Why is Internal Linking an important aspect of SEO?

I’m glad this question has come across your mind. The internet always talks about Backlinks! Backlinks! and Backlinks! But no one is really asking about internal linking and why it’s so important.

It’s really sad to see a lot of SEO beginners always running behind backlinks without a strong internal linking strategy in place.

What are internal links?
Internal links are hyperlinks on your domain which point towards another relevant piece of information on your domain.

A strong internal linking strategy ensures that the reader stays on your domain and goes through various pieces of information. This results in a lesser bounce rate and increases your chances for ranking higher.

Did you know the top websites on Google have a bounce rate of less than 35%?

A lower bounce rate is an indication to the search engine that there is more high quality content on the website. This ensures that your website is crawled frequently and hence helps in faster indexing.

Why are internal links important?
Internal links helps your readers (traffic) discover your content better. They may come on your website seeking some information and may find more relevant information on some other article on your website.

It’s like when you go to a supermarket, there is an aisle of relevant products assembled together. This is done to ensure all the products you may be seeking are kept close to one another to make it convenient.

Why is Internal Linking an important aspect of SEO?
You keep scanning the aisle seeking products you’re interested in or might be interested in. Sometimes you’ll find an unheard product next to a very popular one.

This is done so that the supermarket can boost discovery and sales of that new unheard product.

With this example you must have understood how important and old internal linking is. You could say it’s almost an ancient technique but extremely effective till date.

Why are backlinks important?
Let’s continue the example.

When you enter a supermarket seeking a product you can either look for it yourself or ask an employee whose job is to assist you.

The employee will quickly guide you to the right aisle and save your time plus give you more information that compliments your search. In this example, the employee is your backlink.

Why is Internal Linking an important aspect of SEO?
He is the go to person for assistance and he points you towards the direction of the products you’re seeking out or might be interested in. But you need to ask the right employee.

You cannot and should not go to a cashier, a bagger, a stock clerk or a meat cutter and ask for the aisle you’re looking for. Going by this logic we can say the supermarket is Google and recognizes the roles given to the employees.

Relevant Backlinks
With the above example it should be clear what Internal and External links are. If you’re going to be referred to the aisle through a cashier then Google itself is unsure if the information provided is relevant.

Hence, while link building (external) you should be aiming for relevancy. If you’re going to get a backlink from a website whose niche is jewelry and you’re website is all about stationary, do you think Google will trust the information provided?

I’ve deviated a bit from Internal linking but I want to ensure SEO beginners know the difference between building backlinks and building quality backlinks.

Ranking on Google
Getting #1 on Google isn’t that easy. It takes a strong ON PAGE & OFF PAGE strategy to get you there.

It should go without saying but, there is NO POSSIBLE WAY for each and every article you’ve written to rank #1

So how do you get visibility for all your hard work?

The answer is simple. Internal Linking! But we’ll get back to it in a minute. Let’s go back to the example.

There is a product kept right at the start and end of the aisle. It’s there because it’s the most popular product and no matter where you enter from it has to be the first and last thing that you see.

It’s kept that way because the supermarket knows that the product is really good and a lot of people seek it. So to make it convenient for customers, it’s kept at both the ends because the supermarket knows that you’ll get what your looking for right at the start rather than scanning the entire aisle.

That’s exactly what Google does when it puts up a website on Rank #1.

Google immediately recognizes your search term and in a few milliseconds shows you its index with the most relevant piece of information right at the start.

How internal links help?
Well since you cannot rank #1 on google for all your content (unless you’re Google), you can rank for a few.

This is when your internal linking strategy comes into play. You can focus on building backlinks for a particular article which has the maximum chance for ranking #1 and use the internal links to drive traffic to the other web page.

Everyone has a style of conveying information. If you land on a page and feel that the information was conveyed in a manner most suitable to you, chances are that you’ll look into other pieces of information as well.

That is when you strategically put internal links and drive traffic from one page to another. The more hits that other page gets, the more Google notices you.

If traffic is almost always going from the landing page to the other linked page then Google’s crawl bots will notice this and browse through the other page quicker and index it.

