One of the most important factors of any effective on-page SEO strategy is internal linking. This strategy involves linking pages on your website together. When done properly, site owners can often see impressive increases in their content’s visibility.
As with any online marketing strategy, internal linking can be abused in many ways. Almost every time we visit a website, we see dozens of links in every part of it that attempt to direct people to all of its pages. There are some sites that have an overabundance of links that have the same or similar anchor text (the clickable text of the link). As a result, search engines may view this sort of content as spammy and are less likely to rank it highly.
What You Need to Know About Setting Up Internal Links on Your Website
Adding internal links to your content should satisfy both search engines and users. In contrast to offsite links (also known as backlinks), you are completely in charge of which signals flow from page to page. By connecting your content to other items on your site, you can show users and search engines how it relates to each other.
Here are some internal linking do’s and don’ts to help ensure your site’s content is cohesive.
Don’ts of Internal Linking
Don’t Use Generic Anchor Text
A generic internal link usually contains generic anchor text like “click here” or “try now.” When used too often, these phrases can fail to illustrate relationships between your pages, making them less effective.
Don’t Overoptimize Anchor Text
Sites with a large number of internal links almost always use the same keywords in their anchor text. Choosing your target keywords and variations is good, but over-optimization can harm your rankings. Use as little keyword anchor text as possible.
Don’t Go Too Deep When Linking
You don’t want to make search engines (or users) work harder than they need to to find your pages. Link to pages less than three clicks in-depth on your website, according to search marketing experts. Make sure the link you add applies to the destination you choose when adding internal links.
Don’t Overwhelm Your Page With Internal Links
It’s not necessary to include a certain number of links on each page of your website, but you should follow reasonable guidelines. When someone sees a lot of links on your site page, they will probably think it’s spammy. In fact, search engines have the same attitude. Additionally, crawlers place less authority on the links on pages with a high number of links. It is also important to avoid having too few links. Make sure there is a reasonable number of links from your core keywords on your page that makes sense for users.
Don’t let orphaned pages remain on your website
In some cases, sites publish new content without providing a way for users and search engines to find it. Improve visibility and ranking flow by linking to your older pages from newer ones.
The Do’s of Internal Linking
Important Site Pages You Should Link To
In general, internal link building is designed to drive traffic to your website’s most important pages. The purpose of these pages is to show readers what value you can offer them, whether it’s a product or service. It may be difficult for users to find some of these pages on sites, particularly if you link too deeply. Internal links will make this content more visible to users and search engines.
Search Engine Crawl Budgets Can Be Met by Linking Shallowly
The crawl budgets of search engines are set for each website, which is why it’s important to make your pages as accessible as possible. Any page more than three clicks from your homepage is considered too deep by most digital marketing experts, because crawlers may not be able to index it. In addition, they will be less likely to be found by users.
Analyze Internal Links Using A Tool
Several reputable link analysis tools are available to site owners in today’s digital marketing environment. You can find out which internal links point to your site pages in Google Search Console’s “Links” section.
Make Your Site’s Hierarchy Stronger by Using Internal Links
The use of internal links can be a great strategy for structuring your website. Websites are viewed by search engines as hierarchies of pages; the homepage is deemed the most valuable, followed by subdirectories. You’ll give crawlers a better idea of your site’s structure by linking to your important pages on the homepage, and less important pages (blog posts, resources, etc.) on secondary pages.
Link To Lower Authority Pages From Higher Authority Pages
In general, the most authoritative pages on your site are the ones that are closest to the homepage. Most often, homepages have the highest authority because they receive the most backlinks, and search engines consider them priority pages. In this way, you can send link juice to lower-performing pages by linking from high-authority pages. Especially if one of your site’s most important pages isn’t doing well, this can help.
Improve Your Website’s SEO with Internal Links
It is very difficult for search engines to crawl and rank a website with silos of content, unconnected from one another. You will also find it displeasing to your users. You can solve both issues by using contextual links to link your pages, which will assist crawlers in analyzing your site and will help people find what they’re looking for.
Make sure none of your pages slip through the cracks after you’ve worked hard on the content. You can always improve your internal linking strategy as time goes on and it’s completely free. Within a short period of time, you’ll see your internal pages gain more visibility.
Make Your SEO Stand Out With Expert Strategies
As a local Las Vegas SEO Agency, Mac J Web offers several different strategies, including customized campaigns to meet your business’s needs. Get in touch with one of our Las Vegas SEO consultants here to see if we may be able to help you rank on the first page of Google.
