If you search on the Internet, almost every blog post about internal linking will tell you how essential yet complicated the process is. You must be thinking that placing internal links is such a simple task, so why is everybody calling it extraordinarily complex?
The truth is that the internal linking process may seem simple, but it is pretty advanced if you want to do it right. So how can you use internal links to their full potential? We are going to talk about five ways that can boost your SEO and website ranking.
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So these are some of the factors that most people miss out on before placing internal links.
Engagement Through the Link
Whenever you add an internal link to your content, you are giving the reader an opportunity to go to other relevant pages on your website. That way, you can increase the engagement metrics and boost your SEO.
But most people fail to see any change in the engagement metrics after placing internal links to their content, which means those links are not adding any SEO value. You see, Google has some patents which state that they consider those links that users click. So if your page visitors are not clicking on the links, Google will not consider them of value.
That means those links would not be contributing towards SEO. So next time you place some internal links on your content, think carefully about their placement. Links towards the beginning of the content are more likely to get clicked than those at the bottom.
Relevance to the Topic
It is a well-known fact that the pages you link to your content should be relevant to the topic of discussion. So look for older pages on your website that are related to the topic discussed in the content.
That way, you can create appropriate interlinks to get the right boost for the page rankings. As mentioned before, Google has some patents for website ranking. One of those patents is called Topical PageRank. It states that the links related to the discussed topic will get more value.
You can check your website’s engagement metrics to understand if people find your internal links topically relevant or not. The links that visitors do not find relatable to the topic will have a low click-through rate.
Also, consider some other factors while placing internal links. For example, some pages might be ranking on positions 2 to 10 for domain authority. Use the links for those pages on your content to boost their ranking and bring them closer to rank 1.
Add Context to the Links
One of the common mistakes people make while adding internal links is to place the link on a related text in the content. You should always include relevant context around the link for it to make sense to Google, or it will not be very efficient to boost the SEO.
Google looks for the amount of change in a document related to a particular link. Therefore, add some text or images around the link that gives more sense to why you have placed the link. It will also help in drawing a user’s attention to the link and improve its click rate.
Use Unique Anchor Texts
Every link that you place on your content must be unique. Many SEO experts talk about link ratio and whether people should use the exact match or a partial match for anchor texts. Instead of worrying too much about it, you choose natural words to place internal links and make sure each of them is unique.
It is best if you avoid the exact match for anchor text so that they are not repetitive. Moreover, using exact match anchor text all the time might seem like you are trying to over-optimize and manipulate your rankings.
Find and Fix Low-Value Links
It is an old-school way to optimize your PageRank. If you have any broken links on your content, it can be detrimental to the user experience and SEO. Therefore, use a link checker or find them using Google analytics and fix those broken links.
Moreover, if you place a lot of links on your page, their value gets diluted and diminished. So get rid of any links that are not relevant or engaging. If users are not clicking on those links, there is no point in including them in your content.
Internal links are the easiest to manage as you have complete control over them. However, it may seem a bit complicated to get the maximum use out of them. We hope that you find the methods we discussed useful to utilize internal links to their maximum potential.