Internal linking is CRUCIAL for search engine optimization.
It’s a big statement to make, but through my years of experience I have learned how true it is.
Let’s think about it this way…
Your website visitor is the blood in your blog’s veins and the visitor needs to travel through your blog without hitting roadblocks.
I believe that neglecting internal linking within your website could be cutting the blood supply that runs throughout your blog. Imagine the blood pumping through the veins of your blog and then coming to a dead end? Where can it go now?
4 Reasons Internal Linking Is Critical for SEO
1. Tells Google that you think your own page is valuable
If you are not endorsing your own content, then why should other people do it?
This is the first place that your content should be getting the tick of approval from.
Internal linking shows search engines you mean business.
2. Enhances your visitors experience on your website
As I mentioned earlier, website visitors can be compared to the blood pumping through the veins of your website.
You need to lead them to other related content to keep the blood flowing.
Having internal links to additional information can fill in the blanks for some website visitors.
3. Reduces your bounce rate
When people read a particular article on your website, giving them other options and extra links leading to more information definitely lowers your bounce rate.
4. Helps with Indexing
Internal linking not only lets your visitor navigate your website freely, it also lets search engine bots travel from one page to the next.
This can contribute to a page being indexed quicker than normal.
Read more on how Google works here.
Internal linking on your website
To become great at internal linking, we must first realize that every page and post is a living and breathing entity of its own.
In the SEO world this means that each page and post have their own keywords that tell the search engines about them.
The next thing we must acknowledge is that there are two main types of internal links:
- In-content links: the links that are within your post content that lead to other related posts on your blog.
- Navigation links: these are often overlooked as a means of internal linking and are a very important part of search engine optimization.
Setting up an effective navigation system
After you have researched your niche and found your main keywords, your next goal would be to make a list of related keywords. This list could be used for your category names.
The most effective navigation system I have used is where 5 to 15 categories are created using LSI (related keywords).
Now if every post published on your website can fall into one of your categories, then you have a tight niche that is very targeted. If you cannot figure out which category to place an article, then it might not belong on your website.
We can get technical and talk about the tiers of a blog, but I’d like to avoid techie stuff as much is possible.
The navigation system that I mentioned above is a clear two-tier system. I like to have access to the categories either through the top navigation system or in the sidebar.
Make a list of keywords
For each post or page on your website, make a list of keywords that can be used as your anchor text.
Using the example above, I have an article about search engine optimization and here are some possible keywords that I would use. Let say the actual article is called “what is search engine optimization”:
- what is search engine optimization
- search engine optimization basics
- learn search engine optimization
- search engine optimization for beginners
- search engine optimization explained
To find the best keywords to use, I would use the Google keyword tool or Market Samurai, do an exact match search, and find the keywords with the most searches.
Please note that these keywords will be used as anchor text to point to the same post and as you can see they all really mean the same thing.
I like to vary my anchor text, as the same words do not always fit into the content of a post.
Of course I do not what my links to be classed as spam either.
Do internal linking from the start
This means that as soon as a post is published, you need to build at least two internal links coming in to it. Doing so “joins” your new post to your blog.
After I have built these two internal links, I will add more links to the new post, but only if I have an article that is related and requires it.
This works for me, but others might have a different method.
Can Too Many Internal links Hurt?
Too much of anything can hurt you, there is no denying that.
Therefore having no internal links is not good and having too many is not good either. So where is the balance?
Here is how I create balance with internal linking
- Three links per 500 words with one being the minimum. So if a post has 1500 words, I build 9 links.
- Reduce Footer links and sidebar links to only what is needed. For example, there’s no reason to show recent posts in the sidebar on the homepage when all the recent posts are listed there anyway. This means you are linking to the same post twice from your homepage. What is the point in that?
The absolute best tip I can give you when it comes down to internal linking is to stick to your routine. If you like to add a certain amount of links for each page or post and it is working for you, then keep doing it.
Final thoughts
I am a huge fan of internal deep linking and I am very glad that something that holds so much importance is entirely under our control - no link hunting, no link baiting techniques; just a few minutes of your time.
