How to Create an Internal Linking Strategy for SEO
SEO experts say that link-building is the third most important ranking factor in SEO. Google’s search engine was built on the premise that the more backlinks a site has, the more valuable the content.
Sites with a lot of backlinks would get rewarded with higher search rankings. Backlinks do matter in SEO, but there’s one forgotten part of link building.
That involves internal connection. Search engines can learn valuable information about your website through internal links. Just from internal links, bots may determine the context of your content and the most significant bits of content. Continue reading if you want to improve SEO. Learn how to use internal linking into your SEO plan.
What are internal links?
An internal link is any link from one page on your website to another page on your website. Both your users and search engines use links to find content on your website. Your users use links to navigate through your site and to find the content they want to find. Search engines also use links to navigate your site. They won’t see a page if there are no links to it.
Create a Website Pyramid
A website structure tells Google what your most important pieces of content are and what your site is about. You might have a website about yoga. There are different modalities of yoga, such as ashtanga yoga and Bikram yoga. In order to get search engines to understand what your site covers, you’ll create categories for your content. The categories are the main themes of your site. Underneath each theme is a page of content. Each theme needs to have a cornerstone piece of content. This is the primary source of content. The yoga site can have cornerstone content that has the ultimate guide to ashtanga yoga or the modality that is relevant to the site. Under the cornerstone content, create content that covers elements of ashtanga yoga. An article like “5 Poses to Include in Your Ashtanga Yoga Routine” can link to the ultimate guide article.
The Art of Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable area that leads to another web page. The links are usually blue or highlighted in text to show that they’re clickable links. Understanding what an anchor does lets you give even more context to your page. It helps search engines understand what a page is about. It’s tempting to use your site’s primary keyword repeatedly as the anchor text. That will send a signal that there’s something suspicious happening on your site. Your site could end up getting flagged for spam. Use anchor links with related keywords instead.
Internal Links or External Links?
What should you work on first, internal links or external links? Develop your internal linking strategy first. That helps you build a firm linking foundation. When you do get external links to your site, it will be like pouring gasoline over a fire. It will accelerate your SEO strategy a needed boost. How many links do you need to get on the first page of Google? It depends on your niche and your competition. As long as you focus on quality inbound links, you’ll boost SEO quickly.
Build an Internal Linking Strategy
Building an internal linking strategy isn’t as complicated as it seems. You just need to give your site structure and show search engines what your most important pieces of content are. Then you can turn your attention to getting inbound links as part of your SEO strategy.
By adding the right internal links, you make sure Google understands:
- the relevance of pages;
- the relationship between pages;
- and the value of pages.
The Purpose of Internal Linking
- Aids in website navigation
- Defines the architecture and hierarchy of a website
- Distributes page authority and ranking power throughout the site
Most of the “solid information” and “powerful strategies” on internal linking are little more than sophisticated-sounding prognostication. Still, there’s some merit to theorizing about how Google ranks and values the internal network of linking.
The basic theory is this: Internal linking strengthens the overall search-optimized value of a website. Inner linking does so by providing clear paths for spiders, prolonged sessions for users, and a tight-knit network of pages and posts.
Conclusion
Internal linking is simple. It’s not overwhelming, complicated, or difficult. The great thing is, you’ll experience a stronger link profile and better SEO by consistent internal linking. It’s even worth it to go back and audit your old content to make sure it has sufficient internal linking.
