Internal link:
On your website, internal links join the pages together. On the other hand, an external link (backlink) is completely different because it refers to a link connecting another site to your own site. Optimizing internal links is important for improving the evaluation of individual pages and the evaluation of the entire site. So, what kind of SEO effect can you expect by optimizing internal links?
SEO effect of internal link optimization
The expected SEO-like benefits from optimizing internal website links are the following three aspects
Crawlers will be easier to patrol
Google crawlers follow internal links to crawl the site and index pages. Crawlers recognize pages and create a database. This means that sites that don’t have internal links may not be indexed quickly when you upload them and may not appear in search results.
By optimizing the internal links, crawlers will be able to crawl all the pages on your site without omissions, and you’ll be able to prevent the opportunity loss of not being displayed in search result
Note 1: The crawler recognizes the page and makes it into a database.
The degree of relevance between pages increases, and the evaluation goes up.
Linking highly relevant pages through internal links can enhance the evaluation of the linked page. When setting up internal links, it is important that the page is highly relevant. As a result, it can be expected to improve usability, which may lead to an increase in the evaluation of the site.
The user stays longer.
On the sites where internal links aren’t organized, it is difficult to know where the information that you want to know is located, which may lead to the withdrawal of users. Sites with a high withdrawal rate are less likely to achieve the goals they want to accomplish through site operations, but they can also reduce the site’s reputation.
Optimizing internal links makes it easier for users to find the information they want to know and provides comprehensive information, so they spend more time on the site. You can also create opportunities to see the content you created, which takes a lot of time and money, so that you can prevent lost opportunities.
In addition, the internal links to related articles are properly organized, leading to improved user migration.
Types of internal links
Internal links might be of two different forms.
Contextual link
The first is “contextual linking.”
Contextual means “contextually” and is a link placed in the context of the content of the linking page. In addition to links from the article’s main text, new arrivals, category lists, tag lists, recommendations, etc., also correspond to contextual links.
Navigation-link
The second is the “navigation link.
Navigation links define the structure of a website and guide users to transition to another page. Global navigation, breadcrumbs, sidebars, footers, etc.
Important points for internal links
This is basically to connect related contents, but the anchor text to be installed at that time is also one of the points to consider firmly.
Therefore, keeping the following points in mind is more effective than setting them in the template part and making internal links from all pages.
• Internal citations for relevant, linked or related to the material
• Place it where a searcher could be looking, ideally
Do internal links truly benefit the user, given that you looked for them on your own? It’s wise to think about whether it is an internal link that ought to be viewed for convenience For internal links, it is important to link the contents that are too far from the theme of related things in detail in another article. It is also important to thoroughly investigate and understand the search intent.
About anchor text
Internal links are set up with the tag, but the anchor text to be written at that time is also one of the important points.
And, as the evaluation of the original link, if the keyword included in the anchor text is set from various places, it will be highly evaluated, so even the internal link should consist of appropriate keywords; this is only for search ranking purposes. Additionally, it contributes to usability. It is an important factor even after considering usability, so let’s build internal links with appropriate text that includes keywords so that it doesn’t look unnatural.
Also, regarding the number of internal links contained on one page, there is no particular limit. Therefore, users search and browse the page, so it is important to install it with consideration for usability and visibility should also be considered.
Internal links within the same category
It is important for internal links to connect content with related content; it seems that the ideal is internal links between pages that come and go within the same category.
