Often overlooked, internal linking is an essential component in a site’s search engine optimization. Internal networking allows Internet users to navigate through a website from page to page until they find the information they are looking for.
When a site has not optimized its internal links to offer smoother navigation to Internet users, its content is more challenging to find and directly contributes to its bounce rate. Building internal links is part of On-page optimization.
Internal links are a type of link that can be created with the technique of link building. SEO professionals can make these types of links on the pages of your website.
This article explains what internal links are, how they can be created, and how they help your SEO.
Internal link definition
Internal links are hyperlinks (URLs) located on a page on your website and point to another page on your platform. For example, a blog post might list the benefits of the SEO service you provide to your clients. A hyperlink can point to the Services / SEO page of your website.
This way, people can click on that link to visit another page on your site. They do not leave the platform, but they are directed elsewhere on the same domain name.
How to set up an internal link strategy?
To effectively set up your internal linking strategy, there are few essential things to consider. How you go about it exactly, indeed, depends on your website and your aims, but the below steps is a good rule of thumb.
The hierarchy of links
All URL links on your website must respect the hierarchy and structure of your platform. First, you should find the home page at the top (e.g., www.seahawkmedia.com). Subsequently, the other pages must be created, such as the service and contact pages (e.g., https://www.seahawkmedia/web-design/). This will facilitate the work of the robots which analyze your site for the search engines. They will be able to understand the structure of your site more easily.
Access to information
Several internal links can be added to your web pages. Writing a blog post makes it possible to refer the reader to a previous article to better understand a specific term or other issues. You can easily create an internal link by adding a URL link on a meaningful keyword. Make the content more accessible for your users to understand by adding relevant links in strategic places. Go, get ready, and link your content to rank your content!
Analysis of internal links
There are a few tools that can be used to analyze the quality of your internal links. Few tools like SEMrush have an “Audit tool” section that allows you to scan a website and see if your links are working by entering your platform’s domain name. It will enable you to see if any broken links are there or search engine robots can’t crawl some. Link redirects can also harm your website, as they can reduce your crawl budget, which is the budget allocated to each site for bots to crawl your pages.
What are the other best internal linking practices to optimize SEO?
To maximize your overall SEO, thanks to the internal networking strategy, we advise you above all:
- To use explicit anchors. Your visitors should know what type of page they are going to by clicking on it: if they are mistaken, they could quickly leave your site. For example, ” how to optimize your SEO strategy with long-tail keywords ” is a correct anchor for our article dedicated to the usefulness of the long tail; to use different phrases and keywords for each anchor directing to your page. In the past, it was possible to use a single keyword for all internal links pointing to page X, but now Google’s algorithm can penalize this type of practice ;
- To prefer deep links rather than links pointing to your home page;
- To offer only relevant internal links. To give you an example, a link to “the best ice cream in the world” will be taken into account much better by Google if it is placed on a page talking about ice creams, sorbets, and other sweets rather than on a page centered on the furniture of the garden ;
- To not use the “no follow” attribute in your internal links if the bots can not follow and index your pages;
- Avoid over-optimization by integrating too many links in your content because, again, Google could penalize you: three to seven anchors are sufficient for most pages.
Why is it necessary to develop an excellent internal linking strategy?
Take care of your internal networking strategy to improve your SEO.
In terms of SEO, optimizing your internal links has several advantages. First, a well-structured internal mesh helps search engine robots find your pages more easily: by following your links, they can even spot your content located deepest in your tree structure, your least-visited pages, or newly just published one.
Better yet: an excellent internal linking strategy also allows you to judiciously prioritize your pages according to the importance of their content and their theme. In this way, bots can better understand your pages’ subjects and assess their relevance to Internet users’ requests. In other words: optimizing your internal linking is a great way to improve the indexing of your web pages and appear higher on search engine results pages.
Finally, the use of internal links can increase the popularity of your deep pages and thereby improve their SEO. The principle is simple: part of the PageRank (popularity rating assigned by search engines and playing a role in the positioning of your site) of the page will be distributed to your other content via the links.
Fact: Good to know.
In the architecture of a website, we determine the depth of a page by the number of clicks necessary to reach it from the home page. The more you have to click, the deeper it is and the more it risks going unnoticed by Internet users. Good internal networking is necessary to increase traffic on this page: you can combine it with backlinks to optimize the results.
Wrap Up
Internal link building is crucial for your site because it helps Google understand and rank your website better. If you want to increase the chances of getting your website ranked on Google, it is recommended to follow the suggested steps.
If you have any queries related to internal linking, raise your question in our comment section box. If you are looking for a leading SEO agency to improve your SEO, head to Seahawk Media. We are there to help you!
