To score highly, internal links are essential. Similar to but not as effective as high-quality connections (links from other websites to your own). Internal links, like external ones, can inform Google about the relative importance of different sites. Better user experience, more conversions, and easier crawling are additional benefits of internal connections.
Internal links
When clicked, an internal link will take you to another page within the same website, while an exterior link will take you to a new website. Although browsing remains the primary function of internal links, SEO can also be improved through strategic use of these links.
Google uses link equity, or ranking power, to determine how to rate websites. Approximately twenty years ago, Google created a unique algorithm called PageRank to determine the credibility of web sites. Google places a higher value on content that has been linked to multiple times. And similarly, a page’s PageRank is diluted if it has many outgoing connections. That’s why increasing a page’s link equity by pointing to it can boost its search engine rankings.
The role of internal linking in search engine optimisation
1. By linking within your own sites, you increase the credibility of your content
The ability of internal links to spread link value is their most useful feature. Although internal links do not boost your website’s authority or pass as much link juice as external ones, they can help push up specific sites in search results. In reality, an efficient hierarchy of your pages within the site design can be built with the aid of a well-thought-out internal linking strategy.
2. Visitors will spend more time on a site if it has relevant internal links
Besides those exceptions, internal links serve primarily to facilitate site browsing and preserve a logical hierarchy. In addition to improving the user experience, a well-organized website uses less of the crawl budget to get more pages indexed in a single search engine session.
3. The structure of a website can be improved with the help of internal connections
You can save time and improve outcomes with the help of high-quality SEO tools and services when working on internal link building. Be careful to prepare the following:
- Analytics from Google
- Online Audit Tool
- Rankings Keeper
Internal Linking guidelines
Here are seven components your site’s internal linking system must have to succeed.
1. Maintain a relatively simple website layout
When you can get to any section of your site from the homepage with no more than three taps, that’s optimal. Users have become increasingly picky about how long it takes for pages to open and other tasks to be completed on websites. There are plenty of similar websites out there with well-organized and efficient internal pages, so why should someone try to get through tens of unnecessary links? Therefore, it is essential to keep a shallow website structure and minimise the number of clicks required to reach key landing sites.
2. Link to all the relevant sections
Sitemaps and connections are equally important for search engines to find new content on the web today. Since search engines use the sitemap, even unlinked sites (also called orphan pages) can be discovered. However, the website’s navigation makes it difficult to track down a missing page. In the eyes of the public, such sites simply do not exist. By linking to them from other sites within your site, you can eliminate orphaned pages.
3. Crawl budget can be maximised with the help of an internal link analysis
Your crawl money is wasted every time the Google bot visits your site and encounters a broken page. As such, you should perform all technological SEO routines in a tidily organised fashion, particularly addressing any broken internal links.
If you want to learn more about your link background, the Google Search Console is a good place to start. The Links report compiles information about both external and internal links, classifying the most popular linking sites and anchor texts individually.
4. Limit the amount of connections on each page as much as possible
When there are a lot of links on a website, both internal and external, the amount of “link juice” each link sends to its target page decreases. It’s also possible that your visitors will get bored scrolling through an endless list of resources if the material isn’t well-structured. Furthermore, a spam signal sent to search engines via an abundance of links can have a devastating effect on your page’s reputation.
Therefore, decreasing the number of external links will increase the perceived value of the sites you link to.
5. The anchor text should include relevant terms
You can further boost your keyword results by using them as anchor text in your links. Using relevant terms as anchor text is a straightforward and free way to increase topical relevance, as internal links function in a similar manner to backlinks.
It’s important to remember that most SEOs no longer recommend using exact match keywords as anchor text for internal connections in the post-Penguin era. Use natural anchors or risk being punished, so say SEO experts. To my knowledge, however, no website has ever been penalised by search engines due to the anchor texts used in internal connections. My personal view is that the anchor text should accurately describe the page being linked to. According to Matt Cutts, using the same anchor text for numerous internal links is generally harmless unless you overdo it.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, you now understand what internal links are and why an efficient internal linking system is crucial. You have successfully completed the essentials of internal linking, which every website should implement. Finally, you learned about five internal linking strategies that, if implemented correctly, can have a significant effect on your rankings.