Is It A good Idea To Use Internal Linking Strategies And Practices For SEO?
Do you want to learn about the most effective internal connection strategies? In this article, we'll go through the greatest internal linking tactics for improving your site's SEO.
Getting your site to rank in search engines such as Google is one of the most effective strategies to boost traffic.
To rank your blog, however, you must follow specific SEO methods, one of which is internal linking.
Internal linking is straightforward, but it must be approached intelligently.
We'll go through the internal linking best practices you'll need to know to be successful in this post.
Let’s begin.
What is Internal Linking?
An internal link is a hyperlink between two pages on the same website. They pass PageRank (or SEO value) as well as context through anchor text and surrounding content. Here’s an example: What exactly is SEO, and how does it work?
The clickable link above leads from this blog post that you’re currently reading to another relevant blog post on our site.
What is a Backlink?
Backlinks are hyperlinks between two pages on separate websites. They increase your website’s authority, and that helps you rank better in the Google SERP. People often compare them to votes for your website.
Internal links are like wires
Imagine your home as an example.
Backlinks are analogous to the cables that connect a power plant to your home, whereas internal links are analogous to the wires that connect your circuit breaker to your outlets. No matter how many wires you have in your house, if you don't connect it to the grid, your lights will not work.
Similarly, if you add an extra bedroom to your house but fail to wire it, the room will be powerless even if the rest of the house is. Broken links, in this sense, are similar to wires. If you cut a wire or trip a circuit breaker, power will not flow to the outlets on the other end.
That metaphor illustrates the concept of internal linking in terms of PageRank or link equity. But, it doesn’t really address all the other benefits of internal links that make them a vital part of your SEO strategy.
Let’s get back to the initial point about why I think internal links can be more important than backlinks.
Best 4 Internal Linking Best Practices
1. Link to Relevant Content
The first step to creating an effective internal linking strategy is to figure out:
- What content you want to link to
- Which pages or posts you want to link that content from
Some experts recommend having a complex structure of pages set up or making content “silos” to link to, but in our opinion, it doesn’t have to be that complicated.
The most important thing is relevance. If you have an article about traveling to Europe and add an internal link to an article about video games in it, that’s not helpful or relevant to readers.
Instead, your internal links should provide value to readers. In an article about traveling to Europe, you can add internal links to relevant blog topics you’ve written about such as:
- Budget airlines in Europe
- Purchasing travel insurance
2. Open Internal Links in the Same Tab
Many users are unsure if an internal link should open in a new tab or the same one.
We believe that as long as you're connecting to another page or post on your site, your links should open in the same tab.
This is quite common practice and makes the most sense in terms of user experience.
Visitors may quickly return to where they started by using your navigation menu or the back button on their browser.
3. Use keywords in internal link anchor text
Do you have a lifejacket on? This is where the boat begins to rock. Some SEO experts advise that you avoid using exact match anchor text because it may result in a Google penalty. I completely disagree.
It's unfathomable that Google would ever punish a terrific website for utilizing suitable, keyword-driven anchor text to link to their own content from their own domain.
This is your website. You are free to do whatever you desire. Just don't stuff keywords in artificially, and don't overuse them if you're attempting to gain backlinks from other pages. Don't worry about it as long as your internal links and anchor text make contextual sense and are designed to assist users.
4. Use DoFollow Links
Now let’s go over whether your internal links should be “dofollow” or “nofollow.”
With dofollow links, search engines can follow every link on your site.
On the other hand, a nofollow link is a link from your site to another site that you don’t want to pass link juice to. It tells Google not to follow that link or give any value to it.
So, internal links should always be dofollow so that Google and other search engines can go freely from one page of your site to the next.
Internal linking strategies to avoid
Regardless of how long you've been doing SEO, there's a strong probability your website contains one or more of the following frequent internal linking errors. Perhaps you inherited someone else's mess. Or, if you're anything like me, you've learnt a lot since you first started performing SEO.
- Don’t overdo it
- Don’t pack links into your navigation and footer
- Don’t use silo techniques
- Don’t use complex internal linking formulas
- Don’t link to different pages with the same anchor text
- Don’t waste your juice
Why is internal linking very important for SEO?
Since the early days of simple keyword matching, Google search has come a long way. Google currently employs natural language processing (NLP) to improve understanding of one out of every ten English search queries.
Algorithms, on the other hand, are far from flawless. They require context in order to comprehend what a page is about, how it relates to other pages, and how significant it is on your website.
That’s the true value of internal links. They power your site architecture, convey meaning, funnel authority, and much more.
Increase Site Ranking
In order for new pages to appear in search results, Google must constantly search for new pages and add them to its list of known pages. Some web pages are recognized because Google has previously visited them, while others are discovered when Google follows a link from a known page to a new page.
As a result, internal linking will make it easier for Google to locate your material, giving it a better chance of ranking in search results.
Boost Engagement
You may increase blog engagement by improving blog navigation. Internal linking, as previously said, will make it easier for people to find your material. As a result, they are more likely to read more of your blog content and stay on your site for a longer period of time.
Now that you know Internal Linking, Improve SEO with Google Search Console.