Internal Linking for SEO: Examples and Best Practices

Internal linking is a key SEO tactic for publishers. In this post I’ll look at what it is, why it’s important, and provide some key tips for an effective internal linking strategy.

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September 29, 2015 Categories

Internal linking is a key SEO tactic for publishers. In this post I’ll look at what it is, why it’s important, and some key tips for effective linking.

I recently wrote about the ways in which SEO and content marketing can work together, and I see internal linking as one of the most important ways.

What is Internal Linking?

Web practitioners from various disciplines may have different terms for this, but I think this is a term that’s well understood in the SEO ‘community’ and beyond.

Broadly speaking, internal linking refers to any links from one page on a domain which lead to another page on that same domain.

This can refer to the main site navigation, like the links you see above this article to our sections on SEO, PPC etc. It also refers to links within articles to related content, such as this link to an article on duplicate content.

For the purpose of this post, I’m mainly going to confine myself to the latter – the editorial links within articles.

This is not to denigrate the importance of the broader site architecture, but more because links within articles are more of a day to day SEO tactic, and they are generally controlled by the site’s writers and editors rather than a tech team.

Why is Internal Linking Important?

One major reason, according to Starcom’s Jason McGovern is that it’s one of the few methods site owners can use to tell Google (and visitors) that a particular page of content is important.

Also, as Jason points out:

From a strategic perspective, it helps site owners bridge the ‘authority gap’ between their most linkworthy content and their most profitable content.

So, for example, we can use a link from a popular, evergreen, post which attracts regular traffic to promote the latest ClickZ Live event, or a piece of paid content we’d like to raise awareness of.

There are other reasons:

SEO Consultant Mags Sikora has more to add to this point:

Large websites, like travel sites for example, produce a huge amount of content and the differences between landing pages sometimes are very subtle. For example, luxury hotels in New York vs. 5-star hotels in NY.

“Luxury” related terms would be used on both pages. Of course, 5-star hotels are luxury hotels, but not every luxury hotel gained 5-star ranking. Without correct interlinking, this could confuse Google, especially if there are no external links pointing to those pages.

How Significant a Ranking Factor is Internal Linking?

I’ve always viewed internal linking as an important tactic from a publishing perspective, and have been able to help my target pages rank thanks to the effective use of this tactic.

How much does it help with Google though? I asked the experts how much of a factor it is:

Jason McGovern Associate Director, SEO at Starcom MediaVest Group:

Internal linking is easily one of the most important and most overlooked factors in hitting your rankings goals.

I think it tends to be overlooked as an SEO tactic because many SEOs simply believe it’s not an issue anymore because sites today have such complex navigation menus.

That said, even today I have been able to drive significant results for clients purely on the back of optimizing internal navigation structures.

Mags Sikora:

Based on my experience, I strongly believe interlinking related factors have strong weight within Google algorithm. I work with startups and have an opportunity to run varied tests on completely new websites.

I saw websites start rankings for keywords used in the anchor text of internal links without any external links pointing to those websites. Of course, I am not talking about highly searchable terms but it really shows it is an important part of SEO.

Example: How Mail Online Failed to Use Internal Linking

This example is from last year, and relates to content around the FIFA World Cup. There is worldwide interest in this event and lots of search volume, even in the US 😉

Therefore, ranking for this term becomes very important for publishers, as it offers the chance to attract a lot of traffic before and during the event.

May publishers created site sections dedicated to the event, such as this from The Guardian. Mail Online had a similar page, as did many other publishers.

In the case of The Guardian, all world cup related content ‘lived’ in this section, and internal links were used to point to this landing page.

The result was a very steady, and high ranking for The Guardian’s World Cup page. As the chart shows, this landing page ranked in the top ten for the four months before the start of the tournament.

This meant that The Guardian was in a strong position to attract some of the traffic which spiked in the run up to the event, simply by having a joined up internal linking strategy.

By contrast, Mail Online, the most popular English language news site (thanks to a ton of clickbait) failed to link consistently to its World Cup page.

Essentially, it failed to tell Google (and its users) that this page was important. The result was that all of the articles Mail Online published about the World Cup were essentially competing with its own World Cup landing page.

In the chart below, the pink line indicates the landing page, and the yellow lines are the various articles related to the event.

As we can see, the landing page didn’t reach higher than page four of Google for this term in the run up to the event, while individual article pages, though they made more of an impression, couldn’t make it to page one.

I’m aware there are other factors at play here but, if we assume that both sites have similar authority, then the internal linking here is making the difference.

Essentially, The Guardian has given a clear indication to Google of the pages it wants to rank for the term, while Mail Online has failed to give Google any indication, hence the volatility of its rankings.

How to Use Internal Linking More Effectively

I asked the SEOs mentioned here for their tips on effective internal linking:

Jason McGovern

Mags Sikora:

Jamie White, Head of Technical SEO, Search Laboratory:

In addition to these tips I’d like to add a couple of my own:

What’s your take on internal linking? Do you have any useful tips to add to the list? Let me know below… 

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