What is internal linking and how to boost SEO with?
All of us who have businesses look for many ways to improve them, and we, bloggers, are among those who try hard to develop strategies in order to put our posts at the top of the search engine results pages.
Why is that?
Well, we are not a charity. We want to get more traffic to our websites, to raise our revenues because this is simply what we work hard to achieve.
But how do search engines find your post?
By sending bots (crawlers) to your website.
Our first task is to give a hand to Google. (I will mention Google, but this applies to other search engines as well).
Also read [ How to do SEO optimization ]
Google Crawlers work better if they find links in your posts. Think about this, is it easier to let the crawlers climb up the wall if there are many holes to pass through?
These holes are internal links. They are of high importance to Google and to your readers as we will see.
In this post, we will discuss the importance of internal linking, its benefits, and how to approach implementing it.
What are internal links?
Internal links are any links from one page on your website to another page on it.
These links are crucial when you know that both Google and your users use them to navigate your website, crawlers to understand your website structure and content, and users to find the content they want to know about.
How does Google deal with internal links?
Internal linking is one of biggest things that you can do on a website to guide Google and guide visitors to the pages you think are important
Google
Google sends its spider “Googlebot” to your website. It crawls using links. (who else started itching? girls out).
This bot follows the first link and starts collecting information about your posts to tell google if your post is eligible or has a chance to rank or not.
The best part of it is that internal links are under your control, you implement them, and you drive Google to know the relations between your pages and posts.
Types of links
Although this post specializes in internal linking, some people mix things up when the word “linking” shows up. That’s why it doesn’t hurt if I mention the types of links.
- Internal links are links that send users from one part of your site to another part.
- Outbound links (external) are links that send users from your website to another website.
- Inbound links are links that send users from other websites to your website.
- Backlinks are “inbound links” or “incoming links” that send users from other websites to your website.
Why do we need internal links?
First things first. Internal linking has a huge impact on SEO and thus ranking. What comes after ranking?
A boost in traffic will supply you with progressing traffic and passive income.
These links are significant because of the following aspects:
Internal links help Search engines find your content
As mentioned before, Google depends on internal (as well as external) linking to crawl, understand, and rank your post.
Never leave a page without links. Google doesn’t love orphaned pages.
They pass authority from one page to another
I call it lending authority to another page.
If a page of yours gets authority, like having backlinks, you can easily pass this authority by linking to other weaker pages. This will raise their authority status and may help in ranking them.
Internal links tell search engines about the structure of your site
We always advise website owners to imagine their website as a pyramid. On top of it is your homepage; below that there are some sections or categories, and further down, there are individual posts and pages
Yoast
Herein lies the importance of internal linking: it shows Google the structure of your website and the relationship between the components of your site. For example, it shows the relation between a post and the category as well as the category and the homepage. etc.
They keep the readers more time on your site raising the dwell time and lowering the bounce rate
Dwell time is the amount of time that goes by from the moment a user clicks on a search result to the moment they return to the search engine results pages (SERPs). (Semrush)
The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who open one page on your site and then bounce to another page or leave your site without taking action.
What should our strategy be?
We should prevent users from going back to the SERPs quickly or bouncing to another site.
How do I do that? surely by first creating good content and then making use of internal links to keep users on your site for as long as possible.
Internal links help readers navigate your site easily
When you optimize your content for SEO, one of the most sensitive things to keep in mind is the users’ experience.
Internal linking keeps your user on the site to find the information that he wants to find. This enhances the user’s experience of your site.
Read how the user’s experience is a ranking factor.
They lead readers to your most important posts
Whatever you write, sell, do affiliate marketing, and other things you promote on your site, it is easy and efficient to redirect your visitors to your targeted page.
This will give you more chances to sell a product or drive someone to do an action on your site.
How to easily link posts
So now we know a lot about the importance of internal linking, its types, and its benefits, it’s also vital to know how to use these links in order to help with SEO and boost your traffic.
Link to other resources on your site
Do you remember your beginnings in writing and publishing? Why did you finish your second and third posts in such a hurry that you forgot to link them? You said I have nothing to attach to now, I need to press the publish button. (I was there watching).
Every time you want to post, link to your other posts. This will keep the visitor the maximum time on your site and will enhance the users’ experience which will eventually positively affect your search engine optimization. (have you noticed that I linked to one of my best posts on SEO?)
Add links on older posts to new posts
Old posts are forgotten day after day and this is a bad thing to happen.
You need all your posts to be active and promoted.
Once you publish a new post, open your old ones and try to link them to the new one.
Along with helping the search engines to find your new post better, it refreshes the old posts, keeps visitors on track for more time, and improves users’ experience.
Add keywords to your anchor text
The anchor text is the clickable text that users see on your post, most often with a different color.
It is of great importance to use anchor texts with keywords (the exact keywords as in the post you link to). But try not to overuse it. Do not stuff your post with unnecessary anchor text and keywords.
Keep it smooth and natural.
Link for readers, not for search engines.
You will find this piece of advice in most of my posts.
Always write for humans, not machines.
You might fool search engines (probably not), but you will never have the ability to fool a human more than once. You’ll definitely lose trust and he’ll never come back.
Also read: Most 77 SEO questions people ask
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Although it is important to add links to help rank on search engines, do not prioritize them over readers because, once they are satisfied, they’ll always come back for visits and share your content.
This is the long-term strategy you need to follow. This is what gives the SEO experience a boost.
keep your links relevant to your post
Keep your links relevant to the content that the reader sees. For example, in my post here, I’m linking to SEO, content writing, and boosting traffic because these are related to my topic.
If I link to a post talking about AI writing or email validation, it will show me as a salesman, not a writer.
These small things affect the users’ experience badly and may confuse search engines, which results in losing both.
Never keep any orphaned page alone.
Remember when I told you that crawlers follow the first link and start their mission?
What if a piece of content has no links? It is called an orphaned page, and search engines will deal with it as an unknown piece.
If you are using the Yoast plugin, you will notice that it tells you to use outbound links and internal linking.
By doing this, you are completing the checklist of the On-Page SEO.
Link from and to your cornerstone content
Have you ever heard about the cornerstone content?
Your cornerstone content is the best piece you’ve ever written. It’s your masterpiece, the heart of your business.
You undoubtedly want Google to know about your cornerstone, so what you are going to do is to link to this content from every related topic on your site, and don’t forget to link back from your cornerstone to these topics.
Add related content
Always consider adding a related posts section to your new post. This will increase your chances to help Google and its users as well, which will eventually help you rank.
You can do this by using plugins, but I’d prefer to do them manually because sometimes plugins are misled by words and become confused.
Conclusion
Internal linking is one of the important practices when it comes to search engine optimization.
It is the first thing that Google crawlers look for to get information from your post.
It gives a full sight of your page structure and helps search engines find your content,
Along with its vital role in ranking, it has a lot to do with users’ experience.
It gives your readers what they are searching for and sends them from page to page. This increases the time they spend on your site and gives you more authority.
The perfect practice is to link posts together in a proper and relevant way and whenever you publish a new post, go back to older relevant posts and link back to the new one and vice versa.
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