I am definitely interested in how other webmasters perform internal linking within their websites: let me know what your strategies are in the comments below.
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A wife to a great husband, a mother to a beautiful and, no doubt, genius little girl, and a successful internet entrepreneur. I also devoted my life to Jesus Christ many years ago, and He remains my true priority, focus, and hope.
{ 131 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Ana,
I usually have all my posts in the sidebar (my sites are considerably smaller than yours!) and maybe have a couple in the text as different anchor text. Is this a good idea as I have read elsewhere on your site that Google will ignore the second link going to the same url? Which one would the bots crawl first?
As you can tell, i’m pretty new to this!
Thanks
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Usually, sidebar follows the post content, Jay.
However, you need to check your own blog. In your browser, go to View => Page Source or, if you are using the latest Firefox, Tools => Web Developer => View Source; this will pull up your html code. Just scroll down to make sure that sidebar links are placed after the content.
Hi Ana,
I have always been worried about putting too many internal links on a page. Thanks for giving some guidance in terms of what you think is reasonable.
Cheers
Neil
Totally agree. On page SEO and internal linking on sites we own is one of the few aspects of online marketing over which we each have total control. In posts on my niche sites I link to the home page in first para and then add 1-2 links to other related posts. This has definitely reduced the bounce rate and extended visitor stays. The “LinkWithin” plugin is also a useful addition for WP sites.
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Hi Johnathon
I agree that internal link building really does reduce your bounce rate. It is nice to see those stats drop after trying to get them down.
Also linkwithin is good but I am developing another plugin like that as linkwithin redirects all your visitors to their blog first… Therefore linkwithin shows up as a referring site when it actually is not???
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I suppose Internal linking for SEO is same as the process of Link Building on a website. With the help of internal linking for a website you can get a lot of traffic on your website. In fact the main objective of a company behind implementing the process of SEO on their website is to ensure that they are able to generate revenue for their business.
Yes, it pretty much is the same and it is a great tool. It helps visitors to stay on your site for longer.
Internal linking helps you to create a direct access to your webpage through your own websites and blogs. Internal linking is a part of the process of Search Engine Optimization. Without including Internal Linking in your website you will for sure will not be able to have a good ranking over the search results and not even a good image in the minds of your customers. Internal linking helps in building a sophisticated website.
Apart from that, you will probably be unable to keep readers on your site. Thanks for your comment, Jordan.
That’s one thing I am glad I started doing from beginning (even though I didn’t knwo about its effect in SEO, since I was clueless about SEO when I started my blog).
And now I can say that internal link building truly has helped me (as one of the main factors) to rank for some of the most competitive keywords in my niche.
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I like your advice of inserting 3 links for every 500 words; I don’t think I’ve ever heard that rule before! I always forgot to drop in-content links, but from what I’ve read, these are the most powerful links of all!
For nav links, I usually widget: popular posts, recent posts, and recent comments. This helps to build internal links automatically, but it’s obviously limited to whatever happens to make it on the list.
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I will not publish a post with internal linking..This is how important it is to me and my rankings… I like to make the post feel at home and sew it into my blog as part of the family.
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Great post Mitz,
thanks for sharing !
I always try to include in my posts 1 or 2 internal links.
I also use “SEO Smart Links” Plugin : interior linking will help with the overall crawling of your website, along with keeping readers engaged in your content.
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Hi Erik
I like to be in control of my links.. I have tried SEO smart links and it does a good job but really does not pick the right anchor text for me. If you look at it, all the anchor text is short one or two words and sometimes does not fit into the context.
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Great post Mitz! Lots of useful advice here… sharing it now
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Internal linking plays a major role in the search engine optimization. At the time, most of the people will be thinking about blog and have to get high traffic on here
Internal linking would build a good image in the eyes of Google. Your site looks like a professional website when you have good internal linking over it. If you site is ranked well then Google will ensure that you get a good grade and accordingly a good position in the Google’s search results. So now you know how important it is to have internal linking over your website?
