- What makes internal links so important in the first place?<\/a><\/li>
- How important are internal links to Google?<\/a><\/li>
- Evidence for the impact of internal links<\/a><\/li>
- A step-by-step plan to optimize your internal links<\/a><\/li>
- Technical link optimization<\/a><\/li>
- In conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n
And if you\u2019re still a bit unsure what internal links are, see our wiki article \u201cInternal Linking<\/a>\u201d for some foundational knowledge to help you use this guide.<\/p>\n
What makes internal links so important in the first place?<\/h2>\n
First of all, internal links allow visitors to navigate your website<\/strong>. Without links, there would be no way for them to click from one page to another. And Google\u2019s web crawler<\/a> wouldn\u2019t be able to move from page to page, either.<\/p>\n
From an SEO perspective, internal links are like arteries in the human circulation system. Metaphorically speaking, they pass on what is often called link juice<\/a>, link equity or link value. It is the authority\/relevance that is passed on from page to page through links.<\/p>\n
(Please note that this is just a simplification of how links work for SEO. Google’s algorithms are much more complex in reality. However, we use this metaphor as it’s really helpful to understand the importance of links and how to optimize them. For an in-depth analysis of the concept, we recommend this article on Search Engine Land<\/a>.)<\/p>\n
So this link juice contains “positive ranking signals” that are passed to your website via backlinks<\/a> and then transported to your subpages through internal linking.<\/p>\n
This way, internal linking helps improve the relevance of the linked pages. By distributing external authority signals, they strengthen your whole website.<\/p>\n
Pages without incoming internal links are often referred to as \u201corphan pages<\/a>\u201d. As they don\u2019t get any internal link juice, it\u2019s hard for these pages to rank well \u2013 especially in competitive areas.<\/p>\n
In a nutshell: Your pages can only attain their full ranking potential with a good network of internal links.<\/strong><\/p>\n
How important are internal links to Google?<\/h2>\n
Over the last two decades, multiple Google employees have confirmed that internal links are important. They always emphasize that they help Google recognize a website\u2019s \u201cimportant\u201d pages<\/strong>. Google\u2019s John Mueller confirmed this as recently as March 2022<\/a>:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something where internal linking is super critical for SEO.<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s one of the biggest things that you can do on a website to kind of guide Google and guide visitors to the pages that you think are important.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
John concludes with a remarkable statement:<\/p>\n
And ideally, you should not just have a basic set of links, but rather you should look at it in a strategic way and think about what do you care about the most and how can you highlight that with your internal linking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What he means by \u201cbasic set of links\u201d are probably navigation links, which most websites generally have, since they\u2019re typically inserted automatically by your CMS<\/a> (such as WordPress). <\/p>\n
The important thing about John\u2019s remark is that beyond navigation links, it\u2019s important to build more internal links into your website \u2013 and to do so strategically<\/strong>. <\/p>\n
Below, you\u2019ll learn how that works. But first, we\u2019re going to take a look at what the current evidence on internal links actually says.<\/p>\n
Evidence for the impact of internal links<\/h2>\n
There have been multiple studies on internal linking in the form of correlation analyses.<\/p>\n
Yes, yes, we all know you have to treat correlation analyses with caution. Correlation isn\u2019t causation. But despite that, correlation analyses are still one of the best analytic tools that we can use as SEOs.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there are two solid and recent studies on internal linking.<\/p>\n
- \n
- AuthorityHacker: What Data Says About 1 Million Internal Links And How You Can Use It To Improve Your Rankings<\/a> (February 2022)<\/li>\n
- Zyppy: 23 Million Internal Links \u2013 SEO Case Study<\/a> (July 2022)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Both studies reach the conclusion that there\u2019s a strong correlation between internal links and Google rankings<\/strong>. Here\u2019s a summary of the most important findings.<\/p>\n
AuthorityHacker<\/h3>\n
- \n
- Data set: Around 1 million internal links from 10,000 webpages that rank on the first page of Google\u2019s search results.<\/li>\n
- High-ranking pages have more incoming internal links \u2013 primarily from pages that in turn have many backlinks from various domains.<\/li>\n
- Pages that are the target of a lot of unique link texts<\/a> are very strongly correlated with high rankings.<\/li>\n
![\"Authority](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/authority-hacker-1.jpg\")
\nX axis: number of unique link texts; Y axis: Google ranking (source<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n- Better ranking pages are located higher in the website\u2019s hierarchy. That is, they\u2019re \u201ccloser\u201d to the homepage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Zyppy<\/h3>\n
- \n
- Data set: Around 23 million internal links from 1,800 different websites (approximately 520,000 pages).<\/li>\n
