Internal linking is a massively important part of SEO. However, in recent years, as people have spent increasing volumes of time looking at their external link profiles, many websites have been guilty of neglecting this area of SEO. There have been many other reasons for this, including many believing that internal linking wasn’t necessary for SEO. Not only is internal linking paramount for a strong SEO campaign, it is also crucial in making every piece of content on your site, from a call to action to a blog, more relevant in the eyes of readers.
Here are some ways you can improve your internal link architecture.
1. Link to Helpful Places
If you have a blog on your website, then naturally it is going to contain content relevant to the products or services you provide. While you want this content to be an authoritative resource rather than an over the top sales pitch that appears laced with desperation, you’re simply wasting blogs or articles if they don’t have an internal link to a call to action page, or the link itself acting as a call to action.
You’re talking about problems in your industry, and you offer a solution; perfect opportunity for an internal link. You also wrote another article a while ago looking in detail at a specific part of the problem; another opportunity for a link.
You don’t want your website to be just a series of links, but you ought to be trying to show people as much of your site as possible, as well as directing them to make a purchase or enquiry.
Look at Your Structure Plan
The structure of your website should be something you are always thinking about. Whether it is how to navigate your site, where sub menus lead, how browsers can get back to a particular page if they’re ‘lost,’ or anything else, the usability indicators here need to be high.
If you’re unsure of what to do, speak to a developer or an SEO agency who might be able to help you.
Don’t Abuse Anchor Text
Modern link building strategies call for links to be as natural as possible. The same is true in respect of internal linking. Don’t clean up your external link profile and then start using exact match anchor text for internal links. Yes, use your keywords and include your brand, too, but be smart about how you do it; the last thing you want to do is have quality links coming into your site, but rubbish links within it!
Link to Many Places
Just like you wouldn’t build links only to your homepage, you don’t want to be pointing internal links to the same place. A particular focus should be the content deep in your site that is potentially useful but won’t be organically found by most browsers who find your site and explore the top line. Of course, part of getting this right is ensuring your site architecture is sorted out, but once you’ve done that you should go through old blogs, articles, and pick out the potentially valuable evergreen content that you want people to continue seeing.
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