[There’s only one Link more powerful than the ones within your website, and he has princesses to save.]
Think about a recent (non-social media) website you visited where you had a great experience: you got all the information you needed, it didn’t take long, and browsing the site was so easy and seamless that you probably didn’t think about it much at all.
…Don’t think too hard, though, because I have a great example that may or may not have been at the top of your mind: Wikipedia! Despite being a massive website with no actual navigation menu, Wikipedia is intuitively easy to browse and read the content you want. And it’s not just Wikipedia—major retailers like Walmart or Lowe’s have similarly huge websites that serve an entirely different purpose. Still, they, too, manage to be easily navigable for the user.
What do all 3 sites have in common?
They all follow exceptional internal linking practices. Walmart and Lowe’s (as well as a slew of other major online retailers) include internal links to similar and recommended products on nearly every product page, providing opportunities to build carts and keep people shopping for longer.
As for Wikipedia, I probably don’t need to mention the famous “Wikipedia rabbit hole,” but I will, just because all those Wikipedia rabbit holes are made possible by internal links:
[Graph of a Wikipedia “rabbit hole” around the “net neutrality” topic. Every line represents an internal link to another page within the site]
An internal linking strategy isn’t the most glamorous thing to look at, discuss, or even implement. That’s probably why it is often overlooked and unheralded by website managers and marketers. But it’s best to think of internal linking as something like a light switch—you never really notice or talk about it, but if it’s missing on your site, users will be fumbling through the dark, may bump into things they don’t want, and will ultimately leave your site to get clarity elsewhere.
In the world of SEO—and increasingly AEO/AI search—following best practices with internal linking pays huge dividends. And it’s not just because links are an official Google ranking factor; proper internal linking helps keep your site organized, provides multiple content gateways for users, and keeps more users on your site for longer.
To master your own internal link strategy, you’ll need to properly execute in three distinct areas: site structure, anchor text selection, and link placement. I’ll explain all of these, but first, let’s take a step back and look at what an internal link is, where you usually find them in websites, and how they’re typically used.
Internal Links 101
Internal links are links that point to other pages on your website, as opposed to external links, which point to a different website. Now, external links have their place, but since you want to keep as many people on your site as possible, for as long as possible, internal links are much more helpful for that purpose.
Internal links are often embedded in “anchor text,” which is simply the on-page text that contains the link. If you’ve used Wikipedia, every time you click a link from one article to another, you are clicking on anchor text. The anchor text is more than just window dressing for a link; it signals to the user what the linked page will be about, so it’s important to develop clear and practical anchor text strategies.
Ideally, you want internal links on every page of your website, and you’ve definitely already seen them in their various forms, which include buttons with call-to-action text (“Contact Us,” “Get A Quote,” etc.), links in the footer of a site, and in-text links to other relevant pages. With proper anchor text, users will glide through the pages of your site, soaking up all the information they need, before ultimately landing on your contact or purchasing page.
Getting excited? Hear that sizzle? That’s the satisfying sound of sweet, sweet internal links, turning your website from a cold fridge whose only visitor is your sister salmonella to a piping-hot stove crackling with traffic from all over the internet.
Ok, so I’m hungry for breakfast while writing this—it’s still a great metaphor! Let’s skip the sausage and get right into how site structure lays the foundation for excellent internal linking.
Site Structure
[Credit: Yoast]
Proper internal linking is more easily achievable with proper site structure. For example, if you have a website that sells shoes, you wouldn’t want to just put every single shoe you sell on the same page, where users would have to scroll endlessly to find what they’re looking for. Instead, you’d want to break down your online inventory into category pages, such as “running shoes,” “dress shoes,” “casual shoes,” etc. And if you sell more than just shoes, you’ll want category pages above that—think “shirts,” “hats,” “belts,” etc.
You’ll also likely want other pages on your site, such as a blog. To keep this example simple, we would have internal links to the shoe category pages on the home page, links to relevant product pages on each category page, and have blog posts linking both to category and product pages. This creates a nice, tight information loop that offers users multiple avenues to shop, learn, and ultimately purchase, all while keeping them on your site and giving them no reason to leave.
Translated to a service industry website—let’s say a local HVAC installer—the category pages would instead be “digest pages:” pages that describe all services offered and link out to those individual service pages.
