Internal Linking for SEO: The Ultimate Guide of Best Practices

After 15 years as a webmaster, I‘ve seen firsthand how a strong internal linking strategy can boost traffic, rankings, and revenue.

Internal links allow search engines to crawl your site and understand the relationships between pages. Follow these 12 proven tips to enhance your internal linking and take your SEO to the next level.

Why Internal Links Are Critical for SEO

Internal links serve 3 key purposes:

1. Help Search Engines Discover New Pages

Without internal links, search engines rely solely on site architecture and sitemaps to crawl your site. Internal links provide additional clues for bots to uncover new or recently published content across your site.

According to Google, "links transmit reputation". Pages linked from other pages on your site tend to be ranked higher in search results.

2. Pass Authority to Important Pages

Internal links pass "link juice" and authority to linked pages. This helps boost the search rankings of key pages like:

• Homepage
• Product and service pages
• Contact and conversion pages

Prioritize linking to these types of pages from across your site.

3. Improve User Experience

Internal links keep users on your site by recommending related content. This reduces bounce rates.

Well-structured internal linking enhances site navigation and information architecture. Users appreciate when you link to detailed content that answers their questions.

According to Backlinko, "Pages with more internal links tend to have higher average time on page."

12 Best Practices for Internal Linking

Here are my top tips for maximizing the SEO benefits of internal links, based on my experience managing sites that generate over 5 million visitors per month.

1. Link to Important Pages Frequently

Identify 3-5 priority pages that serve your business goals, such as:

• Homepage
• Product category pages
• Individual product/service pages
• Contact page
• Conversion pages (e.g. pricing, checkout)

Then link to these pages frequently from blog posts, guides, and other content across your site. This signals search engines that these are your most important pages.

Moz found that "Each additional internal link increased a page‘s search engine ranking score by 2.17 points on average." So link liberally to priority pages.

2. Use Descriptive Anchor Text

Avoid overusing generic anchors like "click here", "this page", or "article". Instead, use descriptive phrases that indicate what the page is about.

For example:

• Contact us
• Read our [guide to keyword research]
• Learn more about [topic]

This provides search engines more context about your internal links.

3. Link to Older Related Content

When publishing new content, refer back to your most relevant old content through internal links. This helps search engines better understand the connections between content.

Linking to older content also helps users discover more of your previously published material.

For example, in your latest blog post you could link to a detailed guide you wrote 2 years ago that‘s still relevant. This passes authority and freshness to that old but useful content.

4. Place Links Naturally Within Content

Internal links should make sense within the flow of your content. Don‘t force links that disrupt the context or seem spammy.

As a general guideline, aim for 1-2 internal links per 1000 words of content. Make sure they feel natural.

Rand Fishkin recommends "Internal links are placed thoughtfully in contextually relevant positions in content." Don‘t over-optimize.

5. Use Images, Buttons, and Icons to Link Internally

Text links aren‘t the only options for internal linking. You can also link relevant images, buttons, and icons to internal pages.

For example:

• Link your logo in the header to the homepage
• Link images in a blog post to related product pages
• Link a "Download" button to a gated piece of content

Crawling images allows search engines to better understand context.

6. Check for Broken Links Frequently

Broken links frustrate users and can negatively impact search performance. Use SEO tools to identify and fix dead links promptly.

I recommend enabling automatic redirection to relevant pages if URLs change in the future.

7. Create Content Clusters Using Links

Use internal links to group related content together, also known as silos or content clusters.

For example, link blog posts focused on a common topic to a pillar page on that topic. Or interlink category pages on an ecommerce site.

This shows search engines the connections between closely related content.

8. Utilize Site Search for Internal Links

An on-site search allows users to quickly find pages that match their query. You can enhance internal linking via site search by:

• Linking keywords entered into search to relevant pages
• Displaying links to popular pages in search results

Help search engines better understand your site structure.

9. Link Top Navigation to Popular Pages

Ensure your main site-wide navigation has links to your most popular and relevant internal pages.

Focus on pages that attract users, such as:

• Blog
• Products
• Services
• About Us
• Contact

Prioritize these in the main navigation for visibility.

10. Implement Sitewide Internal Links

Take advantage of site-wide elements like headers and footers by linking to key internal pages. For example:

• Link the footer to sitemap, privacy policy, contact pages, and recent posts
• Link the header to the homepage, deals page, or ecommerce category pages

Site-wide links reinforce importance and relationships.

11. Interlink Pages Between Silos

If you have separate content silos or microsites, link relevant pages between silos when appropriate.

For example, link from a blog post on Site A to a related guide on Site B.

This shows search engines that the sites are connected. But use a light touch to avoid looking spammy.

12. Discover New Linking Opportunities

Use SEO tools like Ahrefs to analyze your internal link structure and discover:

• Pages lacking internal links that could be better connected
• Relevant pages that could be linked to more frequently
• Opportunities to improve contextual links

Continuously look for ways to enhance internal linking.

Track the Impact of Internal Linking

Once you implement internal linking best practices, be sure to track the impact on your site‘s performance:

• Monitor keyword rankings: Watch target keywords in Google Search Console to see if linked pages move up in rankings.

• Analyze links in Search Console: Review your site‘s indexed pages and links report. How many pages are discovered? What‘s the ratio of internal to external links?

• Check analytics for engagement: Do users click on internal links? How much time do they spend on pages you‘ve linked to?

• Gather link data from tools: Ahrefs, SEMRush, Moz and others provide internal link data to analyze.

• Run controlled experiments: Change internal links and measure the impact on user behavior and SEO.

• Continuously optimize links: Tweak and enhance internal links over time based on the real data.

By regularly tracking and analyzing internal linking, you can determine the best ways to connect your content. Use data to guide your strategy.

Focusing on contextual internal linking helps search engines understand your site structure. Implement these 12 tips to enhance your internal linking approach for improved SEO.