What is the importance of internal linking for on-site optimization?
While many site owners put their internal links on the back burner in favor of other on-page optimization strategies, these tiny hyperlinks can actually boost your keyword ranking positions.
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When Google crawls your website, it uses both your sitemap and the links on your pages to discover which pages are relevant for a particular search query. This means that every page you want to rank for a keyword should have at least one internal link pointing to it from another page of your site.
These links are an important part of SEO because they help users navigate your content, make it easier for search engines to index your content, and communicate to search engine algorithms which pages on your site are most valuable.
You can use internal links to create clusters of relevant content that cover a topic in-depth, establishing yourself as an authority on the subject and helping Google to better understand your relevance to a specific search term.
The more contextually relevant your internal links are, the higher your content ranks in the search engines for those keywords.
Contextual links also improve user experience by making it easy for users to find related information within your content and reducing bounce rates.
Moreover, contextually relevant internal links can help you increase the length of time that users stay on your site. This increases the amount of time that you can earn their attention and potentially convert them into customers.
It’s important to note that internal links aren’t the only way to optimize your content for SEO; external links also play an important role. However, they should only be used in situations where it makes sense and isn’t disrupting your site structure.
Your main goal when creating an internal linking strategy is to guide users from your home page (where most of your website’s traffic is gathered) to your conversion pages. This helps to increase the overall conversion rate of your site by guiding them to the most relevant and useful content on your website.
In addition, this can boost your link juice earnings potential, by creating clear click paths and ensuring that your internal links are spread across the entire site.
This can be difficult for large sites with a lot of pages to get right, but if you have the time and resources, it can be a great way to boost your site’s search engine rankings.
The most effective internal link structure for SEO involves a set of links to all the key pages on your site, organized in a logical hierarchy. The pillars of this strategy should be the main navigation menu, product categories, and primary services.
You can also use internal links to point from your top landing pages to your blog posts or articles that attract the most traffic. This can help to channel users from high-traffic blog posts to more targeted landing pages that are optimized for conversion.