There are two types of links that you need to be aware of: internal links and backlinks. Both play a very important role in helping your website rank higher in search results, but they work in different ways.
As the name suggests, internal links are the links on your pages that point to other pages on your website. They help visitors navigate from one page to another, and they also help search engines understand the structure of your site.
Backlinks are the links from other websites, they are also called “inbound links” or “incoming links”. Backlinks are important because they are a major factor in how search engines rank websites. A website with more high-quality backlinks usually ranks higher in search results.
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), the internal linking structure of your website is just as important as the external links pointing to your site. By optimizing your internal linking structure, you can not only improve your search engine rankings but also make it easier for visitors to find the content they’re looking for on your site.
If you’re looking to improve your website’s SEO and wondering if internal linking can help. The short answer is yes! Internal linking can provide a number of benefits for your site, including helping search engines index your pages more effectively and boosting your page views.
Benefit #1: Boost your SEO and get more organic traffic
If you want to increase your website traffic, one of the best things you can do is improve your internal linking structure. Internal linking can help boost your local SEO efforts by giving search engines an easy way to index your content.
Search engines rely on links to crawl and index websites; by ensuring that all of the pages on your site are linked together, you’re helping search engines do their job more effectively. This can result in higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs), which ultimately leads to more traffic and visibility for your website.
When setting up internal linking, it’s important to use keyword-rich anchor text so that Google can associate those keywords with your site.
Benefit #2: Increase engagement and reduce bounce rates
When all of the pages on a website are linked together, it makes it easier for visitors to navigate around your website and find what they’re looking for. This is because users are given more guidance through recommended content that’s easy to find thanks to well-placed links.
Studies have shown that when users click on a link that takes them to another page on the same website, they’re more likely to stay engaged with the site and less likely to immediately leave.
So by providing links to other related pages on your site, you can keep users engaged for longer periods of time. This can ultimately lead to more conversions and sales if done correctly.
Benefit #3: You have complete control over them
As a website owner, you have complete control over your internal links. Since you create your own internal linking structure, you can ensure that every link makes sense in the context of your content and points visitors to the most relevant pages on your site.
You can decide which pages to link to and from where. This gives you the ability to determine the importance of each page on your site, as well as how visitors will flow through your content, and you can guide visitors towards the most important information on your site.
Internal links are also a good way to share information between different parts of your website. For example, if you have a blog post that references a product that you sell, you can include a link to that product page in your article.
Benefit #4: Pass the authority
When it comes to SEO, authority is everything. The more authority your website has, the higher it will rank in search results, and the more traffic you’ll ultimately get.
Internal linking helps distribute PageRank around your website, which can lead to higher overall rankings for your site as a whole.
When one page links to another within your site, it passes along some of its authority to the linking page. This means that each page on your site has the potential to rank higher in search results if it’s linked to from other high-quality pages on your site.
If you already have authoritative pages that have a lot of backlinks pointing to them and that are already ranking on Google, you can pass this authority to the underperforming pages on your website. This will help Google understand which pages on your site are important, and it will give those pages a boost in search results.
So, if you want your website to rank well and get lots of traffic, it’s important to make sure that you have plenty of high-quality internal links pointing to your most important pages.
Benefit #5: Rank for more long-tail keywords
A long-tail keyword is a search query that contains three or more keywords. Long-tail keywords are typically less competitive than shorter, more general keywords because they are specific to a particular product, service, or niche market, so they can help you attract more organic traffic from people who are specifically searching for what you offer.
One of the benefits of an internal linking structure is that it can help you rank for more long-tail keywords. When you link to other pages on your website, it gives search engines more information about the topic of each page on your site.
Benefit #6: Improve your click-through rate and conversions
A click-through rate (CTR) is a metric used to measure the number of times users click on a particular link or set of links. A high CTR means that users find your site helpful and are more likely to click on your links, which can lead to higher rankings in the search results.
Click-through rate is one of the most important factors in conversion rate optimization. A high CTR means that your site is relevant and engaging to your target audience, which makes them more likely to convert.
Internal linking structure affects click-through ratio because it helps users navigate between pages on a website. A well-designed internal linking structure makes it easy for users to find the information they are looking for, which increases the likelihood that they will stay on the site and continue clicking through to other pages.
Quick tips to optimize your internal linking structure
Now that you know how important your internal linking structure is, let’s explore some of the ways of how to optimize your internal links.
Tip #1: Link all the pages together
The first step in optimizing your internal linking structure is to ensure that all of your pages are linked together.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many sites have pages that are not linked to from any other page on the site. Not only does this make it difficult for search engines to index those pages, but it also makes it impossible for visitors to find them unless they already know the URL.
Tip #2: Put your keywords in the anchor text
Once you’ve verified that all of your pages are linked together, take a look at how you’re using keywords in your anchor text. Your anchor text should be descriptive and relevant to the target page. This will tell the search engines what each page is about and help them rank it accordingly.
But don’t stuff keywords into your anchors just for the sake of getting keyword rich links. Not only will this irritate visitors who click on these links expecting something different, but it will also get you penalized by Google if they suspect you’re engaging in keyword stuffing tactics.
Tip #3: Find the right place
Pay attention to where you’re placing links on each page. The general rule of thumb is that links placed higher up on a page carry more weight than those placed lower down; however, there’s no need to go overboard with this either. A few well-placed links throughout the body of an article or blog post will do wonders for both SEO and usability purposes without making things look too spammy.
Tip #4: Don’t make it look spammy
And finally, don’t overdo it. Too many links on a single page can actually hurt your rankings because it makes it harder for the search engine spiders to crawl through all of the information on that page. So only link out when it makes sense within the context of your page.
Final thoughts
Internal links are as crucial to your SEO as backlinks. But in comperasing to backlinks that require a lot of work and time, adding links to your own website couldn’t be simpler, since you have the full control of it.
So, if you’re looking to improve your website’s SEO, consider improving your internal linking structure. It could just be the key to unlocking your site’s full potential!
