on your internal links to find pages on your website. Learn about the content of these pages and the relationship between them in the anchor text in the link. If search engines like Google can’t easily find your pages, they can’t index them, that is search engines cannot index your pages or display them in search results.
Internal links can also help visitors spend more time on the site. When someone visits your website and clicks on an internal link, they add certain metrics, which search engines use to measure the usefulness of your page. When you engage to readers, such as when they click on another page on their website, search engines will show that your website is valuable to visitors.
These positive signals, such as higher page views and lower bounce rates, can help your page rank higher in search results and thereby driving organic traffic.
How to set up and build your internal linking structure and strategy for SEO? [Getting started]
Internal links can help spread inbound link results to pages that need help improving their search engines in the future. It’s important to your users, and you can also earn revenue from more conversions. The number of internal links per page is a signal to search engines about the relative importance of the page.
You need to think smarter, it all starts with the initial structure of your website. Internal links are not the only way to improve the PageRank of a page. Backlinks can also help. They are also part of the overall structure of our website and have internal links, but it is the links from external sources that give these pages their power.
Creating internal links from relevant and authoritative pages to pages that need to be promoted is a wise strategy. The following are the best practices for building internal links, which you can incorporate into the internal structure and strategy of your website.
Best practices for a good SEO internal linking strategy
Internal links can connect your content and let Google understand the structure of your website. Create a hierarchy on your website to provide more important pages with higher link values instead of other pages with lower values.Therefore, using the correct internal linking strategy can improve your SEO! Strategic internal linking is a powerful SEO technique, especially for content marketing.
You can use the following two strategies to improve internal links. I have seen many strategies, but these two have the greatest impact on search engine optimization and ranking.
- Develop an actual internal linking strategy.
For the SEO of your website, it is important to regularly evaluate and improve your internal linking strategy. Adding the correct internal links ensures that Google understands: the relevance of the page; the relationship between the pages; and the value of the page. There are a few things to keep in mind when setting up an internal linking strategy. How exactly you do this depends on your website and goals, but the following steps are a good rule of thumb.
- Links that affect search engine ranking (SEO).
Some of your pages are more authoritative than others.These are the pages you have linked to from other pages. The best example is your homepage. Links from these pages to other pages convey more authority and SEO value. Some of your pages have more permissions than others. These pages may rank but not so high. They can be located on the second page. If so, a little more authority can go a long way. Linking to these pages can help improve your ranking. Switching from the first page type to the second page type is simple, free, and fast, and will have an impact on rankings and traffic.
This is a process to find the two types of pages and the best internal link opportunities.
1. Which pages have the most authority?
You can make use of SEO tools such as Moz or free tools such as Google Search Console to accomplish this. In Moz, it shows you all the pages sorted by page authority. Links from the most authoritative pages provide you with the highest ranking. These are the pages you want to click on the link.
Google Search Console shows the pages with the most inbound links and therefore the highest authority. Google Search Console also has a report showing which of your pages already have the most internal links to them.
2. Which of your pages is almost at the top?
Use Google Analytics (free) or SEMrush (paid, but easier) to find almost ranking high pages. We will perform an SEO analysis and find the page that ranks correctly in the search results, but just after the critical point of the second page.
Hopefully, you find some great pages at the top of the second page, ready to acquire more credibility and higher visibility. Now you know exactly what page(s) to quote, that is, take account of.
Best practices for creating a perfect internal link structure for SEO
Start with creating a perfect internal link structure.
Ideally, when structuring a website, you should put the most important information first. Consider how you would plan to use elements such as clear subject lines and bold openings to attract your audience in email marketing, because the structure of your website is similar to this. Also, keep in mind that the average user spends less than 15 seconds on the website, so it’s important to draw them in.
It's recommended for website owners to display their websites in the form of a pyramid. At the top is your homepage, at the bottom are some sections or categories, and at the bottom of that are individual articles and pages (subcategories may be in the middle), that is, you think of your website as a pyramid, with the most important content at the top and the least important content at the bottom.
Most websites have the same page at the top of the pyramid-their home page. They have the following pages in order of importance after the home page: about us, services, products, blogs, etc. Below them are a few less important pages: separate pages containing products and services, blog posts, etc. But you should not link all pages at one level of hierarchy. It is necessary to consider relevance.
Maintain a tight website structure.
Google’s algorithms are constantly improving to get more information about your website. However, you are responsible for organizing your content into a tight structure so that Google can better understand your site. Think about it: Google relies on robots to crawl your website and understand its structure, determine relevant content, and forward that information to its army of servers.
This is not an easy task, so if you organize it logically, you can help Google understand your content and crawl your site more efficiently. In addition, organizing your content into groups will also help your audience navigate your website. This means that the design of the page content not only affects your Google ranking, but also directly affects the usability of your page to readers.
Creating links to other websites can help improve your online image, and developing a reliable internal link structure can also help your website rank higher and increase conversion rates. One way to help Google understand your content and improve your SERP ranking is to maintain a tight structure throughout your website. This means that your website not only needs to be specially organized in order to group all similar content into a structure, but also helping your audience understand your content, and maintaining Google’s ranking is also important. On your website.
By following the basic rules of internal link structure, you can improve the user experience and develop a more effective SEO strategy for you.
Decide what content is most important to you.
Next, you need to determine which content is most important to you. In short, this is your best and most comprehensive content; this is the essence of your website. This is what you want users to find when searching for a topic or product that you specialize in.
Since you want Google to know that this is your most important content, you should add links to link to your cornerstone content.
Add contextual links.
If you have written multiple articles on a particular topic, you should link them together. It will show your users likewise Google that these articles are subject-related. You can link directly from the sentences or add a link at the end of the post.
In addition, you want to show Google which of these articles is your cornerstone-the most comprehensive article on the subject. To do this, you need to add a link to the cornerstone in all articles on the subject.
Link hierarchical pages.
If your website contains hierarchical pages, link the parent page to the child page, and vice versa. Also, don't forget to link the sub-sites to each other. In a well-organized site, these pages should be linked together. In the hierarchical post type, you can place the post in a specific hierarchy by selecting the parent page. This usually means that the parent page deals with general topics and groups several sub-pages by topic. You have only one parent page, but a parent page can have multiple child pages. Therefore, a subpage can have subpages of the same level.
Try to add navigation links.
Not only can you link to posts and related pages, but you can also create key basic content by adding links from the homepage or top navigation bar. For this, you need to use the posts and pages that are most important to your business. This provides higher link value to these posts or pages and makes them more effective in the eyes of Google.
Add a link to your taxonomy.
Taxonomies yield the organization and identification of information regarding a website's marketing activities. It's also an hierarchical structure.
Categories and tags can help you organize your website and help users and Google understand what your content is about. If you have a blog, adding internal links to post categories can be helpful. By adding links from categories and tags, Google can better understand the structure of your blog and make it easier for visitors to navigate to related posts.
Let the linking begin
At the end of this article, you should have familiarized yourself with the important basics to immediately start linking and promoting your website.
Internal links are a powerful ranking factor, not as powerful as backlinks, but they are worth the effort. Like backlinks, internal links can pass linking juice (authority) and inform Google which pages are most important.
As a reward, internal links help provide a better user experience, higher conversion rates, and more efficient website crawling; a well planned out linking won't only help achieve the following, but also increase your website's chances of ranking. This is certainly a legitimate way to improve rankings and overall website performance while implementing a strong strategy and structure.
