{"id":13776,"date":"2020-10-23T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T09:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/?p=13776"},"modified":"2024-11-14T09:11:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T09:11:47","slug":"utilize-internal-links-improving-websites-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/utilize-internal-links-improving-websites-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Internal Linking Best Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Links play an important part in search engine optimisation (SEO).\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before we jump into the more technical stuff, though, let\u2019s first explain the two different types of links:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">External links<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Internal links<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first category, external links, can further be subdivided into categories: outbound links that we create to other sites on the internet and backlinks that other websites create to our site.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contrary to external links, internal links do not create links to or from other websites. As the name suggests, internal links are created <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">internally<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 from one web page of your site to another page.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When we talk about links, our mind almost instantly jumps to backlinks \u2014 which refer to links created by other websites to our web pages. While backlinks are a very important search engine ranking factor, internal links also help with SEO.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this blog post, we will see how we can utilize internal links to improve SEO on a website.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s first start with two important concepts regarding internal links:<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Click depth<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click depth generally refers to how many pages your target page is from the home page.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a general best practice, no web page on your site should be more than three clicks away from the home page. It is because the deeper the page is, the harder it makes it for Google to crawl to it.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In case of internal links, you should consider creating groups of relevant pages to reduce click depth and make it easy for search engine crawlers to access thematically related web pages on your site.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ll talk more about it later in the article.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Anchor text<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second point to keep in mind is that the anchor text you use to create the internal links is also of some value.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead of creating generic anchor texts, such as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">click here <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">read this article<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, create more keyword-rich and descriptive anchor text.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This will help search engines understand the semantics, context, and themes of your web pages.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, let\u2019s jump into how to find internal linking opportunities and utilize them to improve SEO on your website.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Finding internal linking opportunities<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are a few ways you can try:<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>1. Missed opportunities<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The easiest way to find lots of internal linking opportunities is to use a free SEO software called <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.screamingfrog.co.uk\/seo-spider\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Screaming Frog<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Step 1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Download the software. It\u2019s free.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Step 2<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Identify the page that you want to create internal links to. For example, let\u2019s assume that you want to optimize the category \u201cmen shoes\u201d for search engine traffic.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Step 3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Go to Configuration &gt; Custom &gt; Search, and use the custom search option.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Step 4<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Enter a relevant query \u2014 for example, men shoes \u2014 into the column. This will shortlist all the pages on your site that use this exact phrase.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s it.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that you have a list of pages that mention a very relevant keyword phrase, it\u2019s time to start adding links.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, be mindful of:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pages that are already linking to your target page, and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Irrelevant pages that shouldn\u2019t link to your target page<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>2. Broken links<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Run an SEO audit report on your site and identify all the broken links and pages it has. Sort the list by pages with the most number of backlinks and get to work!<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There might be two fixes here:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you accidentally deleted a page with lots of broken links, you might want to restore it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Otherwise, just find a relevant web page to redirect the URL to.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>3. Minimizing redirects<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here is another trick for you.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of times, a page links to another page that itself is being redirected to a third page. It happens all the time \u2014 especially if you have redesigned your website a couple of times. You will have many pages with multiple redirections.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, you can cut out the middle page by changing the internal link path to the target page instead of the page that redirects it to the target page. Decrease the page depth and reduce the extra work for Google crawlers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>4. Focus on indexable pages<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unless a link is very important to navigational purposes, it should be directed to an indexable page, instead of a non-indexable page. The link equity is wasted on a page that is not even allowed to be indexed by search engines.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When conducting your internal link audit, see if there are any opportunities to redirect high-quality internal links to indexable pages only.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>5. Reduce the number of orphan pages<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lastly, do not leave any page without any links. Pages without any links are referred to as \u2018orphan pages\u2019.\u00a0 And Google crawlers have a tough time finding them.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can and should use internal links strategically to reduce the number of orphan pages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Posts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-sheets-root=\"1\"><a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/on-page-seo-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">On-Page SEO Guide<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-sheets-root=\"1\"><a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/importance-internal-links-website-structure-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Importance of Internal Links<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-sheets-root=\"1\"><a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/5-tips-for-creating-internal-links\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Creating Internal Links<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-sheets-root=\"1\"><a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/best-practices-anchor-text-optimisation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anchor Text Best Practices<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-sheets-root=\"1\"><a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/how-anchor-text-works\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What Is Anchor Text in SEO<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-sheets-root=\"1\"><a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/topic-clusters-use\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What Are Topic Clusters<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Links play an important part in search engine optimisation (SEO).\u00a0 Before we jump into the more technical stuff, though, let\u2019s first explain the two different types of links: External links Internal links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oct_exclude_from_cache":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[33,35],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Internal Linking Best Practices | IMSR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Boost your website&#039;s SEO with effective internal links. 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