Are you looking for the best internal linking strategies for better SEO results? Or do you want your web pages to stay on top of SERPs? Well, you are in the right spot to find the answers to these questions.
Internal linking alone has the power to improve your SEO performance. It is essential in search engine optimization to properly index, understand, and promote web pages. Generally, to rank content in search results, it needs links. Search engines like Google notice your posts only when they are well connected with active links. In addition, internal links give Google an idea about the value and structure of your site.
So, the right internal linking strategy is the key to better SEO. And to learn the techniques and more about internal linking, go through this article.
What is Internal linking?
Internal links are the ones that connect one web page with another on the same website. And when a link is connected with another domain or website, then that is called an external link. Internal links are used to navigate the users on the same website. It is a hyperlinking process to link other pages using buttons, clickable images, anchor text, or hyperlinks.
Both search engines and users use these links to go through the other contents of your site. So, to say shortly, internal linking is a great way to keep the users on the same site and attract their attention.
Internal linking is crucial for a website to lead over the SERPs. So if you require any help with the internal linking process, let us help you. We at Digi Marketing Tech offer outstanding digital marketing services at a very reasonable and affordable price. Contact us anytime.
Different types of Internal links
- Navigation or Menu Links
- Footers
- Sidemenu or sidebar
- Contextual or intext links
1. Navigation or Menu Links
The most significant internal links on a website are the navigation links of the menu. They serve the users for their following actions on the same site. Hence, navigation links are highly sensitive and should function correctly for your website’s reputation. Furthermore, they are used to help the users quickly get whatever they want from your site.
2. Footers
Footers also work like navigation links. They help the users where to head next on the same website by referring to their other pages. When users fail to find what they want, they scroll down to the page and head next by clicking on something from there. There are always contact us, help, FAQs, blogs, and related information links in the footer.
3. Sidemenu or sidebar
The side menu or sidebar links are also used to navigate the users on a webpage. They are used to direct the users to other related and relevant content similar to what they are into. SEO developers use these links in websites that continuously post content and blogs to serve customers.
4. Contextual or intext links
Contextual or intext links are the ones that are used inside the body of contents. We use these links in blog posts to intact one blog with another. Unlike navigation links, in-text links point to the necessary information directly. Hence, intext links play a very crucial part in internal linking.
Benefits of internal linking
Internal links are very beneficial when it is about improving your SEO. As search engines and users, both use them to understand your site. So, let’s know why and how internal links are essential.
- Internal links improve the user experience by navigating them quickly through the site.
- Keeps the users on your website for a long time by providing them with more relevant information they are seeking.
- It helps the users to know and learn from the blog posts in an arranged way.
- Internal links help search engines index and understand your website’s structure.
- Internal linking helps Google understand your website’s authority and recommend it to users.
Best Practices for internal linking
Internal linking is one of the most crucial parts of search engine optimization. Doing it in the right way can lead you to more outstanding results. Here’s how you should do it-
Use keyword-rich anchor texts
Use keyword-rich and well-descriptive anchor texts to attract the attention of users. Using relatable keywords will indeed engage the users more.
Use dofollow and nofollow robot tags
Use dofollow and nofollow techniques when you need them. For example, use the dofollow robots tag for internal linking to lead one page with another. And use the nofollow tag for pages that are not necessary to rank.
Link old blog posts to the new blogs
Link your old blog posts to the new blogs to make them more relevant and qualitative. But remember, you should never place a link where it is not appropriate; use them only if it is applicable.
Update old blog posts with the links to new posts
You can also update your old blog posts by placing the links to your new posts. This way, you can use your old posts and refresh your website.
Check and repair the internal links
Check and repair the internal links over time. Otherwise, you may lead search engine crawlers and users to dead pages. Broken links are often the results of updated content or changed URLs, so you must maintain them to rank on search results.
Open links in the same tab
The placed link should open in the same tab to keep the users engaged with the content. It is one of the best internal linking strategies which keeps a user on the same website for a long time without disturbing it.
Internal linking audit
An internal link audit is a way to know how well the web pages are linked with each other through the internal links. It helps you to figure out the issues related to internal linking and fix them. Hence, perform this action to-.
- Figure out 404 or broken links
- Discover internal 301 or 302 redirects
- Identify nofollow links
- Optimize the anchor text
- Figure out the pages that have very few internal links
- Discover more internal linking options and apply
Steps to perform the internal linking audit
Follow the below-mentioned steps to perform an internal linking audit-
Apply a web crawling tool
Use a web crawling tool to analyze your website for an internal linking audit. You can take help from reliable tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc., to perform this action. They will crawl through your site and give an apt analysis of the overall links. You will get all the data related to internal and external links, even the indexability of your page.
Identify broken links
After getting the data of your links, figure out the broken links and fix them. To identify the broken links, you should have the premium membership of web crawling tools- Ahrefs, SEMrush, Screaming Frog, etc. So, if you don’t have a licensed version yet, buy one to find broken links and fix them.
Figure out redirects
While redesigning a website, some URL address gets changed automatically. And the mistaken internal links lead to dead pages, which lessens the quality of your site. So figure out these redirects and update them with the correct URLs. Also, too many redirects affect the site’s speed and server. Hence, it is better to fix them quickly to keep your website fresh and active.
Discover more internal linking opportunities
When you are done figuring out broken links and redirects that don’t work, you should look for more internal linking opportunities. Now it’s time to improve your internal linking and ranking. For example, if you have pages that have very few internal links use more links. And if you don’t use keyword-rich anchor text, use. This way, your web pages will get high visibility over the search engines, and eventually, your site will rank on top.
We hope the above-mentioned internal linking practices will help you rank top on search engine results. Hence, keep following our blogs to get more updates on digital marketing strategies.