For HVAC, the digest page could simply be called “HVAC Services,” and it would link out to individual service pages for “Heating Installation,” “A/C Installation,” “HVAC Repair,” and so on. Then, these service pages would include links to each other and to relevant blogs, a contact page, FAQ page, case studies, galleries, or other helpful internal pages.
Here’s an example of this in action, where a service page links to another service page (link is highlighted):
No matter what you’re writing about, blog posts should always link back to service, digest, category, or product pages, and include plenty of tags and categories themselves so users can easily access all the relevant information about a topic under one roof (your website). Again, the goal here is to structure your site so that internal links can be used to keep users reading and clicking through your site, building interest and hopefully moving them down the sales funnel as they go.
Anchor Text
Have you ever clicked on a link on a website, but then found it took you to a page you were not expecting or it wasn’t quite what you were looking for? This actually happened to me while writing this very article: I was reading a blog about internal linking, and I clicked on an internal link (I know, we’re getting into Inception territory here—hang with me). The anchor text for the link was “links are an official Google ranking factor.”
Now, judging by the anchor text, I was expecting it to be an external link to Google’s official guidelines about internal links. However, this link instead took me to a general SEO service page on the same site, something I neither expected nor wanted.
This frustrated me, so I left the website and just found the Google guidelines on my own.
It was a great example of why anchor text matters: it is a signpost of where your link is going to take a user, so it needs to be as accurate as possible. Nobody likes to be misled, and misleading anchor text will cause people to get frustrated and leave your site, just like I did.
[An example of a keyword (“patio doors”) used as anchor text in a blog post that links to the corresponding service page]
Other important tips for anchor text:
- Keep it Short: Try to keep most anchor text for links no longer than 3-5 words or less.
- Use Keywords When Possible: If you’re a landscaping company, use service keywords like “landscape design” or “brick paver patios” as anchor text; this will help search engines quickly understand your site architecture and which queries to rank it for. This will also help keep your anchor text short and as accurate as possible.
- Only Use 1 Anchor Text Per Link, Per Page: Don’t spam your site copy with the same anchor text going to the same places. It’s annoying to look at, seems like you’re trying too hard to please the search engine, and carries no practical SEO benefit.
Link Placement & Quantity
As I mentioned in the previous section, even though internal links are beneficial, you don’t want to overdo it. Too many internal links on a page might signal SEO spam, could compromise readability, and in general can make your copy seem fishy or inauthentic.
We in the digital marketing industry call this “internal link spamming,” and it can take different forms. Sometimes, it’s just an overzealous blogger trying to jam as many links to their service pages in a post as possible; other times, it’s a developer who thinks they’re being super clever by jamming a link to every page of the website into the footer:
In general, you should follow these rules to avoid spamming users with internal links:
Only include links where they are relevant/appropriate: Don’t just try and mash internal links and keyword anchor text into every piece of content. Users and search engines both appreciate relevancy, so if you write an entire post and you find that you don’t have a relevant link to include, either rewrite the post or just let it go—choose accuracy and relevancy over simply including a link for the sake of it.
Limit internal links to 1-3 per 500 words: This generally applies to blog posts and service pages; avoid stacking internal links, listing them one right after another, and placing excessive amounts of internal links in any one area of the site. This can compromise readability, due to the different text formatting, and with so many options, users may only click on one or none of the links due to being overwhelmed.
List only critical pages in website footers: Website footers are a great opportunity to add internal links, but there’s no need to go insane. Footers should have links to all major service pages, contact pages, about/FAQ pages, troubleshooting, the blog page (but not individual blog posts), resources (but not every resource page), and any other critical URLs you have.
For example, this is a perfectly reasonable footer for a small website. It could probably include a few more links, maybe to major pest categories, but otherwise, they are rocking it by keeping it simple:
Even a giant website like Target has a very reasonable footer:
As you can see, there is plenty of room on your website to include all those juicy, necessary internal links, so you don’t have to spam anyone to get the results you’re looking for.
Beyond Blue Media: Link Wizards For Hire
At Beyond Blue Media, we love a good link, internal, external, pork, chicken—doesn’t matter. We know how powerful the link juice can be. So if you find yourself without the time or energy to commit to internal linking, if you have additional questions about SEO/AEO services, or if you just need someone to handle your whole marketing kit ‘n caboodle, Beyond Blue Media has done it a thousand times. Contact us today to see how we can help grow your business online!
