Internal linking is an integral part of the natural referencing of a website. It allows you to gradually build the structure of your website and give it relevance in the eyes of Google. In this article, we explain all about internal linking and its benefits in terms of natural referencing.
What is internal linking?
Internal linking is one of the essential techniques for the SEO of a page, an article or a product sheet. On the natural referencing basics tree , internal linking is part of part 02 on content. It is therefore a question of making your tree grow, and therefore your website, through cross-references between your different contents.
The internal mesh is therefore defined as the organization of the links of a website. Thanks to it, visitors to a page will be able to go to other pages on your website, without having to do a lot of research. This mesh therefore promotes the user experience at the same time, because it contributes to fluid and fast navigation for Internet users.
The internal linking participates in the architecture of the site since it allows to compose it. This facilitates the analysis work of Google's robots.
Related: Backlink and netlinking: what is it?
What is its importance in your referencing and for the Internet user?
As mentioned above, the internal mesh will have an impact on the navigation fluidity of your site and play a significant role for its referencing on search engines, and in particular Google.
At the navigation level, it is a question of redirecting a page A to a page B or C of your website, which are called related pages. The goal is to complete the information given to the Internet user by directing him to a page or an article answering his questions. The link can also be made to products and services that may be of interest to visitors to your website.
Finally, the internal mesh allows you to take Internet users to so-called deep pages , which are therefore difficult to access and which do not appear in your menu. These generally require more than 3 clicks and concentrate few backlinks.
As far as SEO is concerned, internal linking makes it possible both to share the popularity of the page with those that are deeper and to make traffic on the website easier. Linking thus provides the possibility of optimizing the PageRank (PR) of strategic pages.
Namely: a deep page that is not linked by an internal link will not be indexed by Google. So be vigilant and make sure to establish a rigorous linking strategy between your pages, your articles and your product sheets.
Internal linking, formerly internal PageRank?
PageRank refers to the popularity rating that Google assigns to a site's page. The page is rated between 0 and 10.
So what is the relationship between PR and internal networking? Linking simply allows PageRank to circulate between pages, to benefit the most distant and difficult to reference.
The sharing of PR is also valid with backlinks, that is to say to external sites.
Links between pages and the semantic cocoon
In addition to the PR, the semantic cocoon is also linked to the internal mesh. But what is the semantic cocoon? This is a tree strategy that consists of 4 steps:
- Determine the requests to be targeted and then classify them by family and according to the needs of Internet users.
- Think and create a tree structure according to the defined requests.
- Set up an internal link between the mother, daughter and sister pages. The mother pages are those that make their "daughters" and "sisters" benefit from their SEO power.
- Optimize pages: tags (meta description, meta title, alt and Hn), contextualization of anchors.
Here is an example to make you understand the operation and the interest of the semantic cocoon combined with the internal mesh .
You publish a mother page named "The basics of SEO", of which the current page "Tips for developing the internal linking of your website" is considered as a child.
To promote linking, you will therefore set up a dedicated system, proposed by Laurent Bourrelly. He explains in particular that it is necessary for each page:
- Insert a link to the parent page at the start of the content.
- In the body, embed lower category pages with H2 titles to describe their content.
- The footer is reserved for sibling pages. These are therefore the pages of the same level. Here, the links are written in the form of annex anchors, of the "Learn more" or "Read also" type.
Another theory put forward by SEMrush: the reasonable surfer. Developed by Google and patented in 2010 (a little while ago), the reasonable surfer method wants the Internet user to click more on the links located at the top of the page, inside the content and on those which evoke a subject close to the original theme. Our example therefore reflects the practical application of Google's reasonable surfer theory.
To optimize your semantic cocoon work, you can use a mindmapping tool. It is used to visualize your silo structure and realize your cocoon faster.
The mindmap is a practical and effective method in setting up a hierarchical and qualitative structure of your website as well as for your natural referencing.
Best practices for successful internal networking
Internal linking, like any SEO strategy, takes time and patience. But above all a good set up. Find in this part our advice to work well on your linking and make it a success!
