Why Internal Linking is Important in SEO

Contextual links are strategically placed within the main body of a web page's content. These links are often highly relevant to the surrounding text, providing additional information or context that enhances the reader's understanding of the topic. These can be both internal or external, but we will focus on internal on this post.

For example, you are writing a blog about the many different flooring options a person can choose from. Within that post, you will have a contextual link that points to other areas of your website and provides more information regarding specific types of flooring. Here is a quick example of how you would phrase a contextual link: "Other types of flooring exist, such as hardwood flooring." That would be a hyperlink, and it will guide the user to the correct area of your website, where it talks in more detail about hardwood flooring.

Make sense? And yes, you might be thinking, isn't that an anchor text as well? The answer is yes, it is; however, unlike just having a descriptive word hyperlinked, such as "hardwood flooring", you are providing more context to the anchor text, such as mentioned above.

Navigation links

Navigation links it is exactly what is sounds like, typically found in a website's main menu, header, or sidebar. These links help users find their way around your site easily. By organizing navigation links logically and intuitively, you can ensure that visitors can access essential pages, such as the homepage, services, contact information, and key categories, enhancing the overall user experience and the site's usability. One tip of advice for you: make sure that your navigation bar on top actually scrolls when your users are scrolling up or down; you wouldn't want your users to go all the way back to the top for them to go to different pages on your website, right? It just creates a better user experience.

Footer links

Footer links are located at the bottom of a website's pages. These links are usually reserved for essential but less frequently accessed pages, such as privacy policies, terms of service, or contact details. While they may not be as prominent as navigation or contextual links, footer links still play an important role in providing comprehensive access to all parts of your website, improving both usability and SEO performance.

How Internal Linking Boosts SEO

Improving Website Structure

Enhances user navigation

Good internal linking practices significantly enhance user navigation by creating clear pathways for users to follow through a website. When users can easily find the information they are looking for via a logical series of links, they are more likely to stay on the site longer. Remember how we talked about bounce rate in our previous post? So, internal linking helps decrease the bounce rate and contributes to a session's duration, which in turn signals to Google that your content is relevant and can have a positive effect on SEO rankings.

Creates a logical site architecture

Internal linking helps in creating a logical site architecture by defining the hierarchies and relationships between different pages. A well-structured architecture makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index the site, ensuring that all pages, especially those that are deep within the site structure, get discovered and ranked. This not only improves the website's accessibility but also its SEO performance.

Distributing Page Authority

Spread link equity throughout the site

Internal linking spreads link equity, also known as link juice, throughout a website. When a high-authority page links to other pages within the same site, it passes on some of its SEO value to those pages. This distribution of page authority helps in elevating the rankings of linked pages, making the overall website more competitive in search engine results. So, how do you get link juice? Well, that goes to getting backlinks (external links) to the page on which you want to rank. Below is our post about the role of backlinks.

relevant content: The Role of Backlinks in SEO Today

Prioritizes key content

By incorporating internal links to key content, you signal to both users and search engines about the importance of these pages. The more frequently a page is linked within the site, the more likely it is considered valuable. This prioritization helps in boosting the rankings of essential content pages, ensuring that they receive the visibility they deserve in search engine results.

Supports underperforming pages

Internal linking can also be used to support underperforming pages that are struggling to gain traction. How? We touched on it above; by linking these underperforming pages from higher authority or more popular pages that your website ranks for, you can help distribute some of the link juice to boost their SEO performance. This strategy is effective in ensuring that all pages on a website, not just the well-performing ones, get the opportunity to rank well. Remember that every page should have different keywords you want to rank for; you do not want the same keyword on multiple pages; this is called keyword cannibalization, and search engines are going to struggle as to which page to run over the other.

Best Practices for Internal Linking

Choosing Anchor Texts

Utilize descriptive text

Utilizing descriptive text is crucial in internal linking as it provides context to both users and search engines about the content of the linked page. Descriptive anchor texts should succinctly summarize what the user can expect to find upon clicking the link. This practice not only enhances user experience but also signals search engines about the relevance and topic of the linked pages, contributing to better indexing and ranking. We talked about this in the above section.

Incorporate keywords

If there is anything you are going to leave with after reading this, then is this section. Incorporating keywords into anchor texts is a strategic approach to strengthen internal links. By using targeted keywords, you allow search engines to understand the relationship between your pages better. This can lead to improved rankings for those keywords. Just keep in mind that keywords should fit naturally within the context to avoid coming across as spammy or forced..

Avoid over-optimization

Avoiding over-optimization is essential to maintain the integrity of your internal linking strategy. Over-optimization is when keywords are excessively or unnaturally used within anchor texts, making the content appear manipulative. This can lead to penalties from search engines. It's crucial to strike a balance by using a mix of keyword-rich and natural, varied anchor texts. This practice ensures a diverse and organic link profile, which is favored by search algorithms.

Regularly auditing and updating links

Make sure to stay up to date with the industry you are with as keywords that you are ranking for might not be as popular today versus when you initially added it. Regular audits and updates of links are critical to keeping your internal link structure healthy, effective, and relevant. Over time, you may add new content, remove outdated pages, or change URLs; just make sure that when these adjustments are taking place, you double and triple-check that there are no broken links, as that will cause a decrease in user experience and negatively affect your SEO. Conducting periodic audits helps identify and rectify these issues, ensuring all links remain functional and relevant.

Let's Close This Out

We've gone over what internal linking is and how it plays a crucial role in optimizing a website for search engines and improving user experience. By understanding the basics of internal linking, including different types and their benefits, website owners can strategically use internal links to boost their SEO efforts.

We've touched on what contextual, navigation, and footer links are and how they help create a logical site structure and enhance user navigation. Distributing page authority through internal linking spreads link equity, prioritizes key content, and supports underperforming pages. Following best practices like using descriptive anchor texts, incorporating keywords, and maintaining a consistent linking structure can further enhance the effectiveness of internal linking strategies.

We hope that this article was informative so you can right away start implementing it on your website. If you are looking to partner with a company that seeks to grow long-term relationships with their clients, then reach out to Alterior Digital. We make sure to take care of our clients as we do our own company; get your free SEO Audit today, and let's get started.