Internal Linking for SEO – Why and How Should You Do It ? | Complete Guideline
What Is Internal Linking?
When you link two pages within the same domain through a hyperlink (normally with link text), it is called internal linking. This means that when you click on the link, you will be taken to another page within the same domain. Internal linking is a very effective SEO method that can boost your organic ranking in search engines.
In this article, we will discuss how to create internal links, when to do so, and what to avoid when creating them. So, without further ado, let us delve right in.
Benefits of Internal Linking
There are many benefits of internal linking on a website. Let’s discuss them one by one.
1. Passing Link Juice
Internal linking helps you to pass link juice to another page. This means that if a particular page has too many backlinks, you can pass on the link strength to another page by creating an internal link.
It is an effective way to share your backlink strength throughout your site. If you don’t link within your pages, the backlink will only benefit the specific page it is linked to. Therefore, it is important to start interlinking with a comprehensive plan.
2. Content Clustering
Creating multiple contents related to your pillar or money content (business service pages and product pages) and interlinking them is called content clustering. It is an excellent way to demonstrate your topical authority to Google and achieve a higher ranking.
Therefore, interlinking plays a significant role in content clustering. Without interlinking, there can be no content clustering. To create content clustering, it is essential to link within related articles.
3. Develop E.E.A.T.
E.E.A.T. stands for experiences, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. It is now also a ranking factor for Google. To develop E.E.A.T., one of the many ways is to cover all the topics of a particular area and link between them.
However, merely covering all the topics of a particular area is not enough to develop E.E.A.T. You also have to interlink between them to demonstrate to Google that they are all related.
4. Indicates Google Which Pages Are More Important
Interlinking can inform Google which pages are more important and which pages you want to rank. If you give too many internal links to a particular page, Google understands that it is an essential page for you and should consider it for a higher ranking if the content is good and original.
Usually, we naturally provide many links to our pillar content (normally service and product pages) from the informative content. This indicates to Google that this content is more important and should be considered for better ranking.
Therefore, next time, map out your interlinking strategy wisely and ensure you provide enough links to your service and product pages.
5. Decrease Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is a metric that indicates the percentage of visitors who have landed on your page but have not interacted with it. This means they have not clicked any of the links.
The acceptability of a high or low bounce rate depends on the page type. Nevertheless, a lower bounce rate is always desirable. Proper relevant interlinking can help you reduce your bounce rate.
If your visitors find something interesting on your page, they are more likely to explore further and click on relevant links. Therefore, creating relevant interlinking is crucial to decrease your bounce rate.
6. Generates More Page Views
By using effective interlinking, you can encourage visitors to explore more pages on your website. Relevant links on a landing page can entice visitors to click on them and discover more content, ultimately leading to increased page views. This is a great way to keep your visitors engaged and encourage them to stay longer on your website.
7. Help Users (Satisfy Customer’s Intent)
You should interlink simply to help your users. You should satisfy your customers’ intent and to fully satisfy customer intent you should also interlink some of the queries that they might have in the future.
If the visitors are happy with your page they will stay longer and visit more of those interlink pages, and it will give a signal to Google that the page deserves a better ranking.
8. Fast Indexing
When you publish a new page and give it a link from an old indexed page, it increases the chance of fast indexing. Because Google bot finds new pages through links. So by interlinking, you also increase the chance of fast indexing.
9. Keyword Mentioning
Effective internal linking requires two components – the link and the link text, also known as the anchor text. The anchor text helps Google to understand the main topic or keyword of the webpage. For example, if the webpage is about selling keyboards, the anchor text could be “cheap keyboard” or “buy keyboard”.
By using relevant anchor text, Google can understand that the webpage is about keyboards and that it is offering keyboards for purchase. This can help the webpage to rank higher in search results for buying-related keywords.
How to Do Internal Linking
1. Develop Related Articles
After publishing an article, think about your reader, why they have come to your article, and what will be their next queries. Then start writing on those queries and interlink them in this article so that they can find these queries in the same article.
By doing this you are satisfying customers’ intent and finding new article ideas at the same time. This is the easier and most logical way of interlinking.
Google also likes this method and by doing this you are making a topical authority. Because you are going to discuss all the queries and interlink them together. So we will recommend you interlink using this method.
2. Search Internal Linking Opportunities on Google
In this method, you already have many articles but you don’t know which one to link. So in this situation, we can get help from Google search string and find interlink opportunities. Like:
Suppose we have an article about “soccer shoes” and we want some interlink opportunities for it. So we can use this search string to find opportunities: (Site:example.com “soccer shoes”)
After searching with this Google search string on Google, Google will only show us pages of example.com discussing soccer shoes.
Then we can go to these pages and get an interlink from them for our soccer shoe page.
Internal Linking Anchor Text
The internal link anchor text should be:
- Descriptive
- Should provide a basic idea of what the page is all about
- Can include the keywords sometimes
- Has to be natural
- Can’t be generic like: click here, see more, etc.
- Can be easily identified in an article. (the color of the link text should be different and it should be underlined. Like: how to play soccer)
Placement of Interlinking
You should place your internal link wherever it fits the best. That means it has to be natural. But if you want to get the most benefits of internal linking then you should place it in the first few paragraphs. Because the researcher shows that internal linking above the fold passes the most page rank.
Don'ts of Internal Linking
You should not do these things when creating internal linking. And these are:
1. Don’t Link Too Much
Interlink is beneficial but it doesn’t mean you will interlink hundreds of times in a single arctic. There is no exact number of interlinks that can be created in a single article but you should only create it if necessary.
2. Don't Link Forcefully
Sometimes we forcefully link two articles, but this is not recommended as it does not provide any benefits and can actually harm the user’s page experience. If you are forcefully linking articles, it means that they are not related. If the articles are not related, then you are likely doing this to pass page rank or manipulate search engines. However, Google does not approve of this and prefers that articles be created for the readers, rather than for search engines.
So it will be wise to link only two articles if they are really related and can be placed naturally.
How to Check Your Internal Links
If you want to check your internal links then there is a very easy way of using Google Search Console. To see your internal links from the Google search console follow the steps:
- Log in to the Google search console using your Gmail ID
- Then click on Links from the left sidebar
- After that, click on the internal links to see all the links within the domain.
Final Words
Internal linking is a part of On-Page SEO. To understand internal linking fully you should also know about the op-page SEO first. To know more about On-Page SEO read our article.
By the way, if you want an SEO agency that can do internal links and On-Page SEO for you then you can call us at this number (+46 54 52 22 22).
Additional Resources
Off-Page SEO
Here, we talk about Off-Page SEO, How to do it, and when to do it? We also talk about backlinks here.