1 - Renovate and improve your old articles to add internal links
Internal linking does not necessarily require the creation of new pages or articles. It is precisely recommended when you (re)work your natural referencing to use the existing one and optimize it for the best positions in the SERPs of Google.
Do not hesitate to take your old content and add internal linking to your new pages or to your recent articles and which will bring added value for visitors to the website.
2 - Integrate internal links to your new content
Focusing on your existing content, however, is not enough to seduce search engines. So, Google likes brand new and recent content. They give dynamics and life to your site, which does not remain only static. And it shows in SEO.
So create a strategy of regularly publishing articles with high added value to please the algorithm of Google , Yahoo or Bing. And in this content, of course, insert internal links to other relevant pages with a good PageRank.
How many must be added on a page to comply with Google's requirements? There is no minimum or maximum number to respect. As always, it is the quality and the usefulness for the Internet user that take precedence. Indeed, if one of the anchors seems to talk about a subject that is too far removed from the original subject, few people will click on it. They will certainly not understand the relationship between the two themes.
3 - Multiply internal links to pages with high conversion rates
The internal mesh is also interesting to highlight your conversion pages, that is to say purchases or contact. Make mesh between your pages that convert. For example, you can set up cross-selling (additional sales) to encourage Internet users to buy a complementary product.
Linking can therefore be used to increase your turnover!
4 - Optimize siled internal pages
The first question that comes to mind when you see this title: what is a silo? This involves grouping common topics into sections with the aim of maximizing internal cross-references between pages.
Why think of your site this way? This system provides the possibility of having an ergonomic site and giving more weight to important pages. In other words, the more links a page has pointing to it, the more it is valued.
In concrete terms, how does that work ? This results in linking in a single category of the site, with no link to the other themes covered. For example, if your site talks about business creation and you include 2 sections entitled "Legal and social" as well as "Trends 2021", you are not going to integrate a link between the 2. Your pages of the category "Legal and social" will only contain links on the subject of "Legal and social", without ever pointing to the category "Trends 2021", and vice versa.
This allows you to work more finely on each of your pages by giving them a stronger impact.
5 - Pay attention to the anchors used
As when building backlinks, the anchor of your internal links is a very important element. Thus, it is important to think carefully about the texts of each of your anchors. The text must reflect the semantic universe of the targeted page while relating to the subject of your current page. All while keeping a way of expressing yourself that is as natural as possible.
Should we put an anchor in Dofollow link ("follow the link")? Yes, it is essential to indicate it to Google so that it is taken into account for your SEO.
6 - Attention au Nofollow
Nofollow is simply the opposite of Dofollow. If you tell Google not to follow your anchor and the link inserted into it, then it will not count for your SEO. So be careful and check that all the anchors you want to reference are indicated in Dofollow.
The Nofollow can be used on your website indirectly for the good of your natural referencing, if you believe that the link in question does not need to be followed by the search engine. However, this situation rarely occurs.
7 - Pay attention to the chosen URLs
This trick allows you to properly manage the segmentation of your categories and to move easily between your content, without creating many redirects. This is very useful in the event of changes to your site (which happens regularly, because a website is constantly modified to be improved and optimized).
How to proceed ? For your URLs, put as few indications as possible on the architecture of the site, such as the category of the product in link or the dates. On WordPress, it is possible to install a specific setting that automatically uses the name of the content and nothing else: %postname%.
A great way to simplify your internal linking while offering a short URL to Google!
8 - Tracking 404 errors
And finally, we recommend that you follow the broken links, that is to say the pages indicated in error 404. Most often, these are pages whose URL has been changed, but the links which point to them retain still the original URL.
Under WordPress, a dedicated tool allows you to control all the linking of your website, for internal or external linking. You are then able to modify them or even delete them, if the page in question no longer exists.
Checking your website for 404 errors is important because someone who clicks on a link that doesn't work can get frustrated and leave your site. They therefore disadvantage the user experience as well as your SEO, because if a visitor cannot access them, neither can Google.
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