🔗What Are Internal Links?
Internal links are hyperlinks that connect one page of a website to another page within the same domain.
They make it easier to navigate between different sections of a website.
Additionally, they help search engines understand the structure of a site and index its content more effectively.
🗯️Why Websites Need Internal Links
Internal links are essential for both users and search engines.
➡️ For users, internal links provide a quick way to jump from one section of a website to another without having to exit the domain or use the browser back button.
This makes it easier to find the information they're looking for, as well as any related content.
➡️ From a search engine perspective, internal links help to establish the hierarchy of a website. Search engines use this information to better understand the content on each page and how it relates to other pages on the website.
This makes it easier for them to index and rank a website's content in search engine results pages (SERPs).
📄How To Find Relevant Existing Pages To Internally Link To A Newly Published Page
When building internal links, it's important to make sure they're relevant and add value for users.
This means finding pages on your website that are directly related to the topic or keywords of your new page.
Here’re a few ways to help you with this task:
➡️ Manually:
The best way to do this is by manually searching through existing content on your site that might be related and then linking the most relevant old page(s) to the newly published one. This approach ensures that you're only providing useful information for readers and search engines.
➡️ Google Search With Search Operators: You can use advanced search operators like “site:” and “inurl:” to find relevant pages on your website. Here's how ⬇️
Open Google and enter the following search query in the search bar:
site: example.com + keyword or phrase.
This will show you all of the pages on your website that contain the keyword or phrase you are looking for.
➡️ Internal Link Suggestion Tools: Some SEO tools like Ahrefs, and SurferSEO have internal link suggestion features that can help you.
These tools analyze your website's content and provide suggestions for internal links that can improve navigation and strengthen the connection between pages.
Regularly reviewing and updating your site's internal linking structure can help to maintain a strong and effective information architecture, ensuring that your users can easily find what they're looking for.
🌟Internal Link Best Practices
When adding internal links to your website’s content, there are several best practices you should keep in mind:
- Make sure all your internal links open in the new window/tab. While it’s true that some webmasters prefer to set new links to open in the same window, we think that opening all links (both external and internal) in the new window is more a user-friendly approach.
- Don't go overboard with internal linking - 3-4 internal links for every new piece of content is usually fine.
- Use descriptive anchor text, so users have an idea of what to expect after clicking the link.
- Place internal links in meaningful places, such as in the main body of the text, in lists, or in relevant images. If you have multiple opportunities for placing the same internal link, try to use the one that is closer to the top of the page. This way it will have a higher chance of getting clicked.
- Avoid over-linking from a single page, as this can dilute the power of each link and create a less useful user experience.
⬇️ Check out this video, for more information: