Creating internal links and generating targeted traffic is critical for the success of any digital marketing campaign.

To establish credibility, generate leads, and drive sales, it is necessary to attract the right audience at scale. Although internal linking is a proven strategy to attract the ideal customer, many businesses neglect it and fail to realize what they are missing out on. Effective internal linking can significantly improve website performance for both users and search engines.

If you want to learn how to maximize the benefits of this technique, keep reading.

What is internal linking?

When discussing search engine rankings, attention tends to focus on link building.  One definition of an internal link is a link that leads to another page on the same website. This article contains several internal links to other articles on this site.

Since the Mobohost blog is a single entity, all such references in the post are internal. To clarify, internal links are those that are within Mobohost’s domain, while external links, like links to Wikipedia, are outside of Mobohost’s domain. These internal links can also transfer site authority from one site to another.

Let’s explore why internal links are so important today.

The importance of internal links to your Google rankings and how to get them

A website’s internal linking can significantly affect search engine rankings. There have been cases where a page’s internal linking strategy changed and the result was a significant jump in search engine ranking.

Google values ​​how you distribute links within your pages more than external links. Search engines favor those who use an authentic and dynamic approach, rather than the occasional indiscriminate spread of internal links. Google seems to favor internal links, but why? The way a search engine “scans” the web for documents is what causes this effect.

Google is always looking for up-to-date and recent information that it deems relevant on a certain topic in order to provide users with the most relevant results for their queries. Google uses a special type of robot called a “crawler” to perform this analysis, and the robot begins by evaluating a small subset of the entire website.

They then investigate the sites to which the links refer to broaden their search. Crawlers do this millions of times so they can inspect large amounts of content on the web. In a nutshell, links are important for Google to continue to identify the best material and deliver excellent results for visitors. For this reason, you should always be on the lookout for any problems with internal links on your site. However, there are three other justifications for taking this action.

Important considerations for your site’s internal linking

Internal links are sometimes overlooked, but they are vital to maximizing your business’s online visibility. When trying to improve search engine rankings and generate more organic traffic, many people focus their efforts elsewhere. This is to be expected, given the abundance of methods that have been used to optimize over 200 Google ranking variables.

Here are three things that will help you seriously consider developing a well-structured internal linking strategy for your site.

1. Amplify User Satisfaction

The compelling argument for strategic links is that they improve user experience and allow you to extract more value from the information you’ve created. This reference includes various links to additional material that will help you learn more about the topic and understand what it means. There wouldn’t be much value in that content without them, because readers would have to go elsewhere to get what they were looking for. I mean, how hard is it really to put contextual links on your internal pages and blog posts? It’s a quick and easy change that will greatly benefit your website visitors.

2. Launch creative and strategic content

You must admit that there is information that has the potential to change the game for the future of your business big or small.

Internal linking is one of the simplest and most practical methods of enhancing content and is especially important when disclosing and ranking these materials.

You can simply insert links (optionally with a call to action) in certain blog posts or in certain navigation areas, such as the main menu or sidebar.

As a bonus, pointing to a new document increases the likelihood that Google will index it and show it prominently in search results.

3. Guide potential buyers through the buying process

Finally, we must stress the importance of carefully considering how your blog internal linking will affect a potential customer’s progress in the buying process. How?

For example, an organization looking for inbound leads might post a series of blog entries on a common topic, all written with the sales funnel in mind as the primary goal.

Then, in each article, you can provide a link to an e-book that expands on the topic of interest to the buyer. Call-to-action affiliate content, such as a link that invites readers to claim an award or speak to an expert, is another possible option. The contact page is the appropriate link destination in this case.

How to do a comprehensive review of your internal linking structure

You should take a deep breath and plan well before acting on the suggestion of providing a link to your most important document on every page of your website or blog.

Remember that Google prioritizes people who have a plan, not those who log in without a purpose.

Therefore, it is essential to examine your internal relationships. In other words, you need to know the status of your site regarding this. Then, and only then, can you make the necessary changes to bring things up to industry standards.

Ahrefs, one of the most popular and reputable search engine optimization (SEO) tools in the world, can be used to perform internal link checks. You can find some of the best SEO tips on our blog if you want to learn more about internal linking.

6 strategies for using internal linking to improve your production

Many internal linking problems on your site could have been fixed after you did a full audit using quality tools.
Even so, there are strategies that can improve the ranking of your web pages in search engines.

We’ve compiled a list of 6 things you can do to improve your results and finally get the organic traffic your business has been waiting for.

1. Focus on anchor words

Google’s algorithm is getting smarter by the day at crawling and indexing web pages, and it does a great job of evaluating things like keywords and internal links. Google learns more about the context of links based on anchor text.

Instead of saying something like “click here,” it’s best to provide the link in a style that’s both informative and natural.

2. Exhibition of reading suggestions

Another useful method for including internal links is to provide a recommended document selection, automatically using a plugin, or manually in the middle of an article.

This strategy is also a good idea because it simplifies the process of selecting materials that are directly related to the current topic. This is important, because counting the total number of links is pointless. Their quality and relevance to the user’s current context are important considerations.

3. Build a network of interconnected sites

Different parts of your digital strategy will be more or less relevant at different times, as we’ve said before. The same goes for the permanent pages on your site. That said, there’s no need to standardize your approach to internal link building at all levels.

Creating structure for your internal links is highly recommended, as well as making sure everything is properly documented and tagged.

You can then decide which of these elements to include in permanent features such as sidebars and user tracking menus throughout the site.

4. Distribute links evenly on every page

In short, quality content is more important than quantity when it comes to link building. Multiple links on the same page are accepted and even encouraged. For example, if a page contains 100 links, Google may conclude that it is not a reliable source and modify its recommendation.

Linking to existing articles instead of just the main content and pages is a technique to achieve better internal link distribution. Your brand new hardware will also benefit.

5. Provide easy access to your most important content by building internal links

The header and footer, where navigation usually resides, is consistent across all pages of the site. A call to action (CTA) can be placed in the sidebar of some websites.

Google gives links more weight in certain areas, so content that appears there can rank higher in search results.

Furthermore, they benefit from increased visibility by getting more clicks from interested parties.

If you think about it, you should use navigation to link to the most important pages of your business website. 6. Generate important information from your most relevant websites

This tip was briefly mentioned earlier in the article, but needs to be repeated here for completeness. A higher priority should be given to certain pages over others, such as those that will generate more revenue.

Therefore, include internal links in your content where they make sense, directing users to websites that will help them in their buying journey.

Increasing the number of links to landing pages that include engaging content, upcoming events, and comment and quote calls can have a big impact on your performance. You can expect a high return on investment in an internal linking strategy without much effort.

Follow the advice given here to thoroughly evaluate your pages and map out the most effective route to the top of search engine results.