Internal Linking

I've been in SEO and online marketing for over 20 years and I'm here to share the wealth of knowledge , hints and tips I've amassed over that time . Hello and welcome back to another episode of SEO isSeries Not that Hard .

It's me here , ed Dawson , as usual , hosting , and today I'm going to talk about internal linking , which I kind of surprised myself when I was going back through all the previous podcasts I'd done I'd never done one dedicated to internal linking .

I know I'm bound to have talked about internal linking , but , yeah , in passing , on other shows , shows definitely would have been in one of the glossary shows and I know I did one on breadcrumbs , which is kind of a part of internal linking , but I know just talked about internal linking in

general . So here we go , let's talk internal linking . So first of all , we need to clarify what an internal link is . So an internal link is a hyperlink that points from one page on your website to another page on your website . So these are all links within your own website .

They're not like external links , which is where you link to a user to a different domain . Internal links keep users within your site and help guidance through your content . So that's to be just be sure . We're only talking about links within your own site . Now why are they important ? Well , it's because they serve two real primary purposes for us , right ?

Okay , so the first one is they enhance user experience . So we internal links are really important for your users to help to navigate around your website . If you don't have good internal linking , then you're not going to be able to guide them to the right content to help them find what they're looking for .

Good internal links help keep users engaged and encourages them to spend more time on your site , which is obviously important . You've got a website for visitors . You want people to hang around , really . Secondly , they help the search engines . They help the search engines crawl . So they help googlebot , which crawls pages . It finds it , you know .

Every time it finds a new link , it follows that link to the page that is there . It will download that page and it will follow any links from that page and it uses these links to spider effectively spider around your site .

So you've got good internal linking and it helps the googlebot and other search engine bots index your site , find your content and understand structure . And it also helps pass signals around , various signals around your about . You know key things about the pages and the structure of your site and we'll cover all those sort of individually in a moment .

So , um , here's a scenario . Let's think of one . Okay , so you've got a website about , um , it's all about pet care , okay , and so your user lands on a page about how to care for a new puppy .

If you've included internal links to related topics like best food for puppies or puppy vaccination schedules , then you're providing clear paths for the user to continue exploring . You know , relevant content around puppies and puppy care , um , and this not only enhances the experience for the user they get to find you know follow-up content to go to .

It also provides a signal to the search engines how content is interconnected , because it'll see that you know these pages being linked from the puppy care top page to sub pages within . It is how it's linked and the anchor text that you use for them . So let's look at why internal links are really important for SEO .

So one we've talked about the improved crawlability and indexing . So that's the basic thing , so that the search engine can find and discover and index the pages on your site . If a page isn't linked internally , it becomes what's known as an orphan page . So that's a page on your website with no links to it from anywhere .

And if it's got no links to it from anywhere , it's going to be really hard for Google to find it . There are ways around it . You can put them in sitemaps , for example , and Google may well find it then .

But without any context of where it sits within your site , how it's been linked to , it's going to be really hard for Google or any other search engine to work out exactly how it relates to other content on your site . Secondly , you establish your site architecture and the hierarchy of your site .

So these internal links help define the structure of your website and show the relationship between your pages , which helps search engines understand which pages are most important .

It can start to see which pages are linked from where and which pages have the most links and the most central pages and which ones feed out from it , and this can influence how content is ranked in search results , because it's all related around the third point , which is distributing page rank .

So not all the pages on your website will have the same sort of authority which is is distributing page rank . So not all the pages on your on your website will have the same sort of authority , which is defined by page rank . The internal links allow you to pass this page rank from high authority pages to other pages to help boost their rankings .

It used to be called page rank sculpting to do this . It's not something you should worry about percentages and things like that , but just be aware that obviously you're going to have some pages on your site that will have higher page rank .

Your home page usually is the one with the most page rank because it's the one most likely to have external links pointing at it . So you want to make sure you use that to make sure that you link from your important pages to your next most important pages and from then down , down and down and down , basically to set that hierarchy for the search engines .

