Preface
Internal Links are hyperlinks that are referred from one domain to the same domain. More commonly, an internal link is a link to another page on the same site.
Before your content can be classified, you need links. Google finds your publications and pages better when linked to somewhere on the web. Internal links also connect your content and give Google an idea of the structure of your website. They can establish a hierarchy on your site, allowing you to give to the most important pages and publish more links than other less valuable pages. So, using the right internal link strategy can boost your SEO!
Sample Code :
<a href="http://www.same-domain.com/" title="Keyword Text"> Keyword Text </a>
Optimized internal link format
The optimal format for internal links is in the form of a text anchor that is appropriate and relevant to the topic of the target page.
What is an internal link?
Internal links are referred from page to page of a site and are usually used in the site’s main navigation system.
These types of links are valuable for three reasons:
- It allows users to easily switch between pages.
- They help create a regular series of pages.
- They divide a page’s credibility into its internal pages.
Should SEO be important for internal links?
Internal links are among the important things in SEO that are of particular importance. This article examines eighteen factors in internal links and describes each one in detail and examines how these factors work. While today’s internal link discussion is not an attractive SEO topic, the wrong strategy in doing so is causing irreparable damage to the site’s SEO. So you need to be aware of the influencing factors in the internal links in order to avoid the wrong steps.
Internal link features
Let’s start with topics that are well established for internal links. What we mean by internal links is a link to a site that leads to another page of our site. Such links are usually in the form of anchor text, and the phrase written in the text anchor is usually the name of a linked page or a phrase with the same theme.
Internal links help users move from one page to another and visit other pages. In the early days of the Internet, this was not important, but today because of the SEO issue, internal links have become particularly important. Also, the search engine behavior is different from the internal and external links. However, internal links rank and rank the site and also influence the type of site analysis by search engines.
1. Anchor text actually expresses the content of your internal link in the shortest possible terms and gives the viewer an initial idea of the content within the linked page.
2. The type of link use is also important and if the link has spelling errors or the page has errors, it will cause problems for SEO. There are also strict rules on Google when trying to use a text anchor to get higher rankings throughout the site. Google hates this and penalizes that site if it does.
Using this type of backlinks, which is often seen in footers or web headers, is not a good idea and prevents indexing pages or getting good color in Google’s search engine. While Google is tough on penalties for such activities, it is also very flexible in reverting to normal. Simply remove these duplicate links from your site pages to see how Google behaves differently.
3. The purpose of links is also important from one place to another.
4. The importance of the linked page is also a factor. If there are pages in your site that have a lot of backlinks from other sites, you should also consider giving internal links to those pages. Getting backlinks from reputable sites boosts page rank and internal linking to it also helps users gain easier access to these high-value pages and this structure and balance between internal links and backlinks. Doubles the value of those pages and is one of the very positive signals for search engines to rank higher on those pages.
5. The relevance of pages is also an important factor. Linking from one page to another, which is similar in content, is of higher value than linking from a completely unrelated page. This is also a very positive thing for the Google search engine and gives it a good rating.
6. The first-page link is the most important one, according to experiments performed by experts. If there are multiple links with different text anchors on a given page, the experience is simply the first text anchor is important to Google and usually does not pay attention to the rest of the text anchor.
7. The type of link is also important. Linking using HTML is far better than using JavaScript. Sometimes it is seen that beautification of pages uses JavaScript codes and images to link to other pages. But experience has shown that linking using words gives more credibility to pages. As the content of the alternative images illustrates, do not forget to replace the images if you need to use links. Because this text plays the role of words in the text anchor.
Compare internal links and backlinks
1. Backlinks usually give the page more value and credibility.
This is not surprising either. Backlinks mean that another independent person endorses you and links to you. Internal links mean that you are endorsing a page of the site yourself, and the search engines are natural to treat the two completely different.
2. Anchor text The internal links are less effective.
As mentioned, referring to web pages through internal links is usually not a bad thing and can be painful, but it should not be used abnormally and spam. Using these links should not be used to deceive users and redirect them to pages that are completely unrelated to the text written in Anchor Text. If that is the case, the site’s bounce rate will go up and this is not a pleasant thing. Keep in mind, however, that anchor texting of internal links, such as backlinks, has far less impact on SEO.
3. Lack of internal links has negative effects on analytics and search engine crawling.
The lack of internal links prevents Google from indexing and ranking and will not have a good impact. Sometimes it happens that you test your site on an analytics website like MOZ and in the analytics reports you find that many backlinks are given to a site page but there is no internal link to it. This can be very complicated if it continues and may have a negative SEO for the site.
4. Pages with lesser links provide more value for their links.
As introduced in Google’s PageRank algorithm, on a page with four links worth every quarter of the total value and on the same page with five links, the value of each link is equal to one-fifth of the total page value. Therefore, less use of links on a page increases the value of each of its links.