I’ve known for some time, but yes, it is valuable indeed.
I think I’m gonna try this Ana, Mitz. I never thought that internal linking is also good for our sites. This is also another link that can be permanent to our sites. Is that true? Thanks for sharing.
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Go for it Anne!
You will notice some big changes when you start to implement internal linking..
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Internal linking is important to target a good amount of audience to your website. Also audience can be targeted once your product has a good presence online and so it would be good to have internal linking as one of the biggest sources to impress Google which would in a way help you to have a good ranking in the search result list
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Thanks Mitz for this interesting article. To me, it actually is a fresh point of view on SEO and internal linking
I used to work with different single pages on a variety of topic so internal linking is what I was not familiar with. Glad to know that it has such impact on our optimizing effort. I will try it as soon as I set up my own website.
Cheers!
Duy.
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Hi Duy
Ha Ha yes you should not use internal linking on a sales page. I did not mention this but thanks for reminding us. The less options the better on a sales page.
In your blog it is very important though and does make a significant impact!
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I agree that internal linking is very important for a website, and not only for SEO. The question I have is, do you think that the anchor in internal links on new content is helpful when you already had one link with that same anchor text pointing to that page? or that I won’t help anymore?
Thanks
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Moderation in all things, right?
Thanks for sharing this information! Internal linking brings a lot of advantage in SEO.
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Internal linking would help in creating a good image in the minds of the customers and also Google. You need to be a little choosy in terms of deciding whether which content would be better to post on the main page and which content should be place on the page linked to the keywords on the main or front page. This would help in generating good amount of traffic on your website.
You are correct, Gabriella. That is the right way to go about it. Thanks for stopping by.
In order to maintain a clean and attractive website you need to link some of your pages. Internal linking would buy a professional look for your website and would create a good repute in the eyes of Google while ranking and also would build a good image in the eyes of your customers. Linking would indicate how valuable your content is.
You are right Carol
Google loves internal linking and so does your visitors if it is done correctly.
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Overloading the page and making it feel look untidy and will not get you good traffic over your website. Even In case of Search Engine Optimization, Internal linking would help Google understand the value and image of your website in the market.
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Apart from that, it also makes it untidy and users will not enjoy being on your site.
Too much of anything can hurt you, there is no denying that.
Therefore having no internal links is not good and having too many is not good either. So we must balance it.
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Very true! I agree with you.
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There are 4 excellent reasons internal linking of importangce for SEO. The one is telling Google that you think your own page is valuable, and the second is enhancesing your visitors experience on your website, and so on…
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Yes ..why not vote for your own content and tell everyone it is good!
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Ana, What are your thoughts on the deep linking plugins? Are they a good or bad thing? Is it better to do it manually?
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I’ve tried some of them in the past, Jason, like Smart Links by Vladimir Prelovac, but had a few glitches and had to disable them.
Result? All the links generated in the past were wiped out.
That’s the problem with using such plugins: if anything every goes wrong with them, your internal linking strategy goes down the drain.
4 excellent reasons to link internally
I’m a big fan of internal linking, especially on blogs such as WordPress. There are even a few great plugins to help you do this with little effort, picking up keywords automatically as you write them.
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Hi Darren
I am also a big fan of internal linking but I am one of those with OCD and have to do it manually. If someone could show me a plugin that does it like I do then I would definitely use it!
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I am always amazed when people forget this basic and important step. It’s the easiest way imaginable to get links. And you’re right about it definitely cutting your bounce rate way down, if done right.
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I think everyone is guilty of forgetting about internal linking in the beginning. I know I was!
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People generally do internal linking to ensure that they have a clean and a neat looking website. Overloading the page and making it feel look untidy and will not get you good traffic over your website. Even In case of Search Engine Optimization, Internal linking would help Google understand the value and image of your website in the market. It will help to rank high in search engine optimization.
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That’s right, Patrick. It also keeps your posts relevant and makes your site easy to navigate.
