Sure, you heard before about the Backlinks or External links. Actually, they are very famous, and you may know their importance for SEO.

But have you ever heard about Internal Linking SEO, or wondered what internal links are?

Why are internal links important for SEO? You are about to discover the answer in this article.

What are internal links?

Contrary to the external link; The Internal link is a hyperlink pointing to another page, but on the same website, for example; it allows you to navigate from an article to another related article on the same website. They are used to navigating through the same domain.

On the other side; Backlinks or external links are used to connect your page to another website.

Types of internal links

Well; there are two types of internal links; they are:

1- The Navigational links:

They are the links you create on your navigation bar; Such as the home page, post feed, menu, etc…

2- Contextual links:

They are the links you can add to your content, to point to other related content, and that is what we are talking about in this article.

What is the importance of internal links?

As we all know; Google uses some specific factors to allow your page to rank.

Google is using internal links to discover your content to allow it to rank high on search results. The more internal links you add; the higher you rank.

Sure we don’t mean to add too many links to your content, so Google can understand them as a tricky way to rank, and then you get a Google penalty.

Just add the needed links so Google can understand your content as high-value content.

Internal links are also important because they help in building an information hierarchy for your website.

Now! Let’s summarize what we have said; the internal links are important because: 

1. They help your visitors navigate your website easily, and allow them to spend more time on your website, which reduces your bounce rate.
2. Add Power and value to your website and allow it to rank higher on Google.
3. They help in building an information hierarchy for your website.

What is the Internal Linking SEO?

Every top SEO agencies now recognize the importance of internal links, and has its own strategies for Internal Linking SEO, and here are some tips that you can follow:

1- Create a lot of articles:

Create articles and blog posts, so you can use them as internal links.

2- Google can tell you:

If you do not know which related internal link fits best; you can use Google to identify the related content on the same website.

3- Add links after each paragraph:

One of the best strategies is; you can add a relevant link after each paragraph.

4- Add Anchor text:

Add anchor text to help you drive more traffic to your website and to increase its value.

5- Page by page analysis:

Use page-by-page internal linking analysis to help Google identify the Keyword focused content.

6- Let your competitors guide you:

Websites of your competitors can guide you to the number of internal links you should use.

7- Use the best-performing Content:

You can refresh and update the best old content to add new relevant internal links.

8- Add a “recommended” box:

You can create a separate box of recommended content, and add internal links.

9- Promote your products:

If you have an e-Commerce website, you can use internal links to guide your visitors to your products.

10- Don’t add internal links to irrelevant pages:

Remove internal links from every irrelevant page.

11- Don’t add broken links:

Track the health of your links, and remove the broken ones.