Pay attention! This is everything you need to know if you want to execute the perfect internal linking strategy. Learn all about SEO Interlinking!
If you have a website and don't know what SEO Interlinking or internal linking is, we have a problem. This is perhaps one of the SEO strategies that gets the least attention, but that's not the case at FullSEO, since good work on Interlinking can bring us medium and long-term benefits when we talk about SEO.
What is an internal link and what types exist?
If you're new to this world we have to start at the beginning. If you're more experienced, you can skip this section; further on you have quite interesting tips on internal linking.
An internal link is a bridge to another link on your website (Category, article, page) that facilitates navigation within the web for the user. This is key because through interlinking we can get the user to stay on our website longer reading about one or several topics.
In internal linking it's important to consider the type of user who enters; let me explain, if the article is about cars, don't put links to a washing machines article, introduce more internal links about cars so the user doesn't stop reading about the topic that interests them on your website.
That said, there are several types of internal links, some of the most important are the following:
- Keyword.
- URL.
- Brand.
- Brand and keyword.
- Synonym of the keyword.
Each and every one of them has a function; everything will depend on the strategy you want to carry out.
Interlinking or internal linking is no joke; many believe it's as simple as placing links that redirect to another part of your website, and it's not that simple. My recommendation is that before doing something that could destroy your project and all the hours of work you put in, you go to my SEO agency so everything stays in professional hands.
What is interlinking and how can it affect my project's SEO?
SEO interlinking is known among Spanish speakers as internal linking. This technique's main mission is the creation of links within your website on elements of your website (if it were from another it would be external), with the goal of improving user usability and navigability on the one hand, and improving authority throughout your website, distributing strength on a URL (link) through several places on your website.
Another of interlinking's benefits is that through a good internal linking strategy we can improve a website's conversion when we talk about E-commerce or online stores.
Interlink.
Why do you need to do a good Interlinking strategy?
There are two main reasons you need your website's interlinking to be perfect; below I reveal the two and explain why:
- Web authority: Thanks to interlinking you get your website's authority redistributed through your website's URLs. Each URL has a designated authority; this varies depending on the links that URL receives through internal linking, both on your website and on others. If you want to grant authority to a link, you must mark it as "Do-Follow", so Google recognizes and crawls it; if you want it to be ignored, you must mark it as "No-Follow"; Google won't take it into account in its algorithm.
- The user: They're the engine that moves our project, and for that you must take care of and pamper them like your children, well, maybe not that much, but they must feel valued enough to want to come back. To do this, you must make users get what they want (more information, related content, etc.) one click or a few clicks away. With this you get users to stay on the web longer, and you'll improve the conversion rate.
These benefits will make your project gradually improve.
Types of internal linking
Different types of Interlinking or internal linking exist; each is a similar move but in a different way. The types of internal linking are the following:
- Natural linking: As the name suggests, this type of internal linking is done naturally, requires no strategy and normally links content that is closely related.
- Horizontal linking: A chain internal linking strategy. The content is at the same depth, it's very common on single-topic websites, like affiliate websites or recipe ones.
- Vertical linking: This internal linking structure in terms of web architecture is known as SILO architecture. Internal linking is worked in a pyramidal system: the URLs hardest to rank go up top, those with lower search volume or less competitive keywords, lower down. This type of internal linking is very common in news media, which have different topics.
- Mixed linking: This internal linking or interlinking strategy mixes horizontal and vertical linking. The advantage of this interlinking strategy is that you can manually grant authority to those URLs that are giving us significant economic performance.
The best tools to do a good internal linking strategy
If you want your SEO interlinking to be as optimal as possible, you should help yourself with some specialized tools for it. Although honestly, why should I dizzy you with tools, when I can recommend the best of them. That tool is Screaming Frog.
Don't worry, if you don't have a big budget, you can get access to Screaming Frog and hundreds of SEO tools at Conjuntaseo.Net for 12 euros. Free promotions aside, this software lets you crawl up to 500 URLs for free, it's recommended for projects that aren't too large, although you can also use it for that.
This tool is capable of gathering information about Anchor Text, being able to view all your website's internal linking, in addition to knowing the performance of all of them. From here you'll be able to carry out your SEO interlinking strategy.
My advice so your interlinking or internal linking strategy is effective
One of the biggest mistakes made with internal linking is not reviewing the work done through SEO Interlinking. What do I mean? That sometimes we tinker without taking into account the possible consequences. What consequences am I talking about? Broken links, known as 404 errors.
404 errors can cause your project's ranking to plummet, so it's advisable to review and clean the website of this type of erroneous linking. Thus avoiding that website users leave due to a bad experience.
If you want to maintain control of your internal links, your biggest ally will be Google Search Console, and also Screaming Frog, the tool I mentioned before.
If you're interested in a web positioning professional, don't hesitate to count on us, we make Google's summit not seem so far away.
Related reading
- How to index your website in Google
- Ranking in Google: technique, content and authority
- Best SEO agency: real criteria
Shall we work together?
If you want to apply this in your company with a team that combines technical SEO, GEO and paid acquisition measured against the income statement, request a no-commitment audit. You can also check real case studies or read the public GEO baselines that Elevam Labs publishes every quarter.