Once again you have provided me with a mental gem. I love reading blogs like yours where I can frequently have a “ah-ha” experience.
Thanks for sharing!!
Warmest Regards,
~Robert
Wow “mental gem” .. I like that one!
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Excellent article. The content was very understandable even for a novice like me. Thank you. I think I do a good j0b wit categories, keywords and tags on my site, but I think I need to do more internal linking within the blog posts themselves. Stuff to think about for building traffic to my site.
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Wow, I just love the picture that you used for this post. Did you took on the road??
Yes, as you said internal linking is just as important as external link building. But this is the case for large sites. Site with pages less than 100 - I am not sure if this is gonna be that much useful.
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You don’t need 100 pages. You can start with as few as 20, or even less, depending on how cleverly you write.
Oh boy, this post makes me realize things that I had on my to-do list need to be incorporated NOW! I do use commentluv and am happy about that. But I had in mind the other points you mentions. Note: I had it in mind. Now, It is time to take action! Thanks for reminding me how important these things are that I am procrastinating with. You have been a great help.
Donna Merrill
Hi Donna
Glad you are not going to procrastinate about this any longer. The longer you put this off the longer it takes to get in order!
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Great post! I always thought if I linked to a old post within a new post that was internal linking. I didn’t even think to link to the NEW one from old ones!
Q.- are the linkwithin plugin links to related posts considered internal links do you know? I’m soooo not an seo expert! LOL
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Hi, Cori:
So good to see you here.
Any related posts plugins are a form of internal linking, but they are not as targeted as in-content links are. They are more for your readers than SEO.
PS: Every time I try to comment on your blog, it eats my comments and they never show up! Your blog doesn’t like me…
Aw darn it.. I don’t know why my blog eats your comments!
Good to know about the plugins, I learn something new every day! Will respond to your email shortly. 
XoXo!
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Thanks, Mitz. I began experimenting with internal links to give readers something to click on so they wouldn’t register as a “bounce.” That and pointing readers to something I had already written (so I wouldn’t have to explain everything). Lately I read that Google has begun distinguishing between internal and eternal (incoming) links. I have 75% internal links and 25% external (from leaving comments) so figure it won’t be very good for my site. Wondering if you had heard the new Google criterion and whether that will affect the strategy you present here?
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I have heard that they will distinguish between links and presumed they would, however I am not sure that this is bad news.
I do not follow everything I hear so I will still have to go with my gut feeling for my blog and say that internal linking will always enhance a readers experience… and you cannot or should not be penalized for that.
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I’ve found that LinkWithin is a great way to drop your bounce rate and keep circulating older posts. It’s an awesome tool for internal linking, and although some people prefer to make their own plugins, I do like LinkWithin
Hi Lauren
Did you know that the linkwithin plugin redirects your visitors to their website and then back to yours…So this is possibly counted as a new visit???
When you hover over a linkwithin picture the url says your website but when you push the link you will notice a redirect.
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Hi Mitz, while reading your article it occurred to me that CommentLuv can actually help our internal linking as well but now I’m wondering if selecting the latest post on every comment reply isn’t a mistake (within our own blogs). On popular posts I eventually stop using that option for my own comments but that’s mainly to keep the site clean and spare the readers from seeing them over and over. I really hadn’t considered the idea that CommentLuv might be adding too many internal links in an SEO respect. We have other posts/options to select from, especially with CLP, so I guess we should mix it up a bit more.
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I do use Commentluv for internal linking too.. But you have to reply to comments from the outside the dashboard and sometimes this is a hassle.
I am not worried though as Commentluv is already doing more than enough for me!
You are right about mixing it up a bit too.. I am glad Commentluv gives us a choice!
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Of course, internal linking is vital. The two main things that I like to remember when I do internal linking is visitors will stay longer on my blog and Google will love me more… as you so mentioned in your post. Thanks for the article
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Hi Sylviane
You are right, Google will love you more!
