When it comes to implementing a successful SEO strategy, internal linking should be at the top of your priority list. Internal linking (also known as interlinking for SEO) is often subtle yet impactful, but how many internal links do you actually need per page?
In this article, we’ll be going over what internal links are, why they’re useful, and how many you need per page.
What are Internal Links?
So, what exactly is an internal link? To put it simply, an internal link is just a link from one page to another on the same website. They are often used to provide additional context or information about a subject that would otherwise be too long or detailed for the linking page to cover.
As an example of an internal link, let’s pretend that we own a website about dogs. One of our articles may be titled, “Top 10 Friendliest Dog Breeds”. In each section, we’ll place internal links going to other articles that we’ve written that explain more information about each breed.
This allows the reader to not only get a high-level overview of all the friendliest dog breeds but also gives them the option to read further (in a separate article) for more detailed information.
Why Are Internal Links Good for SEO?
Giving our readers more information is great, but how do internal links affect SEO? Can it help boost your site in search results?
Yes, actually, in more ways than one.
Internal Linking Helps Search Engines
To start, internal link building helps Google (and other search engines) by establishing a sort of site “structure”. Search engines are simply algorithms that crawl through the internet, so they’re reliant on human-created signals in order to “understand” what they’re reading.
Internal linking tells search engines exactly how pages are supposed to be related. If you internally link from one page to another, it tells Google that those two topics are related.
This has a two-fold benefit. First, it gives search engines a sort of structure to follow throughout your site. It allows them to figure out exactly what subjects/pages are related to each other.
Second, it plays into a concept called “link juice”. To put it simply, search engines see some pages as more authoritative than others. Interlinking between relevant pages spreads the authority, or “link juice”, to others.
Internal Linking Helps Visitors/Readers
Besides the obvious benefits of helping search engines crawl your website more effectively, internal linking for SEO also benefits your readers and customers as well.
When a website visitor reads a blog post, they may want to learn more about the subject and dive into more details. If you’ve perfected your internal linking game, they’ll naturally click through to other pages on your site instead of backing out and clicking on another website.
The effects of this are also two-fold. First, it helps your reader. They get the information they want quicker and with less of a hassle.
Second, this increases their “time on page” (the amount of time the visitor stays on your site) and reduces “bounce rate” (when a visitor leaves the site after one page), which are both critical ranking factors for SEO according to Google.
What are the 3 Types of Internal Links?
Now that you know what internal links are and why they’re good for SEO, it’s time to talk about the 3 different types of internal links.
Menu/Navigation
The first, and most obvious, type of internal linking is menu navigation. Nearly all websites have some sort of menu that gives a top-level overview of all their main pages.
This type of internal linking is good for, once again, establishing the main framework of a site. It helps both humans and search engines understand how things are laid out.
Footer
The next type would be footer navigation. Scroll down on nearly any website on the internet and you’ll find a lot of links in the footer (bottom of a page).
Typically, these footer links are used for more niche purposes. Think something like a, “careers” page link or perhaps links to social media accounts.
In-Text/Content
Finally, the last kind of internal linking, and arguably one of the most important, is in-text/in-content links. These are links that are naturally inserted into the body of an article.
They link to other related pages, providing context and more detailed information about a subject. Typically, you’ll find dozens of these per post.
How Many Internal Links Should Be on a Page?
So, you might be wondering, how many internal links per blog post do I actually need? There’s really no simple answer for this, as it really depends on a lot of factors.
Can Too Many Internal Links Hurt SEO?
First of all, can too many internal links actually have a negative effect? Absolutely!
First off, it’s incredibly spammy to both search engines and humans. Readers may feel overwhelmed and dissuaded to read if every third word is a hyperlink.
Having an extreme amount of internal links is also damaging to your site in terms of SEO as well. Search engines will take longer to crawl pages, and the algorithms will get confused if there are hundreds of links pointing everywhere.
Typically, sites that spam internal links will receive SEO penalties from Google and, in many cases, will lose rankings.
Use Internal Links in a Natural Way
So, the best practice when interlinking for SEO is to use internal links in a natural and relevant manner.
Only place links where they’re useful to readers. Look back to the dog breed example we used earlier. Interlinking can be a great way to provide more context and information to readers.
Do Internal Links Count as Backlinks?
Wait, so what’s the difference between internal links and backlinks? How are they different?
Backlinks are links that come from other websites. Internal links, as we’ve stated, come from your own pages, interlinking between various pages in order to provide context and authority.
Many SEO specialists would agree that, while backlinks are critical to your website’s growth, internal linking also plays a very substantial role and should absolutely not be ignored.
How Do I Optimize Internal Links?
So now that you know everything about SEO internal linking, how exactly do you optimize interlinking?
As stated prior, there’s really no right answer. There are so many factors that influence it, like the length of your content, how deep in detail your articles go, etc., but there are a few basic tips you can follow.
Use Keywords in Anchor Text
Anchor text is the term used for the actual readable text in a link. So, not the “https://…” of the hyperlink, but the actual text that holds the link. Using the proper keywords helps both Google and humans figure out the context of a link.
Using our dog breed example from earlier, a good anchor text for a link could be “here’s more information about Pomeranians” when linking to an article about Pomeranians. The reader would know exactly where the link will take them, and it also helps search engines determine what the link is leading to.
Link New and Old Posts
When publishing a new post, always include at least a few links to older posts. This helps spread more link authority (or “link juice”) between these articles.
On the flipside, whenever you publish a new post, find some older posts that are relevant and link to the new post from those. If your older posts are ranking well, linking to a new one will give it a bit of a ranking boost.
Build Content Around Topic Clusters
Finally, the last way to optimize your internal linking is to design your content around it in the first place. To put it simply, writing supporting articles all centered around a large “pillar post” is a great way to allocate link authority throughout your site.
To use this in another example: let’s say we have a post titled, “Why Huskies Are Great Dogs”, that we want to rank. It’s a huge post with affiliate links, advertisements, email signup links, etc. To boost it up in search results, we’d write a handful of supporting content such as, “Do huskies like cold weather?” or “What food do huskies eat?”.
Creating supporting content around a huge “pillar” post is a fantastic way to optimize your interlinking game.
Interlinking for SEO is Incredibly Important
So, the moral of the story is: internal linking for SEO is incredibly important. It doesn’t necessarily matter how many internal links you have on a page, it more so matters whether or not they’re high-quality and relevant.
Internal linking may seem complicated, but by using interlinking naturally, it’s a fantastic way to boost site authority and get your pages ranking higher.