Internal links are clickable text that direct users from one page to another within your website. So, imagine a first-time visitor clicking on a menu category only to land on a broken page. Or, have you experienced clicking on a link within a blog article and ending up on an irrelevant topic?
Either scenario frustrates users and forces them to leave your site immediately. Worse, this frustration can reach search engines, harming your rankings and visibility.
Unfortunately, website owners often focus on gaining backlinks and overlook the importance of internal linking for SEO. Time to revise this game plan!
This article has the fundamentals, best practices, and advanced techniques to enhance your internal linking strategy.
Understanding the Basics of Internal Linking
Internal links are links within a page of your website leading to another. These appear as anchor or clickable text, often underlined and in a different colour. There are several types.
For example, navigational links are those found on your homepage, showing the services, product categories, or content topics you offer. The navigational type may also be in the form of sidebar or footer links. The goal of this internal link is to encourage users to see relevant pages of your site.
There are also in-text or contextual links within a blog or page article. This type aims to provide readers with related and interesting content. For instance, while reading an article about local SEO, you may encounter a link here on local SEO content writing.
Why is Internal Linking Valuable to SEO?
There are two main reasons why internal or inbound links are essential to SEO.
First, internal links serve as the framework of your website, giving it structure and context. By using these links, Google and other search engines can gain a clearer understanding of your content and how your pages are interconnected. They help search engines identify which pages are best suited to answer specific search queries.
Second, they enhance user experience. Internal links help your site visitors explore your website efficiently. These also make it easier for users to find content within your site, encouraging them to stay and learn more.
When you satisfy the needs of search engines and your users, you also boost your SEO performance through better search visibility, lower bounce rates, and higher engagement.
Best Internal Linking Practices
Now that we’ve established the value of internal links to your SEO and website performance, the next step is to know how to do internal linking effectively.
Start by applying these best practices and tips.
1. Observe strategic placement.
Position your internal links in navigation menus, footers, and article bodies. Make them more effective by:
- integrating the links naturally within the body of your article or page content
- adding the links close to the top or within the first few paragraphs for better visibility
- placing the links in high-engagement or call-to-action sections
Strategic placement of internal links helps reduce bounce rate and improve dwell time.
2. Use contextual and relevant anchor text.
Anchor text tells search engine crawlers and users what the link is about. However, it frustrates and confuses users when the links are irrelevant to the destination content.
So, when adding in-text links, be sure to:
- match your anchor text with the content of the destination page
- match your anchor text with the intent of the destination page (e.g. how-to guide, comparison, recipe, list)
- use a unique anchor text when linking to two or more different pages or articles
- make your anchor text descriptive rather than using generic phrases like click here
3. Optimise your anchor text but avoid over-optimisation.
Adding keyword-focused anchor text to your content is good. You can do an exact match and use the precise keyword as your anchor text.
However, some site owners may overuse this technique and add the same keyword-rich link for all other pages within the website. This habit may look spammy to search engines, harming your SEO and potentially leading to penalties.
So, instead of the exact-match linking, you can do these alternatives:
- Phrase-match technique: add other words with the seed keyword for your anchor text. For example, if your key term is “local SEO content writing”, a phrase-match anchor could be “steps on local SEO content writing”.
- Partial-match technique: reword your exact match anchor text. For example, you can modify “local SEO content writing” to “how to write local SEO content”.
Google and other search engines are now smart enough to understand the content behind your anchor text, even when phrased differently. So, remember to diversify and insert internal links naturally in your copy.
4. Aim for a cohesive information architecture.
Forming an information architecture through internal linking means developing topic clusters. Topic clusters are grouping related content around a pillar page.
With internal linking in your topic clusters, you make it easier for search engines to understand your content, leading to better rankings. You also effectively pass link authority from pillar pages to their cluster pages. More importantly, users can find information within your site quickly.
Mindful internal linking lets you create a neat information hub and display your topical authority.
Advanced Internal Linking Techniques
As your website grows, you can start moving to the next level and upgrade your internal linking strategy with the following.
1. Implement thematic internal linking.
Thematic internal linking is grouping related content and linking between them to make one structured website. Here are the steps for this technique:
- Identify content pillars. Pillars are core themes or topics in your website. For example, if you have a plumbing service site, your pillar topics may be common plumbing problems at home, DIY repair guides, and water conservation.
- Group relevant subtopics into clusters. Using your pillar topics, you can now create articles or pages related to them. For instance, common plumbing problems at home may include clogged drains, leaky faucets, and poor water supply. You can further distribute these topics into different areas, like kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry areas.
- Link your topic clusters together to create a strong pillar page. Make your anchor text descriptive, link to your most authoritative pages, and avoid overusing keywords.
2. Use link pyramids to structure your web content.
This technique organises your website into a pyramid structure, dividing it into three tiers: top, middle, and bottom. The homepage represents the top-tier page, category pages fall into the middle tier, while content pages are the bottom tier.
In a pyramid structure, top-tier pages receive the highest number of internal links, with middle and bottom-tier pages serving as support. This method efficiently distributes link authority from your most important pages to those of lesser importance.
Using link pyramids further enhances your SEO and improves the overall user experience.
3. Identify and fix orphan pages.
Orphan pages lack internal links, making them inaccessible to users unless they know the specific URL. As a result, search engine bots cannot crawl and index these pages, which limits their visibility and SEO potential.
Enhance your internal linking strategy by connecting orphan pages to your website structure. You can manually do this by following these steps:
- Scan your website to spot orphan pages. Use tools like Screaming Frog to identify all web pages without internal links.
- Evaluate the value of these orphan pages. Check if they have relevant content or require updating. Sometimes, an orphan page may contain content similar to another page. In that case, you can merge and redirect. If the orphan page is too old, you may remove it and create a 301 redirect. Our article on the impact of outdated content on SEO has more details.
- Add relevant links to the orphan page that you keep. Analyse your site structure to find pages relevant to this orphan page. Then, strategically insert the proper anchor link within the text body.
Conclusion
Business website owners should not disregard the role and value of internal linking in SEO.
When done right, internal links can attract organic traffic to your site and make it more visible in the SERPs. Applying advanced techniques can fine-tune your internal linking strategy, keeping your website organised, informative, and user-friendly.
However, like any SEO technique, internal linking is a continuous effort. So, always monitor and optimise your internal links as you add more content to your website.
Follow these helpful bonus tips, too.
Bonus Tips
- Use a site audit tool: Tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, and Semrush have excellent features for internal link audits. These can also analyse relevant metrics like crawl depth and show you linking distribution and errors like broken links.
- Create a content calendar: Plan your central content pillars, then identify relevant topics around them. This tip keeps you organised while helping you find ways to connect new articles to your cornerstone content.
- Monitor your internal link structure: Run a monthly site audit to review your website’s internal linking structure. Checking internal linking reports and making improvements should keep your site health in tip-top shape.
