Links, also those that are on the website, indicate the relationships between the content. They transfer all value as well as importance between the web pages. Most importantly, internal links show the structure of the website.
They help all users to navigate & also, search engines to understand the website. A healthy strategy of internal linking makes it too easier for the webpages to be get indexed and also, to rank and increasing click-through rates and rates of conversion for the visitors who can find what they are seeking out.
Before we begin looking at three way-outs to boost the rankings, let us have a look at some of the basic principles related to internal linking:
The more links a webpage receives, the more value Google will give it too. Such as external links, which indicate an overall value concerning that of other web pages on the internet, internal links assist Google in figuring out the significance of a page in terms of other pages on the website.
Why Internal Links Are Crucial?
Internal links are so vital that Google now mentions that the reasonable count of links on a page is a thousand. Do not forget that it includes every single weblink in the footer, menu, header, and sidebar. Linking is so robust that it can, intentionally, provide an unparalleled boost to comparatively other pages of low value that get a large count of internal links such as About Us, home, and Contact pages.
Links from some fresh content pass to the fresh value and therefore can signal some fresh content to Google, assisting new webpages to get crawled easily.
Why focus on the internal linking?
It is not a secret at all that content is the real king when we are talking about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Each blogger knows very well about the creation of high-quality content, it is important to seduce search engines as well as visitors.
But the content is not at all enough. Internal linking is available here to assist your search engine optimization by driving more & more traffic to other web pages.
To Build Internal Page Navigation
Internal linking is necessary for all websites because it assists in establishing the architecture of the website and spreading the links. Simply put, internal linking refers to some links from one page of any domain, which is linked with others in the same domain.
It can also be linked to some categories or the navigation of the main site, within articles related to the content or footnote, and so on. For the requirements of the article, we will be going to emphasize mainly the editorial links, as they’re the ones that improve the strategy of content marketing and Search Engine Optimization as well.
To Build Website Authority
The building of Internal links has various advantages as it assists the authority of the page, connections, and usability between them, user experience, and the rankings potentially. The article targets useful tips on why we ought to focus on internal linking.
To Improve Page Rank
Before getting into the concept of increasing page rank through internal linking, we need to define first what exactly PageRank is. PageRank is one of the factors that are used by Google to analyze whether the page is important or not.
There are various metrics available through which Google analyses the significance of a page and ranks each webpage accordingly.
If the webpage has a maximum count of backlinks, then it is more likely to rank high on Google search engines. Therefore, PageRank is the factor that decides whether the page is enough significant to rank high or low.
To Improve Content Consumption
A page having a high count of PageRank can also benefit the PageRank via internal linking through spreading links to other webpages that are linked with each other. These are relevant content that readers like to read. Those pages will receive a little boost related to the authority and then, a boost in the page rankings.
To Improve Page Authority
The strategies of internal linking can boost the authority of the website on a subject, improve the rate of click-through, and increase rankings via direct influence on the factors related to ranking such as depth of the click and the importance of the page.
Internal linking can be used to produce some quantifiable results on how Google prioritizes the pages, when & how the pages rank, and also, the count of organic visits that they get.
To Reduce the Depth of Web Pages
Using the internal links helps to reduce the depth of the web page, create some content hubs, and promote the specific groups related to pages on others will offer extra edges to the strategy of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
In a nutshell, we can say that internal linking is of utmost importance to the page ranking in all terms. It is one major factor that controls the ranking of the webpage and takes it to the top of the search engines.
Internal Linking for SEO: Key Elements to Consider
From getting link value to improving conversion opportunities, the internal linking structure is an important consideration for your website. The article covers a few of the important factors that help brands boost website SEO from internal link structure.
1. User Experience
Your users are the real asset to your website. If they feel good, your website presence will grow. Google considers user experience an important usability and ranking signal.
User experience falls flat if your website is filled with low-quality content, too many ads above the fold, or disruptive interstitials. It annoys users and forces them to go back to SERPs and find a better website than yours.
A website offering a positive user experience can secure higher places in organic rankings as compared to one that fails to do so. It’s deemed that websites that manage to offer excellent user experience care about their end customer. Search engines have so far tweaked their real-time algorithms to include user- experience as an essential ranking signal.
Content is possibly an excellent way to keep your readers engaged and happy. Eventually, if your content successfully navigates a user journey that ends with a sale or potential transaction, you can get even more satisfied customers.
2. Link Value
Internal linking is as valuable as external backlinks. As in the case of backlinks where link juice is passed to a domain, in internal linking link value passes from page to page within a website. To cash on internal linking for maximum SEO value, your website must have streamlined navigation.
Don’t focus on passing link juice to every page on your website, instead, focus on spreading link value to the most important pages. These pages may be top-level topic pages or a silo of content. How your internal links flow depends on how you have structured your content and how you want to pass link juice.
3. Link Context and Hierarchy
It’s not mandatory to keep your best content on the first or second-level page of your website. Instead, develop a mechanism to organize the content around topics.
Check which pages of the website should be on the top level and which pages may be taken down deeper in the hierarchy. It helps marketers split the content into topics and topics-within-topics on the website. This will ultimately help your website rank in broad top-level keywords and long-tail keywords for your content.
Ordering content in a hierarchy is crucial both for search engines and users. Structuring can give your content context and relevance. Organized content can also facilitate users with logical content navigation.
4. Unique and Quality Content
For websites, quality content is always the king. They help brands build a strong brand foundation to ensure a quality user experience. Allowing users to navigate through content is the essence of internal linking.
However, the problem occurs if the content is duplicated or redundant. It can hit your internal linking strategy hard. Search engines are witty enough to find duplicate content and you too can introduce ways to weed out duplicate content issues within your website.
In some industry verticals like eCommerce, duplicate content may have a valid reason to exist. eCommerce portals have a lot of common content. They have similar product categories with products carrying identical product descriptions. It’s almost impossible to write a unique description for a single product available across hundreds of e-commerce websites.
Still, you can customize the content as much as possible. Find out the areas where you have duplicate content issues. It’s difficult to remove every instance of similar content. Yet you can use tools to ascertain the level of duplicate content issues within your website.
5. Crawling & Indexing Issues
Unless the entire navigation schema of your website is indexed and registered with the crawlers, your efforts will go in vain. Make sure that all primary and sub-navigation are crawlable.
The idea should be to ensure that the search engines can see all of your content and get through the depth of content. It helps crawlers to understand the linking association between the pages.
If crawlers fail to properly crawl or index website top-level and primary navigation, it becomes difficult for websites to rank higher on specific keywords. A lack of focus on crawling prevents websites from getting spiders to certain pages.
Tarun Gupta, CEO of Brainpulse Technologies, is a prolific author and digital marketing specialist. His insightful writings span SEO, content marketing, social media strategy, and email campaigns, offering invaluable expertise to businesses worldwide. Tarun’s contributions continue to shape the digital marketing landscape, guiding success in multiple niches.
