A Complete Guide to Internal Website Linking

What is interlinking?

Interlinking is the connection of website pages with each other using hyperlinks. There are two types of interlinking: internal and external. Internal links are links between pages on the same website, while external links are hyperlinks between pages on different websites.

In this article we will talk specifically about internal website linking.

Why is interlinking necessary?

First, let’s understand why interlinking is important. Properly placed internal links serve many useful functions, both for improving the user experience and for solving technical optimization problems:

1. Redirecting users to the desired pages. For example, you wrote a product review and included a link to the product card in the review. Users can go directly to the product page from the review, which is much more convenient than searching for the product through the catalog on the website.
2. Stimulating site exploration. Invite users to pages that interest them, such as similar or popular products (services, articles) on the website. This way, they’ll explore more pages and are more likely to satisfy their initial need.
3. Improving website indexing. This is especially important for large websites. Proper interlinking allows search engines to quickly direct search engines to the desired page, which improves site crawling and speeds up indexing.
4. Distribution of “link weight” of pages. Internal links transfer some of the document’s “weight.” This is used both to promote the most prioritized URLs and to transfer some of the weight of already promoted pages to other, less-promoted ones.
5. Fixing relevance conflicts. Internal links with anchors help search engines better and more accurately evaluate which pages correspond to which queries.
6. Improving behavioral indicators. As users navigate the site, navigate to new pages, and explore them, the time spent on the site and the depth of the page view increase, while the bounce rate decreases. For search engines, these are signals that the site is high-quality and interesting to people.

Types and kinds of interlinking

Internal linking

As mentioned earlier, internal linking is the linking between pages on a single website. Let’s take a look at the different types of internal linking.

Automatic interlinking

Automatic interlinking is the automatic placement of internal links based on preset rules. This type of interlinking is particularly useful for large websites with too many pages to visit each one manually. Various blocks are used for this type of interlinking, such as a block with related products, tags, or a cross-cutting block with interesting and new blog content.

An example of internal linking in an article: https://dits.md/ranzhirovanie-sajta/

Manual interlinking

Manually inserting internal links is only suitable for small sites where it is possible to go to each page and edit it, adding internal links.

Anchor and non-anchor

Interlinking can be anchored or non-anchored. Anchored interlinking is links with a text anchor that matches the accepting page. This type of interlinking is suitable for promoting a page based on the query used in the anchor or for resolving relevance conflicts. Non-anchored interlinking is links without a text anchor or links using common anchor words (here, here, by link, etc.). Non-anchored links help avoid penalties due to anchor spam and achieve results.

Contextual and end-to-end

Internal linking can be implemented through contextual and cross-site links. Contextual linking is links within the page content. Cross-site linking is links that are placed on all pages of the site.

Navigational interlinking

Navigational links are links in menus, interlinking blocks, the website footer, and the logo. These links help users navigate and move around the website.

External linking

External linking is a link between pages on different websites. When creating such links, ensure you use a hyperlink, that the source and destination pages match each other in content, and that the link looks natural. An example of external linking is a media publication with a link to your website.

An example of external linking is the link to Google Search Console in the article https://dits.md/long-tail-seo/

How to choose pages to link to

Pages that link to other pages are called donors. Pages that are linked to are called acceptors. The selection of donors and acceptors depends on the task. Let’s look at how to select pages for interlinking based on specific goals.

Cross-linking to improve indexing

We select pages based on the following parameters:

• They are located at 5 or more levels of nesting. Netpeak Spider and Screaming Frog crawlers will help you find these pages. Scan your site and open the nesting depth report. Select pages at levels 5 and higher and add internal links to them from second- and third-level URLs. This interlinking will allow search engine robots to access deeper URLs more quickly.

• Few incoming links. You can find such URLs using the same crawlers. Scan the site and sort pages by the number of incoming internal links. Select URLs that receive few incoming links, for example, fewer than 5.

• Rarely visited by search engines. To find such pages, analyze your site logs. Filter out URLs that are visited less frequently by search engines. You can also view the page’s crawl date in Google Search Console. Link to such URLs from frequently visited pages. Here’s an example of a page that hasn’t been visited by search engines in a while.

• New pages. Create a cross-linking block that will automatically add links to the site’s new URLs. This block should be placed on the homepage or second-level pages. Example of a block on a news website.

Be sure to check that the pages are actually needed in the index and that they are not closed from indexing.

Internal linking for page promotion

Choose pages that are interesting from a business perspective.

• with high traffic potential
• that generate a lot of sales and income
• which need to be pushed a little further to reach the TOP

An example of sorting pages that can generate the most traffic.

After selecting 30-50 target pages, find as many URLs as possible from which you can place an internal link and add it. After the next site scan, search engines will see a large number of internal links to several pages and will boost their search results.

Interlinking to improve user experience

Select the most relevant pages and create internal links between them. Your goal is to engage users. You can use Google Analytics to select pages. See which pages people spend time on. It’s worth linking them together.

