As I have been blog hopping to drive traffic to my blog as part of the 60 Day Challenge I have noticed that some bloggers to not take advantage of internal linking their blog pages.
Internal links are links that go from one page on your blog or website domain to a different page on the same blog or website domain and they play an important role in helping your site advance in the search engine rankings.
We hear so much about getting good quality backlinks from high pr sites that it’s easy to overlook the importance of internal linking.
You can often get just as much “SEO value” from internal links placed on high-value pages on your own site as you can from SEO back links .
Part of your SEO strategy should always include internal linking, and understanding how the other pages of your website can contribute value toward your new page.
You just provide links to more relevant posts and readers click those links to read more content.
Done well internal linking can increase your page views and reduce bounce rate. A lower bounce rate shows the authority and usability of a blog.
That helps to build trust in the eyes of search engines.
Just take a look at Wikipedia for example. It is one of the highest-ranked websites for a countless number of keywords, and most of that is due to the fact that they have a very extensive and complex internal linking structure.
When you study it closely it seems that for all the Wikipedia pages, they only have a few outbound links.
Here are my 5 tips for internal linking your blog for SEO
1 Link with Keywords
It’s important to use your target keywords as the anchor text for your internal links. It should all look natural though. It’s not necessary or good practice to stuff your post with numerous keywords.
Google frowns on using exact anchor text in backlinks you get from other blogs – that was a big part of their Penguin update but in case you are wondering using exact anchor text within your blog is different and much more acceptable.
Matt Cutts confirms this in this video.
With what he says in mind limit the number of links you place in the post or your reader won’t know where to go next.
As well as directing your reader to other pages on your site internal linking helps web crawlers to crawl and index all of your content by providing a convenient path to follow.
2 Use your Home Page
In most cases, the home page is the most linked-to and visited page on a website, and any outbound or internal links it has are given more value by the search engines.
You can accomplish that in various ways, such as creating a side tab of links to your most visited pages, or perhaps citing your various SEO landing pages as resources visitors can consult.
3 Organize your SEO Landing Pages
The chances are that your website has a fair amount of landing pages, and the good news is that they can be tapped for some nice internal linking.
All you need to do is simply add a section at the end of each page which says “related pages” or something of the sort, and underneath it place links to all the other landing pages.
There are some WordPress plugins that you can use for this such as Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
4 Get the Easy Links
There are plenty of unlikely places where most people forget to look for internal links, but the truth is that the less-visited pages, such as “privacy policy”, “terms of service” and “about us”, can serve as the perfect hosts for some juicy internal linking as they tend to have a higher page rank.
Not only are these pages given a higher consideration by the search engines, but typically they also do not have any links, and placing a few on your own will put you ahead of the competition.
5. Check For Broken Links
It’s very important to check for broken internal links on your blog from time to time. From an SEO perspective, it is important because it helps ensure that each page of your site is crawled and indexed by the search engines.
Search engines like websites that are fully functional and easy to navigate. If you have a lot of broken internal links it could impact your website’s ranking.
From your visitors point of view a broken link is very frustrating and annoying When they are expecting to get taken to a certain page and they get taken to an error page or page not available message.
I’ve experienced it and I’m sure you’ve experienced too. It does not create a good impression and you run the risk of breaking their trust.
You can check to see if Google web crawlers experienced any errors once you log into the Google Tools Dashboard. Some marketers say that this brings up errors that do not exist but SEOMoz says
it’s pretty good for diagnosing internal link issues.
If you prefer you can use the Online Broken Link Checker which checks both internal and extrernal links.
I checked my blog with this and found that out of 417 web pages I had a total of 140 broken links. Only 38 of these were internal links. Now I have the job of fixing them!
An alternative is to check your links with WordPress Broken Link Checker plugin
Another thing to consider is installing a 404 redirection plugin which permanently redirects all 404’s to the main blog URL. 404 errors do not affect the way a site is crawled or indexed in search results. But it is a good idea to correct the broken links.
The broken link plugin does not check for broken links in the comments but I wrote a post about that here: CommentLuv Link Cleaner Plugin Fixes Broken Links In A Jiffy
Do you check your blog for broken links? Which broken link checker do you use?
Great tips on internal link building, especially checking for broken links!
Hi Sandy, Which broken link checker do you recommend? I know it is important to correct broken links but I didn’t know how to do it easily. I will definitely check out these plug ins and website checker. Thanks for some helpful info as always. Blessings, Amy
Hi Sandy,
I was just thinking about writing a post on this subject because I noticed that too. It amazes me that people do not do internal linking.
Firstly it is an opportunity lost from visitors’ point of view and secondly from search engine point of view (if it has one) as well.
In addition internal linking can really reduce the bounce rate.
Take care,
Dita
Hi Dita,
I can only imagine that they do not do internal linking because they simply don’t know about it.
I could have made the post a lot longer as there is ton of information out there about internal linking but I think I have listed some of the most important tips.
I look forward to reading your post about it if you decide to write one. We can never have too much information.
Have a great week.
Sandy
Technical writing , Internal links provide more ease to the reader and give quick access to the relevant contents. It also help to reduce bounce rate and stick the reader to the post for long time.