Also . Point four it enhances user engagement . So this is by guiding your users to the related content and where you want them to go and the journey you want them to take . Then these internal links are all really important on doing that . So it helps increase the amount of time users spend on your site . It reduces bounce rate bounce rates .

It improves overall user satisfaction and these are all positive signals . We know that google looks at how people interact with sites . You know bounce rates , that kind of thing . You know bounce . You don't want really people bouncing back to the search engine result pages .

So if you give people good places to go forward in their journey , you're going to be much less likely to have people have that bounce back . But remember , okay , there's one key thing here . You may be thinking you want to be putting internal links everywhere , tons and tons and tons of internal links .

Just be careful you don't overdo it , because if you have too many links it can be counterproductive . You want to . You don't want a cluttered user experience . You don't want to confuse the search engines about what isn't important . So just remember , there's a fine balance to walk , okay .

So how should we implement internal links in a way that's like best practice , so we get the best result for both users and for seo ? So first of all , we want to use proper HTML elements . You always want to use the correct HTML tag for links and that's the a tag with a href attribute . That may sound technical , but it's .

This is quite essential because sometimes developers will use other elements like divs , spans , buttons , to mimic links , often using javascript to handle the click events . But this can hinder search engines from recognising these elements as links and it can also affect accessibility for people using things like screen readers .

Now , it's not that Google won't ever find JavaScript links , and Google will attempt a good job of it , but the very best practice is always use A tags and not anything weird if you can . Even if you want to do JavaScript stuff , make sure that it will always fall back to using HTML if JavaScript isn't enabled .

Secondly , you always want to use descriptive and meaningful anchor text . So the anchor text , that's the clickable text in a hyperlink and it should be descriptive and it should provide context about the page that you're linking to .

So you want to avoid generic phrases , like you know , like click here and read more , because they don't really tell you , the reader or the search engine , anything about that page that's being linked to . Instead , you want to use , like descriptive phrases , like you know , dog care tips or best dog food options .

This means that you know when a user will understand what they're going to get when they click the link . But also the search engines get that valuable context and those internal links and context you use . That's going to help you rank for those terms that you link for as well . So bear that in mind . Use descriptive and meaningful anchor text .

Thirdly , you want to use you want anyone link to relevant content . So

you know , ensure your links are contextually relevant . So linking unrelated pages , unless there's a really good reason , can confuse users and it can also dilute the value of those links . So think about what users are interested on the current page and what they might want to read next and try and link accordingly , if you can .

Fourth , you want to prioritize your important pages . So you want to identify the key pages on your sites , those that are the most important for whatever the goal is of your website , and you want to link to them more frequently and this again will help signal to the search engines that these pages are the most valuable on your site .

Next , you you want to avoid overloading pages with links , like I said earlier . So while it is important and it's good to internally link , too many links can be overwhelming . There is no sort of hard and fast rule on how many is too many , but links should be helpful and not over clutter the page .

So you want to aim for a balance that enhances user experience versus SEO signals . You want to ensure that all important pages are linked , so you want to avoid the orphan pages we spoke about earlier . You want to make sure every page on your site is linked from at least one other page . This means that people will find it and so will the search engines .

You want to use a logical site structure , so you want to organise your content hierarchically , with categories and subcategories . So some people might call these pillars and sub-pillars , or clusters and sub-clusters . But you want to think about how your site is set up so that you've got logical groupings of pages .

And this structure helps make your internal linking more intuitive and it helps the search engines understand your site's organisation .

And the best way the next tip , the next way , is to implement the breadcrumb navigation so you'll have seen these on sites like a secondary nav that shows users the location within your site's hierarchy , and this helps users because it helps them find where they're on the site and it also helps the search engines to crawl .

