Internal linking is an essential factor for the search engine optimization of your website. The good news is that implementing a good internal linking structure doesn’t require much prior technical knowledge. Today you’ll learn what internal linking is, why it’s essential, and how to build and maintain it properly.
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Why is internal linking important?
What is internal linking?
Internal linking is straightforward to explain: Any link that connects two of your website’s pages is internal. In other words, the domain for the link source and the link destination are identical.
Here’s an example: We are writing an article about the first steps in search engine optimization. The article also talks about keyword research. That’s why we link our guide to keyword research. Those links could look something like this:
“Want to learn more? We’ve created a detailed Keyword Research Guide for you.”
“Our Keyword Research Guide will help you build a keyword set.”
There are two types of links:
- Internal links (or inbound links). They are links within the same website.
- External links are also called backlinks. These are links connecting different websites.
Today, we’re focusing on the first type.
Why is internal linking important?
User Experience: Internal links make it easier for people to navigate the site and find relevant content. You increase the time on site and conversion rate and reduce the bounce rate.
Crawl Bots: Adding internal links to your website makes it easier for search engine crawlers (also called bots or spiders) to
- capture your website’s pages and index them if required
- understand your website’s structure
- identify the topics and focus of your website
- identify your most important landing pages.
How do crawlers crawl a website?
When a search engine crawls your website, it sends a crawler to your homepage. From there, it explores your site page by page using internal links. It tries to understand their relationships, focus, and relevance by analyzing how pages are linked.
For example, a page that is frequently linked and directly accessible via the navigation is considered very important and vice versa. That’s why optimizing your internal linking is essential for SEO.
Internal linking should clearly define how relevant the individual pages are to each other.
Internal Linking 101
Internal linking is simple. We have compiled the most critical points for you to consider:
1. Make sure every page is internally linked.
As mentioned earlier, search engine crawlers need links to capture your site page by page. And humans also navigate your site through their links. So pages that are not linked cannot be found by humans or search engines.
So every page you create should have inbound and outbound internal links. For each page, make sure that you:
- link to other subpages
- link the page from other subpages.
| Search the Advisor for internal linking tasks. If you find a task, there are unlinked/poorly linked pages on your website. Follow the instructions in the Advisor Task. |
2. Create relevance
Links should always contain relevant information. For example, if there is a thematic connection or overlapping information between the content of both pages.
The goal of a link is to create added value, such as in-depth information on a topic that has been broached or a specific product that helps people to satisfy their needs.
Bad SEO practice is to add internal links to a page solely to get more traffic. Links (internal or external) need to provide value to the user. Think about it: Linking to another page that has no relevance or connection to the topic at hand does not offer value to the user and can negatively impact user experience and your rankings.
3. Link deep
Deep links lead to relevant content unavailable in the page navigation and thus more difficult to find.
Typical examples are blog articles or specific product pages. This content often represents the highest added value because it allows people to quickly expand their knowledge on the same topic or solve their specific problem.
Pages on the 1st navigation level (e.g., category pages) should not be linked. They are easy to find anyway in the site's menu.
4. Optimize anchor texts
Anchor texts are clickable texts with a hyperlink. Thus, the anchor text heavily impacts whether users click the link — the copy needs to be appealing and concise. Search engines also look at anchor texts to rank pages.
There are different types of anchor texts. These are the most common:
- Anchor text with a brand: any anchor text that includes your brand name, e.g.,
"Check out our article Keyword research with XOVI NOW." - Generic anchors: generic anchors are usually related to CTAs, e.g.,
"Click here" or "Learn more." - Partially matching anchor: This anchor text has the most "natural" effect because it includes words that complement the content in addition to the landing page keyword, e.g.,
"Our Keyword Research Guide will take to your keyword set step by step."
"We comprised a step-by-step keyword research article for you to check out" - Exact match anchor: The anchor text exactly matches the keyword of the landing page, e.g.,
"Read more about keyword research here."
Use exact match anchor texts with care because they can be classified as spam if used too often or incorrectly.
| Write anchor texts that briefly and concisely summarize the content of the target page or the added value for the user. Ideally, the anchor text reads naturally and also contains the keyword of the target page. |
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