Cross-linking to fix relevance conflicts

First, you need to find relevance conflicts. To do this, you need a compiled and clustered semantic core. Extract relevant URLs from across the entire semantic core and check if there are pages that rank for multiple query clusters. Then, check if there are pages for these clusters. If there is a separate page, you have a relevance conflict. In this case, add an anchor link from the first page to the second, as if stating that information on the topic is available at a different URL.

Selecting anchors for interlinking

Once you’ve selected the pages you want to link to, you need to choose the link text. We recommend choosing anchor text as follows:

1. To improve indexing, select any relevant anchor.
2. To boost a small group of pages, choose target keywords as anchors. These can be low- and mid-frequency keywords, or a single high-frequency keyword. But be careful. The anchor should be relevant to the page. Also, add a few anchors like “read here,” “available at this link,” and so on to avoid spamming.
3. Interlinking to improve user experience requires choosing anchors that immediately indicate where the user will go. Remember, this type of interlinking should help people, meaning the user should understand what will happen and where they will end up.
4. To resolve relevance conflicts, follow these steps: Select one high-volume or medium-volume keyword that should rank on another page. Use this high-volume keyword as the link anchor.

Ways to add internal links

After selecting the linking pages and anchors, you should have a clear understanding of the donors, the destination, and the purpose of the link. The final step is choosing the interlinking method.

Navigation elements

The most common method of interlinking is through navigation elements. These are typically static blocks on all pages or blocks that are generated automatically based on rules.

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are a chain of links that show the path to a page. This type of interlinking is convenient because it allows users to quickly return to the previous level and clearly shows where the user is currently located.

Cross-cutting links

Sitewide links are links placed on all pages of a website. They help quickly navigate to the desired content from any section. They’re also a convenient tool for creating multiple hyperlinks to specific pages that need to be optimized or that are popular with users. Sitewide links are found in the website header and footer, menu, and logo.

Special blocks

Special interlinking blocks are various types of dynamic blocks that contain links to new or popular pages. For example, a block labeled “popular products in category X.”

Contextual interlinking

Contextual interlinking is links within the page’s content. This type of interlinking is typically done manually and is more effective.

Text interlinking

Interlinking directly within the text content of pages. For example, in an article about grape treatment, a link to the preparations used for treatment is added.

Cross-linking in images

A type of interlinking where an image is a link to another page.

Internal linking schemes

To enhance the effectiveness of interlinking, various linking schemes are used. There are several “classic” schemes, which we will describe below. Of course, there are many more schemes, but they are designed for the needs and capabilities of specific websites, not for every website.

All-to-all interlinking or “star”

The simplest scheme is that all website pages are linked to each other and receive the same weight in search engines.

With this type of website interlinking, pages rank well for queries with similar search volume and competition. This scheme is suitable if you promote all pages with equal effort. This type of interlinking is suitable for promoting pages based on high-frequency queries.

Interlinking in a circle and in a target or ring

With this type of interlinking, pages link to each other in a circular fashion, and then a link is placed to a single URL, such as the homepage or the one targeted for the most competitive and high-frequency keyword. This type of interlinking is suitable for promoting a page for high-frequency keywords.

And with this construction, it is possible to convey more significance and weight to the target website URL.

With this interlinking scheme, there’s no risk of links disappearing, as the pages back each other up. Even if a URL drops out of the search results, the interlinking will remain intact and continue to work.

There is also a more complex and “advanced” ring interlinking scheme.

With this scheme, we create two rings that interact with each other and support each other. The second (outer) ring adds weight to the first, and the first transfers this weight to the page being promoted.

Interlinking by rank or hierarchical scheme

The idea behind this scheme is as follows: categories promote products, products in turn promote the main product, and the main product promotes categories.

It looks like all the URLs are boosting each other, but no. This scheme has a clear structure that ensures the correct weight is transferred to all pages.

This type of interlinking is suitable for online stores, service websites, and information portals. External links are used to promote category and subcategory pages, including the homepage. Internal links transfer the resulting value to products, services, and articles.

If you are promoting several complex queries, use the following scheme:

Pushing through TOP pages

This isn’t exactly a diagram, but rather a principle of interlinking. The idea is to include as many links as possible to landing pages. For a single landing page, the diagram looks like this:

This type of interlinking ensures that maximum weight is transferred to the target URL and that it increases in search results.

Interlinking for low-frequency queries

The idea behind this scheme is to transfer search weight from first- and second-level pages to third- and fourth-level pages optimized for low-volume queries. Third- and fourth-level pages are linked into a single large ring to distribute the weight evenly.