Although this Google PageRank formula is outdated and not used, the idea behind it is still there. So if you have pages that have a lot of links, it’s time to run a basic homepage on the site and reduce the number of links and limit it to good and valid pages. Delete links to pages that users are not interested in, search engines don’t want to crawl or pages that are no longer relevant. Repeatedly, SEO experts have found that by removing such hyperlinks, site rankings have improved and site pages have found a higher place in Google search pages. This is also because of the higher quality signals from links to search engines.
5. The use of internal links is not as effective in SEO as it used to be, but it will be very helpful to use it fairly and consistently.
Internal links were crucial in the former Google Page Algorithm, and the flow of these links was very effective. But in new SEO systems, this effect is greatly reduced. It is true that the effect of these links has diminished, but its absence hurts SEO. Therefore, it is better to use internal links only when referring to other related pages so that the user is more comfortable using the website.
The optimal structure of internal links
In an ideal structure, there may be 100 links on the homepage, and the next step in the site, which may include a subset of the site, is another 100 links. So far, there have been 10,000 routes created for this dual, all of which indicate one task.
1. On small and medium sites, no page should be linked three steps farther.
Going farther on a site means a difference in the category, which seems unreasonable. So to prevent this, link similar and closely related batch content.
2. Links should fit the theme of the same page.
If one does not click on the links, it will not be a positive signal for the site and Google search engine. Going back to the previous page after the click may also mean that the page is not relevant and you should think of a solution to this problem. Because there was nothing that the user expected.
3. Don’t use a fixed text anchor for two links on a single page.
Using a phrase for two different links confuses users and search engines and prevents them from identifying keywords on each page. It also creates competition between two pages in one keyword, which is not a positive signal.
4. Reduce the use of nofollow for external links. This does not help improve internal links.
Using nofollow for external links is a waste of time to imagine increasing the credibility of internal links and has no place in the new Google ranking algorithms. The only way to improve internal links is to use them properly.
5. Remove low-value links and instead link to valuable content that users are looking for.
6. Don’t leave pages without links.
The site should not contain any links to the site, and no pages should be free of links to other sites.
7-MAKE INTERNAL LINKS VISIBLE
It goes without saying that your links should be visible, whether they’re internal or external. The standard practice of using a different color for your links and underlining them works well in most cases, so it should generally be adhered to.
This is more of a stylistic and design consideration, of course, but if your links are not clearly visible and differentiated from standard text, you’re setting yourself up for internal-linking failure!
8-LINK JUICE
In SEO circles and groups, link juice is an oft-spoken concept. Basically, the ‘boost’ a page receives by a link directed to it is known as ‘link juice’. This is more of an abstract entity, as not all links are created equal: A link from a reputed and well-known site will have more boost than one coming from a lesser-known or relatively new website.
In terms of internal links, link juice is significant. Your focus should be to try to transfer as much of a boost to your major pages as possible, and lesser link juice to secondary or sub-pages.
In practical terms, referring to SEO concepts is of lesser value here, and even Google and Bing prefer that you focus on usability. Your internal links should go to the pages that deserve them the most. If you’re talking about places where you can find free WordPress themes, your internal link should first go to something like a ‘top free WordPress themes’ post on your site, rather than ‘best premium WordPress themes’. Link juice and link value depend on the relevance to the user.
With all of the above mentioned, there will certainly be no problem with the internal link structure of the site. Internal SEO is also guaranteed and users will have no problem using the site.
9-DON’T OVERDO IT
As mentioned above, including too many internal links will likely only confuse folk. Ideally, relatively short articles, such as the one you’re reading now, should only include about two or three internal links within the text (although longer articles could potentially include a few more).
It’s also worth remembering that there may be a fair amount of internal links on your page already — any ‘next’ or ‘previous’ links below posts are internal links as well. As such, be selective in terms of manually adding any further internal links.
Conclusion
An important point to note here is that although you may think to add as many internal links as possible is a good thing, doing so will likely defeat the purpose of internal linking. At any given point in time, a user wishes to find the content that’s most relevant to him or her.
Therefore, the internal links in your posts and content should be relevant to what the post is talking about — think quality and relevance over quantity! For instance, if your current article is about the PlayStation III, you may wish to add internal links leading to articles about the best games for the PS III. Similarly, offering links to articles that compare the PS III with Microsoft Xbox would also be good, whereas adding links about PlayStation I and II and/or top games for PC users isn’t likely to be of much interest to the reader.
- MAKE INTERNAL LINKS VISIBLE
- FOCUS ON THE ANCHOR TEXT
- LINK JUICE
- DON’T OVERDO IT
