High-quality content with great keyword optimisation, backed up good metadata and a quick load speed make for good on-page SEO. However, they’re far from being the only crucial elements.
Internal linking is also important, and in this article, we’ll discuss the importance of internal linking, what it refers to, and how it relates to best SEO practices.
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What Are Internal Links?
An internal link refers to any link that leads to a page on your website that’s implemented on another page on your website.
Since they’re hyperlinking from one page to another on the same domain, internal links shouldn’t be confused with backlinks, which point to your website from another domain.
Internal links come a few forms, such as:
- Navigational links, like in header menus
- Navigational blocks, often seen for service page links in tabs
- Image links, like you’ll see on ecommerce websites
- Anchor text links, placed within content
All internal links are designed to lead users and search engine bots to contextually relevant content on another page on your website. Internal links are actually the #1 method Google uses for discovery!
However, not all internal links are created equal. Links that are found in the main navigation menus are called navigational links (part of technical SEO), as they allow users to navigate your site easily. These also have an impact on SERP display through things like breadcrumb markup.
Internal links placed in the body of content on your page are called contextual links and these serve to create direct page relationships and pass contextual SEO value via anchor text.
Either way, all of these serve a singular purpose, to help navigation and discovery.
The Importance of Internal Links
To understand the importance of internal links, it’s important to know how search engines like Google rank your website.
Search engines use bots, or “spiders”, to crawl through each and every page on your website, gather their data, and index said data.
In layman’s terms: The next time a user searches for something that’s relevant to your website, Google knows that your website has the answer to the user’s search as it has indexed your site. It then offers a link to your page as an answer.
These crawler bots typically start at one web page and index specific data, including both internal and external links implemented on individual pages.
The data they gather here with internal links helps search engines understand the relevance and the interconnection between the pages on your website.
When used strategically, internal links can spread page authority and topical relevance.
Internal links also enhance the overall user experience, improve engagement metrics, promote conversion, build your website architecture, and improve the crawl efficiency of your website.
This makes internal link implementation an indispensable tool in your SEO link-building strategy. I say this because any backlinks you build to pages, will also then have some authority passed on to other internal pages. As an example:
- I build 5 links to a blog post
- That blog post links to a specific service page
- The authority from those external links is passed via the internal links
- External links help to blog post rank higher
- Higher ranks of blog posts boost topical relevancy for the service page
Summary
Internal links are an important aspect of SEO that aids with increasing your organic traffic and conversions. However, implementing some of the best SEO practices isn’t as easy when you’re trying to grow your brand in other ways as well. If you need professional help with your SEO efforts, don’t hesitate to contact Intellar and book a strategy call.
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