Internal Linking for SEO Improves Page Ranking

Internal linking with SEO in mind is a surefire way of improving the ranking results of a page in search engines.

It is well known that Google in particular tracks the links coming into a site from external sources. But internal links also matter because they make pages easier to find.

This is especially important for pages that reside deep inside a site. For example, it takes three or more clicks from the homepage to reach them.

Both quantity and quality matter for external links. The more links, the better — as long as they come from quality sources. The higher the ranks of the linking pages, the better.

The same concepts hold true for links within a site.

Once again, the more links, the better. The higher the ranks of the linking pages, the better.

How to Build SEO for Internal Linking

Several simple steps will make it easy to boost SEO for internal pages. But these steps also are tedious and require a lot of work.

1. Identify the most important pages on the site. Their importance is determined by the revenue they produce, their ability to attract return visits and their existing rank in search engines.
2. Identify the most important RELATED pages on the site. The relevance of linking pages adds value to the link.
3. Place the link in a prominent position, but be aware of the risk of sending people away from the landing page too quickly.
4. Use relevant text in the anchor link, but be careful about using it too much. Vary the linking text as much as possible.

Focus on Top Performers

It’s better to concentrate on already highly ranked pages that may move even higher in the rankings than succumbing to the temptation to go after sexy pages that don’t rank at all.

Moving a page from t#10 in Google results even to the #3 position will bring far more results than pushing a page from #200 to #20, which will get few if any clicks.

The one downside to this approach is competition. Not surprisingly, the competition to get to the top of search results is intense and getting more so as more sites and pages appear online.

When using internal linking to improve the SEO of a page, it also is important to consider what else is on the page that contains the link.

Too many other links will dilute the voting power of the link being used to target the other page.

Finally, consider whether that page could be used to link to something else instead. Link value is a precious resource that needs to be used carefully.

If the targeted page doesn’t show meaningful improvement within a matter of weeks or one to two months, reconsider using the links for other pages that have a better chance at moving up in rank.