When discussing internal linking online, plenty of locations suggest using one internal link every 200-350 words. However, why is that and how does internal linking help SEO?

Read on to learn why internal links are important for SEO and the intricacies of why they can positively impact search rankings. Discover the optimal way to use them and ensure you appear like an authority in your field. Finally, learn why Rose & Cactus uses them as one of the core foundations of SEO success.

What Is Internal Linking?

An internal link refers to any link from one page on your website to another in the same domain. These links form a web of interconnected content, all of which is your own.

You often find internal links in sections of text. However, they can also exist in the form of images or other site content. The main types of internal links include:

Navigational links: These display the primary website structure to the user, allowing them to move around the site’s main sections.

Contextual links: The user can find these in the page’s primary content, connecting pages with relevant, important topics that may be valuable to them.

Footer links: At the bottom of the page, the user will often find pages that are less frequently accessed but are still nevertheless important from a business perspective. These include contact pages, privacy policies, and similar links.

All of these links can help search engines trawling your page understand the structure of your site. Such a benefit will allow the search engine’s crawler to better understand the relationship between different pages and their content.

How Does Internal Linking Help SEO?

Internal links can guide users to specific pages relevant to the content they engage with when they see the link. 

Planning out these internal links ahead of time reinforces the benefits of internal linking. Doing this to make all links clearer in their purpose can help users navigate your site, boost the user experience, and make your site more valuable.

If they easily find helpful content they either want to use at that time or later, they are more likely to engage with more pages on your site.

As the user moves through your site, they are also more likely to find information they consider useful, creating a perception that your website will be useful for them again in the future. If they complete their goals after following a link to your site, it will encourage conversions or future interactions with the key features of your site.

Link Juice and Page Authority

Internal links also distribute a search engine’s perception of page authority across your site. This resource, also known as “link juice” due to its easily quantifiable and “nourishing” nature, can influence how search engines perceive the importance of pages in relation to one another. As such, it impacts how important the search engine considers the page when it comes to a shared topic. 

For example, if most people who visit a specific blog post move to a product page via an internal link, a search engine will start to believe that the pages must be linked and share importance.

Building a Clear Web of Content

Internal linking ensures that there is a straightforward way to get to every page on your site. It can mitigate the risk of developing orphaned pages without links to them, ensuring that search engines or users do not ignore your valuable content. As such, it reduces any potential for wasted effort when you create and manage your content.

Real World Examples of Good Internal Links and SEO

Some of the clearest examples of this on the Internet are well-curated news sites or wikis, such as Wikipedia. Each has a vast array of internal links from one article to another, linking historical precedents, events, or pages related to specific phenomena. Users can use these to find out more information about a particular topic, and search engines can quickly discover the more specific context of each page that appears by referencing any linked pages.

Internal Linking Best Practices for SEO

Use relevant links: Link to pages that relate to the context of what you are writing about to ensure your links neither confuse users nor search engines. The clearer the context of a link and the relation to what it is linking both to and from, the better, so ensure that anchor text is descriptive and appealing.

Avoid linking too much or too little: While you want to create a web of content, do not overload the user with links. If you do, you may confuse users or cause their reading effort to become disjointed.

Audit your internal links: Ensure you do not have broken links or other errors that occur when users attempt to access another URL.

Plan internal links: Map out your site’s existing content and identify how key pages align with your objectives. Then, start siloing or theming groups and linking between them to create clear categories.

Use analytics to improve linking: Discover the most-traveled user paths and areas of heavy traffic on your site. Use this to learn how to build internal links for SEO that guide users to places you want them to go, potentially converting them as they engage with specific content.

Reap the Benefits of an Improved Website Structure

How does internal linking help SEO? Well, internal linking is a powerful tool at your disposal that can get you noticed by both users and search engines, not only through technical efforts but also by improving your site’s user experience. You can use it to strategically guide users through your site and, in doing so, boost engagement.

If you need help with this effort or simply want more valuable content to engage users with, contact Rose & Cactus. We can guide you in boosting your digital reach and implementing the above best practices to draw in new potential customers every day.

Laura Pulling Laura is a content strategist, SEO consultant, and lover of quiz nights. She works with global clients to turn great ideas into well-ranked, high-converting content.