What are Internal Links? [How to Use Them to Improve SEO Performance?]

Editor / September 20, 2024

• Blog

Internal links are clickable objects on webpages that link different pages on the same website. This linking of internal pages significantly influences a website’s SEO performance.

These links differ from external links in that while they connect pages on the same domain, external links connect pages on different websites. An internal link also differs from a backlink as the backlink gives hyperlinks to your site on outside domains. 

If properly used, internal linking of pages not only improves a site’s SEO performance but also improves its visitor experience, which indirectly helps that site register more organic traffic to it. 

In this article on Fastlinky, I’ll discuss the types of internal links and how to use them to help your website rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

What is Internal Linking?

Internal linking is when a webmaster links pages on his domain primarily for a better viewer experience. 

However, a better viewer experience is not the only objective that drives webmasters to link their sites’ internal pages. Methodical and intelligent use of interlinks helps search engines understand the structure of your website and index your pages according to their importance.

This understanding helps your website perform better in SERPs as well-structured sites created with a view to improving user experience usually rank higher in SERPs.

Why are Internal Links Important?

Internal links are important SEO components because they help search engines understand the structure of a site and index its pages. This helps search engines to rank websites properly.

Besides, these links can also increase the session time by engaging the readers. As the readers get additional relevant information, they become prone to stay on the page longer.

Internally linking pages also increases a site’s authority by passing the authority from one page to another.  

These links also help both search engines and the reader understand the hierarchical structure of pages on a site. 

Another importance of internal links is that they can prompt the reader to take action, which may help the marketing goals of the website.

They also help search engines to find and index new content by linking old content to new ones.

Types of Internal Links

There are different types of internal links webmasters use to lift the faces of their websites. One must understand the differences between these types to use them to their sites’ maximum benefit.

Major Internal links are–

• Navigation Links
• Footer Links
• Sidebar Links
• In-text Links
• Content Links
• Image Links
• Breadcrumbs

Navigation Links

Among the various links you use on your website, the most important internal links are those you use in your site’s navigation menu on the landing page. 

These links help users understand the hierarchy of your site and help them find what they are looking for quickly. This navigation menu is a permanent fixture on your site’s header and a key to improving user experience.

These links are usually organised around the key services, products or information your site has to offer to visitors. 

These links are also called navigation links as they smoothly guide users in their journey across your website by telling them clearly where to find the exact topic or product or service they are looking for. 

Footer Links

These links also are a permanent feature on your website. It improves user experience by offering them easy access to various important pages on the site. 

These links also provide users links to some more pages if they have not already found what they are looking for even after scrolling to the bottom of a page.

Sidebar Links

These links sit in the sidebar and act as guides to some important pages on a website. They are usually contextual links and webmasters intelligently use them to influence the navigation journey of visitors and gently push them to pages they want users to visit.

These sidebar links are also used on websites that have lots of content, like news platforms or recipe sites. By providing links to the major items, this sidebar plays a crucial role in guiding aimless users who do not look for any specific topic, product or service.

In-Text Links

These are links used in the text in the hyperlinks to help readers get complementary or supplementary information on their preferred topic. These links are usually used frequently in blog posts and informative articles.

Content Links

Content links or content link blocks provide a visual preview of another page on the same website. These previews are attractive and significantly improve visitor experience. However, they take up more space than other types of links. 

Image Links

Image links lead visitors to an image on your website. These links greatly improve user experience across your site. 

They also help webmasters improve their sites’ SEO performance as a site full of attractive and high-quality images usually rank higher in SERPs. 

This linking process is done by inserting a URL in the HTML code to put an image on your site.

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are a special type of internal links that help visitors pinpoint their exact location on a site by measuring their distance from the homepage.

Breadcrumbs are a great way of enhancing the user experience as they help users go one step backwards if necessary and regain their journey across the site they are visiting.

These internal links are especially useful on e-commerce websites as they help users get back to the right path to track down the products or services they are looking for instead of hitting the back button, which some people find annoying. 

How Internal Links Improve SEO Performance?

Taking pains to build an extensive internal link structure across your domain may dramatically improve your website’s SEO performance. 

Primarily, internal links improve the user experience on your site, and in doing so, they bring about a search engine-friendly structure that helps your domain rank higher in the SERPs. 

There are several benefits strategically meaningful internal links provide, such as–

• Better user experience
• Reduce bounce rate and keep your visitors stay longer on your site
• Help search engines crawl your site easily
• Help search engines decide on your authority on topics you deal with
• Help search engines understand the relevance of keywords used
• Facilitate easier SERP ranking of pages based on a keyword

Better User Experience

Search engines analyse webpages and rank them in SERPs through complicated technical processes. But, one of the key performance metrics they use is the user experience, that is, how satisfied or dissatisfied visitors are with your site.

Google in particular uses algorithms that take user experience as the main yardstick to rank your pages in the SERP. 

By adding strategic internal links, you can improve this all-important user experience and better your chances of showing up higher in SERPs. 

Reduce Bounce Rate and Keep Visitors Longer on Your Site

Let’s face the fact: there are thousands of sites out there for a visitor to choose from. At the slightest inconvenience or annoyance, visitors can leave your page and go somewhere else.

