Internal link optimization in SEO: This Is What Professionals Do

People might use two types of links 1. Internal link and 2. External link

And the good thing is that we can control internal link optimization.

You know that on-page SEO is the most important factor to rank higher in SERP and Internal, and External linking is the parts of on page SEO.

External and Internal links both are important for ranking and both have the same weight in google’s eye.

But overuse of this links could cause a big problem for you.

Let’s see what Matt Cutts about internal links.

However, you should use external links while necessary because as I said both have significant priority concerning Google.

As you can see Wikipedia, has lots of internal links and how it has used naturally within the content.

Here I’m talking about only internal link optimization for this post.

What is internal linking?

In simple terms, Internal linking means a simple strategy to connect one page of a domain to the another relevant page of the same domain.

One thing keeps in mind that in the internal linking source, and target domains are always same.

Let’s take one example:

As you can see above image, If you are writing on page A then you should include page B and page C into the post because page B and C are related to page A.

However, Page D & E are relevant to Page B, and Page F & G are related to Page C so we should include these pages to their relevant pages as the internal link.

It will make good site architecture, and Google crawlers will easily find your content on your site.

What is the exact science behind internal linking?

You might probably be wondering what is the science behind internal linking which could improve the ranking of post/page in SERP.

The answer is your page should look like well setup site architecture that has good & relevant pages that are linked internally & an effective way with each other.

So how would you make right & healthy internal link structure?

Non another less but with proper internal linking.

I’m going to show you the exact procedure to link relevant post/page (s) to each other later in this post.

Benefits of internal linking strategies:

There are several benefits of internal linking which would help you to rank higher in SERP. And it also provides you significant organic traffic which leads you more sales & money.

1. Proper navigation:

Your site visitors are looking for the best possible solution of their problems. Internal links help you to navigate your visitor to one post to another for more information. Which will increase the power of great content and your site looks like an authority if your site has great content.

2. Data fetching easy for Google bot crawlers:

If you make Google happy, Google make you happy this is the basic principle of SEO. When Google crawlers come into your post/page, then it must have to crawl top quality data with other post/page data of the site.

So with internal linking, you can tell crawler bots about additional information of the page/post. Also, It will also help you provide satisfaction to your visitors.

3. You can improve your keyword positions:

If you want to rank for some long tail keywords, and if you are placed internal links with right anchor text within that content then Google bots will know that both pages are related to each other for targeted phrases.

4. Decrease bounce rate:

If your site visitor spends a long time on your site, then Google will notice that site provides better user experience to the visitors, and it will rank your pages to SERPs. So by internal linking you can keep your site visitors on the site.

5. Distributes Link juice power:

If you get an inbound link from other websites, then it will be ranking power(link juice) to linked page. Same way, if you target to include a lower SERP page into higher SERP naturally, then it will pass link juice to lower ranking page and improve its ranking. Because higher ranking page has more page authority than a lower ranking page.

How to do proper internal linking that improves ranking?

Internal linking is one of the arts of SEO, and You will get mastery in this art by proper practices. Several methods will be required for proper internal linking, and you should consider them.

Here’s the deal:

Later in this post, I will share you one trick that will improve your lower ranking page in Google search results.

1. Produce more content

Content is the main difference between high DA and low DA sites. Great DA sites have lots of great content, and it will help while you do internal linking.

If you have lots of content, you could include more relevant internal links within the content means users spend more time on the site for reading content and Google notes down this user experience.

If you have low content, then you will end up with few internal links. Hence, you should produce more & more content for linking more pages to each other.

2. Use proper anchor text

How Google knows page A is related to page B? by using correct an anchor text. Let me tell you what is anchor text,

Anchor text is used to place the hyperlink on your pages.

For example.

While you are writing on page A, you can use internal link

<a href=”www.yoursitename.com” > Page B </a>

Here, Page B is used as anchor text.

You should use proper and relevant anchor text while making internal links AND you can use your targeted keyword as anchor text. But overuse of any keyword produces the harmful effect on google’s eye.

There are several plugins available that will place internal links within the content, but I don’t prefer you because plugins are made with an algorithm which might get wrong in some cases and It will harm your page.

So it’s better to practice of including links manually using proper anchor text.

3. Always link relevant pages

If you are running multi-niche sites, then you have lots of different categories. When you are writing the content of category A, then you should always include post/pages of category A because they are relevant to each other.

For example, if you are writing about “car accessories” then you can use “car parts”, “different car models” related pages but you can’t use “home remedies products”.

4. Make Dofollow your internal links

You might know there are two types of link attributes available in SEO, one Is Do follow and second is Nofollow.

No follow link attribute won’t pass link juice means you would not see any improvements in the ranking while do follow link attribute will pass link juice and improve your page ranking power.

Sample of no follow link and do follow link:

<a href=www.blogail.com/ rel=”nofollow”> Blogail post name</a>

<a href=www.blogail.com/ > Blogail post name</a>

But internal links have the power to increase the ranking of keywords. Thus, every time doesn’t forget to make do follow links.

5. Use breadcrumbs navigation

Use of breadcrumbs is one of the best SEO practices that will help you to keep a user on the particular location.

There are several themes available in the market that supports breadcrumbs.

For example:

• Mythemeshop themes
• Elegant Themes
• Genesis child themes

You can see how breadcrumbs look like from above image. This proper format helps Google & visitors to navigate the site quickly.

6. Add navigational links to footer and sidebar

Ultimately your goal is to design stable structure of your site that Google loves and for that, footer and sidebar sections help you.

You should add navigational links to the footer and sidebar to improve the user experience.

For example:

You can see how about us, contact us, write for us and privacy policy pages are arranged at the footer of blogail blog.

7. Link lower authority pages to the higher authority pages

Look.

Your site has some low authority pages which drive little amount of traffic to your site while some high authority pages that are ranking higher in SERPs.

So it’s best SEO practice to link low and high authority pages. And high authority page passes link juice to low authority page and improves its ranking.

Here I’m sharing the exact method to find high-quality top pages.

#1: Go to Site Explorer of Chief

#2: Put your website URL there and hit enter

#3: Select top pages section from left side

#4: You have the list of top pages, now open that pages and link with weak authority pages.

Special note:

If you add more and more internal links, then it will ruin your SEO, and there will be more chance of penalty by Google on your site.

However, there is not exact amount to add internal links but as I said you should use while it necessary and it should be natural.

Over to you:

Internal link optimization in SEO is required, and you can’t ignore it. If you can maintain the ratio between external and internal links, then you would get significant improvement in ranking.

There are several benefits of internal linking as mentioned above, and that will surely help you if you do properly.

Do let me know if you have any queries regarding this article. If you feel this article is worth reading, then don’t forget to share on social media and with friends.