To grow your Blog’s traffic, you might consider creating an internal linking structure for your blog posts. It will help search engines like Google find and index your content more easily.
It doesn’t take a lot of effort to link within your content, but that simple action can reap big benefits. Also, You can get the utmost benefits with the help of SEO Services. In this guide, we’ll cover the best practices around internal linking.
Let’s start with
Table of Contents
What is Internal Linking?
Internal links are links from one page on our site to another relevant page. The clickable link leads from the blog post you’re reading to another relevant blog post on our site.
External links are different from internal links, which link to pages on other websites.
Why is Internal Linking Important?
Adding internal links within your website helps search engines and users find related content. Let’s take a look at how you can use this strategy to your advantage:
Improves Blog Links
Users can navigate your site by clicking on navigational links in the header menu, which could lead them to an about page, different categories of blog posts, or a landing page with a call-to-action. But, it’s also important to help your readers navigate your Blog by adding contextual links.
Contextual links go within the body of a post or page to related articles and content. It makes it easier for readers to find more of your content.
Increase your site ranks
Google adds new pages to its index when it finds them responding to search requests. Some sites are added to the index because Google has previously visited them; others are added because Google follows links from known pages to new pages.
Internal linking makes content easier to find for Google, and a higher ranking will result in a better chance of your content being found.
You can tell Google which of your web pages are most important through internal linking. For example, if you have a cooking blog and each of your blog posts links to an article on how to become a chef, that tells Google that the article is high-quality and should be ranked higher.
Boost your Blog
With improved navigation, your Blog will be easier to use and more engaging. Internal links make it easier for readers to find the content they are looking for, so they have a better chance of staying on your site longer.
In addition to increasing your bounce rate, well-written blog posts also increase the time visitors spend on your site and give you a better chance of getting more comments, subscribers, and sales.
Internal Linking Best Practices
Link to Related Content
The first step to creating an effective internal linking strategy is to analyze the content on your website and identify which pages or posts you want to link other pages or posts from.
Some people recommend setting up an elaborate structure of pages to link to from your home page, but we feel that you don’t have to go to such extremes. The most important thing is to provide relevancy. If you have an article about Baking tips and add an internal link to an article about video games, readers will think that your site is not very helpful because they are from two different domains.
Instead, your internal links should direct readers to other posts on the website that may be relevant to the article’s topic. For example, in an article about baking tips, you can add links to your previous articles on cooking or baking, such as
- How to do perfect cake icing
- How to bake eggless cakes
- How to measure ingredients properly
Linking to relevant content is easier when you create groups of articles based on similar topics. For example, a Baking blog can write a guide about baking recipes and create additional specific articles on the types of ingredients used in baking, measurements for each recipe, how to frost cakes, and so on. There are many ways to link related content together.
It will help your readers find what they’re looking for more easily and increase their likelihood of clicking on your links. It also helps search engines understand what your site is about.
Do not add more Links
The number of internal links you add to a page or post depends on many factors, including the topic and how much content there is to include. Google itself says to use the links wisely.
While it’s important to provide links for your readers, it’s not a good idea to overwhelm them with too many.
Let’s look at an example of a paragraph with six links. It is hard to read, and since there are so many links, readers may not click on any of them. Rather than cramming all of your links into one section, spread them throughout your article and add them where they are most useful to readers.
When deciding how to structure your blog posts, consider the length of each post. Add minimum internal links to small posts and add a little more to longer posts.
Internal links in the same tab
Some bloggers prefer that links to other blog posts open in a new tab, while others prefer to open up in the same tab. We at Ahbiv Digital Agency believe that as long as you’re linking to another page or post on your site, all links should open up in the same tab.
It is a standard practice that helps users get the most out of your site and return to where they started. Externally linked sites should open in a new tab. It will allow you to keep users on your site for longer and make it easier for them to return to where they were originally reading.
Use of Keywords in Anchor Text
Next is to use anchor text wisely. The words you use as a hyperlink should be relevant to the topic and reflect your authority.
Keyword-rich anchor text can help Google understand that your links are useful, improving keyword rankings. It is useful for your readers to understand what you’re linking to because this will make it easier for them to click through and read that exact section.
To avoid giving the impression that something spammy is going on, use your keywords naturally and do not use the same words as your anchor text for every link.
Good to use DoFollow links
The next task will determine whether your internal links will display as “dofollow” or “nofollow.” “Dofollow” refers to a link that search engines can click and follow when attempting to connect one web page to another. With “nofollow” links, they cannot click the links, which means they cannot track the traffic from those links.
As a result, internal links should be dofollow so that search engines and visitors can freely navigate from one page to another within your website.
Although all links are dofollow by default, you can change them to nofollow links.
Conclusion
These are the best practices for internal linking and if you need any help, do contact Ahbiv Digital Agency; we are here to guide you in the best possible way.
