Search Engine Optimisation

Internal Linking Strategies

Internal linking strategies should form part of a modern SEO strategy and will help improve rankings

When we think about Link Building in relation to SEO, it’s often associated with creating backlinks from other websites. An essential element that is sometimes overlooked is internal linking or “inlinks”. Links, in either form, describe how pages relate to each other and in doing so, links help to indicate the value of content.

Internal links within a website also create the structure. Although not often thought about in this way, but your navigation is merely a series of links along with other elements such as sidebars, buttons and links within text content. All of these links combined help both users and search engines understand the architecture of your site and the relationship between pages.

SEO strategies for internal linking make it easier for pages to be indexed, create and transfer value to the right areas, increase dwell time as well as improve the overall user experience.

Google has indicated that pages should not include more than 1000 links – including navigation elements in the header, footer or sidebar. Internal linking works in a very similar way to external links, with more inlinks to a page providing increased value in search engines. This practice helps Google and other search engines map the priority of pages within a website, even otherwise low-value pages can be perceived as authoritative using this technique.

Include Landing Pages in your navigation

By including landing pages within your navigation elements, such as the header, footer or sidebars, will increase the number of internal links to that page. It’s important to consider the overall structure of the site when planning Landing Pages, so it feels natural to include these pages.

Reduce the number of clicks to Landing Pages

Click depth is something Google considers when analysing a website. Starting from the homepage, the number of clicks required to reach a specific page determines its click depth. Pages that need fewer clicks are given more priority in search engines.

Supportive content

There’s a limit to how much content you can include on a page before it starts to feel overwhelming, messy or counter-intuitive. When working on a landing page, we must also consider the user experience and how choices will affect conversion rates. However, in-depth content is still vital, and supportive pages are a great way to include lots of unique and valuable information about a topic while using internal links to boost the authority of the desired landing page.

chain links

These are only a few methods we employ as part of our SEO campaigns, but there are many more aspects to consider. Internal linking strategies should form part of a modern SEO strategy and, when used effectively, these techniques will help improve rankings. If you have any questions about Internal Linking Strategies, please contact a member of our SEO team.

Want more?