Effective SEO strategies are always adapting with time as search engines evolve to accommodate changing consumer preferences. However, certain strategies stand the test of time and stay relevant longer. The internal linking SEO strategy is one such method that hasn’t really seen any decrease in its significance as an important ranking factor. In this article, we will talk about what internal linking in SEO is, how it works, its benefits, and it’s best practices that can help you utilize it on your website for the best SEO results.
What are internal links?
Internal links are links in your website that point to the different pages on your website. Links are the only way your webpages are discovered by users and by search engines. By linking to a page on your website, you are enabling people to visit it and find the content they are looking for. It can be a landing page, a product page, or an article on your website that you can redirect users to and help them seamlessly find their desired content, thereby increasing your website’s traffic.
Using internal links, you can also help the search engine algorithms navigate your website and explore its various web pages. As you know, the web crawlers read a webpage to understand what it’s all about and accordingly rank it for relevant keywords. By having internal links on your website, you can direct the web crawlers to your other web pages that could have otherwise been lost in your site’s hierarchy, rendering them unexplored and hence, having no SEO value.
How are internal links different from external links
The difference between internal and external links is evident in their names. Internal links refer to links that redirect users internally within your site. A homepage or an about page link can be considered an internal link. External links on the other hand are links to your website on external pages or links to outside pages on your website. Both external and internal links have certain SEO benefits. In this article, however, we will focus exclusively on the SEO advantages of internal linking.
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Example of how to interlink one page to another
To interlink one page on your website to another, you can simply provide a link to the page you want users to be redirected to. For example in a blog page, you can hyperlink text related to another blog post on your website and upon clicking it, users will be able to access that page.
Why are internal links important?
Internal links are important as they enhance the usability of your website and facilitate seamless navigation through its various pages for users as well as search engine algorithms. By providing easily accessible links to the different pages on your website at your homepage, you reduce the hassle of searching for visitors’ desired page in the menus or sitemap. Internal links are crucial for improving your website’s SEO performance.
SEO benefits of interlinking
The most prominent SEO benefit of interlinking is that it helps Google’s algorithms determine the most valuable and important pages on your website. By having multiple internal links pointing to a webpage, you can indicate to Google’s web crawlers that it’s an important page and one that is valuable for users, thereby encouraging the algorithms to rank it higher on SERPs. Furthermore, interlinking also helps you establish relationships between the various types of content on your website which enables Google to better understand your content and return it as search results for relevant searches.
Types of internal links
There are two major types of internal links. The first one is the type of links that categorize the various pages of your website. This type includes links to your homepage, services page, and about page along with other pages on your website. The other one is links present in your content that point to other relevant pages on your website. These links are generally present in blogs and articles.
Best SEO practices for interlinking
The best interlinking SEO practices are as follows:
- Determine your site’s hierarchy – Understanding your site’s hierarchy will help you create a proper interlinking strategy.
- Identify cornerstone content – Cornerstone content is the most well-rounded and comprehensive content relating to a topic. Once you identify such a page on your website, you should have multiple internal links pointing to it to indicate to Google that it’s your most important page.
- Add related links – If you are adding a blog post on your website, make sure to include it in links to all the other pages that contain similar content to let Google know the relationship between those different pages.
Conclusion
Interlinking is a surefire way to take your website to the top of search results. However, it involves a lot of complex strategies and best practices apart from the ones mentioned above. If you want to implement interlinking in your website for the most SEO benefits, or you are an SEO service provider looking to offer advanced, up-to-date interlinking SEO services to your clients, you should partner with a reliable white label digital marketing company like Dintellects. We, at Dintellects can help you deliver unbelievable SEO results for your clients with our expertise in interlinking strategies. Get in touch with us today to know more!
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