Most savvy business owners and content marketers understand the importance of external links. They’re a crucial ranking factor (as evidenced by new studies year after year, such as studies from Stone Temple Consulting) and a strong trust signal from other high-quality websites.
However, many businesses stumble when it comes to using internal links to direct link equity where it will have the biggest impact. While internal links don’t earn link equity like external links do, they’re essential for directing traffic to pages that traditionally attract fewer links or need a boost in search engine results pages (SERPs).
In this article, we’ll break down the dos and don’ts of a good link structure, why you need an internal link strategy, and three different strategies you can use to target keywords with varying levels of competition and search volumes.
How do you create a good internal link structure?
The structure of your internal links will vary depending on your goals, but several elements should remain consistent:
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Maintain a shallow click-depth. According to John Mueller from Google, the fewer clicks it takes to reach a page from your home page, the better. It’s recommended to keep your site structure as shallow as possible—ideally, each page should be accessible within two to three clicks from the home page, or use breadcrumbs, tag clouds, and internal search to enhance usability on more complex websites.
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Include links in your pages’ main content. There are two types of internal links: navigational and contextual. Navigational links include those in your header, footer, and navigation bars to help users find other pages. Contextual links appear in your pages’ content and have higher SEO value.
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Include keywords in your anchor text. While some advise against using exact-match keywords in internal link anchor text, it’s crucial that anchor text informs readers about the linked content. Including keywords in anchor text shouldn’t be a problem if your content is already highly optimized. Additionally, image links should have alt attributes that include keywords, acting as anchor text for those links.
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Maintain a reasonable number of links on each page. Google’s guidelines recommend limiting the number of links to a reasonable number to aid readability and avoid spam flags. If you point to the same URL multiple times on the same page, priority is given to the first anchor text.
- Ensure every important page is linked. Although search engines can find orphan pages, users cannot. You may choose to delete, link to, or block these from indexation.
Why you need an internal link strategy
According to a report from CMI, 81 percent of B2B businesses believe that having a content strategy aligns their team “around common mission/goals and makes it easier to determine which types of content to develop.”
This principle also applies to internal linking strategies. Understanding what you want link equity to achieve for your business helps in using an internal linking structure to reach those goals.
When used properly, internal links can be powerful. A good internal link structure can:
- Provide additional, helpful information to visitors.
- Help search engines crawl your website faster.
- Increase traffic to high-converting but low-traffic pages, such as product pages.
- Promote pages stuck on page 2 of SERPs.
- Improve rankings for high, mid, or low search-volume keywords.
The best internal link strategies impact both user engagement metrics (e.g., page views per session, time on site, conversion rate, etc.) and rankings in SERPs for high-priority keywords. You can achieve this by considering the customer journey on your site as you plan your internal link strategy.
Let’s explore three strategies to target keywords based on search volume and competition level.
Internal Link Strategies Based on Search Volume
- Use internal links to boost main page relevance for high search volume keywords.
When aiming to rank for a few high-volume, high-competition keywords, you’ll need a detail-rich homepage, such as a landing-page-style home page designed to attract, persuade, and convert new leads.
How to structure your internal links:
While navigational links help users find your content, most of your contextual links should link back to your home page using relevant anchor text.
Structurally, this means more links pointing to your homepage than any other page. Visitors on other high-quality auxiliary pages should easily find themselves back at the information-rich home page. Given that priority is given to the first anchor text if pointing to the same URL multiple times, some webmasters restrict navigational links for search engine bots to prioritize contextual links.
What this means:
This strategy aims to improve your homepage’s rank by leveraging content to increase organic visitors to it. Secondary pages and content assets should be useful and relevant but are not designed to rank high for keywords. Most link juice is destined for your homepage.
- Use internal links to target mid-search-volume keywords and drive traffic to key landing pages.
When to use this strategy:
Focus on driving mid-search-volume keywords to key pages, like product category pages or blog categories. This works well with detailed category pages that provide comparisons regarding products or topics.
How to structure your internal links:
This strategy uses anchor text keywords to lead people to key category pages. Your homepage directs visitors to relevant category pages, while auxiliary articles and product pages point back to these with medium-tail anchor text.
What this means:
Category pages become informational hubs users revisit for new insights. For instance, a site for second-hand cars might have a Ford trucks category page and link back to it whenever new reviews or comparisons are published using keywords like “buy Ford trucks,” “used Ford trucks,” etc.
- Use internal links to target low-search-volume keywords for your bottom-level pages.
When to use this strategy:
Operating in a narrow niche where you want to drive highly qualified leads to specific bottom-level pages, like blog posts or product listings.
How to structure your internal links:
Bottom-level pages should be detailed, allowing for organic internal links to other bottom-level pages.
What this means:
The goal is to illustrate the “big picture” to users, encouraging purchases or content consumption. For instance, a multi-part blog series lends itself to internal links, as would product pages linking to comparisons and DIY projects.
How to implement an internal link strategy
Once you choose a strategy, assess your internal links and anchor text with tools that measure click depth, links to/from pages, and estimate page importance. Tools like WebSite Auditor, DeepCrawl, or Sitebulb can help you understand link equity distribution, structure, and traffic patterns, ensuring pages are detailed and use appropriate anchor text.
