Best Practices For Internal Linking SEO

byRobert-A

10.9K followers

Updated 10 years ago

Hi Everybody This Will Be My Last Blog Of The Year

Internal Linking

When I’ve been asked to comment on other members sites within wealthy affiliate I do notice that quite a lot of the time there isn’t a great deal of use of one very important concept in Internet Marketing. In some sites I’ve browsed I have also noticed its overlooked altogether.

And what is this important concept I hear you ask? The answer of course is Internal Linking because any competitive website is constantly updating, understanding and enforcing its SEO. Therefore with billions of websites to compete with, ensuring that your website is appealing to your target audience as well as the search engines is absolutely essential. One of the most useful methods of improving content marketing SEO is using internal linking.

Take heed people because this will be especially important in 2015 when Google rolls out its new Algorithm and your sites will have to be Mobile-Friendly otherwise they WILL be demoted, and eventually sink into oblivion. (one of the reasons this will happen to your site is - you haven't taken enough care with your links. See my Mobile-Friendly Blog for more information and 'Site Checker')

Why Use Internal Linking?

Internal links, unlike external links, provide instantaneous access to another page or section within the same website. External links, in contrast, point to information within external domains and other websites. Using internal links vastly improves the SEO of a website by providing clear paths to authoritative and relevant information for both internet users and search engines. By pointing to specific pieces of interesting and useful information, internal links demonstrate the value and importance of your website, and highlight why search engines should display your website within their search results.

How do You Use and Create Internal Links?

Understanding the importance of internal links is one thing. Creating and using them effectively, is another thing entirely.

Here are some tips for structuring your internal links so that they benefit your website and improve your SEO.

Make Your Homepage Useful

With navigation tabs as a prominent feature of any website, the homepage is typically one of the easiest pages to link to. Most Internet users will visit your homepage when they visit your website. As a result, the homepage is often the highest ranking page of your website, and is the one with the most authority. So, use this wisely.

Optimizing your homepage to make it a source of internal links to relevant and useful information is one of the best ways to link to other pages within your website. Linking to specific pages will highlight important information throughout your site, creating paths that are appealing to both Internet users and search engines. There are back link tools you can use, but you want to be aware how you use them. Too much back link building can backfire if used too quickly.

Use Appealing and Relevant Anchor Text Within Hyperlinks

Anchor text is the clickable text within a hyperlink, and allows users to move quickly to another relevant webpage. Anchor text is used as the link title - the words used within the anchor text should ideally be specific to the information you’re linking to.

Accessories such as the WordPress plugin SEO Smart Internal Links, helps you do this by automatically hyper-linking to keywords within other pages of your website.

Provide a Clear Route to Your Information

One of the most well-known tips for website design is to ensure that the Internet user does not have to visit more than three of your pages to find their target information. The importance of this tip should not be underestimated. According to a recent branding study over 90 percent of online hotel reservation websites conform to this process. In addition, my own UK government’s business advice site Business Link states that this tip is one of the best practices of web design.

Use Breadcrumb Navigation Features

This navigation feature typically appears at the top of any webpage and displays the precise location of the webpage within your website. This tells the reader where they are, and what section of your website they are in. While this does not provide internal links embedded within the text of each webpage, it still acts as a very useful method of internal linking. If you haven’t done it already, downloads WordPress’s SEO Plugin because it will help you use this feature and optimize your navigation tools within your website.

Display Useful Sidebars, Widgets and Navigational Links

Adding different widgets and navigational links to each webpage will help Internet users find relevant information on your website. Customizing and optimizing your widgets and sidebars will ensure that readers see something that will interest them. Link building tools such as the Widget Context plugin can help you do this by ensuring that specific widgets and links are displayed depending on what type of content the Internet user has selected to read. In addition, understanding which links and content will be commonly searched for will allow you to select useful links and add them to your sidebars and footers.

Consider the Positioning of Your Internal Links Within Your Text

This is a particularly useful tip: readers can stop reading your article whenever they want. Consequently, ensuring that internal links are positioned within the top section of your webpage will make these links more likely to be clicked on. As a result, search engines will rank these links more importantly. Placing keywords and links within the first few sections of text on each webpage will make them more visible, rather than leaving them right at the bottom of your article.

Internal linking is a vital method of improving your website’s SEO and rankings. When used efficiently and carefully, these links provide useful paths for Internet users and help them find the information they’ve been looking for. The more user-friendly and useful your website is, (with good articles) the more likely search engines will display your website within their search results.

Ok people that is Internal Linking in a nutshell. I hope you found this blog interesting and it will be helpful to you when you next create or update a website. Meantime leave a comment then rush over to your site and make changes. I can assure you they will be changes for the better.

Robert Allan