How Internal Linking Improves Website SEO and Search Rankings
- shravan hooda
- 6 days ago
- 8 min read
Internal Linking: Why It Is Important for Website SEO
Internal linking is the process of linking one web page to another web page on the same website using links that can be clicked. Internal linking could include a blog post on SEO that has links to another web page talking about keyword research, backlinking, technical SEO or website speed. The process allows both the visitor and the search engine crawler to get more information by linking to other pages.
While both internal and backlinks are helpful in improving SEO, there is a difference between them. Backlinks are links that come from other websites while internal links are those links that come from your own website. Website owners have full control over internal links.
An internally linked website is more navigable for both the user and the search engine. Users can access more information from the website without having to search for it. Search engines will use the link to know which pages to access and what those pages contain.
For example, a digital marketing company can write an in-depth article on social media marketing. In the article, the reader can find separate links to articles related to Instagram marketing, Facebook advertising, content writing, and paid promotions. Links provide more information and keep the reader on the site longer.
In addition, internal links can lead to business-related pages like services page, products page, contact page, case study page, or book a meeting page. Hence, internal links contribute not only to the SEO but also to the lead generation and conversion rate.
Nevertheless, it is important to use internal links naturally and avoid unnecessary ones. Each link used in the content should have some value and add something to the understanding of the issue.
How Internal Links Help Search Engines Find and Index Pages
The automated programs used by search engines to learn about the webpages are referred to as crawlers. Most crawlers begin their crawling process from pages whose addresses are known and continue their crawl based on links found on the initial pages.
If there is a good internal linking structure within the website, it is easy for the search engines to move from one page to the other. It will allow the discovery of new pages that have been published recently. Search engines will be able to see the updates made to a webpage. However, if there are no links to a particular page, search engines will not be able to get to such a page.
A page without any incoming internal links is sometimes referred to as an orphan page. Such a page could appear in the sitemap of the website but is hard to access via navigation. Therefore, such a page may be overlooked by both the search-engine crawlers and the users.
Internal links are used to show the hierarchy in a website. For instance, the main services page could link to various service pages while the main category page could link to various products or blogs.
For instance, there is a website that provides digital marketing services. There will be a digital marketing service page linked to:
Search engine optimisation
Social media marketing
Pay per click advertising
Content marketing
Email marketing
Online reputation management
In such a way, the website will become clearer. The search engines will easily distinguish all of the services under the heading of digital marketing.
Internal links also help index new content faster. If the new article has a link to the already existing page, the search engine crawler will easily find it at the next crawl.
Website owners should not solely depend on XML sitemaps in terms of discovery. Sitemap is useful, but a well-thought website architecture with navigation and contextual links is more advantageous.
How Internal Links Distribute Authority Across a Website
Every website has pages that have different degrees of authority. For instance, there might be pages that get plenty of backlinks, traffic or competitive keywords. There may also be new or less linked pages.
Using internal linking is one way of distributing the authority from more authoritative pages to other pages that are relevant. The high-authority page passes a certain amount of value via the links that it uses. Therefore, the other pages that it links to will become more visible.
For example, the homepage of a website gets more backlinks compared to other pages. Such a homepage may be able to link to various service pages, category and product pages to show what pages are most important to that business.
Additionally, a popular blog post on a website may get backlinks from other sites. The blog post may link to a certain service page or even to another guide. In this case, the authority from such a post will be distributed through those links.
Site owners must identify the best performing pages on the site and use them effectively. But that does not mean they must add links from all the important pages just like that without giving any importance to relevancy. The link must be relevant to the content on the page and also valuable for the readers.
The total number of links pointing to a particular page also gives an idea of how important a page might be. If a page is linked from the main navigation menu, the homepage, the footer, the category pages, and a few blog articles, then that page becomes more important than a page that has one hidden link.
But site owners should not link all the pages from each and every page. This makes the overall structure messy and devalues the individual links. A clear structure is always better than many irrelevant connections.
A pillar page is one good strategy. The pillar page discusses a topic extensively and links to many other articles about the same topic. And those articles also link back to the pillar page.