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Mitz,
Funny finding you around these parts? Great post! You nailed it on the head. What plugins do you recommend for inner linking? Talk with you soon
Chad
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Hi Chad
Yes I hang out in all the cool places..:)
I do not recommend any plugins for this as I like to limit my plugins and I like to be in complete control when directing my visitors from page to page.
Performing the link building yourself ensures you have built a great foundation for your blog…Solid as a rock.
There are plugins like SEO links that will choose the keyword for you cut I do not like that…There is also keyword link where you can set the keyword but you have not control about where that link shows up…
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Hmmm,
Very interesting if I do say so. I’ve been using a plugin to handle the internal linking, I appreciate your feedback. Now I am heading over to your blog. See you there
Chad
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Hi Mitz
I am always trying to link back to one of my old post whenever it is suitable. That helps making my posts link together as a big spider net. I also use a plugin that automatically link my pages together using post tags.
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Great way to put it Thomas !
“a big spider net” LOL.
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Mitz, thanks for the great insight. I love deeplinking a lot and do it on a regular basis whenever I write new posts, I link to 2-4 other posts. But then what you said about linking new posts to old posts is what I rarely do. Gotta get my feet in that too. Thanks again.
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At start you try to make it clear with internal body system which is new and interesting way of explaining it. One thing i learned from this article that i am committing the mistake of recent posts widget at my home page and the links for recent posts are already present over the home page. But i added the recent post widget by thinking that it will be present on all pages and posts so the link juice will pass on to new posts. but today i will remove it as the link juice will be temporary as the recent posts links are dynamic and changes with every new post.
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Hi Zeeshan
I am not saying that you should not have recent posts showing on the pages and posts but most people already have them on the frontpage…
It is just a double up of links that is not necessary.
Some themes let you show certain widgets on certain pages. For example Thesis can do this with a bit of code added.
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Very nice post, Mitz.
Internal linking is something I have not been applying as much as I should have been, lately.
Going by what I have seen in My Google Analytics, Linking Internally to relevant content(When done properly) does have a positive effect on your sites performance.
Will agree that it is better to ad internal links as the posts is being written, rather than after.
Though, often I have found myself adding internal links to posts at a later time, after realizing how the content matches up nicely with earlier posts.
The other thing I have to watch our for, is broken links from very old posts.
As far as too many links is concerned, If I am on a Blog(Website) where I have become fully engaged, I will probably have no problem continually hitting the links as I read further related articles.
Though, in some cases, there are blogs(sites) that are soaked in links, and they just have you going around in circles.
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Hi Daniel
You have hit on something there that I might not have stressed! I did say that the link needs to be relevant but sometimes they do send visitors around in circles. You are so right there!
You really have to use your own initiative to decide if the link is needed, relevant, and adds value to the page. That’s even before considering the SEO factors because after all we are writing for the readers first.
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Hi Mitz!
Super awesome post. Great reminder alltgough I’m not sure about adding more links depending on the amount of content on the
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Thanks!
I do add more links for more content because there always seems to be more opportunities to do so…
If you have a tight niche (staying close to a subject) you find it easy to link to other posts.
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Hi Mitz,
Internal linking is a must for bloggers and even webmasters in general. In my case I need to improve my internal navigation with better anchor-long tail keywords.
I think that it can be automated a little with plugins, like the SEO smart links to have beforehand some keywords that will be linked when you post your article.
I believe that having links on homepage and sidebar are duplicate links in terms of Google, but depending of the type of links.
Ana has Popular Posts (not necessarily to new posts and it’s OK) and it is better than having Recent Posts on sidebar (this case, yes can be a duplicate) Hope the last phrase make sense
Cheers,
Gera
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Yes we understand you Gera!
Great tips thank you.
You reminded me that I probably should have mentioned leaving long tail anchor text!! Oh well, I will have to write a book about it!!
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Thanks, for you post,
I like the idea of joining new posts to a blog by building two incoming links, I was already frequently building on my own successes by frequently linking to previous - already proven - popular posts. And it looks like an interesting idea to start posts with two incomming links.
