Managing both internal vs. external links is essential to ensure and maintain your site’s search engine rankings. On one hand, internal links improve the site structure and keep your users engaged. On the other hand, external links ensure improved niche authority of your website by distributing link equity from high authority pages to the low-performing ones. But, on which aspects do these two types of links stand apart from each other, and what are the similarities between them? Let’s compare both internal links vs. external links to have a better insight into their fundamental aspects, functionalities, purposes, benefits, and more.
Did you know?
A healthy and authoritative link profile of your website is considered one of the key ranking factors and increases the possibility of your site’s search engine rankings by 20% to 25%.
According to studies and research, 80% of your site’s authority and online visibility depends on the strength of its link profile. It helps in building trust with your visitors and the search engine, and signals niche authority, credibility, & relevance for the users’ search queries to Google.
However, a static link profile is way more detrimental to your site’s SEO health.
An Optimized Link Profile for Improved SEO
A site with stagnant and irrelevant links might seem manipulative, artificial, or misleading to the search engine, resulting in major drops in its search engine rankings and even search engine penalties.
On the other hand, a strong and diverse link profile not only boosts your site’s SEO rankings but also improves online visibility, boosts referral traffic, and enhances user experience, leading to improved site authority.
However, Link-Building is Not Easy…
Maintaining a healthy link profile of your site and optimizing it is time-consuming.
Moreover, understanding the nuances, getting better insights into the link components or advanced yet complicated link-building strategies, and learning about the technical jargon in detail might be a bit time-consuming and confusing for site owners.
A healthy link profile is the strategic outcome of a balanced implementation approach of internal and external links on your site. However, it needs effective link-building strategies, seemingly complicated to a layman.
Hello, everyone.
Welcome to today’s FastLinky blog where we’ll be taking a deeper look into internal linking and external linking and how internal link and external link helps improve a website’s SEO rankings through the lens of our experienced SEO professionals and skilled link-building experts.
What Are Internal Links And External Links?
Both internal links and external links are two major components of your site’s overall link profile. Together, they constitute the foundation of your site’s link profile.
Let’s Look into Internal Links in Detail👇
Internal links are hyperlinks within your site’s content that connect other webpages in your domain. These internal links will guide your visitors from one webpage to another within your own site domain.
The primary role of these internal links is that they establish your site’s structure and help the search engine have a better understanding of your site’s overall content structure, discover your webpages, and crawl & index them faster, leading to a seamless authority distribution across your site.
In short, the internal links act as clear roadmaps to the search engine and help your visitors land on relevant and the most relevant webpage content, leading to improved user engagement and reduced bounce rates.
But, What Are External Links, Then?
As the name suggests, external links connect your website to an entirely different one, a different webpage of a completely different domain, though not contextually irrelevant.
Also known as outbound links, these external links signal the search engine that your site is recommended or linked with other authoritative sites/resources in your industry.
This helps your visitors find additional resources and the much-needed background information on a specific topic. In short, linking your sites/webpages to other relevant industry resources will get it noticed by your target audience, resulting in improved site authority, credibility, & online visibility.
Now, things get a bit complicated here!
Most of the site owners get confused between internal vs. external links and backlinks.
So, let’s discuss this in detail.
The Difference between Internal Links and Backlinks
Internal links are the existing hyperlinks on one of the webpages coming from another webpage within your own site domain. These internal links improve your visitors’ site navigation experience and its overall structure.
On the other hand, external links are hyperlinks that connect one of your webpages to another webpage of a completely different domain. They boost your site’s niche authority and credibility, leading to an improved site’s SEO score.
However, Backlinks Are Links from External Sites to Yours!
When one of the industry resources/websites links to one of your webpages/site’s content, you get a backlink. However, the purposes of internal and external links on web pages and the backlinks are completely different.
Backlinks signal the search engine that your site is credible and authoritative, and act as “votes of confidence” from other industry resources that improve search engine rankings and drive major referral traffic.
But, in this blog, our scope of discussion is limited to only internal vs. external links.
So, let’s stick to that only.
The Importance of Internal And External Links in SEO
But, before we discuss the difference between internal and external linking, it’s crucial to shed some light on their importance to maintain & preserve the site’s SEO health.
