Do you want your blog to generate more traffic from search engines? And do you want those new visitors to continue reading other content on your site instead of leaving?
A low-performance solution exists: Link more to your older content.
Generate more search traffic and keep visitors on your site longer with a good internal linking strategy, says @SEOSmarty via @CMIContent. #SEO Click to Tweet
What is internal linking?
Internal linking (or interlinking) involves adding links to other pages on your website. They can help:
- Direct clicks to older content
- Engage readers to continue their journey through your website
- Improve your site's search crawlability, helping search bots find more of your pages.
In fact, internal linking is fundamental to your content's findability, and for that reason, it is Google's first webmaster guidelines : “Ensure that all pages on the site can be accessed with a link from another findable page.”
Internal linking also helps Google understand your site structure and determine which pages are more important based on the amount of internally linked content.
How to add internal links
Internal links can be placed in:
- Main navigation
- Sidebar
- Footer
- Unique main content (also known as contextual links)
Contextual links can be inserted directly into the content or added as standalone boxes to promote further reading. All of these links must be directly related to the content on the page.
Although little evidence confirms this educated guess contextual links can provide the greatest benefit in SEO value because they are edit-related and are rarely automated.
Always think about the balance between internal linking and readability General . Previously, Google Recommendations Use descriptive anchor text when adding internal links. Consider anchoring links through keywords used in the content. Where appropriate, use a call-to-action for internal linking, such as “Read more here about KEYWORD” or “Here’s more about KEYWORD.”
How to identify link-appropriate content
Much of your linking strategy will be based on your editorial direction and calendar . Chances are, your familiarity with the content will make for some obvious choices. Here are some general suggestions to help identify more valuable content to link to:
Keep track of your high-ranking content
The link to the content was successful. Google Search Console is a great place to find those pages. Go to the Performance section and click over to the Pages tab:
Find pages on topics that are relevant to the new content. Click the + button to create a new filter, filtering by keywords in the URL or search query:
Link to high-performing, relevant #content in your new content, @SEOSmarty said via @CMIContent. #SEO Click to Tweet
Using Yoast SEO plugin
A famous plugin Yoast SEO includes an internal linking tool in its premium plan ($89 per site). Feature suggests related content to link to when you're ready to publish:
The premium @Yoast #SEO plugin comes with an internal linking tool for @wordpressdotcom to suggest relevant #content when you're ready to publish content, @SEOSmarty via @CMIContent said. Click to Tweet
Other Affiliate WordPress Plugins
While adding links manually is the best bet, you can combine that tactic with automated methods. Yet another related posts plugin automatically detects related content and adds a list of links below your content. You can modify the list or deactivate it at the post level:
@yarpp automatically detects relevant #content and adds a list of links below your content, @SEOSmarty said via @CMIContent. #SEO #Tools Click to Tweet Here are a few details related posts plugin for review.
Another option is to use Internal Link Building Plugin which allows you to automatically associate any word (or phrase) with the URL you specify:
Finally, a few great CTA plugins allows you to create contextual CTAs to convert visitors to read more on your website.
How to determine the number of internal links
There are no magic numbers: Think about your readers and what they might be interested in reading. When it comes to SEO, there are no good answers. Although its advice has evolved over the years, it recently stated that there are there is no such thing as as a punishment for over-optimizing internal links, but warned those sites shouldn't link every site to every other site on the Web.
There's no such thing as an internal linking over-optimization penalty, but don't link every page to every other page on your site, said @SEOSmarty via @CMIContent. Click to Tweet It may seem that content creators have some freedom in the amount of internal links, but it's important that they are natural and useful to the reader.
How to track internal link performance
The best internal links are clicked. To determine those:
- Use Google Analytics. This is a useful tutorial to do that.
- Use heat map tools. You can determine where people look and what they tend to click on your site. this is a tutorial to assist you in that process
- Free to use Finteza plugin , which makes it easy to tag and track URLs. The only inconvenience is that it requires using the WordPress editor gradle version:
Access and Link
The strategic and consistent use of internal links will help boost your rankings and help engage your readers. Sadly, it's often a missed piece in any content marketing strategy. These tips will help you create a better performing internal linking structure for your site.
All tools mentioned in this post are identified by the author. If you have a suitable tool to recommend, feel free to add it in the comments.
Cover photo by Joseph Kalinowski / Content Marketing Institute
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