Internal Links – What are They and Why are They Important?

Backlinks and external links typically take center stage whenever an SEO discusses linking strategies. However, external links are not the only ones you should consider. Internal links are arguably just as important.

A good internal linking strategy directs visitors to your website to the pages and posts you value most. They are an integral part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

But that begs the question: What are internal links, and why are they important? So let’s get into it.

First Up: What are Internal Links?

Internal links link that point from one page or post on a website to another page or post on the same website. Generally, internal links direct your website visitors to other places related to their landing page. Simple enough, yes? Well, that’s just the tip of the proverbial internal linking iceberg.

Next: Why Are Internal Links Important?

Why are internal links important, you ask? As mentioned, internal links direct your site and visitors to the pages and posts you want them to see most. But that’s just the beginning. Google (and other search engines) use internal links to discover new content posted to your website.

For example, let’s pretend that you just published a new blog post on your plumbing site but forgot to link to it from somewhere else on your website. When Google crawls your site again, it won’t be able to find your new, well-written, exciting blog post. Almost like it never existed in the first place! Here is what Google says about it:

“Google must constantly search for new pages and add them to its list of known pages. Some pages are known because Google has already crawled them before. Other pages are discovered when Google follows a link from a known page to a new page.”

That means it must first find it for Google to know it should index your page. If it doesn’t know it exists, it can’t list it well in search results for related queries. Pages that don’t have any internal links pointed to them are called “orphan pages.”

In addition to aiding with indexing your new content, internal links contribute to PageRank’s flow (also thought of as link authority) throughout your domain. This is important. The more internal links a page has (within reason), the higher the PageRank assigned to it by Google. But be careful! You can easily overstuff a page with internal links that don’t aid users in finding your most informative and query-centric content. Generally speaking, quality is just as important as quantity here. And this leads us to our next point:

How to Develop a Winning Internal Linking Strategy for Search Engine Performance

Before we get too deep into developing internal linking strategies that work, remember: Relevance is key. Critical: The more relevant and logical your linking strategy is, the more likely Google will rank your pages for search. Now that we have that out, let’s develop your internal link strategy and structure.

Step 1 – Establishing a Content Hierarchy

Think about the pages on your website like a pyramid. Place your most important pages at the top of the pyramid and your least important pages at the bottom. This is the general idea behind most successful internal linking strategies and structures. Usually, the top of a website’s pyramid is the homepage. Under the homepage will be your second most important page (like a contact page, an about page, a services page, etc.). Below those pages will be the rest of your content (blog posts, service-specific pages, etc.).

Step 2 – Start Siloing

Once you’ve established a general pyramid-shaped hierarchy for your website, it’s time to discuss how to link it together. Many website owners make the mistake of linking all pages from one level of the pyramid to all the pages on the next level up. At the same time, this may be mildly effective for some smaller websites. However, it’s generally considered a bad strategy. Remember, relevance is critical. You must keep relevance in mind when you link pages from one level of the hierarchy to the next. For example, it won’t do you any good to link a new page about replacing toilets to your About Us page. A good way to do this is with “siloing.”

“Siloing” is the art of grouping relevant web pages using internal links. The best way to explain this is with an example, so let’s break it down.

Suppose your website has a plumbing page covering your company’s general plumbing services. Let’s also assume that you have several more plumbing service pages that detail specific plumbing services. Using siloing, an ideal link structure would look something like this:

In the graphic, “Plumbing Services” is at the top of the content pyramid. Below are three sub-categories of the “Plumbing Services” page. Each of the sub-categories is called a silo. As you can see, each silo is topic-centric. Let’s look at the “Drain Cleaning” silo in a little more detail to make things easier to digest.

The drain cleaning silo contains sub-pages for hydro jetting and rooter services. Both the hydro-jetting and rooter services pages should link to the main drain cleaning page. Then, the drain cleaning page should link back to the “Plumbing Services” page. That’s the basic idea behind content siloing.

Conclusions

Internal links are essential for SEO and the overall user experience of your website. They help you point users toward the content you want them to see and help Google and other search engines discover new content you publish on your site. Internal links also help distribute your PageRank authority correctly across your website. They are that important.

At Contractor Advertising, we understand that all this technical jargon about internal links may be more than you bargained for. But don’t fret! If you don’t have the time, desire, or ability to optimize your website’s internal linking strategy and structure. Our team of SEO professionals is always standing by to help you with all your internal linking woes! So contact us today and happy linking!