Internal links help the search engine bots discover and crawl new pages, leading to faster webpage indexing, improved user experience, & an uninterrupted link authority distribution.
External links help boost your site’s trustworthiness & credibility and strengthen your industry network.
So, as you can see, both internal vs. external links help improve your site’s SEO health in the long term. In short, the benefits of internal vs. external links for your site’s SEO health are not just limited to an improved user experience.
Rather, they are far-fetched enough to influence your site’s topical authority, overall link and content structure, and how the search engine perceives your website.
So far, you might have guessed that there are a few striking differences between internal and external linking between web pages, and that’s exactly what we’ll discuss in this blog.
However, let’s first understand the similarities between these two, as that will help you get a comprehensive overview of internal vs. external links.
The Similarities between Internal Links And External Links
Both internal links and external links share a few fundamental similarities. So, before we analyze them through a comparative lens, let’s talk about the similarities first!
HTML Structure
👉Internal and external links both contain the <a> element, the standard HTML tag that defines the hyperlink.
👉Both use the hyperlink reference attribute (href) to specify the destination URL
👉Both of them require text or specific HTML content (e.g., an image) between the opening and closing <a> tags to make the hyperlink clickable for the users.
So, as you can see, the structural components are mostly similar in both these link types. That’s why it’s safer to apprehend that both internal and external link types share a few common characteristics in terms of the HTML structure.
SEO Importance
Both these types of links signal site credibility and niche authority to the search engines, contributing to improved crawlability and better link authority distribution across the site.
Reliance on Anchor Text
Both internal and external links rely on descriptive anchor texts to assist the search bots in understanding the site structure and guide users to the relevant webpages, resulting in improved user experience and online site visibility.
User Experience
Internal and external links act as “highways” to help users navigate throughout your website effortlessly by strategically predicting the specific users’ needs, reducing friction, adding real value, & preventing dead ends. They help you build trust with the search engine and your visitors, leading to improved niche credibility.
Authority Distribution
Internal links and external links play a major role in distributing page authority by boosting site authority, audience trust, and search engine rankings. They spread link equity from high-authority pages in your domain as well as other domains and help the search engine perform a deeper page crawl.
Contextual Relevance
Both internal and external links are placed within relevant content that supports their topics and creates a relevant connection between the linked content page and the hyperlinked texts. Both types of links guide users to relevant content information without any effort.
Trust Building
This is probably the biggest similarity between internal and external links.
Needless to say, both of them establish your site’s credibility and improve your visitors’ user experience. They not only help you organize your site structure, but also help your visitors navigate seamlessly to the most reliable and relevant information resources.
So, those were all about the similarities between them.
Now, have you ever wondered why internal and external links are so different from each other, despite having all these similarities we just mentioned?
Well, it’s time to bring “what is the difference between internal and external links’ into the light.
So, let’s head towards that!
The Difference between Internal And External Linking
Internal and external links are strikingly different from each other.
Below, we’ve mentioned the basic differential aspects that make these two concepts stand apart from one another.
Let’s have a detailed observation👇
Definition
As the name suggests, internal links are hyperlinks that connect pages within the same domain. External links, on the other hand, connect a specific webpage within your domain to another of a completely different/external domain.
Direction
If you consider these two types of links through the lens of the target destination, you’ll find the major difference between them. Internal links direct your site visitors to other relevant webpages within your domain.
However, external links may guide your visitors from your domain to another or may even help you get referral traffic from a completely external domain to a webpage within yours.
Destination
This is the prime difference between these two types of links.
Since internal links point to another webpage within your own domain, they help the search engine and your visitors navigate your site better.
However, external links point to a completely different domain for the visitors of your site as well as the linked site’s visitors, directing them away from your site to a third-party content website.
Control Over Anchor Texts
With internal links, you get better control over the anchor texts, their placement, and frequency within the webpage content.
However, you can not incorporate external links within your content multiple times, as it might dilute your site’s authority & increase bounce rates.
You can select the anchor text for building the external link on your site, but you can not use it at the top of the content. You must add the external link at a relevant spot that is much below your page content.
Moreover, when an external domain/site owner links to yours, you might not have a chance to say anything about the anchor text selection, especially if it’s already published.
SEO Purpose
The fundamentals of internal and external links are different. However, the purposes they serve are also very different.