How Internal Linking Improves User Experience and Engagement
SEO is not just about optimizing websites for search engines. The website must also be friendly to actual users. Properly utilized internal links can significantly enhance the user experience and help to direct users to related information.
Once visitors get to the end of the section, they might want to know more about the topic. Contextual links will guide visitors to another page where they will get answers to their questions, thus saving them from browsing through the menu or going back to Google again.
For instance, a person interested in how to improve Google rankings can read something about backlinks, content optimization, or technical SEO. Links to these topics will make users’ experience enjoyable.
Internal links can increase the number of pages a visitor visits per session. Thus, users won’t just leave the website after reading one page but will open several others related to it.
Furthermore, an effective linking strategy could even direct users along their customer journey at various stages. Informational blog posts can attract people who have not much knowledge regarding a certain topic. The blog posts could then link to extensive guides, case studies, services or contact pages.
Some examples could be:
A local SEO checklist
A case study of successful rankings in local search engines
A local SEO services page
A consultation/contact page
Links should always be easily recognizable. Visitors should be aware that they can click on the text and the anchor text should describe what they can expect from clicking the link.
Best Practices for Creating an Effective Internal Link Structure
A good internal linking strategy should start from an intuitive website structure. Vital pages should be reachable from the homepage in just a few clicks. Visitors should not have to go through several unnecessary pages to get to the vital information.
First of all, you need to define the major categories and priority pages on your website. Those may consist of services, product categories, vital blog articles, landing pages and contact pages.
The main navigation should contain the vital sections of your website. But navigation links will not suffice as the contextual links in content give more relevance as they connect pages by the relevant topics.
Make sure to use the descriptive anchor text that represents the target page. The anchor text needs to sound organic in the context of the sentence. Do not repeat one keyword-rich phrase too many times as it is an over optimization.
Some characteristics of an anchor text profile that can be considered healthy are:
The exact topic of the page
Partial keywords
Page title
Brand name
A natural description
Call to action
For instance, apart from the anchor text like “best digital marketing agency in Delhi,” other texts used can be “digital marketing services by us,” “about our digital marketing agency,” or “professional marketing solutions.”
Place your links where they will serve you well. Links need to add value to the surrounding content. Links within the body of an article tend to have more value than any other place where they are not explained.
Additionally, updating the old content is important when a new web page appears. New blog posts must include links to related existing pages, whereas old articles need to be updated to link to the new pages.
Such a two-way linking will avoid isolation of new pages and create stronger associations among different topics on the website.
The breadcrumb navigation may also help to build a better website structure by showing visitors their current location within the website structure. For example:
Home > Blog > SEO > Internal Linking Guide
In addition, do not overload pages with too many links. There is no such thing as the right amount of links per each article; it all depends on the content of an article and its needs.
6. Common Internal Linking Mistakes and Final SEO Tips
Another frequent error is the use of internal links without a strategy. Unrelated pages cannot be randomly linked as such linkage will not form any kind of meaningful hierarchy. Pages must be connected with each other on the basis of some relationship.
Another frequent error is linking just to the homepage. Homepage is certainly an important page but other service pages, product pages, category pages and blog pages require links too. Such distribution of links will help create a balanced hierarchy of pages.
Website owners should avoid using the same anchor text for all those pages to which links are going. This could make things difficult for both the search engines and users, as it would become difficult to determine the most relevant page.
Another major problem is broken links. These happen when the pages are deleted, URL of pages is changed and content is shifted without proper redirecting.
Excess redirecting links may decrease effectiveness as well. If there is an internal link to some old link, which redirects to a new URL, then update that link to point to a new page directly.
Common mistakes made by SEOs may also be:
Pointing to irrelevant content
Hiding relevant pages on multiple clicks deeper into the website
Using uninformative anchor texts
Creating orphan pages
Including too many links in a single paragraph
Repeating links to the same page over and over again
Ignoring old blog content
Using wrong URLs
Linking only from sidebars and footers
Not prioritising relevant pages
To detect such problems you may use SEO tools as well as web crawlers to see which pages have the most links to them, which are hard to find and which links are broken.
It is necessary for website owners to check site architecture each time when important pages are added or removed from their site. Especially, it is crucial for big sites, like e-commerce websites and news websites, since new pages are being created there all the time.
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