Internal links are clickable links, or hyperlinks, that link one page of a website to another page of the same website.
Clicking on an internal link will take you from one page of a domain to another page on that domain.
For example, to get from a home page to a product page on a clothing store website, you might click on the ‘sweaters’ or ‘jeans’ hyperlink.
Purpose of Internal Links
Internal linking offers numerous SEO benefits by helping people and search-engine crawlers discover, navigate and understand a website more easily.
User Navigation
Internal linking is the main way that users navigate their way around a website. Internal links effectively serve as a roadmap for a website, helping the user get to where they want to go.
A website with a good internal linking structure improves user experience because visitors can easily identify how to get from one page to another. Clear, useful navigation also helps visitors find relevant information more easily.
Improve SEO
Internal links help search-engine crawlers discover new pages because crawlers follow links as they explore a website.
They also help search engines understand the relationships between pages and the relative importance of content within the wider site structure.
Pages that you want search engines to discover should be reachable through crawlable internal links. As a practical rule, each important page should be linked from at least one other relevant page on the website.
Internal Links vs. External Links and Backlinks
An internal link points to another page on the same website. An external link points from your website to a page on another website. A backlink is different: it is a link from another website to yours.
Internal links help users continue exploring your website, while an external link will direct them to an alternative website when clicked.
Both internal and external links are important for SEO, but they serve different purposes. There is no required ratio between internal and external links. Add a link when it is relevant, useful and improves the reader’s experience.
Internal links support navigation, content discovery and site structure. External links can strengthen an article by supporting claims and directing readers to useful, reliable sources.
What Is Your Most Important Content?
Before you look at implementing an internal link strategy, you need to figure out which pages and website content are the most important, and essentially, where you want to be directing most of your visitors.
For example, if your website sells women’s shoes, the main focus of your homepage might be an internal link to ‘winter boots’ during the colder months, while in summer you might switch this to ‘sandals’.
You may also want to include direct links to a product page of your best-selling design of shoes, to help customers get where they want to go more quickly and improve conversion rates.
To help search engines understand which pages are most important, link to them from relevant pages elsewhere on your website using descriptive anchor text.
As a general rule, pages receiving more internal links may be interpreted as relatively more important.
Internal Link Strategy
There are different types of internal links you should be using on your website.
These include navigational links, footer links, and contextual links. Let’s identify each of these linking options and look at how to implement a solid strategy.
Navigational Links
Navigational links are arguably the most important internal links on your site in terms of ensuring a good user experience.
The navigational links are typically arranged in a block or list somewhere at the top of a website, making them easy for users to find and figure out what they need to click to get to where they want to be.
Footer Links
Footer links are generally less contextual than links placed within the main content, but they can still play an important navigational role.
As their name suggests, footer links appear at the bottom, or ‘foot’, of a website.
Footer links usually point to pages such as ‘FAQs’, ‘About Us’, and ‘Terms and Conditions’.
Although they may not point to your highest-priority commercial content, footer links help visitors find important company, support and legal information. This can improve transparency and trust.
Contextual Links
Contextual links are the internal links that can be found within the copy of your website.
They are incredibly useful for helping search engines crawl new pages on your site, and they also offer benefits to users as they easily direct them to other pages that may be of interest.
Let’s say you have a gardening blog with a post titled ‘Best Ways to Prepare Your Garden for Spring’. It’s likely that within that blog post you mention removing weeds from the garden.
This is a prime opportunity to guide readers to one of your previous posts that details weed removal tactics. You would link the anchor text ‘removing weeds’ to your URL for the weed removal blog post. This is useful for readers who might want to know more about weed removal, and it also leads Google bots to more pages on your site for indexing.
Use descriptive, concise anchor text that tells readers what to expect from the destination page. Avoid vague wording such as ‘click here’ when a clearer phrase is available, and do not add links merely to reach a target number. For more information, see Google Search Central’s link best practices.
Pyramid Scheme
Don’t worry, it’s not the pyramid scheme you’re thinking of.
When creating a strategy for your internal linking structure, it’s commonly recommended to adopt a pyramid hierarchy.
With this, your most important web pages are at the top, and the page importance decreases the further you get down the pyramid.
This top-down structure helps users navigate your website more easily and efficiently to improve user experience. It also sends helpful signals to search engines so they can understand the context of each page within the bigger picture of the website as a whole.
In Short
Internal linking should be a priority for most multi-page websites.
One-page websites can still use jump links to help visitors move between sections, although they do not have separate pages to connect through traditional internal links.
They guide users and search-engine crawlers through your content.
This improves navigation and helps search engines discover and understand the relationships between pages. Internal linking does not guarantee indexing or higher rankings, but it creates a stronger technical and structural foundation.
Adding individual links is a simple process, though organising the layout of your website and determining the best way to navigate around it using internal links can be more challenging.
Contact us to find out how we can improve your website.