For example, internal links help improve your visitors’ site navigation experience and boost a seamless link equity distribution process by improving your site’s overall structure.
However, external links help boost your site’s credibility and trustworthiness, improving overall site authority & reliability.
The Use Case Scenario
It’s generally advisable that you should use internal links when you want to provide your visitors with relevant topical information, but don’t want them to leave your domain.
However, building external links is generally recommended when you want to show the search engine or the visitors that your domain is reliable enough to link to a highly authoritative industry domain.
User Flow
By user flow, we mean the individual ability of the internal and external links to control the session continuity of your visitors.
For example, internal links keep your visitors highly engaged within your domain and encourage them to explore more of your site’s content.
However, external links direct the users to a different domain altogether to explore better referential resources, potentially putting a stop to their sessions on that former domain.
User Experience
Internal links help you foster a seamless and completely immersive user experience by providing users with a reliable pathway to more engaging and relevant content.
However, external links help you show your users that your site is a credible, authoritative, and reliable platform where their specific search requirements are well taken care of.
Link Tracking
When you track the relevant metrics to evaluate the performance of the existing internal links on your site, you will get a complete picture of the entire user journey of your site visitors.
External link monitoring will help you capture only the moment of departure on the part of your site visitors.
Link Maintenance
Improving your site’s SEO health is incomplete without your active efforts for maintaining the internal as well as external links.
Since with internal links, you have full control over the link source and destination URL, simply updating it with the right URL or creating a permanent redirect will be enough to fix the broken ones.
However, in the case of external links, you have limited control over them, and that is why you can’t prevent the destination content from moving somewhere else or getting removed.
To fix outbound broken external links, you must replace the destination URL with a relevant alternative. However, if you find a broken inbound external link, you have only one option to fix it, and that is to remove the link entirely, resulting in lost link equity on your site.
Audit Frequency
Well, this varies depending on the preference, requirement, or convenience of the site owners.
But, in general, to ensure a healthy internal link profile, it’s recommended that you perform an internal link profile audit once every three to six months or right after a major site update/changes. However, performing an external link audit twice a year is considered enough.
So, that was all about it.
However, as you can see, both internal and external links are essential for your website’s SEO health. But unlocking their maximum potential is only possible when you implement the best practices.
Best Practices to Implement External Vs. Internal Links
Before we get straight into the best things you can do to build relevant and valuable internal vs. external links, let’s understand why we emphasize this so much.
We are trained link-building experts, working with 750+ global brands for more than the past 7 years. During our extensive professional journey, we’ve learned about a few things that have taken our link-building efforts to a whole new level.
We’ll talk about them right below.
But, before that, check out the outstanding outcomes of implementing the best strategies during internal vs. external link-building.
Our observations resulted in:
✔️Improved search engine rankings for our clients’ sites
✔️Less user frustration
✔️A logical pathway for the visitors
✔️Faster access to information for the users
✔️Efficient site crawling
✔️Faster webpage indexing
✔️Improved site trust
✔️Enhanced niche authority
✔️Increased referral traffic
✔️Improved industry network
If you also want similar outcomes for your website, don’t forget to carry out the best practices mentioned below.
The Proven Techniques to Functional Internal Vs. External Link-Building
➡️Start by creating a central “pillar” page discussing a broader topic
➡️Create multiple “spoke” articles on relevant sub-topics
➡️Link the “pillar” and “spoke” pages in both ways
➡️Make sure that your internal webpages are just 3 clicks away from the homepage
➡️Place the internal link to the most authoritative webpage within the first 30% of the content
➡️Prioritize do-follow links & contextual relevance
➡️Link orphan pages
➡️Fix broken links as soon as you find them
Apart from all these, two things that you must do include developing high-quality content and performing regular link profile audits to ensure improved search engine crawling and niche authority.
However, learning about the best practices is not enough.
Until you know about the common mistakes that most SEO/link-building professionals often make, you’ll not be able to see the full picture.
Common Mistakes to Avoid with Internal and External Links on Web Pages
Do you know how we’ve become the leading link-building agency across the world?
No, it did not happen overnight.
It took us several hours of learning and observation skills to get a better insight into the nuances, and most importantly, countless mistakes that we kept on fixing in the initial days.
