How Optimizing Internal Linking Can Help Your Blog?

Linking building has been around in the digital world for more than a decade. Some marketers see it fading away, but for Google, it is still among the top-ranking factors. Therefore, every brand must build an excellent link profile to keep up with their website optimization efforts. In addition to directing referral traffic, links can help with crawling and indexing, leading to higher search rankings.

However, when it comes to link building, marketers limit themselves to outbound links. Indeed, backlinks bring more traffic but don’t help in generating leads or conversions. Thus, instead of solely relying on backlinks, add some internal links to your webpage. It links pages internally within the same domain, assisting visitors with site navigation and directing them to the most crucial pages. Likewise, internal linking also plays a substantial part in your brand’s search engine optimization success.

Google can crawl through your site and make sense of the webpage’s hierarchy. The Google spiders also develop a keen understanding of the website’s context, improving your position on the search engine. Do you have any internal links on the brand’s webpage or blog? If not, we are here to guide you. Here we are listing six ways how optimizing internal links can help your blog.

1. Utilize Follow Links

Usually, marketers are skeptical about follow links since no-follow links tend to increase the link juice to a single page. Despite its value, no-follow links no longer appeal to search engines. After all, the link value needs to flow freely from internal pages instead of getting stopped by a no-follow link. Thus, include some credible follow links in your internal link strategy to boost website traffic and page views. You can add these links in the middle of your blog, subtitles, or headers.

Furthermore, follow links can help with indexing. Sometimes, the brand with lots of pages and a limited crawl budget finds it arduous to optimize their website for Google. Surprisingly, internal links make it effortless for Google to find pages on your site. The spiders can crawl to links buried deep in your site’s architecture, fostering the indexing process. Besides this, you can also link your sitemap to the page you want to get indexed first.

2. Link Smartly

Undeniably, internal linking is far less complicated than outbound links, but still, you have to link smartly. After all, stuffing keywords in a blog and hyperlinking them won’t help you bring any traffic to the site. Instead, such aggressive promotions can annoy people and direct traffic away. Hence, adopt a user-focused approach and utilize links that are natural for the reader. Similarly, insert links that add value to the content and improve user experience.

When a visitor sees an informative link that aligns with the content’s context, they won’t think a second before clicking on it. For instance, if you mention ‘contact us now,’ adding a link will take users to a page where they can find your contact information or send an email. It improves the overall dwell time – the time people spend on your site, enhancing the website experience. These content links are also a strong signal to search engines, boosting the web page’s rankings.

3. Create Content Clusters

Undoubtedly, you can’t have multiple links without multiple pages full of content. In addition to creating brilliant blog posts, you can create content clusters to upscale your internal linking strategy. You have to form the main ‘pillar’ page and then start linking all the relevant content or sub-topics. Any idea how to create a pillar page? Firstly, leverage resource pages since it has all links organized by categories. Second, add long-form content with in-line links for better visibility.

Once you have linked all relevant content pieces to the pillar, it will increase the overall topic authority in Google’s eyes. Additionally, content clusters allow ‘vertical’ internal linking, which drives additional page views per session. It leads the readers to similar content, improving the dwell time and sending positive signals to the search engine.

4. Identify Vital Pages on Site

As a responsible business owner, you can’t go on an internal link-building spree throughout the website without any strategy. The idea of spontaneously adding links might sound exciting, but you have to make practical marketing decisions. Hence, before adding internal links, identify which pages on your site provide the most value. Similarly, look for pages with the highest traffic flow or dwell time. Adding links to such pages will increase the chances of leads and conversions.

You can also draw out a sitemap to determine how pages and blog posts cross-link to one another. It will give you a full-fledged idea of where to add internal links to optimize your pages. Also, make sure to include the appropriate number of links. As per the general rule of thumb, every page should have at least four internal links.

5. Use Keyword-Rich Anchor Text

Is your primary link the anchor text? In today’s modern-day world, digital users don’t like brands that are spamming content. It reduces the content’s credibility while devaluing its relevance. Therefore, you have to use keyword-rich anchor text in a way that doesn’t look or sound promotional. You can use image links or unoptimized sentence fragments while ensuring they are not the same as the text in your internal links.

Moreover, you must include relevant pages into the relevant anchor texts. That way, the user can click on that anchor text to find relevant information, increasing your page’s value. Besides, if you think keyword-rich anchor text doesn’t align with the blog’s context, feel free to insert the link anywhere you find appropriate. After all, the purpose is to help users navigate the website readily.

6. Avoid Link Automation

Although internal linking can be highly beneficial, you should stay away from link automation. Some software and digital tools can insert automated links on your blog and website that might reduce the site’s credibility. Machine learning and artificial intelligence understand Google’s algorithms and website features. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for link building. Hence, get proficient marketers on board and handover link building responsibilities to them.

Moreover, there are some places where you have to avoid placing links, such as landing pages. The primary goal of landing pages is to get your website visitor to convert into a potential customer. Thus, it doesn’t need any navigation or links to other pages since the action users have to take is already present on the landing page. Similarly, you don’t have to link to your homepage; instead, strengthen internal pages to boost overall SEO.  

Final Words

Internal linking has become an essential component of search engine strategy. These links can direct users from one page to another within the website, helping visitors navigate readily. Simultaneously, it establishes site architecture, builds page authority, and improves the overall user experience. Alongside improving search engine ranking, internal links can increase leads and conversion prospects. After all, these links take people where they want their desired page.