What Is Internal Linking & Do I Need It On My Website?
There’s a never-ending list of factors that influence a website’s overall position on Google and in this blog post we’ll explore internal linking.
What Is Internal Linking?
Internal linking is hyperlinking a word or several words - also known as anchor text - that redirects a website user to another page on your website.
It’s a great way to help Google crawlers index all of your pages, it allows users to navigate your website easily and allows the benefits of a high-ranking page to flow through to other relevant, or internally linked pages.
Here's an example below (the highlighted green text):
Examples Of Good Internal Links
Internal links come in a few varieties, including content links, navigation links, image links and button links, however in essence they are all doing the same thing - directing traffic to a new page.
The most important aspect is ensuring the anchor text is relevant, and the link is going to a page that is closely related to the original page.
For example, if you’re an electrician who installs solar panels, you might internally link from your electrician page to your solar panels page.
Examples Of Bad Internal Links
It’s best to avoid linking to pages that are not closely related to the original page as it might result in someone leaving your website as the information is no longer relevant.
Avoid anchor text that doesn’t describe the page the link is directed to.
Using the electrician example again, if someone landed on my smoke alarms page, it wouldn’t make sense to use an internal link to send them to a page about solar as they are interested in smoke alarms.
Does Internal Linking Help With SEO
While it’s not a direct ranking factor according to Google, it definitely helps with user experience, which does impact ranking.
It also helps with crawl efficiency and directing traffic around your website.
It’s best practice to include internal linking as part of your website processes.
How Many Internal Links Should I Include?
There’s no real hard and fast answer for this one but we recommend trying to keep internal linking as natural as possible and avoiding linking to a page more than once per page.
By natural, we mean don’t just jam in words for the sake of internal links. Try and filter them naturally where possible.
For example: At On The Move Marketing, we provide
web design and
SEO services. These keywords sit naturally within the content and provide a great opportunity for internal linking.
Conclusion
Internal linking is a great habit to get into and after you’ve been doing it for a while it becomes natural in your writing.
You’ll start to include other relevant services/pages without even thinking about it, which is the perfect opportunity for an internal link.
From helping with site navigation to allowing Google to crawl your entire website quicker, internal linking is a must for anyone looking to climb the rankings for their website.
Written by Tristan Evert
Tristan is an award-winning writer, journalist and marketing professional with over a decade of industry experience. From writing in-depth blogs to news stories and content for hundreds of websites all over Australia - there isn't much Tristan hasn't covered when it comes to the written word.