If you’re able to drive a lot of traffic to that page then you have a shot at ranking that page as #1 as well.

It’s all connected. Hence we call it a WEBsite on the interNET.

Strategic placement of Internal Links
Why is Internal Linking an important aspect of SEO?
Since now you have an idea as to why Internal linking is important, let’s understand how it should be done.

You should NEVER have too many internal links on a webpage that isn’t relevant for the reader!

Remember the example, the aisle has relevant products next to each other and that’s how the internal links should be. If you’re talking about internal linking then you can have a link to another page regarding backlinks. After all they’re 2 sides of the same coin.

Let me give you another example.

If you’ve contacted a financial institution regarding a home loan would you like to hear about home insurance as well?

Well you might! After all it’s relevant. If you’re looking at buying a new home you will most probably look into home insurance next.

However, instead of home insurance, the salesman keeps talking about an education loan. That’s so annoying and irrelevant!

Your focus is getting a loan for the house and you will be willing to consider additional information as long as it’s relevant with your query. Trying to get you to opt in for an education loan is just bad sense of salesmanship.

Then again, the salesman has to promote the product in some manner to meet his targets and he has identified you as a potential prospect. How does he get you to buy it?

The best approach is to understand the customer and explore the possibilities in a structured manner.
Why is Internal Linking an important aspect of SEO?
A good salesman will identify opportunities by communicating with the customer and understand his lifestyle and family background.

He starts with the information on home loan and casually speaks to you about home insurance as well. While he’s on the subject of insurance he can check if you’d be interested in a family insurance plan.

He identifies the members in your family and now knows you have a kid who’ll be going to college soon.

After speaking about the family insurance he can speak with the prospect about an education loan as well since he has identified the opportunity.

Since the kid will be going to college there is a possibility he/she may need a car. Hence he talks about a car loan.

Is it relevant to what the customer came seeking for? NO! But you cannot call it irrelevant as well. The salesman has lead him from one discussion to another and finally to a discussion that will make him complete his target.

In marketing terms this is known as Internal Linking of Relevancy.

As you must have observed in this article as well. I have an internal link on backlinks which in turn has internal links for different types of backlinks which in turn have internal links to an article that explains why SEO is important and so on…

I have created a web on my site to ensure you stay on it. This helps me reduce my bounce rate which in turn indicates Google that I have more high quality content which in turn helps me get more visibility.

Understand your objective.
Why is Internal Linking an important aspect of SEO?
Your goals may be different than mine. I aim to keep you on my website to rank my articles higher on Google and hopefully rank #1 someday.

You may want to get more customers to signup or to make them purchase a product or service.

It is clear that there MUST be an internal link on your page that will help lead the customers to sign up or purchase.

You need to strategically place the sign up link in a manner which will ensure that the reader goes for it.

If your article is educating him/her about certain information then your signup link should be at the bottom. DO NOT plug in that internal link in between.

If you feel that you’ve given a solid push with your content and readers may turn into customers, only then, add the signup link in between and then at the bottom for readers who weren’t convinced earlier.

A solid internal linking strategy will get you much better results than just focusing on creating backlinks for a page that probably won’t rank #1 ever.

Conclusion
A quality backlink from a high authoritative domain will help help you drive more traffic to your website and a strong internal linking will help boost your domain authority.

As your Domain Authority increases you get noticed by Google more often. The higher your authority rises the more chances to get discovered by people.

Consider Domain Authority as a rank in military. You start of as a soldier and eventually grow in rank as time goes on. The more you’re capable, the sooner you rise in your ranking.

Similarly, the more relevant and high quality content you have, the sooner Google promotes you to a higher rank.

You can get recommended by a superior (backlink) or rise in the rank by showing your dedication and all your efforts (internal linking).

The concept is universal and you see this in everyday life. Google is set to mimic human society on the internet where it plays the role of the highest authoritative figure.

PS – If you’ve read this article and are an expert, then, let me tell you I always write articles in such a manner so that a non or new marketing guy can understand the concept.

After all my website’s tagline is Simple and Powerful and the aim is to simplify complexity.

Cheers!!

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