The use of internal linking strategically will help visitors navigate your site easily and find what they are looking for quickly. Besides, referring to other pages, internal links also provide visitors a broader referencing scope which will further enhance their experience while on your site.

This internal linking of relevant and high-quality content will keep visitors longer on your page and reduce the bounce rate. This will reflect positively on your website’s SERP ranking.

Help Search Engines Crawl Your Site Easily

A strategically efficient network of internal links will help search engines crawl and index pages on your site and rank them on the SERPs. 

As the crawlers move across your pages they analyse them and rank them according to the relevance to search queries. By helping the search engines crawl and analyse your pages easily, internal links directly influence the ranking of your pages on the SERPs.

Help Search Engines Understand Your Authority

Suppose the crawlers find that your site contains lots of high-quality relevant content internally linked for the benefit of the visitor. In that case, they will consider you an authority on topics you deal with.

This decision will significantly influence the crawlers’ decisions on ranking your pages on the SERPs.

Help Search Engines Understand the Keyword Relevance

Google has a proprietary algorithm namely PageRank. It is programmed to consider pages with high-quality links as authoritative and rank them higher on SERPs. 

By creating a strategic network of internal links you can help PageRank understand the quality and relevance of contents and rank them accordingly. Thus these links become a key factor in the ranking of webpages on SERPs.

Facilitate Easier SERP Ranking Based on Keywords

Internal linking of pages across a domain also helps search engine crawlers analyse and pigeonhole pages according to their relevance to a particular keyword. 

This, again, helps webpages rank higher on SERPs according to their relevance to search terms.

Internal Linking Best Practices

Our discussion so far must have convinced you of the important place internal linking of pages on a site holds in the SEO landscape. 

You must understand that while the proper use of internal linking improves a website’s SEO performance, wrong use brings about the opposite results. 

Here are some internal linking tips and best practices that will help you extract the maximum SEO mileage from your internal link building.

Use SEO-friendly anchor text

Texts in the hyperlinks are the first thing users consider before clicking on a link. The same goes for internal links too. Use descriptive anchor texts, containing relevant keywords, that will convey the topic covered in the page the hyperlink is linking to. 

Such descriptive anchor texts will also help web crawlers to understand the relevance of the 

linking and ranking pages accordingly.

Here, remember, keywords must be sacrificed at the altar of the natural flow of writing. Do not overuse your keywords. 

Although using keyword-rich anchor texts is recommended, do not stuff your pages with keywords. Use them judiciously so they sound natural in the context.

Remember, keyword stuffing attracts penalties from Google. 

Link to Relevant Content Only

Mind you, search engines do not answer questions. They only supply pages that contain the most relevant answers to queries. 

Search engines are only interested in finding pages containing content most relevant to a search term and delivering them on the SERPs double quick.

So, link only to pages that are relevant to the pages you are linking from. This will help search engines decide quickly the relevance of your internal links and rank them accordingly.

Internal Links Should Add Value

Internal links must add value to your readers, not detract from it. Use these links judiciously so they fit nicely into the context of the sentence and provide your users with valuable information. Using these links without any clear strategy will probably be counter-productive.

Observe Hierarchical Link Placement

Place your most important links at the top of the page as far as practicable. Visitors usually navigate sites from the top downwards. 

It will be easier for them to get to the most relevant content quickly if links to them are placed higher on the page. Divide your internal links according to their importance and place the most important ones at the beginning and follow up with the less important ones. 

This is crucial because search engines also consider links at the top more important than links in other places on a webpage.

From Higher Authority to Lower Authority Pages

If you have a high-quality page that is ranking high on the SERPs or that is attracting lots of traffic, you can use its authority to boost the credibility of other lower-authority pages on your site.

You can do it by building internal links from that higher authority page to lower authority pages. This little manipulation can improve your site’s SEO performance.

Link from Homepage

Instead of relying entirely on navigation links or sidebars, link your most important pages to your homepage through in-text link building. 

Google also recommends branching internal links out from the homepage as web crawlers usually do not crawl dropdown menus. 

This internal link best practice will also improve user experience as your visitors will have easy access to all relevant and important content.

No Link Stuffing!

Using too many links side-by-side is a definite and profound no in SEO best practices. It not only looks annoying, but does not make for any happy reading experience. 

Also, do not use internal links too much. This link stuffing may harm the rank prospect of your pages.

Update Links Periodically

Do regular auditing of your links to weed out any broken links. Broken links leading to 404 error messages rank low on SERPs. 

Update your links according to the changes in the content or page structure. Internal links should always lead to updated information, never outdated or irrelevant content. \

For example, if you club your three low-performing pages into a long-form article, links from and to them should also be updated and placed according to the new structure. 

Conclusion

To sum up, internal links are building blocks in an effective SEO strategy. If properly and intelligently used, they can improve the user experience and hence, increase the chances for webpages to rank higher on SERPs.

The golden rule in the use of internal link building is to always do them in a user-friendly manner. If you can please your visitors by nice and convenient use of links, chances are that search engines will love you and consider your stuff top-notch. 

Frequently Asked Questions And Answered