Internal links are a relevant factor for SEO. However, many people neglect them on their websites. Find out how to use them (correctly).
Although many don’t know, even before your content is ranked by Google, it needs to be linked. After all, the search engine finds your posts faster when they are linked to somewhere else on the internet, even if that other place is on the website or blog itself, the so-called internal links.
Through them, your content is self-referenced and gives Google an idea of the structure of your site, thus establishing a content hierarchy. The more internal links point to a given post, the more it indicates which content the search engine should prioritize.
However, we know that all this talk about internal links sounds quite technical, and for that reason, we decided to simplify it through this content. This way, we will be able to show you the correct internal linking strategy to definitely boost your website’s SEO.
In this content, you will see that SEO goes far beyond evergreen content.
What is SEO?
SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization, which means Search Engine Optimization. In other words, SEO is the set of techniques applied to websites to make their content appear on Google when a certain keyword is typed.
For example, let’s say you have a blog about cars and you want to create the article “ Is it worth buying a Jeep Renegade? ”. Surely other competing blogs have already written about this topic, right? So, in addition to creating high-quality content, you need to apply the right techniques to ensure that Google gets the most out of your content.
Without SEO, your article would rank 45th in searches. This means that the post would appear in the middle of the fourth page of results. However, with SEO, your article would be the 6th place, being on the first page (where the massive majority of visitors access)
What is an Internal Link?
Internal link is a type of link that connects two different pages belonging to the same website or domain. These links are designed to help users navigate the site by providing a quick and easy way to access related or relevant content.
An internal link is any link from one page on your site that points to another page on your site. For example, when I link to you from the article we wrote on Boost Your Small Business with Effective Digital Marketing Services (as I just did), that’s an internal link.
Something that many don’t know is that there are two types of internal links, structural links and contextual links.
What are Structural Internal Links?
Structural internal links are those that pertain to the navigation and, as the name implies, structure of your website. For example, the menu links, category links, media library link, etc.
What are contextual internal links?
Contextual internal links are those in which website content cites other website content, generating references that can lead users to access them directly. Typically, in materials about internal links, contextual ones are the most present.
What is the difference between internal links and external links?
The main difference between internal and external link is the destination of the link. An internal link connects two different pages within the same website, while an external link connects a page on one website to a page on another website.
Therefore, the internal link allows the user to navigate between pages on the same website. On the other hand, external links take the user to a different site from where he was browsing.
External links like this SEO have their due value in relation to SEO, mainly in maintaining the “good neighborhood”, making Google understand that your blog also recommends good content, even outside of it.
Why Links Are Important to Google
Relationship between contents
Google crawls web pages by following internal and external links. To do this, the company uses a bot called Googlebot. This robot reaches the home page of a website, for example, and follows the first link. By following this link, Google’s algorithm can discover the relationship between pages, posts and images.
Thus, the search engine understands which pages on your site (and outside of it) address similar subjects, grouping them into internal categories to facilitate the understanding of the algorithm.
For example, in this post, we have already linked several of our other content related to SEO. Thus, we indicate to Google that we are dealing with a sub-category of subjects called “SEO”. This gives a greater understanding of how our blog works and generates a hierarchy of published content, making them related.
Help search engines find your content
As said, Google crawls the content of new pages by old pages. When you use internal links within your website or blog, what you are doing, in practice, is indicating to Google that new pages need to be found and ranked as soon as possible.
It’s as if saying: “ Hey, Google, do you see this page I linked here? It’s a page that deserves to be in your database and shared with other people, you know? Don’t forget about her ”.
Have Value
Links, both internal and external, have value. This link value is divided among all links found. This statement seems confusing, but we’ll explain it further below.
Typically, a website’s home page has the most significant link value because it tends to receive the most backlinks (when many other websites recommend yours, for example). This link value will be shared with all links found on this home page.
And so, on subsequent pages, the link value will be divided between the links on that page and so on. In other words, the link has its value spread to the “child links”. Furthermore, creating a hierarchy, as we have already said, favors the SEO of your website, by giving value to the least accessed pages.
Interesting Read here: Mastering the Art of Internal Links: Strategies for Success
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