Recommendations For Internal Linking On The Site
Although internal linking is one of the most important elements of any effective on-page SEO strategy, many experts overlook it. In simple words, internal linking is how the pages of your site are related to each other. If everything is done correctly, the visibility of the content displayed on the pages of the site will increase significantly.
As with any other online marketing strategy, there is a risk of internal linking being abused on a website. You’ve probably come across sites with tons of internal links that use literally every opportunity to get you to another page. Some web projects contain an excessive number of links with the same or similar anchors (link texts), overflowing with keywords. If search engines see content like this, they consider it spam, which has a bad effect on search rankings.
HOW TO SET UP INTERNAL LINKING ON THE SITE
The main goal is to add as many internal links to the site to satisfy the needs of users and meet the requirements of search engines. Unlike backlinks, when organizing internal linking, you are aware of what information can serve as a signal to go to a particular page. By using internal links, you will demonstrate the relationships between different pages to both your users and search engines. With this in mind, we offer a list of pros and cons regarding internal linking to ensure the integrity of the content on your site.
WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN ORGANIZING INTERNAL LINKING
1. Don’t Overuse Stereotypical Anchor Texts
Such text may contain common calls to action such as “follow the link” or “try it now”. Such phrases are useful only when used in limited quantities. If they occur too often, the user will not see the relationship between the content on different pages of the site.
2. Don’t Overdo Your Anchor Text Optimization
Many sites often have internal links whose anchor text contains the same set of key phrases. From an SEO point of view, stuffing anchors with key phrases and their variations is a good practice, but over-optimizing anchor text can play a trick on you in the form of a site ranking down in search results. Try to use links with anchor text filled with keywords to a minimum.
3. Don’t link to pages too deep in your site’s page hierarchy
You don’t want to force search engines and your users to spend a lot of time searching for pages. Most experts recommend not linking to pages more than 3 clicks away in the site’s page hierarchy. When adding another internal link, make sure that the page it leads to is at least indirectly related to the content published on the current one.
4. Don’t add too many or too few internal links to a page
There is no golden mean regarding the number of internal links added to a particular page. However, there are some guidelines to follow. If a user or a search engine sees a huge number of links on a page, they will consider it spam. Moreover, search engines will give less value to each link if there are too many of them. On the other hand, having too few internal links is also bad practice. When choosing the optimal number of internal links, be guided by such a criterion as user experience.
5. Don’t Leave Pages Without Links
Some sites publish content without making it available to both users and search engines. When creating new pages, always link back to them to generate traffic and improve their rankings.
WHAT TO DO WHEN ORGANIZING INTERNAL LINKING
1. Link to important website pages
The main purpose of internal links, like any other, is to drive traffic to important pages of the site. Such pages demonstrate the value of your offer, contain information about products or services. Some of these pages are hard to find if you link too deep. By doing internal linking, you draw attention to the target content of both users and search engines.
2. Use Shallow Links to Help Search Engines Crawl Seamlessly
Search engines allocate a certain amount of processing power to crawl each site, so all pages must be easily accessible. According to digital marketing experts, any page that is 3 clicks away from the home page is too deep in the site hierarchy. The allocated power may not be enough for search robots to crawl these pages. And this means that your users are unlikely to find them.
3. Use Internal Link Analysis Tools
Modern Internet marketers have a huge set of professional tools for analyzing the internal linking of a site. We recommend using the Google Search Console (“Links” section), where you will find a complete list of the site’s pages and internal links leading to them.
Also Read: 5 Tips For Creating An Seo Optimized Website
4. Use Internal Links to Create a Clear Hierarchy of Your Site Pages
With internal links, you can create a site with a clear page structure. Search engines treat websites as hierarchies of pages, with the home page being the main page. At the same time, the value of pages from subdirectories consistently decreases. Place links to the most important pages on the home page (blog, additional resources), and links to less important pages on the secondary ones to give search engines an idea of the hierarchy of your site.
5. Link on more authoritative pages to less authoritative pages
The most authoritative (ranking pages) of a site are usually close in the hierarchy to the home page. The home page is the most authoritative because it contains the most backlinks. The pages they lead to are also authoritative “in the eyes” of search engines. Check your site’s page rank. Choose the most authoritative ones to place backlinks to pages with less traffic. This is one of the effective ways to promote a particular page of your site.
BOOST YOUR SEO STRATEGY ON YOUR WEBSITE WITH INTERNAL LINKING
If the pages on your site are literally “locked” and unrelated, this makes them difficult to find and rank by search engines. Users will also find them with great difficulty. You can solve both problems by establishing relationships between pages using contextual links.
You have spent a lot of time and effort developing quality content. Try to make sure that not a single page is left without attention. Implementing an internal linking strategy does not require large investments. Moreover, you can always make any changes. After some time, you will notice a significant increase in traffic to important pages.
