Internal linking best practices to follow for better google ranking

Creating content for your website can be beneficial to both users and search engines. Only if you build it as a collection of interconnected topics and knowledge areas rather than putting topics in silos.

This is where internal linking helps.

Internal linking refers to the linking of topics with the content within your website. This is different from ‘external linking,’ in which you link the content on your website to content on another website. 

Why internal linking matters

• Makes it easy for audience to discover topics on your site –

One topic could contain links to related products and services, helping audiences discover more and more about your brand and expertise. In short, it keeps up the user engagement.

• Improves user experience of the website –

When a user lands on a webpage and does not find any links for further reading, their visit is cut short. But when they are given links to learn more on a topic, they gain much more, which helps create a positive user experience.

• Makes it easy for search engines to discover more pages  –

When pages are interlinked, it helps Google understand more about your website and what you are offering. As the search engine discovers more pages going from one link to another, it indexes more pages.

• Helps to pass on authority to pages –

When a high-authority webpage is linked to other pages on the same website, some authority is passed on. This helps the linked pages perform better in ranking.

Best Practices for Internal Linking

• Performing a site audit  -

One of the first few things you could do is conduct an internal linking audit using tools such as SEMrush Site Audit. The audit will give you a thorough understanding of the extent of interlinking on your website, including errors such as broken links, orphaned pages that are not linked to any other page, pages that have too many or too few links, and so on. This will reflect what is lowering your Google ranking.

• Utilizing parts of the website  -

• Building an intuitive flow  -

A great way to build intuitive site structure that allows readers to naturally discover content is to use Pillars and Clusters. This can be done by identifying main topics (Pillar) and then link them to pages of related topics (Clusters). This gives audience a chance to naturally move from one topic to its sub-topics, thus positively affecting ranking.

• Creating logical anchor text  -

Anchor text is the text that, when clicked, leads to the page that is hyperlinked to that text. A brief, self-explanatory anchor text not only helps readers but also allows Google to identify what the linked page is about. Meaning, instead of just using ‘click here,’ you could be specific, like ‘product brochure.’

• Leveraging high-authority pages –

You can build some authority for pages on your website by linking them to high-authority pages on the same website. The greater the authority, the higher the position on the search results page.

• Using links to drive traffic to new pages or high-revenue pages –

Once you know which pages are important for your business, you could identify opportunities for internally linking them to other related pages. This will drive more traffic to these pages.

With the above-mentioned best practices, make a note of the following points

Pages should always be accessible through a certain navigational path rather than only through the search box on the website or through filling out forms.

Only relevant links should be added, such that they add to the user’s knowledge without hampering the natural flow of reading.

In the end, as Google⁽¹⁾ emphasizes in its blog, ‘It's best to create a solid link architecture (making navigation intuitive for users and crawlable for search engines).’

Do what is best for your users and their experience; the rest will follow.

Reference and Citation-

1. https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2008/10/importance-of-link-architecture