SEO and Internal Linking: Six Best Practices

 Internal links refer to links that point to another page on the same website. They not only help users navigate your website, but also help search engine to understand your site’s structure. Therefore, internal linking plays an important role in SEO. Following are a few best practices to help you create better internal links.

1. Use descriptive, keyword rich anchor text.

Anchor text, also known as link text, is the text displayed on a hyperlink. Including target keywords in a anchor text helps indicate the page’s relevance to a search engine. You can also use longer phrases as links if that’s more natural.

2. Use a variety of anchor texts when linking multiple pages to the same page.

Anchor texts should vary based on the context of an article. Too many inbound links to a page with the same keyword rich anchor text appear spammy and may cause Google to look at your site’s link profile more closely.

3. Do not use more than six internal links in the body text.

It is recommended to use one link every 150 words. Again, too many links on one page appear spammy and manipulative.

4. Each page should contain less than 100 links, including the navigation.

5. Add links whenever it would be helpful to readers.

If the pages don’t have related content, don’t link! Do not over optimize!

6. Link from new to old and from old to new.

Got a new post that relates to an older, high-value post or page? Add a link. Got an older post that’s still getting traffic from search engines or social sharing? Add a link. Always link related topics or contents together.

Finally, it’s important to remember that while internal linking can improve your site’s SEO and user experience, it does not improve your ranking. Your ranking are partially determined by credible inbound links from other (not your own) websites. Therefore, do not over optimize your internal links!

For more tips regarding internal linking, please read this blog post.