What is Internal Link building in SEO?
Internal link building in seo is one of the most important and effective strategies in SEO, and by following it, you can greatly improve your website. Internal link building, like many other tasks, will not yield results if it is not done with proper planning and principles.
An internal link is basically a link that connects one page of your website to another page. Any website that has more than one page is linked this way. Most websites have a home page that is divided into different subpages.
One of the most common SEO techniques on early websites was to divide content into silos that would perform better for a specific set of keywords. This model was still popular until recent times, and some websites still use this structure because it makes more sense.
Why is internal linking important?
Internal linking can be one of your most powerful SEO weapons If you know how to use it correctly. 5 reasons to use internal links are that:
Internal link building can improve your website indexing process.
Google crawlers follow the path of links on the Internet to index website pages. If your website has strong internal links, crawlers can find your new content faster. Google is constantly looking for new content on the web, if you connect your website pages with multiple internal links, you increase the chance of finding them. As a result, the speed of indexing of pages increases and you enter the competition for ranking on the search results page faster.
Internal linking can increase the potential for backlinks to deeper pages on your website.
If you look at the backlinks pointing to your website, you will see that many of them link to your home page. Unfortunately, too many links to your home page are not good for SEO. The more links to deeper, internal pages, the more value you have to search engines.
Internal link building adds value to internal pages.
As we read in the previous section, most attention is usually paid to the first page of a website. If you can shift this attention to the more internal pages, you will get better SEO results.
Internal links with anchor text can add contextual value to your links.
An internal link is a simple HTML tag that connects one page to another. Something like this:
<a href = “http://www.example.com/internalpage”> an article on cat food </a>
When you link to other pages using anchor text instead of linking to an image or menu, you create much more value. Text can be more valuable because of the keywords that may be used in it. Remember that Google does not just look for an Href A tag, but it also looks at the text and the content to which it points.
Internal linking provides more value to your users.
The most crucial thing may be that you provide more value to your audience with internal linking. What many people forget is that links are generally created for users, not Google crawlers!
If a user enjoys reading an article on your website, they will be enthusiastic to read another related article from you. This is where proper linking can turn a user into a loyal audience.
All types of Internal Link Building in SEO
Internal link building, just like other concepts in the field of digital marketing and SEO, has different types. When you are intended to consider a strategy for your links, it is better to pay attention to its different models to achieve your goals faster. In the following, we will introduce 4 types of internal link building and explain how to use them.
Manually internal link building within contents
Most of the links that are created within the website are located within the content text. To do this, simply place a link on the desired word and direct the user to the desired page. Usually, this type of linking is executed in the body of the text. Remember to refer the users to relevant pages so that they can navigate well.
Internal link building with images
By placing images among your texts, you can help make it more attractive and prevent the text from becoming monotonous and boring for the audience. All images can also have links. Your image can serve as a reference for your text description and be included in the Google Images section. You can also link from your image to another page on the website and direct the user this way.
Internal link building from the website menu
The menu is one of the most prevalent components of any website. You have probably encountered its menu when you enter a website. Internal links can also be placed in this section. The menu can contain links to various pages, consisting of the latest content or blog.
Internal link building from the home page of the website
The home page is the most significant and visited page on the website. The way links are placed and how other pages are linked on the home page is very important. Therefore, you have the opportunity to link your efficient and important pages in different ways on the home page so that they have more visits.
Types of Internal Links
Internal links can be divided into several categories, all of which are explained in more detail below.
Internal Follow Link
A follow link is actually a link that Google bots are able to track, which is how Google understands the redirection of users from other pages to the destination page. Search engines consider each follow link a point for your website and give credit to the destination page.
Internal No-follow Link
Internal links that are no-follow work exactly the opposite of follow links; by placing this link, you inform search engines not to consider the authority of the source page for the destination page. This type of link building is used when irrelevant content is published on your website or when you place promotional links on your website or in the comments section.
What is the difference between internal and external links?
By defining each of these links, you can easily comprehend their differences. External links refer to the relationship of your website with the other ones. When you link to another website within your content or other websites are linked to your domain, external linking has occurred. On the other hand, there is internal link building, which belongs to the relationship between the internal pages of your website.
