How Many Links Should You Include?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is an algorithm that increases the traffic to web servers by increasing the visibility of relevant web pages that match the search query. Internal linking and external linking are an important SEO practice that will help you optimize your site for organic searches.

How can you link your blog to other sites or pages on the web? What number of links should you include in your blog post? You can choose between internal and external links but both are vital.

High-quality external links to your blog content will build authority and offer additional resources for your readers, whilst building backlinks to your website.

The importance of internal links is crucial to a website’s ranking. This includes its crawlability via search engine bots and the distribution of ranking authority between pages.

How Many Links Should a Blog Post Have?

You can get an answer to this question simply by using the rule of thumb.

Don't overwhelm your reader. Keep it to 4 to 5 (4-5 per 1000 words) inbound and/or outboundlinks per 1,000 words. My rule of thumb is 3 external links to other articles on the same subject (Use the top 3 listed on a Google search for your article subject) and 7 internal links to other articles on my own website that are relevant.



Join the Discussion
Write something…
Recent messages
bjdluna Premium Plus
Hi Lily,

Can you please clarify something? Are you saying that for a post of 1000 words you have 4 to 5 links going to your other related posts and 4 to 5 links coming inbound to this post from your other relevant posts? What are the 7 internal links for? Sorry, I am a little confused.

Thanks very much,

Barbara
Reply
Aussiemuso Premium Plus
That's ok Barbara. For a 1000 word post I would put in 4 internal links to my other posts that are relevant and 2 External links to outside relevant articles.

Lily 😁🎶
Reply
bjdluna Premium Plus
Thanks, Lily.

Barbara
Reply
RogerMackley Premium
Hello Lily, TGIF again, that pleases me. Excellent time for the tutorial on links, that's what I've been working on the last several days, along with meta descriptions, tags. A little bit time consuming for sure, but feels like moving forward. Hope you have a wonderful weekend and much success.
Reply
Aussiemuso Premium Plus
Hi Roger,
Yes it is time consuming but so important for your success.
Have a lovely weekend. We are in full lockdown and Covid cases are spiralling out of control in Australia. Hopefully free soon.

Warm regards,
Lily 😁🎶
Reply
RogerMackley Premium
Sorry to hear that Lily, stay safe and keep your distance.
Reply
Aussiemuso Premium Plus
Absolutely. We are already fully vaccinated and hunkered down doing our part. More time to write and work on my business. 😆
Stay safe my friend.

Lily 😁🎶
Reply
emarla Premium
This has been incredibly helpful. I needed this basic understanding. Thank you so much 😊
Erlene
Reply
Aussiemuso Premium Plus
You are very welcome Erlene.

Lily 😁🎶
Reply
YvonneBray Premium
Great advice Lily!
Reply
Aussiemuso Premium Plus
You are welcome Yvonne.
I always wondered how links worked from the first day I started here.

Lily 😁🎶
Reply
YvonneBray Premium
I often read different advice on links and was never too sure who was correct. Oddly enough, I got a message saying I wasn't using enough links, internal and external. After reading your tutorial, I will be going back on my posts to check which ones need extra links.
Reply
Aussiemuso Premium Plus
I know. It was so confusing to me too. But now I can see how it helps our readers to find connected information on our website which improves our bounce rate, and Google likes links.
Going back and adding links is a great idea and if you do a light edit while there you can ask Google to crawl it again.

Hugs
Lily 😁🎶
Reply
YvonneBray Premium
Cool
Reply
LawrenceDora Premium
Hey there Lily
Thank you for this great training, it really made me better understand the purpose of internal and external links.

Lawrence
Reply
Aussiemuso Premium Plus
Perfect Lawrence.
Lily 😁🎶
Reply
Top