There's actually um , you know , complete schema markup for breadcrumbs . Do look at that . Go and listen to the episode I did on breadcrumbs to learn more about that . You want to use footer and sidebar links really carefully . So these are common places for internal links . Use them . You do use them , but only include links that are genuinely helpful to the user .

Think about these should really be your core category pages in and continuing footers and sidebars rather than , you know , overdoing it . So when it comes to common mistakes people make when implementing their internal links , here are some of them . So these are things to try and avoid . So avoid using vague anchor text .

Avoid those kind of non-destructive phrases like click here or read more , because they don't provide context and they can frustrate users who are scanning for specific information . Don't link to unrelated content . Don't link pages that aren't relevant to each other . It can confuse users and the search engines could possibly consider it to be manipulative .

Don't hide links . Make sure your links are visible and distinguishable from regular text . Hiding links makes them difficult to identify , which means people can find them hard to use and the search engines could see this as manipulative if it's overdone . So be careful there . Don't over over . Optimize anchor text .

Like I said , it's good to include keywords , but stuffing anchor texts with keywords can look spammy . So keep it natural , keep it user-friendly , don't overdo it , don't don't raise spam filters . Essentially , don't ignore mobile users . Okay , because mobile users they've got a smaller device .

If links are too close together , it can be hard for them to , you know , distinguish between links or to actually select links they need to use . So just consider that when you're looking at your your , how your site works in the mobile sphere . Don't forget to update links if you make site changes .

So if you ever do a site redesign or you change urls , you need to update your internal links . Broken links can lead need 404s , which is bad for both users and SEO . So if you do make major changes like that , make sure that the page URL changes .

You find everywhere that links to that original URL and change that URL , or ensure that a 301 redirect is in place for the old URL to the new one . Finally , don't over link , don't include too many pages on links on a single page , because again , again , this can overwhelm users , can dilute the value of your links . So focus on quality over quantity .

So yeah , to wrap up , the key things here I want you to take away from today's episode are make sure your internal links enhance user navigation . Make sure they help users find related contact and keep them engaged and , you know , keep them on your site . Remember that they aid search engine crawl and indexing .

So proper internal links ensure that search engines can find and index all your important content . Use those proper HTML elements . Always use the a tag with a href attribute for links so that you're accessible and that you're crawlable even if JavaScript's not enabled . Remember that your anchor text matters .

Use descriptive , meaningful anchor text and make sure it provides context to both users and search engines . Link strategically . Connect your relevant pages . Prioritize important content . Avoid overloading pages . Use breadcrumbs , that kind of thing Also . Finally , maintain your links . Make sure you watch out for broken links .

When URLs change , update to the new one and remember internal linking is a really powerful tool . Okay , these are links that you control . You control the anchor texts , you control your site architecture .

So this is where you are completely , completely in charge and you can do the very best that you can make a big difference to how users see your site and how search engines see your site . So it's a really important thing to think about . Okay , so that's it for today .

I hope you find it useful and remember until next time keep optimizing , stay curious and remember seo is not that hard when you understand the basics . Thanks for listening . It means a lot to me . This is where I get to remind you where you can connect with me and my seo tools and services .

You can find links to all the links I mentioned here in the show notes . Just remember , with all these places where I use my name , that Ed is spelled with two d's . You can find me on LinkedIn and Blue Sky . Just search for Ed Dawson on both . You can record a voice question to get answered on the podcast . The link is in the show notes .

You can try our SEO intelligence platform Keywords People Use keywordspeopleusecom , where we can help you discover the questions and keywords people are asking online .

Post those questions and keywords into related groups so you know what content you need to build topical authority and finally , connect your Google Search Console account for your sites so we can crawl and understand your actual content , find what keywords you rank for and then help you optimise and continually refine your content with targeted , personalised advice .

Advice keep your traffic growing . If you're interested in learning more about me personally or looking for dedicated consulting advice , then visit wwweddawsoncom . Bye for now and see you in the next episode of seo . Is not that hard .