So, what does “internal linking” mean and why is it such an important part of the SEO process?
Internal linking is the process of linking one page or lets say a blog post on a website to another page on the same site.
So think of it like this, someone who’s buying say jeans off a website that sells clothes, may also want a matching belt, socks and lets say a set of shiny shoes to complement the look, not to mention a nice t-shirt. So why not add internal links to the other items?
This may help the business to increase sales, as customers can find other products that they may wish to purchase much easier, but there’s also some seo benefits as well, for example, its much easier for google to index that new page, if there’s internal backlinks leading to it.
So internal links are a really important part of organic seo, and that’s simply because they help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of a website, and they can also help shoppers to navigate a website more easily.
So when we say the hierarchy, what we mean is that say you run a divorce solicitors practice, and in total you have 70 main pages, and lets say, just for example purposes you have 100 blog posts.
Now if all of these, link back to one main page titled “divorce” well, its then really obvious to google, that the page is your most important on your companies website.
So internal backlinks can make it clear which page is the most important, and therefore even if all pages mention divorce somewhere, the search engines still know which is the main divorce page, and if someone wants to contact you because they want a divorce solicitor, well that’s likely to be the most relevant.
That’s because it’s the most important page on your website, because it has the most internal links.
So sure, all the other blog posts might talk about “what happens to the family dog after a divorce”- and yes it mentions divorce, but the search engines know, that if someone is looking for a divorce lawyer, that that’s not the main page.
So, in summary internal links make it crystal clear to the search engines what your main services or products are that your business retails.
So, although you may have written hundreds of different blog posts which talk about things that are related to your company, when someone has “purchase intent”- so they want to buy an item now, that’s what that means, then the search engines will know that a main page that sells the product should be the one that’s shown the serps.
It will know that due to the amount of internal links which are pointing to that main page, and also other onsite seo as well, which will indicate that is a main product or service page, so its important to also optimise the titles, meta descriptions and also the content marketing.
So in general, it is best to use keyword-rich anchor text, yet this must always be written in a white hat way.
This can will help improve the search engine optimisation (SEO) of a website. However, it is also important to make sure that the anchor text is relevant to the target page, so that visitors will actually find the linked page useful.
So in a nutshell, don’t use the anchor text “cheap tennis rackets” if that page sells t shirts, as a shopper wont get to the product they want to buy, and this could lead to a higher bounce rate.
In summary:
Overall, Internal linking is still a very important part of organic SEO and website navigation, and should be given careful consideration by your web designers when designing and developing a website.
Yes but why is internal linking so important?
Internal linking is one of the most important aspects of on-page SEO, that’s what our seo agency thinks.
Sure, content marketing is still one of the most important parts of seo, yet to link all the written work, such as your companies blog posts, you need to use internal links. This all needs to be done in a white hat way, so you may need Bristol seo companies, for this, so why not call us?
By linking to other pages on your company website, you can help the search engines to understand your site’s structure and hierarchy. This in turn can help them index your pages more accurately and rank them in search results.
In addition, internal links can also help to increase the crawlability of your website, which is again important for organic SEO. By linking to other pages and blog posts on your site, you are effectively telling search engines which pages are most important, and should be crawled more frequently.
Overall, internal linking is a key part of any successful organic SEO strategy. By taking the time to ensure that your website is properly linked internally, you can make a big impact on your search engine rankings.
Please Note:
This is a generic internal linking guide and some specific details may vary depending on the cms that your business is using. If you need help with your website’s internal linking, please feel free to contact us for assistance.
Thank you for reading!
We hope this guide was helpful.
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