The Ultimate Guide of Internal Link Strategy to Boost SEO

Building an internal link in your content is something that should not be taken for granted. With relevant and SEO-friendly internal links, users and search engines can understand your website more easily.

Not only that, a good internal links strategy can increase website traffic significantly. If the internal links created can help users to explore deeper into your content, then these users can have a satisfying user experience.

For that, you need to understand how to create an internal links strategy on your blog to strengthen the SEO implementation. In this guide, you'll learn what internal links are, their importance to SEO, and how to create them.

What are Internal Links?

In the application of SEO rules in content writing, internal links are one important element that should not be forgotten. This link directs the reader or user to another page on the same website.

Technically, internal links work inversely to external links that direct readers to other web pages. Optimal use can help search engines index your website.

Internal link SEO  is a crucial element that helps Google understand the structure of the website as a whole. Of course, this can boost a site's performance and improve its ranking on search engine results pages.

The Importance of Internal Links Strategy for SEO

Understanding how important the use of internal links is can provide great benefits in website SEO optimization. In general, the function of internal links for a blog or website is as follows:

Helping Search Engines Understand Website Structure

In order to get maximum results in SEO, you need to use internal links in a structured manner. Websites that use this method can generally be indexed by search engines quickly.

Search engine algorithms can recognize websites from the crawling process that was carried out previously. New web pages will be discovered when Google follows the links linked to relevant pages.

Using internal links can help search engines find content relevant to your website. That way, the contextual relationship between the two pages can be recognized by the search engine algorithm itself.

The internal link also acts as a marker that the two pages are linked. This technique can make search engines and users recognize the relationship between the two pages and increase traffic organically.

Increasing Page Authority and Ranking

By linking one page to another within the same website, you can increase the Page Authority. This will later be able to increase page rankings in the SERP.

Although the PageRank algorithm has been deprecated since 2016, the PA score itself is still considered in determining page ranking in the SERPs. For that, you need to link one authoritative page to another using internal links.

Helping Users Navigate Other Pages

Internal links are elements in SEO that can help improve the user experience or UX. This method can help users find other interesting content on your website or bring them to buy the products offered.

On the other hand, implementing internal links encourages visitors to spend more time on the website. In this case, the time spent is called the session.

The length of the session from visitors will have an impact on Google's assessment of your blog or website. In other words, it can improve the overall performance of the website, both in terms of Page Authority and ranking in the SERP.

How to Build Effective Internal Link Strategy

After knowing what internal links are, you need to know how to create them. With this method, you can solve several issues related to website performance including making significant changes in optimization activities.

Linking internal links cannot be done haphazardly. You need to do it according to SEO rules so that page and website rankings can increase in the SERP. Here are some ways to create an effective internal link strategy on your website:

Create More Relevant Content

In order to be able to link content to one another with internal links, you must first create them. Building internal links on a blog can be done if the content is available in sufficient quantities.

However, keep in mind that a lot of content must also be relevant to one another. Make sure each article is interconnected with other content on the website. That way, search engine algorithms can see that they are in the same structure.

Therefore, for optimal results, you can create high-quality and relevant content for your blog or website brand on a regular basis. The application internal link strategy will be easier with a lot of content that can be linked.

Create Anchor Text with Keywords

Creating an anchor text containing the main keyword and its variants is an effective internal link strategy. Usually, this type of text is blue and contains a link that takes you to another page. To inform the user about the content of the page, use the appropriate keywords.

Avoid using anchor text such as "this page" in implementing an internal links strategy. The reason is that with the right keywords, both search engines and users will more easily recognize the destination content even before entering the intended page.

Insert Links to Relevant Pages

To keep your website looking neat and structured, use internal links to link to relevant pages. Make sure the linked content addresses a topic that is related to one another so that readers can understand the context.

If the content is not related to one another, then visitors are also likely to leave the page before reading it in its entirety. If this happens, the bounce rate will increase and cause website performance to decrease.

Link Important Pages

Important pages on your website need to be linked to another page. In other words, you need to link to pages that have a high level of authority, importance, and sometimes marketing goals. This method can increase the ranking of the website page in the SERP.

To find out how high the page authority score is, you can check the Page Authority first. Also, make sure to check your website's performance and traffic volume regularly by checking its Domain Authority score.

Use Dofollow Link Type

In order to have SEO optimization effectively, use the dofollow link type on your website pages. Often people use the wrong type of nofollow on internal links which causes Google not to crawl them.

For that, use the dofollow type on the internal link so that Google can follow it. This simple method can improve the optimization process after the indexing process is completed by search engines.

Pay Attention to The Number of Internal Links

Is there a rule for the number of internal links in an article? In general, there is no recommended amount. But it would be better if the number is adjusted to the purpose and is inserted naturally.

Internal links SEO must be used according to the context of the information presented. This is done to support the website performance from the UX side as well as to help users get the information they need efficiently.

Perform Internal Link Audit at GSC

After implementing an effective internal link strategy on your blog, make sure to do an audit on Google Search Console. By checking regularly, you can find out which pages are getting the most impressions.

Even if they don't occupy the highest positions in the SERPs, high-traffic pages are likely to attract more visitors. Therefore, you need to update the anchor text on the available internal links to improve overall website performance.

Check for Redirect Link

Internal links on blogs can potentially lead to a redirect chain. This can have an impact on the search engine crawling time and worsen the user experience.

For this reason, you should keep the internal links up to date on each page to prevent redirect chains. One solution that can help you resolve this issue is to check the redirect status with the Redirect Chain Checker from cmlabs. This tool is available online and free.

That is the discussion on how to build an effective internal link strategy on the blog. This method can improve website performance based on SEO rules. The large amount of content linked by internal links simplifies the indexing process of a page and increases its authority.