Nonetheless, the difference between these two links is not limited to their definition; when you use internal links, you intend to direct the user to your other pages. This guidance can ultimately lead to a purchase, complete the audience’s information, increase the duration of their presence on the website, or pursue any other goal within your website. However, using external links is in a situation where you are going to show your credibility to search engines. For example, at the end of your article, you specify the source or get a link from a reputable media outlet so that Google robots perceive your connection to those websites.
What is the importance of internal link building in SEO?
As we have mentioned many times in this article, Google robots check links and then consider it as a score for you. With a more meticulous look, we will observe that these robots check all the links given to each page after reaching it.
Consequently, it is essential what links are placed on each page and which of them are follow and which are no-follow. Links can greatly increase the authority of your website and are an advantageous roadmap for Google to get you to the top rankings.
Techniques for internal link building in SEO
After reading the above explanation, you are probably also interested in knowing how to create internal links; what is the best method to make this link building valuable? Well, first of all, you need to make sure that the following two conditions are met on your website:
- There must be content on your website. Even if you have published one article, that is enough to get you started.
- Have a plan for regularly rewriting and publishing content on your website. Sticking to a specific content publishing schedule is crucial. Otherwise, internal linking will not be influential.
Let’s move on to the techniques;
Internal linking from one page with valuable content to another page with valuable content
The best internal linking takes place when one article links to another one. This creates a strong internal structure between your content. If navigational structure of your website is good, you do not need to link to main pages like About Us or Contact Us or the home page. It’s better if you have a store page or a sales landing page to draw all the attention to it.
Creating Internal Text Links Using Anchor Text
What types of links work best? It is simple. Links that come with descriptions. What do you mean by descriptions?
First of all, it is better to be familiar with the concept of anchor text which means a word or words that link to another page and will usually appear in blue in the text. Now you need to do internal link building of your website using anchor text; nevertheless, not every text is suitable for this purpose.
Neil Patel suggests linking to words that describe the referring page. Let me give you a few examples. If we were going to link to an article on black hat SEO, we would use the following text:
- Do not forget that there is no value in using black hat SEO techniques these days.
Or if we intended to link to an article about Google’s SEO algorithms, we would use the following:
- Google’s algorithms are updated every year and new rules will be added to them.
What we do in both examples is choose text as anchor text that is relevant to the topic. This is sometimes done incorrectly. Some people think that they should use phrases or words for linking that are not directly related to the linked page. In addition, try to avoid using phrases like “click here” as much as possible. These links do not add value to the audience.
And the next point is not to link more than one sentence. Of course, even a linked sentence is strange and unnatural enough, and will not be a pleasant experience for the user. Just choose one or two topic-related words and then link.
Internally link from new articles to old ones
It is important to have at least several internal links to existing content on your website in each new piece of content. This will have a direct impact on your internal link building strategy. Because from Google’s perspective, a website provides new value to its audience and should have a better position in search results.
From Google’s perspective, when users refer to links of old pages on your website, it means that the content on those pages is still valuable and this will create a myriad of points for you.
Update old articles with new internal links
You can best utilize the power of internal link building when you combine it with another technique; The technique of updating old content.
When you update old content, Google crawlers will see it again, re-index it, and it will likely rank better in the results page. We recommend updating your old articles on a regular schedule.
The process of updating old content;
- Add a new paragraph at the beginning of the content, which contains a description of the new update.
- Add a few new paragraphs between the content that provide new and up-to-date information to the customer.
- And most importantly, add a few new internal links to the content you have recently published.
Internal linking is not about always linking to old content. We should also create links from old content to newly published articles so that they maintain their value.
Build internal links where it makes sense
Looking for parts of your content where it is more sensible to link. Related phrases or places that need more explanation. Remember that internal link building is supposed to add value to your audience.
Make sure your internal links are set as Follow
This is a simple but important tip. Be careful not to no-follow your links. Experience has shown that search engines give less value to these types of links. Hence, use follow links where there is no requirement.
Give internal links to pages that have high conversion rate
Do you have pages on your website that are visited more than other pages? If so, then link to them. Here, internal link building not only comprises of SEO value, but it will also have performance value. The more visitors visit your popular pages, the higher conversion rate will be created, and that is a good thing!
