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Internal Links for SEO [2022]

Internal links help Google (and other search engines) understand the structure of your site, and help link your content. The links can help create a hierarchy on your site by giving your most important pages and articles the most links, creating greater value. Thus, the right internal linking strategy can boost your SEO!

What are internal links?

An internal link is a link that goes from one page of your site to another page of your site. Both users and search engines use your links to find content on your site.

You use links to navigate visitors to find your content. Even search engines like Google use links to navigate your site.

Different types of internal links

There are several different types of internal links. The usual links are usually on the home page and the menu in the header, but you can also use internal links in your content. They are called contextual links in English.

Contextual links are used to link to related and interesting content. For example, as our “related article” links. In addition, search engines may use these links to find related content on your site to determine the value of your content.

The more internal links that an important page receives, the more important it will be for the search engines. This is why internal links are an important part of your SEO work.

Internal links vs external links

All websites consist of internal and external links (or at least should). Internal links link pages on your site, while external links link your site to other sites.

External links are links that go from your website to other websites.

Related article: The difference between inbound links and internal links (and outbound links vs external links)

Why are links important to Google?

Internal links are an important factor for Google and other search engines, but why? And where do you start?

Google follows links to discover content on websites and to rank the pages in the search results. If an article or page has many links to it, then it is a signal to Google that it is important and ranks it accordingly. This applies to both internal and external links.

Internal links are something you can check. With the right internal links, you can lead your visitors and Google to your most important pages.

How to create an internal linking strategy

It is important for your SEO to evaluate and improve internal linking strategy, regularly. By using internal links correctly, you can help Google understand:

The relevance of the pages
The relationship between the pages
The value of the pages

When creating an internal linking strategy, there are a few things to keep in mind. But how exactly you do, depends on your website and your goals, however, you can advantageously look through the following steps.

1. Determine the structure of your website

Having a clear structure for your website is a good start. Imagine a pyramid – where the home page is at the top, followed by important pages and categories, which are then followed by articles or subcategories. The menu on your website should also reflect this structure.

2. Decide which content is most important

Once you have the structure ready, you should decide which content is most important. You do this by thinking about which content is the best and which generates the most value. This is the content that you want visitors to find, such as your services or products.

Because you want Google to know what content is most important to you, you need to add links to those pages. There are several different places where you can add internal links to your cornerstone content (your most important pages). Some of them we go through below.

3. Add contextual links

Once you have written several articles on a specific topic, then you should link between them. It will show Google and your visitors that the articles are related. You can either link directly in the body text, at the bottom of a paragraph or at the bottom of the article.

In addition, you want to show the search engines which article (s) are cornerstones. The best thing you can do then is to add internal links to the articles from each article within that topic. Do not forget to also link from cornerstone content to individual articles.

4. Link hierarchical pages

If you have hierarchical pages on your site, use internal links to link to smaller pages and vice versa. Do not forget to also link the smaller pages to each other. On a well-organized website, the pages should be related and linking them in this way will be great.

There are many extensions or plugins you can use to add sections for related articles to your blog posts. If you choose to use one, be sure to test the feature so that it actually shows related articles (and not just the latest ones).

6. Try adding navigation links

You can also make your cornerstone content even more important, by adding internal links from the home page and navigation menu. You should do this with the pages and articles that are most important on your site. Then your top pages and articles will have even more link value and be even more important in Google’s eyes.

7. Add links to categories and tags

Taxonomies, such as categories and tags, help you organize your site and also help your visitors and Google understand what your content is about. If you have a blog, it can be beneficial to add links to the categories or tags that the articles are about.

It is quite common for you to have this at the top of the article, but you can also have the categories or tags in a sidebar in the article itself.

8. Consider adding links to popular or recent articles

The last tip is to create internal links in your most popular and latest articles. A tip is to add them to the footer or a sidebar, then they will keep up with all the pages on your site.

Internal links summary

Internal links are one of the most important parts of SEO, and with the help of this article, you can easily implement it in your work with search engine optimization.

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Internal Links for SEO [2022]

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