If the links on the page are confusing or do not lead to the desired destination, the visitor loses the overview and is quickly gone to find out more elsewhere. If you want to give an “overview page” more link power, it makes sense to link it in the sidebar or in the menu, since links in the footer are generally viewed by Google as “less important”. If the competition in the SER Ps is particularly high, no single landing page or a single blog post will help - no, entire categories have to be filled with content and linked internally.
External links are also simply referred to as backlinks and mean the links from one domain to another (website A links to website B). With the help of internal links, the link strength of a website can be passed on to various sub-pages. Simply put, Internal links enable visitors and Google to clearly see which pages on a website are particularly important. The link strength is thus also passed on to important sub-pages. B. can be found in the menu, in the content (running text), in the footer, or in the sidebar on a website.
It is important to design the internal links in such a way that the visitor can access relevant information quickly enough. If the links on the page are confusing or do not lead to the desired destination, the visitor loses the overview and is quickly away to find out more information. It is also important that internal links are made with clear link texts. Unlike external links (backlinks), internal links should be linked with explicit texts in order to make it clear to both visitors and Google directly what the internally linked page is all about. Do not link internally with unimportant terms like “here”, but use strong, clear keywords that you want to rank for. Correct design of the information architecture of websiteThe internal links, therefore, serve as anchor points and redirects on your own website.
So think carefully about which information architecture you want to create for your website. Important categories and pages for which you want to achieve rankings should e.g. B. can be quickly reached from the start page with just one or two clicks. Since every website has different goals, I can unfortunately only give general tips ;-) In the picture above you can see a small example of useful information architecture through internal links on a website. And the blog can be selected with one click on the homepage. In addition, a current blog post on “Employment for cats” links to the “Cat toy test 2016” page. In this way, the reader of the blog post is forwarded to the relevant content of the page.
This is of course a very simple example, but it shows very well how you link meaningfully internally. Internal linking in search engine optimization From an SEO perspective, internal linking serves to improve the link strength, which a website receives through its backlinks, to the most important sub-pages (without large intermediate stations). Since backlinks are still an important ranking factor, it is very important to distribute the link power on your own website as well as possible. The deeper a subpage is hidden on your website, the weaker the link strength often becomes.
Example: You have a website and with strong links on the start page. You have written several pages or articles on certain products on this website and want to rank well with them - if you now link the products directly on the homepage, they will receive significantly more link power (and thus the chance of being viewed by Google as relevant = better Rankings), as if these landing pages are hidden and can only be accessed with several clicks through various sub-pages. However, the link strength of every internal link is very weakened if you place too many links on the start page. There is no specific number of internal links per page and it varies greatly from website to website. For example, a small blog shouldn't have 100 internal links on one page.
Larger advice portals (Amazon, T-Online, etc.) can also cope with more than 500 internal links per page, as this page has an unbelievable amount of link power. A tip to still give as many pages as possible with which you want to rank a lot of link power are so-called overview pages. Here you link to all pages relevant to a specific topic. Such a page can be placed in the footer, in the sidebar, or in the menu. This ensures that all (external) backlinks also pass link power to this page. On such overview pages, the most important links on a specific topic can be collected and fed nicely with link juice. You should therefore not link externally on an overview page and also not to irrelevant sub-pages to which you do not want to rank.
If you want to give an "overview page" more link power, it makes sense to link it in the sidebar or in the menu, as links generally considered “less important” by Google in the footer. An alternative to such overview pages are of course keywords or category pages in WordPress. If these are prominently linked internally in the menu, they also pass on your link juice to posts. you should keep the information architecture of your website as flat as possible. So you can distribute the maximum link juice on all important pages. If you want an optimal Google ranking for particularly important pages, these should be accessible with just a few clicks. Content links are links in the body of a page.
Over the years, Google has given this more and more weight - both external and internal links in the body of the text. It is therefore imperative that you use internal links in the content of your website. Link with correct terms (Moneykeywords) and not with unimportant terms such as “here” or the like ... Look at the links in the running text on Wikipedia.org - that's how it works! With links in the body of the text, you can provide your readers with further information and guide them through your website in a meaningful way. It is important that the internal links are set sensibly and are not “forced”. Do not link different pages with the same anchor text - this could lead to confusion for your readers, but for the search engine.
But do not overdo it with internal links: the more Internal links are placed on a page, the less link force is passed on. Two internal links per 500 words of the continuous text are completely sufficient - a little less or, if it fits, a little more. There is no rule here, you have to decide for yourself whether there is a linkable term in the text. However, nothing is worse than the compulsive attempt to randomly include any term in your text just to link. Link internally if it makes sense and if the pages fit together thematically. In the SEO industry, internal linking is often referred to as the siloing of internal links. Large pages in particular benefit from this linking strategy. With “siloing”, only topics that match each other are linked internally. If there are several categories on a website, internal links are never made to different categories/topics.
The internal links are only linked within the category/topic. This strategy has several advantages: The user should not be distracted from other topics as soon as he has decided on a topic. He should stay on the topic until the desired conversion is triggered. A silo is an advantage for Google in order to be able to better distinguish certain subject areas on the website. The site can also develop an authority through this linking strategy. If the competition in the SERPs is particularly high, no single landing page or a single blog post will help - no, entire categories have to be filled with content and linked internally. The siloing helps to be recognized as an authority. 7 important points that you should consider with internal linkingNever link internally to nofollow - It usually makes no sense to give internal links a nofollow attribute, because this means that link power is no longer passed on. After all, your goal is to pass on your link power.
Never link internally with “here” or other meaningless terms. Be explicit with your link texts, as there are no over-optimized internal links for Google. An explicit link text also helps to show your visitors (and also Google) what the internally linked page is about. Take a look at the internal links in the running text of Wikipedia as an example! Too many internal links on a page dilute the link power too much and thus also its effect. However, there is no recommended number of links - rather ask yourself whether each internal link you set makes sense or not. If you rank on Google for certain keywords with several pages at the same time in the search results, correctly set internal links can help (prioritize! ).
Therefore, do not internally link multiple pages with the exact same keyword. Much does not help much with internal linking: Never link multiple times on one page to the same link target - this only dilutes the link strength and does not strengthen the multiple linked page.