Hi HP van Duuren
I make it a habit to start posts with two incoming links so they are tangled in my web from the beginning. Linking to them will also help with indexing, especially if you can link from a popular, often crawled post.
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Yes, that’s a great idea, because I don’t want some of my most popular posts to only ‘collect dust’ in the archive
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Ana,
Nice Article. As you know I mainly concentrate on Page Rank, I eagerly waiting to see your blog as page rank 5 more than my blog. what I heard is up to PR 3 we can get it if we do bit hard work. But PR 3 to 4 need more analysis. And PR 4 to higher rank professionals in SEO. Please correct me if I am wrong…..
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That’s pretty much it, Ramakrishna. Thanks for the kind thoughts (I am eagerly waiting too!) LOL.
I agree, internal linking plays a vital role to keep these crawlers dive-in deeper to our links. With proper mapping of your site, you might have G+ score for Google spiders. There are lot of things to consider in search engine ranking factors.
Technically, its not just internal links who is in critical assessment(search engines), the validation of codes, broken links(which is still under internal linking check), number of outbound link, data hierarchy, and speed optimization.
I agree Gary
Internal linking is important for so many reasons including the technical ones you have mentioned. You often forget the techie stuff that is behind the scenes. In fact people forget internal linking altogether!
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Exactly! This is the very reason why Google came up with their SERF (search engine ranking factor) which covers the following:
On-page
Code Validation
Internal Linking
Reputation
Content
Off-page
and Social Engagement.
Internal, if you can see is the easiest of them all. From a website normalization and keyword mapping, you’re probably working on internal linking without knowing that this could affect the ranking factors of search engines. Moreover, web crawlers can also be expressed as a function of the similarity of a page to a given query. Meaning, creating a very good sitemap is a good thing.
Thanks for that thorough explanation, Gary!
Thats true Mitz that Inter linking is very important for our site and also for our work. As I am totally agreed with your very first point that -Tell google that you think your own page is valuable, if we are not giving importance to our own pages than how can we expect that others like it.
Thanks a lot for this wonderful post which reveals the secret of “Internal Linking”.
Thanks Meg
Glad you enjoyed the post.
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If for some reason, you didn’t do internal linking from the start, there are a handful of plugins for Wordpress that take care of this for you.
I believe WP Keyword Link is one of them.
You simply set the keywords and the plugins links the first instance of that keyword on every post to a preset landing page.
It works very well and is a great solution for someone who has slacked a bit in this area…;)
Great article as always, Mitz…:)
Mark
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Hi Mark
Yes this is true, you can use a plugin and WP Keyword Link is very easy to use. Nice for lazy people!
Personally I do not use a plugin for internal linking.
Why I do not use a plugin
-I like to be in control and know where the links are made.
-Without the plugin all your SEO is gone.
-The plugin must stay active and up to date.
-I am an SEO freak and I actually like the challenge.
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I’d add that my blog’s performance seems to be better with the least plugins I can get away with, plus when I rely on plugins, I never seem to learn much myself.
~Bruce
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Hey Mitz, Nice post and thanks for explaining the value of internal link building. I started internal link building after one of my friend blogger explained me the value of this technique and how it helped him. He also referred me to a video in which Matt Cutts explained that internal link building doesn’t hurt our blog ranking instead it may help.
I also agree with you on your point that too many internal link building can hurt. If not in search engines then in-terms of your blog visitors. In fact, I stopped visiting a major blog (I won’t name it publicly) just because of this excessive internal links on it’s posts.
Thanks & Regards,
Jawed
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Hi Jawed
Too many internal links annoy me too…!!!
You cannot read the text when there are links everywhere.
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Now I know the reason why internal linking is important. Making Google understand the important of your Web Pages and your website is important. Also I think this might help in getting a good rank in the search results as well. It also helps in building a good image in the eyes of the clients as they should know how informative your posts or your website is.
Yes your right Gerry
Internal linking does make your posts look more informative and give the visitor the full information.
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I use Internal Link Building Plugin by seoroi. It’s a free plugin.
Which plugin do you use?
