How to Improve Internal Link Architecture of a Website

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.