To make your site appear on top of search engine results pages (SERPs), you must optimize all relevant on-page factors. There are many variables you must focus on, but for this article, we'll look at internal links and their significance in search engine optimization (SEO). We'll also look at how you should implement internal links on your website to maximize its chances of ranking in search engines.
Let's begin!
What Is an Internal Link?
In a nutshell, internal links are hyperlinks that point to a page within the same site.
There are many types of internal links, like the sidebar, footer, and navigational links. However, internal links within the content body, or contextual links, are the most potent regarding SEO, which we'll explain later.
Here's a screenshot of an internal linking example on Legiit:
Internal Linking for SEO: Why and How It Works?
From the description above, internal links may seem insignificant on a website. However, when used correctly, these links can help your site pages rank at the top of Google search.
For starters, internal linking allows search engine crawlers to find your web pages. Creating internal links to newly published pages or those not crawled before helps search spiders find these pages much easier. This allows the spiders to index your pages for their target keywords and generate clicks and traffic from SERPs.
Also, you send link juice to internal pages you link to. Also known as PageRank, link juice refers to the page's authority being forwarded to the pages it links to.
For example, if page A links to pages B, C, and D, the last three pages receive page A's authority. That means pages B, C, and D can potentially rank higher on SERPs due to the link they receive.
However, how high these pages can rank depends on the strength of the pages they're receiving internal links from.
If page A is ranking for tons of search engines and generating lots of traffic, it can increase the chances of the internal pages it's linking to rank on Google search.
On the other hand, if page A isn't getting organic traffic at all, there won't be any effect on the internal pages at all.
The distribution of link juice also differentiates internal links from external links or outbound links.
The former allows you to circulate your site's authority across different pages your site. External links, on the other hand, let the authority escape from your website to a page from another site. That's why linking to as many internal pages as possible is preferable as opposed to linking away from your site.
While developing a strong internal linking structure is not the only factor that dictates your site's SEO success, it's a pretty valuable one nonetheless.
In an InLinks case study, the author was able to get pages ranking outside of the first page within the top ten via manual and automatic internal linking.
SEO Internal Linking Strategy - What Are Some Best Practices?
The case study example of internal linking above, among countless others online, shows you can boost your site's organic traffic by developing a solid internal linking strategy. It's just a matter of using the right tactics to maximize the effects of your internal links. Below are internal links SEO best practices you must use.
Develop Content Silos
Internal linking for SEO is not just randomly linking to pages within your site and expecting a quick boost in organic traffic. It should follow a site architecture where all internal links make sense.
This is where content silos or topic clusters come in. It refers to a group of pages that cover a subtopic relevant to your site's niche and are interlinked with each other.
This internal link mapping comprises a landing page you want to drive traffic to generate conversions and revenue and supporting pages that link to the landing page. By linking to the landing page, you help increase its search visibility and accomplish your goals.
There are many ways you can approach building a content silo, but Kyle Roof's reverse silo is one of the better ones. Its SEO internal linking strategy requires all supporting pages to link to the landing page, which only links to a supporting page.
This allows the landing page to sop up all the authority from the supporting pages while allowing the link juice to circulate to other pages.
A content silo also lets you determine the underserved landing pages on your site. From here, you can brainstorm topics to create as its supporting pages. This could also mean that your silo doesn't have a landing page yet, which is perfectly fine, since you'll create a page on your site for it later on.
Determine the Anchor Text to Be Used for Each Page
After identifying the pages to create for your content silos, you need to assign anchor texts to be used for each.
Remember that you can't repeat the anchor text for linking to the same page all the time. Search engines view this as you over-optimize for the search query as the anchor text. This prevents the page from ranking on SERPs at all.
Also, you can't use the exact anchor text for multiple internal pages, which may cause keyword cannibalization. That means the pages using identical anchor text may rank for the same term on search results, which is something you want to avoid.
That said, you must diversify your anchor texts when linking to a page. You can use a keyword tool like LowFruits to find relevant search phrases for the page's target keyword.
You can also use Google Search Console to find which queries the pages appear for on SERPs.
The goal is to assign a descriptive anchor text from the generated ideas to the articles you will build internal links on.
In this case, avoid using phrases like "click here," "learn more," and similar as anchor texts. Ensure that the anchor and the sentence or paragraph surrounding it provide context about what the page you're linking to is about.
Link to Landing Pages That You Want to Rank
As mentioned earlier, content silos aim to rank landing pages on search engines to increase your conversions and bottom line. So, you must strive to create topic clusters with a dedicated landing page for each.
You may currently have landing pages on your site. But if you don't have one yet for an existing content silo, you must create one by first researching for a keyword you want your landing page to rank for.