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Yes internal linking is really important. It also helps in reducing the bounce rate of our site. Sometimes we get lazy to do it manually so it is better to use plugins.
Thanks for a great post.
I have also written a post on Internal Linking you may check out on my blog
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Hi Rahul
Which plugin do you use?
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Hi Mitz,
I did not realize how important internal linking is. I would always add a link to a relevant post or external link but never really knew how important it is.
I might just have to go back and look at the structure of my blog and see where I can add more internal links.
I suppose it is a good idea to start with checking keywords as this will also give you ideas for more content and make it easier to right relevant content hence making the internal linking a whole easier process!
Thanks
Craig
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I had to go back and fix an old website I had and it took forever! Now it is beautiful and the bounce rate is great! When I add a new post now it is so easy to find links to put in and now I am happy the website is almost perfect.
Being up to date is a big load off my mind..
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It might be a little tough to link to another post or page if your site is new and you don’t have that much content published yet. But, once you get some built up it becomes much easier. Sometimes simply rewriting a sentence or maybe adding one so you can link to another is all it takes. Do try to use keyworded anchor text though.
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Hi Ray
Yes I agree that it is hard to do internal linking when your site is new. I use a spreadsheet that shows the url and the keywords for a post so I can easily choose one to link to.
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Hey Mitz, I am not great at it myself, but I do some. I just don’t necessarily do it in every post. However, one thing I do for more internal linking is instead of recommending people directly to a product from a post, I will recommend they check out my reviews, and link to that review page, giving me a chance to presell, plus building internal links to those often neglected pages.
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I tried to ignore it for a while but saw Google showing these backlinks as valuable so I started doing them as part of my routine. Back in those days I didn’t know SEO existed.
As for linking to review pages. Yes that’s another good idea to take note of. Internal linking really can help conversions too.
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And I have just published a post without any links
I’m still not entirely comfortable with internal linking. It’s a problem I’m having, because I understand the importance of it, but writing a blog post and thinking of creating internal links sort of changes the blog post for me (and sometimes it becomes unnatural to add sentences or words just because I want a few links).
And, because I didn’t start doing this a long time ago, I’m going to have a very hard time going through my blog and adding links (and make everything right). But I probbably should.
I’m bookmarking this post and I’m going to save it for a rainy day
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OMG Jens
I just looked at your website and it is great! (but not the internal linking)
Start doing it now. You will notice more people staying, more conversations, more interactions.
Start with your highest traffic page and link out to other posts. Note what the bounce rate is so you can see the difference.
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Thanks a lot for your kind words. I’m going to start doing it this weekend, and like you said, I’m going to start doing it post by post, starting with the highest traffic pages.
Can’t wait to see the results
Mitz,
Internal linking is like drinking a lot of water. Many people “know” they should do it; many people want to do more of it; but very few actually do enough of it.
These are all great reasons to get out there and get it done. I would even add that it helps from a marketing perspective.
(if you have a product/service or even a freebie offer for a list)
Many people need to see an offer quite a few times before they make a “purchase” decision. (Yes, even freebies) Internal linking will keep them on YOUR pages longer and give that much better of a chance for them to do it on YOUR pages.
-Steve
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Very true Steve!
It helps with marketing for sure. Great tip to add!
I love internal linking and I love drinking water. LOL
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shame on me, i’m often too lazy to do internal linking
i use plugins to make some automatic related post, but not sure google takes that into account…
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Hi Jean-Luc
You can use a plugin to do internal linking but never choose to use an auto link one that chooses the anchor text. This can seriously stuff up your site.
The plugins that let you add a keyword in and a destination url are ok because you are in control. You are choosing the anchor text.
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Hi Mitz,
I understand your point but I want to say that you said that we can use 2 anchor texts for internal linking for same page… but my question is, I don’t have any blog but I’ve a site so in normal sites we usually use footer for internal linking and anchor texts are same on all pages…. So does it consider as Spam by Google or how I can make changes for better SEO? Please correct me if I’m wrong at any point and waiting for your suggestion.
