Are you wondering what are internal links in SEO terms?
In general, both internal and external links are essential for any website that wants to gain a prominent place in search engine results. External links point towards your site, which ensures Google has a better chance to recognize your posts and pages. Internal links, on the other hand, are used to establish the hierarchy of your website, boost the importance of on-site pages, and map out the site structure for Google to easily identify.
What is internal linking?
It comes as no surprise, but an internal link is one which features on a website’s page, and this links to a separate page within the same site. There are two main reasons behind on-page internal linking. The first reason is for the benefit of search engines. The likes of Google use internal links to navigate around your website, as a page without any links pointing towards it cannot be found. Secondly, visitors move around the different site pages by utilizing these internal links.
There are several internal link types. These include:
- Homepage
- Menu links
- Footer links
- Sidebar links
- Contextual links
- Post feed
How do internal links help SEO?
To discover and rank content, Google utilizes a wide assortment of techniques. Arguably the biggest factor in that regard is backlinks. When a page receives a healthy portion of high-quality backlinks, this says to Google, ‘I’m a valuable page full of excellent content’.
The same principles apply to internal links. With an effective internal linking strategy, you guide Google – and website users – towards the most important pages you have to offer. Best of all, you have complete control over how these internal links are utilized.
Navigational links
When someone is asked about internal links, their mind will tend to drift towards navigational links.
Navigational links, as the name points out, are used to move around a website with ease. The main navigational links generally have a permanent fixture at the top of a page, and the links will direct visitors to the main sections of the site. Additional navigational links will also tend to populate the footer. This tactic is typically done as a last resort, with the links hopefully providing a reason for someone to stay on the site after they’ve finished scrolling through a page.
For an internal linking SEO strategy, navigational links spotlight your site’s most important pages for Google.
Contextual links
When it comes to the question, ‘What is internal link building?’, no answer is complete without mentioning contextual links.
Contextual links are found within a website page’s body of content. For clarity, here’s an example:
‘Click Intelligence specializes in managed SEO campaigns. With one of our campaigns, you can take your internal link building to the next level!’
Can you spot the phrase that stands out? “Managed SEO campaigns” differs from the rest of the text because it is linking to another page on Click Intelligence. When a user clicks on this link, they are transported to a different on-site page with more information about managed SEO campaigns. As for the influence with search engines, this provides the managed SEO campaigns page with link equity.
Note: avoid throwing as many contextual links as possible onto a page. Say you’re writing a 1,000-word blog post. With this type of word count, you should use five quality internal links at the most. This ensures your contextual links – and navigational links – deliver maximum impact.
Anchor text and its importance
When creating contextual links, the anchor text is where the actual link is placed. Remember the “managed SEO campaigns” link from the previous section? Well, that acted as the anchor text.
Anchor text comes in all different shapes and sizes. While it’s often recommended to use a relevant keyword for the internal link, it’s not always the best choice. Below are several anchor text examples:
- Exact match: An exact match is where the anchor text matches up to the page title. For instance, the aforementioned “managed SEO campaigns” anchor text links to our ‘Managed SEO Campaigns’ page.
- Partial match: A partial match offers a variation to the page it is being linked to. As an example, our ‘Content Writing Services’ page could have an anchor text like ‘pricing for our content writing services’.
- Naked link: Instead of any keywords or phrases, the anchor becomes the actual URL. Example: clickintelligence .com
- Branded: The anchor text is turned into the business/brand name. ‘Click Intelligence’ could link to the “About Us” page, for instance.
- Generic: A common, non-specific word or phrase is used as the anchor text. Example: “click here for more information”.
- Natural: A natural anchor is one that includes a specific keyword and adds additional text to the link. For instance, the keyword “internal links” can be turned into “how to use internal links successfully”.
When crafting an SEO-friendly anchor text, it’s generally recommended to skip the generic option. A prompt to “click here” may convince users to complete that action, but it’s far from ideal when trying to capture Google’s attention.
An effective anchor text begins with ensuring it’s related in some form to the linked page. Furthermore, try and avoid being overly wordy or keyword-heavy with the anchor text.
The problem with broken internal links
Broken internal links need to be eradicated from your website. These are links that simply don’t work, which means they end up leading to an invalid part of your site. If you accumulate a significant number of broken links, this is going to hamper the link equity of your site.
The good news is it is easy to audit your internal links. Various tools allow you to identify issues like broken links, and you can then remove them from the equation, so they no longer hurt your SEO efforts.
Do you use WordPress? The process of finding broken links is made even easier with the Broken Link Checker plugin. You can continually monitor your site’s links and correct the broken ones when needed.
