In the world of SEO there are strategies that are minimized, and therefore, many do not take them into account, when in fact they make the difference. Among them we have internal links.
Knowing more about this resource to use it as part of your SEO strategy will help you achieve several goals: boost your website to be more competitive, improve user experience and increase your visibility in search engines.
Contents
What are internal links?
When we talk about internal links, we refer to those hyperlinks that connect pages within the same website. A direct example is that in this article we put an internal link talking about external links, because it is key to understand the difference between the two.
These act as threads that weave the structure of a website, allowing users to navigate more easily between different content.
They are also essential for search engines to understand how your site is organized and what is the relevance of each page that composes it.
Why is internal linking recommended for your content?
The benefits of correctly applying this resource are many, practices that we will go into in more detail later on, but which in general add up to aspects such as the following:
- User experience is rewarding. It makes it easier for visitors to find content related to what they are reading, keeping them on your site longer.
- Distribute page authority. They are able to distribute link juice, or link authority, to other pages within your site, which can improve your site’s ranking.
- Optimize the indexing of your site. Search engine bots use these links to discover and index pages that would be difficult to find if they were not linked.
- Reduce bounce rate. By offering additional content that is well related, you are more likely to retain users longer and prevent them from leaving your site quickly.
- Reinforce your strategy with keywords. By linking strategically, you can highlight specific keywords and add them little by little to achieve a good position of your pages in the search results.
Types of internal links that exist
Among the different ways to implement internal links, we will point out several ways depending on your objectives and the content you have:
- Navigation links. They are the ones that appear in menus or sidebars, being useful for those who browse the web, to move easily through the main sections of the site.
- Contextual links. As their name indicates, they are found within the text of an article or page and are directly related to the content being read.
- Links in images. These are images that when clicked on lead to other internal pages, by means of an added link. This is useful in galleries or interactive visual content.
- Links in the footer. They usually include sections such as ‘Privacy Policy’, ‘Contact’ or ‘Terms of Service’, but may also link to featured articles or important categories.
Practices to improve your strategy
If you want your internal links to be effective, especially knowing the types, there are certain practices you should follow to take advantage of their full potential:
Use appropriate anchor text
The text you use to place the link should directly describe the content it leads to, which can be exact, but with varied semantics, especially if you talk about concepts or terms, with generic words or phrases.
For example, if we talk about myths about SEO that need to be debunked to create a better strategy, we can place the hyperlink directly in the anchor text ‘myths about SEO’.
However, assuming that you want to promote this topic from several articles, it is more appropriate to create anchor text variants, such as ‘SEO myths’, ‘lies about SEO’ or ‘SEO myths’. Always using the same anchor text is not natural, in fact, it may be taken as spam.
As for the more generic links, which are not with exact anchor text, following the example we have alluded to in this section, could be included as follows: to improve an SEO strategy, it is important to know some myths surrounding the subject, for this, you can enter here to learn more.
Getting it right from the start, or correcting seemingly small details such as anchor text, makes all the difference, as it helps both the user and the search engines.
Avoid excessive links
Although we know how beneficial their inclusion can be, if there are too many on a single page it is sometimes confusing and detrimental.
Staying within a range of one to four links is a good measure, although this always depends on factors such as the length of the content, the type of content, among others. That is, it is not a mandatory rule to stick to.
Keep in mind that a 500-word article with 10 links is not the same as a 1500-word article with the same number of links.
A general informative article is not the same as one focused on making a top, where it makes a lot of sense to include several links if each case has been previously discussed. That is why we say that the number depends.
Creates a logical structure
Think of your website as a structure composed of pillars, where each pillar represents the most important pages of your content. These pillars need to be strengthened through internal linking, creating strategic connections that distribute both authority and traffic efficiently.
Identifying what these pillars are is essential to establish a logical structure that is easy for both search engines and users to follow.
Let’s say you have a main article where you promote your gym or gym equipment for sale. In addition to evaluating specific aspects for gym SEO, thinking about a logical structure to boost this main URL, is what to aim for.
From the blog, where you talk about the best exercises to do, how to achieve certain goals or mistakes, link to it. It acts as a general guide on a topic, so make sure that other related pages link to this article and vice versa.
Links to less visible content
Not all of your content receives the same level of visibility, especially if you have newer pages or older posts that no longer generate as much traffic. To balance this out, prioritize linking to recent pages that you have just published on your blog, as these need more of an initial push to be discovered and rank in search engines.
Likewise, pay attention to the articles that are less visited or that do not have as many inbound links within your website. This distributes the traffic, and of course, reinforces the authority of those pages, giving them more opportunities.
Always think that a good practice is to regularly analyze your site statistics to identify which pages need this additional support, and thus optimize your internal linking strategy.
Also, when linking to less visible content, use relevant and attractive anchor texts to encourage the user to click and explore those articles. This way, you will see a greater permanence on your website.
Make regular checks (looking for broken links)
These may stop working for different reasons, and if this is the case, it is essential to solve this problem, after all, broken links negatively affect SEO and user experience in general.
The good thing is that you don’t have to go through them one by one, because for this you can find many tools that make your life simpler.
Use relatable content
Do not carry out this action just for the sake of it, but rather make sure that the articles or pages are thematically related.
Maintaining consistency is a factor that more people than you think forget about, making mistakes that, although small, cost in the end, and perhaps that’s why your competitors are ranking above you in the results.
What to do if you have many items for internal linking?
Manual internal linking is a great strategy to optimize your website’s SEO and improve the user experience. By accomplishing this task manually, it is easier to carefully choose which pages to link to and how to link to them, boosting the benefits.
However, when you have too many articles on your website, working one by one becomes overwhelming. In these cases, it is a good idea to rely on tools that automate the internal linking process.
Although they do not have the same level of precision, they are an efficient solution for sites with a large number of pages, and in the end, it is better to have several internal links, even if they are not fully optimized, rather than none at all.
Tools like Link Whisper, Internal Link Juicer, SEOPress, Enlazatom, among others, are great for this, each one with its own characteristics.
Remember that while plugins are useful, it’s always good to do your own review of the most important links to make sure everything fits together naturally and strategically. A balance between manual and automated will allow you to maintain quality while managing large volumes of content.
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