Today, our link-building specialists are experienced enough to differentiate the “right” from “wrong” in terms of link-building practices.
So, we’re here to discuss the costly mistakes we committed in the beginning of our career so that you do not make them again and stay safe from major risks, such as search engine penalties, compromised site reputation, and a major drop in the Google rankings of your website.
So, Check Them Out Right Below👇
❎Using repetitive, irrelevant, vague anchor texts
❎Applying the rel=”nofollow” tag to the internal links
❎Cramming your webpage with too many internal links
❎Interlinking irrelevant webpages within your domain
❎Linking to low-quality/less authoritative external webpages
❎Overloading your webpage with more than one or two external links
❎Ignoring your users’ core search intent
Avoid these deadly mistakes at all costs if you want to maintain a healthy link profile for your website.
However, our experts suggest not to implement more than 100 or 150 internal links per page, including the header/sidebar internal links.
Also, make sure that the external links on your site can be opened in a new browser tab to prevent your users from navigating away from it entirely.
Now, tell us one thing honestly!
Are you still confused about internal vs. external links?
Not sure which to prioritize more?
Wondering whether to fix your faulty internal or external links first?
Don’t worry.
We’ve made it easier for you.
External Vs. Internal Links: A Hybrid Approach for A Healthy Link Profile
Internal and external links both hold equal importance in terms of the site’s SEO rankings, user experience, niche authority improvement, & credibility & trust building, etc. To boost your visitors’ navigation experience, you can’t overlook any one of them.
So, pay attention to both your internal and external link profiles to ensure better SEO health and improved crawlability of your website.
The best strategy to maintain your site’s search engine rankings is to opt for a 70/30 internal-to-external link ratio rule.
It means, if you’re planning to add 10 links on one of your webpages, make sure 7 links are internal links and 3 of them are external ones. This will ensure a seamless link authority distribution across your website, resulting in improved site authority & better online visibility. This strategy helps maintain a balanced link structure for better SEO performance.
So, perform a thorough link profile audit of your website right now, identify the issues, and fix them as soon as possible. This way, you can ensure optimum link profile health for your site without stressing too much on any one of the link types.
That’s it for today.
We hope you enjoyed reading this blog and learned about something new.
If you have any doubts regarding the topic or you are confused about a particular thing, do not hesitate to connect with our link-building team.
We are right here to assist you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is the basic difference between internal linking and external linking?
Ans: The basic and most prominent difference between these two types of links on your site is that internal links connect pages within the same domain and significantly improve your visitors’ site navigation experience and SEO score.
However, external links guide your users to a different domain (in case of outbound external links) or drive referral traffic to your domain from an entirely different/third-party/external domain (for inbound external links) and boost your site’s niche authority and credibility.
Q2. Which is more important for SEO: Internal vs. external links?
Ans: Both internal and external links are crucial for your site’s SEO health, though they both serve different purposes. For example, if your primary aim is to boost your site’s authority and niche credibility, you might want to optimize the external link profile of your website.
However, if you’re concerned about the link flow across your site or the user experience, make sure you maintain a healthy internal link profile as internal links directly contribute to an improved site structure and search engine rankings.
Q3. What are the core purposes of external links?
Ans: The key purposes of building external links on your site include an enhanced niche credibility and reliability for the site visitors, improved user experience, better contextual relevance, improved industry network & enhanced online visibility of your website.
Q4. How to use both internal and external links strategically on a single webpage?
Ans: Implementing internal and external links strategically is not only important for a seamless user experience on your site, but also to maintain a healthy link profile. So, the best thing you can do is to aim for a 7:3 internal vs. external link ratio.
Make sure you do not add more than 100 to 150 internal links per webpage, and never add an external link within the first 30% of your webpage content.
Instead, add a link to the most relevant and authoritative webpage within the first 3 paragraphs of your webpage content for the best results.
Q5. What are internal and external links in HTML?
Ans: Both internal and external links use a specific HTML anchor tag to suggest a particular destination, irrespective of the domain (your own site domain/third-party external domain).
However, internal links use href=”/about” relative paths to guide users across individual webpages within your own domain. External links, on the other hand, use absolute URLs, such as href=”https://abc.com” to direct users from one domain to an external one.