Do this using a keyword tool like Serpstat and typing your seed keyword on the search bar. It should spit out ideas and suggestions you can use as the target keyword of your landing page.
Filter the results to help you find keywords with relatively high search volume and low difficulty. Also, consider singling out keywords that contain "best," "most," and other superlatives in the keyword. Terms that have these words in them are commercial intent keywords, making them ideal as target keywords for your landing page.
From here, create content optimized for the keyword for each landing page to increase their chances of ranking on Google and other search engines.
Repeat the process above to ensure that all your content silos have a landing page to link to.
Link From Pages That Are Already Ranking
Supporting pages that attract the most organic traffic produce the most link value to your site. If you add internal links in your content, you can boost the keyword rankings and organic traffic of your other pages.
To know what your site's best-performing pages are, head on to Google Search Console, then click on Performance on the left sidebar. From here, you can see the pages with the most clicks and impressions. The higher the numbers of both figures are here, the more authoritative these pages are.
Some pages you may find here are existing landing and supporting pages on your site. Nevertheless, this doesn't change the internal link structure SEO you outlined in your content silos. Including these pages in your silos should help all the pages in each improve their organic rankings. As the saying goes, a rising tide raises all boats.
Create Context for Each Link
At this point, you should be creating links from the pages in your silo. And as mentioned, you must provide context to the pages you'll link to.
Ensure to write at least a sentence in the content where the link should appear. It should explain what the linked page is about and why readers must click on it.
Edit the pages from your content management system (CMS) to add context to the content. If you have no idea how the page relates to the topic of the other page, use ChatGPT or AI content tools to help bridge the gap for you. Rewrite the generated text into the content and link to the page here.
Ensure Deep Linking
A solid internal linking structure requires all its pages to be just a few clicks away from the homepage. Having them close to your homepage makes crawling them much more convenient for Googlebots and other search spiders.
In a content silo, the landing page is one click away from the homepage, while the supporting articles are two clicks away. This is assuming you feature the landing pages on the homepage's content. Adding these pages to your navigational menu and footer should also help their crawlability.
But to know the click depth of each page, use a website audit tool like Website Auditor by SEO Powersuite to analyze your site for various technical SEO factors, which includes your internal linking analysis.
Once the audit is done, you should see how far away the page is from the homepage.
From here, take pages that are four clicks or more away from your homepage and link to them from pages with a click depth of three or fewer clicks.
Adopt Orphan Pages
If you have pages that Google hasn't crawled yet, there's a good chance no page on your site links to them. This is why they're called orphan pages, and Google can't crawl them on your site.
You can view your site's orphan pages from the same website audit report you ran above. For Website Auditor, you can find it under "Links to Page."
Once you have these pages, assign them to their appropriate content silos. This way, not only do you send internal links their way, but they also link to other pages and help strengthen your topical relevance.
Fix Broken and Redirect (301) Links
You may have linked internally before but changed the pages you linked to or are linking from. You may have deleted the pages or edited the content and removed their internal links.
As a result, some of the links may not be pointing to 404 pages on your site. The error disrupts the experience of visitors browsing your site, which may lead them to leave your site indefinitely, never to return.
From an SEO standpoint, having broken internal links may cause search engines to drop your keyword rankings for the aforementioned reason.
Again, you can keep track of any broken links on your site from your website audit report.
You may encounter links that redirect to another page on your site. When you deleted a page, you set a 301 redirect from that page to a related one on your site. However, you didn't change the links that were still pointing to the URL of the deleted page.
Redirect links still lead visitors to your desired page. However, some of the link juice is lost in the transition. Therefore, it's best to find which your site's redirect links are and edit them to point to the correct URL.
Limit the Internal Links on a Page
It's common to have multiple internal links from a single page. The question is how many internal links you should include in one.
Too many internal links pointing to different pages on your site may seem beneficial because you're allowing the link juice to circulate all over your website. However, the links dilute the page's authority and may compromise its SERP rankings.
That's why it's best to be deliberate with the links you'll be including on your website.
In the reverse silo architecture, supporting pages don't have more than two internal links. This is because you want to concentrate your link juice on your content silos and not just spread them around liberally.
But as mentioned, this is just one approach to building your content silos, which affects your internal link strategy. Some link to pages they feel are relevant to the topic, regardless of which silo they belong to.
You can also check pages on top of SERPs for keywords you're trying to rank for. Use the Detailed Chrome extension to see how many internal links each page has. Then, pattern the average number of links all the pages have into your internal linking site structure.
Conclusion
The ability to create meaningful internal links will have a positive impact on your site's SEO performance. Following the internal linking best practices above, you should be able to help search spiders find your pages, determine your site's topical relevance, and identify the pages that they should rank on SERPs.
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