Internal Linking for SEO: Best Practices, Strategies, and Tools

Content is the foundation of marketing activities. But the content itself will only take you so far.

You are going to need links (also called “backlinks”) to help your content rank in the search results. There are two types of links — external links and internal links. Both will help boost your search engine ranking and play a critical role in your SEO strategy. We could write a book about external linking strategies — but in this article, we will focus on internal links.

Your website needs a structure, which is crucial for your content to rank higher in the search results. More importantly, a well-structured website makes it easier for your users to find what they want. Google will also use the website structure to mark and highlight important/relevant content. In other words, using the right combination of internal links in your content can boost your SEO value.

But you will need a clear internal linking strategy to make that happen.

In this post, we will discuss the following in detail.

• What Internal Links Are.
• Importance of Internal Linking.
• How to Set Up an Internal Linking Strategy.
• How to Use Internal linking for SEO.
• The Best Tools for Internal Linking.

Let’s dive in.

What is Internal Linking?

An internal link is any link from one page of your website to another page on your website. Internal linking is the strategy to build a link structure within a website, including links to blog posts and web pages. Unlike external links, they don’t link to pages on other websites or domains.

Why Does Your Website Need a Strong Internal Linking Strategy?

A strong interlinking strategy can boost your website’s usability and findability (SEO). Better usability is an essential SEO factor, which is why every website needs internal linking for SEO.

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of a well-defined internal linking strategy.

Improve Website Usability

The purpose of internal linking is to improve the user experience (or UX). The goal is to provide your visitors with relevant information as they navigate your website.

For example, say you run a business offering tree-trimming services. You may have a service page for tree stump removal — as well as a related blog post, for example, “How Much Does Tree Stump Removal Cost?”. Placing a link to the blog post on the service page (or from the blog post to the service page) could provide excellent value to potential customers — as well as help Google better understand the nature of your website.

In short, your website needs to make it easier for users to find what they want. That’s where strategic internal linking comes in.

An internal linking structure helps you:

• Categorize your blog posts and product pages.
• Link your posts and product/service pages.

That, in turn, makes it easier for new users to find what they want.

Help Google Understand Your Website

A well-designed internal linking strategy helps search engines better understand what your website is all about and the value it provides — and of course, what you are selling. If Google’s bots can quickly understand what’s relevant on your website, internal linking can boost your overall SEO.

Eliminate Self-Competition

It’s natural for your onsite blog to have more articles on your core expertise. For example, if you are a WordPress development agency, your onsite blog will have tons of articles on WordPress development. However, Google will struggle to decide which posts are more relevant/important without proper internal linking.

This usually leads to competing with your own content for ranking in search results. But with a carefully crafted internal linking strategy, you can eliminate this risk. Internal linking gives Google signals on how to rank your content and which pages are most important.

Internal Linking Vs. External Linking

Now that you have understood why your website needs internal links, let’s discuss how they differ from external links. Here are a few main differences between the two.

Internal LinksExternal LinksInternal links connect various pages on your website/domain together. External links connect to web pages on other websites/domains. They are easy and free to control. They are difficult to control as external links take users away from your website. They pass link value to other pages and links on your website. They pass link equity to other websites. They keep users longer on your website, potentially increasing the page views. External links lead users away from your website, and the users may not return. Internal links can improve keyword ranking if you use SEO-optimized anchor text for linking.These links improve SEO value for other websites. Internal links can improve the trustworthiness of your content but to a lesser extent. External links can improve the trustworthiness of your content to a greater extent. They help to increase your page authority. They help to increase your domain authority.

Remember that both links are an on-page SEO factor. They both help boost traffic to your website.

Internal Links:

• Improves overall user experience.
• Improves page rank and link equity.
• Boosts page views.
• Decrease bounce rate.
• Improves site indexing.
• Helps Google understand your website.

External Links:

• Can help the readers.
• Improve domain authority.
• Enhance the credibility of your content.
• Will not hurt your page rank.

Setting Up the Internal Linking Strategy

Carefully planned internal linking strategies can make a big impact on Google. So, you will need to create a strategy tailored to your website. Moreover, you will have to evaluate and update this strategy periodically.

The primary purpose of the internal linking strategy should be:

• Improve Site Navigation (UX): Make it easier for your users to find what they want. The sooner they find relevant information, the longer they stay on your website.
• Create a Highly Crawlable Link Structure: Let Google’s bots crawl your website quickly and efficiently. Use internal linking for SEO to make your website more crawlable.

Your internal linking structure should help Google understand the following:

• Relevance of Pages: Add internal links to help Google’s bots understand your site’s relevance to a certain niche.
• Relationships Between Pages: Add internal links to the pages covering a similar topic. This will help Google understand the relationship between the pages.
• Value of Pages: Add internal links to help share the link equity between pages. When the link value gets shared, it increases the potential for a higher search ranking.

You will need to consider several factors to achieve these goals. How you use internal linking for SEO will change depending on your site structure, industry, and overall objectives. While every strategy will look a bit different, the following steps should help you get started.

To read more, check out the original article published on Foxxr Digital Marketing.