How many internal links are you using in your blog posts?
Without proper awareness and knowledge If you do it a little or overdo it then you will lose the top ranking opportunity and Google’s search traffic to your site.
In this blog post, I’ll share with you the best practices for Internal Linking, mistakes to avoid in internal linking, and much more to strengthen your SEO strategy.
What is Internal linking?
First thing first, let’s know about internal linking.
Internal linking is simply linking an article or page to another page or blog post on the same website/domain itself.
Simply the practice of linking to other pages within the same website.
For example, If you are writing an article about “how to do keyword research” then if you have an already related article like “Top 10 tools to do keyword research” you can give this tools article link to the current writing article.
Because it is related to that post in terms of keyword research. That’s it.
Types of Internal linking
The following types of commonly used internal links are on every website.
1. Navigational links
Navigational links are widely used internal links on every website you found. These are placed on mostly the top of every website, that is menus.
These navigational links are improves both Google’s crawling experience and user experience as well. If you maintain low navigation links you may lose the important one that’s user experience.
By adding important menus (Navigational links) on your site you help people to showcase your different types of the content itself.
Visitors surf different types of content on your site not only the less bounce rate you’ll gain and also the more conversions you could make.
2. Footer Links
Footer links are commonly used to provide easy access to important pages such as the homepage, contact page, sitemap, blog, pricing, about, terms, privacy policy, etc.
These are nothing but footer links. It also comes under Internal linking.
It is mainly used for easy access and improves the user experience.
3. Sidebar Links
These links help people to find related articles, related pages, or product pages.
They can also help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of a website, which can improve the site’s search engine rankings.
4. Contextual Links
These links are used to provide more information on a particular topic. It can also be used to build internal links within a website, which can help to improve the website’s search engine rankings and visibility.
5. Dynamic Links
Benefits of Internal linking
1. They Help Search Engines
Google will crawl all web pages on daily basis. When Google tries to crawl all your websites for the first time with less effort and time then you will get a higher chance of search ranking.
But how can you help crawl bots crawl all your web pages with less effort? Mostly it can be done by internal linking.
How?
When you interlink all your posts and pages in the correct manner then the crawl bots will easily go through all your internal links by narrowing down the links and quickly crawling your website.
But make sure all links are working fine.
2. Improves the User Experience
Let’s say you are searching for something you need to know about. Will you refer to only one website or more websites?
Probably you’ll refer to multiple websites to get a better understanding.
But if you give all the required information that the user searches on a search query on your website itself then the user will not need to look into another website.
That makes sense right? Then the users will happy to go through what they need on that topic.
3. Pass Authority
To get the number #1 position on google for a particular keyword, you should have more domain authority.
authority is nothing but people linking back to that page or article from their website. The more links you get the more backlinks you are earning.
More backlinks lead to a higher authority. The more authority you have higher the chance to rank on top of Google.More backlinks > Higher authority > Higher chance to get rank on top of google.
For instance, you have old pages with higher page authority (more backlinks). You want to create a new page and wants to rank the page on google.
Then you can link the new page from your higher authority (old page) to get ranked at top of Google ranking. It is called passing the authority.
By doing this you are getting a higher ranking on google.
Understand the importance of Internal linking?
By understanding the importance of internal linking you can play well in the SEO part. Here are a few of them.
Structure of Internal Linking
When you structure your website with the proper linking system you won both User experience and Google’s search Engine also. So remember well structure your website with the following parts.
Pillar page
These are nothing but the Main menus on your website. These Menus will act as the Pillar of your website mainly navigating to your important pages like blogs and e-books and also product pages.
These pages have more authority next to your domain authority.
Simply when we write an article there are H1, H2, H3, H4, goes on.
we can assume the. The H1 heading is your main website. And Pillar pages are H2 heading.
Topic Clusters
Topic Clusters are next to pillar pages, like the H3 tag. These topic clusters will connect small categories to each other with Pillar pages.
Right Anchor Text
When you insert any links into any words we should use proper phrases related to that target link.
For example, when I’m linking the top “10 tools for keyword search” article to how to do keyword research, no need to use the same keyword as anchor text.
That is avoid too much keyword surfing.
Instead, you can use the related Key Phrases with 3 to 5 words. But avoid exceeding the 5 words.
The High Authority page helps new pages
When you have higher authority on your old page if you want to create and wants to rank those additional new pages also in google.
What mistakes to avoid and how to fix them?
People are doing the following mistakes most commonly. By avoiding these mistakes you can get better search engine results and user engagement on your website.
1. Don’t Overdo it
Internal linking definitely will boost your SEO but if you do it a few or overdo it, you will lose better opportunities.
So Always remember, all types of internal linking should be well-optimized.
2. Orphaned Pages
These pages are simply not linking with each other or link with a few only. Good internal links are linking back to as much as related.
So avoid this kind of orphaned pages. Basically, those pages are not linked with any other pages.
3. Crawl Depth of More Than Three Clicks
Crawl depth is simply the number of times Google’s Crawlers take to reach all the links and the time to take read your whole website.
When you do internal links but if you do it wrong like redirecting too many links and linking to deleted pages the Google Crawlers will get confused and too much time will take.
If you don’t use any page or outdated content then delete it to avoid crawl depth.
4. Pages With Only One Incoming Internal Link
Some pages or Blog posts will have only incoming internal links. Avoid this mistake. Try to create and link back articles to other articles also.
5. avoid Keyword surfing use the Correct anchor text
Avoid using exact keywords in anchor text. Try to link with good and related key phrases with 3 to 5 words. Make sure the text is related to that pointing link content.
6. How many internal links should a blog post have
Usually, it depends on the article’s length. Neil Patel’s advice is using 3 to 5 internal links per 1000 words is good practice.
In some articles, he uses 20 to 30 internal links. So it’s all about the content and length of the article.
To know more about reading the internal linking Semrush article could be useful.
Internal Linking Best practices
Free tools to use
MonsterInsights
Yoast SEO
Internal Link Juicer
Rank Math
Link Whisper
Interlinks Manager
Yarpp
Internal Links Manager
Audit your Internal Links
By consistently auditing your internal links you manage Good Internal linking SEO health. Review regularly to make changes if needed.
Final Thoughts!
In conclusion, internal links are very important in search engine optimization (SEO). So if you found this useful read my other important articles to get more insights.
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