SEO Series: Internal Link Building
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Today, we would like to share with you some internal link building tips used by many SEO companies to improve your website ranking on Google.
Before diving in, be sure to check out our article on external link building if you haven’t done so. Don’t miss out on other related articles including Keyword Research Best Practices as well as On-Page SEO Tips for users.
Now it is crucial to ensure your website has high-quality internal links for better SEO.
What are Internal Links?
What are internal links according to Google? They link one page to a different page on the same domain. Besides being used to navigate a website, they establish information site hierarchy and ranking power for the given website.
By following internal links of a site, Google can find out the relationship between the pages and posts i.e. site hierarchy or structure. This is what Google calls link architecture.
In addition, the page that have the most links on a website has the greatest ranking power. Therefore, it is more likely for a blog post that is linked to from that page to be found by Google than if it is linked to just from the blog or category page i.e. page ranking power.
Internal Link Building Tips
Site Hierarchy
Your website navigation menu should look like a pyramid. The homepage is on top, sections or categories are on the next level, subsections or subcategories are on the third, and pages and posts at the bottom. Then link parent pages to its child pages and vice versa.
Cornerstone Page
It is a page (e.g. comprehensive guide to website design) that has the most essential content about the topic that your site is ranking for on Google (e.g. website design). Add many links to the cornerstone page, and build internal links to as many pages and posts as possible. This way, Google can rank the comprehensive guide to website design page above other pages about website design.
Contextual Links
You should link as many pages and posts about the same topic to each other as possible e.g. related articles like ‘website design for accountants‘, ‘speed matters in website design‘ etc.
Homepage Links
Build internal links to the cornerstone page and important posts and pages on the homepage. This will increase the ranking power of these posts and pages.
Blog Taxonomies
Build internal links to categories, subcategories, and tags on your blog. This helps Google understand your blog structure and visitors navigate more easily.
Important Posts
Add a sidebar or footer widget showing your popular and latest posts. This will increase the ranking power of these posts.
Anchor Texts
Add anchor texts of internal and outbound links on pages and posts. But never add the exact keywords of the page or post to their anchor texts i.e. keyword stuffing. For instance, if “web design” is the keywords the page ranks for, don’t use “web design” in each anchor text on that page.
To Be Continued……
Now you know many useful SEO internal link building tips used by SEO professionals to improve your SEO. In the coming week, we will share with you in our SEO series more SEO topics in layman’s terms to help your SEO. Stay tuned.