Let’s summarize the different types of interlinking schemes:

Interlinking scheme	What queries is it suitable for?	Target
All-to-all interlinking or “star”	Mid-frequency queries	Uniform promotion of pages for mid-range queries
Interlinking in a circle and in a target or ring	High-frequency requests	Promotion of one page for a high-frequency query
Interlinking by rank or hierarchical scheme	Mid- and low-frequency queries	Uniform promotion of product/service pages for mid- and low-frequency queries
Pushing through TOP pages	Mid- and low-frequency queries	Transferring the maximum weight to one page
Interlinking for low-frequency queries	Low-frequency queries	Promotion by low-frequency queries

Rules and common mistakes in interlinking

Interlinking rules

When building interlinks on a website, it is necessary to adhere to a number of rules

Don’t use only anchor links. This is perceived as spam. Also, use non-anchor links, links through images, etc.
Avoid placing multiple links from one page. This will transfer minimal value, rendering the links meaningless. Furthermore, search engines will view such pages with suspicion.
Moreover, don’t place multiple identical links from one page to another. This is ineffective in terms of both transferring authority and improving user behavior.
Choose relevant anchor text for internal linking. The link text should match the page it points to. Search engines may consider irrelevant internal links to be manipulation.
Choose relevant donor and acceptor pages. Interlinking should look natural and provide value to the user. A link to a page called “Adidas men’s sneakers” from a page called “Men’s sneakers” looks natural and will be useful, while a link to a page called “Cat food” from a page called “Dog food” looks unnatural and is clearly of no use to someone looking for dog food.

Internal linking errors

1. 404 pages are involved in the interlinking.
   Such pages provide no benefit to users and are viewed negatively by search engines. Furthermore, a 404 document is a dead end in the linking scheme. The optimal solution would be to remove the link to the 404 page or link it to another relevant URL.
2. Interlinking involves pages with a critically small number of outgoing links.
   Such pages are also dead ends in interlinking because they don’t pass link equity on. The exception is landing pages. They should accumulate link equity. URLs that link to landing pages may also have few outgoing links. Such URLs should accumulate link equity so that it can be passed on to the landing page, not to other pages.
3. Building interlinks between pages at a deep nesting level.
   The deeper a page is located, the less significant it is, according to search engines. There’s no point in linking pages deeper than level 5, as they don’t carry enough weight to be effective. Also, deep pages are rarely visited by search engines, meaning you have to wait a very long time for results.
4. Setting the nofollow attribute for internal links.
   Nofollow prevents search engine robots from following a link. If a robot doesn’t follow the link, it won’t receive full information about the internal linking, and all efforts will be in vain. Be sure to check that the links involved in the internal linking don’t contain the nofollow attribute.
5. Using pages closed from indexing in interlinking.
   Pages blocked from indexing are not included in rankings, do not gain search engine rankings, and are rarely visited by search engines. Such pages will not be able to perform interlinking tasks, such as transferring search engine rankings and improving indexing.

Programs and services for building internal linking

1. Website crawlers – Netpeak Spider, Screaming Frog, and others. Crawlers help find deep-level pages, dead-end pages, or pages with few incoming links. A crawler is essentially the primary tool for selecting URLs for internal linking. Crawlers also show 404 pages and nofollow links. You can export a list of these errors and fix them.

2. Automatic interlinking plugins. These allow you to create rules for inserting internal links into your website’s content. For example, you might want to promote a laptop catalog. The plugin will find all pages that contain the word “laptop” in various forms and add a link to the catalog. Be sure to restrict each page to only one link.

Most CMSs don’t have ready-made solutions for building internal linking. But if you have a WordPress site, use plugins:

• Link Whisper
• Rank Math
• Yoast SEO
• Interlinks Manager
• Internal Link Juicer

3. Website log analysis software. These programs allow you to quickly analyze the website page visits made by search bots.

Use GoAccess, Splunk, Loggly, Logstash, Screaming Frog Log Analyzer

The Role of a Blog in Building Internal Links

Finally, we’d like to discuss the role of a blog in internal linking. A blog is a section with articles that serve the purpose of attracting traffic for informational queries or confirming expertise through high-quality, useful articles. High-quality articles are in demand; they are accessed from search results or directly through the website. A blog also attracts good external link traffic, which increases its weight.

Overall, high-quality blog articles gain significant weight and can share this weight with other pages. A good interlinking strategy involves developing your blog and creating internal links from it to target pages. This strategy will redirect new users to commercial pages and simultaneously boost their traffic by transferring value. Another benefit of interlinking from a blog is that the effect accumulates over time. Older content gains weight over time, and as you add new articles, the number and quality of internal links increases.

Conclusions

Let’s summarize all of the above

• Building proper interlinking is a long and labor-intensive process. There are quick and easy solutions, but they are less effective.
• Interlinking should serve specific purposes, and not be an illogical and confusing mass of internal links.
• Carefully select donor, acceptor, and anchor pages for your links. Monitor your results by regularly monitoring your rankings and adjust your interlinking as needed.
• Think not only about short-term results, but also about long-term strategy.

Source: Iprospect