If you’re a website owner, SEO, or marketer, you probably know that links are a ranking factor for search engines.
Most of the time, however, you may think about backlinks. And yes, they are very important – don’t get us wrong. But internal links are equally as important (just in a different way).
The job of backlinks is to build endorsements.
The job of internal links is to spread those endorsements through your website (aka link juice).
Without backlinks, your website won’t be trusted by search engines.
Without internal links, that trust won’t get spread across your website.
What is an Internal Linking Strategy
An internal linking strategy is a planned approach to connecting relevant pages within a website through hyperlinks.
These links will help spread link juice and also increase the crawlability of the website, boosting indexability and rankings.
Understanding the Different Types of Internal Links
In total, there are four different types of internal links you can use within your strategy. These are:
- Navigational Links: Live permanently on a site-wide menu, making up most of a site’s architecture.
- Footer Links: Also live permanently on a site-wide menu found at the bottom of a website, usually for FAQs, shipping information, order tracking, etc.
- Sidebar Links: Another type of navigational link on the side of a website, usually a blog post that details “related content”.
- Contextual Links: These are sometimes called in-text links, meaning they’re placed on the main body of page content, usually a blog post.
Why an Internal Linking Strategy is Important
Internal linking helps users and search engines flow through your website. They also help distribute PageRank and authority, increasing your website’s credibility.
Because of these two very reasons, navigation and distribution, having a proper internal linking strategy is mandatory.
And time and time again, building a strategy and implementing it has provided results. Just take a look at this research performed by Niche Pursuits.
Source: Niche Pursuits
As you can see, the implementation of their internal linking strategy increased 76.6% of their ranked keywords rankings – impressive.
And the best thing about internal linking is that, if you haven’t used them yet, the opportunity is already there. You just need to connect the dots, and you’ll start receiving better rankings.
How to Build Your Internal Linking Strategy
Now you know the basics behind internal linking, let’s get into the strategy.
1. Locate or Develop Pillar Pages
The very first thing you need to do is locate or develop pillar pages. We recommend doing this by creating an Excel sheet (we’ll start to fill this in as we go through this how-to guide).
Reference: Template inspiration from SEMrush
By definition, pillar pages are central pages about a broad topic. This page will then be used to internally link to several topic clusters/supporting topics.
For example, a pillar page for our website will be “The Basics of How Search Engines Work”. Topic clusters for this page can then be “The Stages of Search Engine Crawling” or “A Simple Guide to Search Engine Indexing”.
In the pillar page, “The Basics of How Search Engines Work”, we discuss everything about search engines, including how they crawl and index. We can then internally link to topic clusters that go further into detail about crawling and indexing.
For the most part, pillar pages are pages that target broad keywords with high search volume. These aren’t long-tail keywords. Think of these pages as top-of-funnel content.
2. Build Topic Clusters with Internal Linking
You have created or identified some pillar pages. Great. The next thing you need to do is identify or build topic clusters.
Think of topic clusters as supporting pages. These are pages that support the pillar topic by providing the user with more specific information on a certain topic.
Going back to the example above, the pillar page “The Basics of How Search Engines Work” will go into crawling and indexing. Therefore, we can internally link the pages “The Stages of Search Engine Crawling” and “A Simple Guide to Search Engine Indexing”.
You can even have cluster pages for your cluster pages. These are labelled “Supporting Pages” below.
As you can see, it’s always about providing more value to the content asset.
3. Select Optimal Anchor Text
You have your pillar and cluster topics laid out on an Excel sheet. You can now add some recommended anchor text to the mix.
Anchor text is the text that the redirect will be attached to. The user should be able to see the text, understand there’s a link there, and know what the redirect is about.
Ideally, it should be brief, relevant, and optimised. If you fulfil these three core areas, it’s a good anchor text to select.
4. Pinpoint High-Authority Pages on Your Site
High authority pages are pages with lots of backlinks and traffic. In other words, they have good PageRank.
You want this PageRank to flow through to your other pages, as it’ll pass a little bit of this link equity to them.
This can help them get crawled quicker, indexed, and maybe even ranked higher.
To do this, just identify your high authority pages, list them in an Excel sheet and try to work them into your internal linking strategy.
5. Reinforce New Content with Supporting Links
Work new or future content into your internal linking strategy as well. Doing so will give them a boost of authority as soon as they get posted.
Internal Linking Best Practices
You now have a rough internal link strategy. Now, make the most of it by following these internal linking best practices:
1. Link Content-Heavy Pages
Don’t link to pages like your home, about, or contact page—link to content-heavy pages like long-form articles. You can also point users to squeeze or sales pages if your goal is conversions.
2. Use Descriptive Anchor Text
The text used mustn’t confuse the user (or search engines). It must clearly state what the user or bot will find on the other side if they click on it.
For example, a hyperlink to “The Stages of Search Engine Crawling” clearly suggests that this will teach you more about the stage of search engine crawling.
3. Add the Right Number of Links
Links are important. But you want to get the right number of links. As you can see from the research below, this is anywhere from 25 to 49 internal links per page.
Source: Zyppy
4. Update Old Content with New Links
Don’t neglect old content. Updating old content is the best way to get quick SEO results. It’s already created. You just need to update it.
While updating, update the internal links. Use some of that link equity to boost new pages or to even pass more equity to the old ones.
5. Place Links Where They Fit
When placing links, be natural about it. Don’t force them in. Don’t use words like “click here for more content”. Be more descriptive, so search engines and users understand where they’ll be going.
6. Use Only Dofollow Links
Google say doesn’t transfer PageRank across pages with nofollow links.
Of course, this is a huge problem.
Therefore, use dofollow links to ensure they crawl the pages and so that they pass on PageRank when using internal links.
7. Consider Site Navigation
The pillar and cluster technique is just one way to improve internal linking. But don’t forget about site navigation: menu, footer, and sidebar links. These are the “main” types of internal linking as they hold the entire site together.
The best thing to do is map out your navigation. This will give you a much better understanding of the internal linking opportunities. For example:
Source: Bogomolova Anfisa
If you have a large website and want a quick overview, you can use tools like Screaming Frog. Go to Screaming Frog > Visualisations > Crawl Tree or Directory Graph (both are the same, just different layouts).
8. Create Quality Content
More pillar and cluster pages don’t equal more keyword rankings and traffic. The content still needs to be of quality. Don’t focus on quantity; focus on quality. This is the number one surefire way to boost website performance in the long term.
9. Audit Links Regularly
You should also audit your internal links on a regular basis. Look for broken links, outdated references, and redirect chains. All of these can be found on technical tools like Screaming Frog.
The goal of the audit is to improve user experience and crawl budget optimisation. By making the process smoother, for both users and bots, you have a much higher chance of improving website performance.
Final Word: Internal Links = Big Wins
After reading the above, you should have a better understanding of how to build an internal linking strategy as well as the best practices.
Though internal linking is often overshadowed by backlinks, it shouldn’t be. Without internal credibility, the trust built by backlinks is much lower.
Internal links help push some of this credibility and trust around your website, ultimately boosting authority, keyword rankings, and traffic.
