We’ve spent the whole month of May talking about different aspects of SEO, from link building to finding the right agency. As we wrap up this month-long focus on search engine optimization with a look at internal links on your website.

We saved internal links for last because, to be honest, they aren’t as important as some of the other SEO topics we’ve covered this month. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore your internal link structure. Today we’ll cover a few considerations, give some actionable tips, and wrap everything up with a happily ever after.

Internal Link Considerations

Developing something of an internal linking strategy doesn’t require an advanced degree in search engine optimization, but there are a few things you should understand. Keeping these considerations in mind will help you get the most possible benefit from your internal links.

• Anchor Text: Just like with external links, anchor text matters for your internal links. Your primary goal in selecting anchor text should be improving the user experience. Keywords are great if they fit the context. But keyword stuffing is never a good idea when we’re talking about search engine optimization.
• Relevance: Internal links are great and will help search engine bots better index your site. But that doesn’t mean you should go overboard. Keep internal links relevant to a page’s content.
• First Link Rule: Search bots will only follow the first link to any given page on your site. So, there isn’t much of an SEO benefit to multiple links. You’ll also have to factor in navigation links here – this means that your best off linking to deeper pages on your site (like blog posts).
• Don’t Sweat It: SEO is a game of little things, so don’t ignore your internal link structure. But don’t lose any sleep over it either. We’ll turn to some actionable internal linking tips next but handle the big issues before you dive into the rest of this article.

Internal Link Tips

Getting the most SEO benefit from your internal links is relatively simple if you follow these best practices:

Content Clean Up

If you’ve been blogging for more than a few months, then you’re probably due for a content clean up. Go through all your existing content and cull the stuff that isn’t performing or if better covered in other posts.

Once you’ve cleaned up your content, you should work back through any internal links and replace them with updated links to your better content. This will point search engine bots in the direction of your best content and focus your potential rankings where they matter most.

Related Content

I mentioned this above, but it bears repeating here: always link to content that is relevant to your current topic. There is probably not much need to link to our promotional product site (yeah, we have one of those if you are interested) in a blog post about SEO.

Linking to irrelevant content won’t earn you a Google penalty or anything, it just won’t help your SEO efforts in any noticeable way. Keep it relevant – like this link to our SEO guide for small businesses.

Links for User Experience

We all want to move the SEO needle, but the best way to do that is to create an awesome user experience. Your internal linking efforts should be all about improving the UX on your site by providing more in-depth resources and pointing to complementary content.

You’ll notice that those goals are right in line with our internal linking considerations. By focusing on UX you can improve your SEO at the same time. By focusing on SEO first, you’ll end up hurting both.

SEO Services

There are a thousand ways to improve your SEO and a good agency will know exactly how to combine those techniques in a way that fits your exact needs. When you hire Fusion Group USA to optimize your website, we will dig into your current rankings, your goals, and your competitors to craft a strategy that works for you.

Contact us today if you’re ready to see an improvement in your search engine rankings!