Hi James,
The content has to be good enough as well for the visitor to want to stay and read it. You don’t want too many internal links on one post as it can get confusing for your reader.
Sandy
Google said 404 broken links does not effect site crawls and indexing. But it is good that no broken links for health of a site. We should avoid any broken links of our sites better reputation and reduce bounce rate. Thanks for share this informative post.
You are right. 404 errors do not hurt you or count against you in Google’s search results. Better to keep your site in good working order as much as possible though for all concerned.
Sandy
Hi Sandy,
You brought up a great point with this post. I am guilty of not using internal links that often. I didn’t know of its benefits and importance that much until now.
Thanks Sandy for the reminder and for the helpful tips.
Be Blessed,
Neamat
Hi Sandy,
I learned this little tip probably two years ago now over at Ana Hoffman’s blog. She’s the one that had been writing about it and how important it was. I had never thought about it before that time so I had to start writing so that I could interlink my posts instead of none of them actually relating to each other.
Since that time I have seen Matt’s video and it is something very important people should consider. Just one more lesson we all have to learn right!
Great share here young lady, nice job of explaining this.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
I frequently read Anna’s great blog posts to keep up with everything that’s going on. She certainly has her finger on the pulse.
Thanks for the compliment. Praise from Addrienne is praise indeed! I love the young lady bit too. It’s a long time since I’ve been called that!
Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read my post.
Sandy
Some really good tips here Sandy. Especially the one about putting related links on highly trafficked pages and on the home page. That’s good for users as well as search engines. Plus there’s the impact on the bounce rate, which you pointed out.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say internal linking gives as much SEO value as an external link, not one from an authority site anyway. But it’s still worth doing it.
I’m currently working on a major update on my programming website and I’ll be taking these tips into account. Thanks again Sandy.
Hey Sandy,
I’m back! Well, first of all, thanks for bringing the importance of internal links. Its like what you’ve said, backlinking overshadows internal linking. Well, it can’t be help since almost all of us uses back links for sites. Nevertheless, its still important to highlight internal links as reliable sources for SEO. In the other hand, I like to try the Online Broken Link Center for checking for broken links. It’s better to check it than to be sorry in the future. Thanks again for this very informative and helpful post.
Hey Farrell,
Glad to see you think I’m worth visiting again! It’s vital top check for broken links as it can do a lot of harm to your blog’s SEO if you have a lot of pages with a ton of broken links. It can take time to fix them but well worth it in the long run. I was chuffed that Adrienne thought I explained it all well.
Sandy
Hey Sandy,
I’ve noticed you’re new in this blogging business. When you reply to someone’s comment click “reply” from your commnets panel and your comment comes right below not like your doing right now. (ex: you reply to Adrienne below Charles comment, normal is reply to Adrienne than comes Charles comment)
As you can see your comments replies are not replied to certain member. When you click “reply” that reply goes to the chosen comment, for specified reader.
I hope you understand, if not please let me know so I can explain again.
Best regards from I. C. Daniel – Romania
Hi Daniel,
I am hardly new to blogging! I set up my detox blog in 2008 and this one in 2010.
I did notice that my replies to comments do not always appear right below the right comment even though I do reply as you describe. I am replying to your comment righ now like that so we will see where it ends up.
It must be something to do with the way the theme works so thanks for reminding me. I will have to get someone to look at it.
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I appreciate it.
Sandy
Thank you for this onpage optimization tips. When Google crawls your website and gets broken links, then you are liable to a Google punishment. you have talked about how to check for and remove broken links. Sometimes I normally create a redirection page on a 404 link page. This normally directs google back to the main page or other pages in my website.
Hi Essay help,
Google does not actually punish you for broken internal links but it is one of the factors it takes into account when ranking a site.
It’s good practice to create a 404 page that redirects back to your home page. Saves the reader going to an error page and leaving your site altogether.
Sandy
I am not using internal linking for my website.Actually i am currently learning how to do it.Your post was very helpful…
Hi Karnal,
Glad you found the post helpful. Every time you write an article to post it’s worth thinking how you can incorporate your keywords into the post to link to your internal pages.
Sandy
Thanks for sharing. Your posts are always so interesting to read, and I’d love to see more!
This post is salutary with me. It helped that I knew how to seo well. I hope you will post a lot in the future.
Some specialized tips here Sandy. particularly the one regarding swing connected links on extremely trafficked pages and on the house page. That’s good
You don’t know But You just taught me one awesome thing.. i was just closing the site when i saw this Post and Interlinking on less Visited pages can do awesome Work.. Really Really Thanks..
Interlinking is significant factor of SEO. When I started Blogging I didn’t know about Interlinking and after some time I got sound knowledge of interlinking. This will effect in ranking in search engine result as well as reduce bounce rate too.
Thanks for Review
Hi Rajesh,
You were not the only one. I did not know about interlinking when I first started my detox blog. I have gone back and linked some of my very first posts to some more recent ones. I think it’s worth the time spent whenever you have a spare moment.
Sandy
Great Interlinkking tips but one thing i do is regular interlinking and giving links to Homepage.
Hi Sourya,
Googd point. It’s a good thing to link back to your home page from other pages of your blog if you have a home page. It depends on how you have your blog set up. Not eveone has a home page on their blog.
Sandy