Hi Aarti
The first thing I have to say is that the line between a website and a blog is blurred now. A blog is not what it used to be so there really is no difference. A website needs fresh content rolling through just like a blog.
You question depends on the size of your website. If you have a small business website and have about 10 links in the footer then this is fine.
If you have 600 links in the footer and growing then this is not good. Even 0ver 50 is a bit spammy.
A lot of this comes down to common sense too.
Do you think it looks good?
Are people going to your footer to click the links or would you be better with a top navigation bar?
Do you think people can navigate around your website easily?
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Great walk-through on how to utilize internal linking. I agree with #2 completely, internal linking enhances visitor experience. A lot of people get wrapped up in thinking about SEO and they forget that search engine spiders are not the only visitors to their site. Google has said they are looking for quality sites that provide a good visitor experience. Pointing your visitors to more information can only improve their experience, therefore, you are doing what Google likes.
Your so right Lionel!
We forget about visitor experience and I really think this should come before SEO.
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Great lecture. I was interested by the fact that it is important to select the good anchor text, as much as the link. Didn’t know it had an impact. This means we have to avoid the use of “clic here” and rather describe in detail with good keywords?
If I may jump in and address your question, Julie: Google is very big on natural link building these days and it never hurts to throw in a few “click here” and such.
Don’t go for 100% exact keyword anchor text, in other words.
Would you agree, Mitz?
I totally agree that a mix up makes your link building look natural!!
1 x “click here”
2 x “exact keyword”
5 x “variations”
There are no exact numbers but we just want to tell Google what the page is about without looking like spam.
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I also forgot to mention that you can also use no anchor text and just put your domain name like https://trafficgenerationcafe.online/
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Internal links are seriously underused. Pages where I link internally have some of the lowest bounce rates. Landing pages that tie categories together with links to content are close to 0.
You can also make posts for the purpose of linking later. This one reminded me to write one on the same subject.
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Hi Michael
Yes the internal linking definitely brings the bounce rate down. I recently dropped 10% bounce rate by revamping old posts and making sure they had relevant links both in and out.
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Hi Mitz,
The best evidence that internal linking is so important for SEO is the Wikipedia, they have first place on almost everything in Google. Their site is built on internal linking.
I know that is a perfect example but it suits the purpose. We could not get away with that many links. I think it would annoy our readers..But yes Wikipedia is great because you do have the terms defined simply by pressing the link..
I see there is a Wiki for websites now. Wonder how they are going to inter link to other website names.
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When I started out, some pages of my blog were not getting indexed by the search engine. I used internal links to those pages from other pages that did. It worked.
The filling up of information, as you say, is another important reason to have internal links. Readers would definitely be interested in related content and also to know about new terms used in the article.
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Hi Raj
You are right there. Your visitors are interested in related content and you can use it to define meanings as you say.
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Hi Mitz, what a great way of describing the importance of internal linking. I hadn’t thought about the navigation piece, thanks for the advice.
As you know, I use SEOPressor to be sure that me and my guest bloggers are reminded to deep link every post. WordPress makes it a little easier for us to do it now too.
Thanks Mitz.
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Thanks Ileanne
I love SEO and internal linking..I think I am crazy sometimes because I dream about links!
Instead of counting sheep I count links.
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Hi Mitz, i am agree with you. These are very useful tactics for our websites. Follow these techniques we can increase visitors on our websites and not only this strategy will help to reduce bounce rate and visit of search engines one page to the next page.
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Internal linking definitely helps your website get indexed better. Very important to show search engines all of your website pages as often as possible.
I think of internal linking as a kind of roadmap through my blog. Though you had a really great tip that I didn’t think of that is to create your internal links to your new blog post right from the start. I more often work backwards and create links to my older posts, but I can see how it would be effective to build up the PR from the very beginning.
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Hi Richard
Building internal links to a post as soon as it is posted weaves it into the veins of your blog. This also guarantees that you will not forget and leave the post alone and unlinked.
It also helps with indexing your post fast!
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