Internal Linking Best Practices, An internal link is a backlink that navigates away from the page that the user is currently on to another page in the same domain.
Internal links are of course useful for users by helping them to easily navigate towards other relevant content on your site and keep them moving through your website.
Why Are Internal Links Important For SEO?
► They can help you to propel yourself upwards in SERPS.
► They’re also crucial in helping search engines discover new content.
► Help your users navigate your website and find similar content.
Best Practices For Internal Linking
Like all things SEO, internal linking needs to be implemented strategically.
Implement a crawlable link structure
Your website needs an internal link structure that allows crawlers to move back and forth in an intentional manner. Implement a structure that not only makes it easier for users to navigate around your website but for crawlers to understand your content, passing authority throughout your pages.
How To Choose What Page To Link To
You’ll want to place your internal links in prominent places on your website. By making them easier for users to navigate towards you’ll also demonstrate to search engines that these are the pages that generate the most interest and rank them accordingly.
Use relevant anchor text
Your anchor text is the text you attach the hyperlink to. The more relevant your anchor text to the page it represents, the more likely users are to click on the link, navigate to the page, and actually engage with it rather than bouncing straight back. Search engines will also rank you higher in those search results for the anchor text used and other variations.
Avoid using the same anchor text
Don’t use the same anchor text for different pages. You want to make sure that we’re giving both Google and our users as much context as possible surrounding the content of the linked page. This will help to ensure that the pages are being ranked for the most relevant search terms based on the search intent.
Link new pages from existing pages
Every time you add a new page or post to your website, it can take a bit of time for Google to acknowledge, or ‘index’ this new webpage.
Creating internal links as soon as the page is published helps search engines index the content faster in their search results.
Link to & from the most important pages
Link strategically by finding the pages with the most authority. Finding the most authoritative pages and linking out to the other less authoritative pages is a great way to boost any new content on your site and pass on authority.
Remove links to the unimportant pages
You want to make it super clear to Google which pages you consider to be the most important so that it knows which to rank. Remove the internal links pointing to non-valuable pages or replace these links with more useful pages.
Don’t use too many internal links
This is because in an SEO sense, with our internal linking strategy, we’re kind of flowing authority from one page to another and you have to be mindful of not spreading that too thinly. Not only that, but in not being intentional with your link choices and simply bombarding your users with too many internal links, you’re causing a distraction and adding confusion to their experience on the site.
Fix Broken Internal Links
Broken internal links are those that link to pages that either no longer exists or return an error. Having broken links on your website, not only creates a bad user experience but creates a dead end for search engine crawlers.
So if you can master internal linking yourself, you’ll find that your web pages see a speedy and definitive improvement in rankings.