- This study also found a strong correlation between link text variants and rankings.<\/li>\n
![\"Zippy\"](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/zippy-1.png\")
\nSource<\/a><\/small><\/p>\nHere\u2019s a quote from the study:<\/p>\n
The relationship between anchor text variety of internal links and Google search clicks was so strong<\/strong> that we ran the data three times. Even after eliminating nearly all the outliers (close to 50% of all URLs), the numbers kept increasing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
- Although Google itself and most SEOs advise against using naked URLs (such as https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/<\/a>) as an anchor text, this study found that it doesn\u2019t harm rankings.<\/li>\n
- Pages that are linked with exact-match link texts get five times as much traffic as pages without such links. (Exact-match link texts consist of precisely the keywords that a page is intended to rank for. For example: \u201cbrown table.\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
How valid are the results of these two studies?<\/h3>\n
Even if 23 million sounds like a huge sample size, the number of internal links on the Web is much larger. According to internet live stats<\/a>, there are close to 2 BILLION websites, which most definitely have multiple internal links.<\/p>\n
In addition, these are only correlation studies. The results aren\u2019t absolute scientific truth<\/strong>. But they do show some interesting tendencies.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s notable that both studies reach the same conclusions about the variability of link texts<\/strong>. Of course, there could be alternative explanations. For example, the pages could have high rankings because they treat a topic extensively and cover it from a lot of angles. That could make it more likely for them to have various unique link texts. An article that discusses five ideas can be linked with a more diverse set of link phrases than an article that only describes one idea.<\/p>\n
So is it the variety of link texts that leads to higher rankings? Or is it the quality and volume of the content that leads to a wider variety of link texts on average? Would these pages still rank higher even without varying link texts?<\/p>\n
Those are fascinating questions \u2013 that we\u2019ll probably never learn the answer to. So a bit of skepticism about these studies is definitely appropriate.<\/p>\n
Tip: It\u2019s worth reading the two studies for yourself. In this article, we\u2019ve only summarized the most important findings.<\/p>\n
But now let\u2019s look at how you can use these insights to optimize your internal links!<\/p>\n
A step-by-step plan to optimize your internal links<\/h2>\n
Remember the quote from John Mueller above? You should look at internal linking in a \u201cstrategic way\u201d<\/em>. But what does that mean?<\/p>\n
Having a strategy for building internal links means first of all not just scattering them across your whole website without a second thought. You need a systematic approach.<\/p>\n
It would be naive to claim that there\u2019s only one correct system. As always in SEO, you\u2019ll have to run tests and find out for yourself how to maximize the ranking benefit of internal links for your website. To do this, you can proceed step by step<\/strong>:<\/p>\n
- \n
- First select the important pages that you want to rank higher.<\/li>\n
- Get a comprehensive overview of your website\u2019s current internal linking.<\/li>\n
- Fix any problems with your internal links that might be hindering better rankings.<\/li>\n
- Identify the best link sources on your website.<\/li>\n
- Add new links \u2013 but add them strategically.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Let\u2019s take a look at each of these steps in detail.<\/p>\n
Step 1: Select your most important pages<\/h3>\n
As we mentioned at the beginning, internal links are an important tool for telling Google which pages on your website are most important.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why your very first step should be to figure out which pages are important and deserve a higher ranking.<\/p>\n
If your website only has a few dozen pages, that shouldn\u2019t be too difficult. But if there are hundreds or thousands of pages (or more), then a systematic process is needed. <\/p>\n
With an online shop, for example, it would make sense to choose the product or category pages with the highest sales potential or the highest conversion rate<\/a>. The specific process will differ for each website and company, however.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, your analysis will give you a list of the most important pages that you want to rank higher on Google<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Step 2: Get an overview of your internal links<\/h3>\n
After that, you need to get a clear overview of your current internal link structure.<\/p>\n
![\"Seobility](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/seobility-dashboard-1.png\")
<\/p>\nIn the Seobility dashboard, you\u2019ll discover an interesting number (1): the average number of internal links per page<\/strong> (or the total number of internal links divided by the number of pages). On our site, that number is 44, which suggests that the \u201caverage\u201d is pretty good. According to the Zyppy study, 20\u201340 links is relatively good, although that\u2019s just a rough guideline, of course.<\/p>\n
But we still need to take a closer look. Therefore, we\u2019ll look at the \u201cTop pages<\/strong>\u201d list.<\/p>\n
Onpage \u2192 Structure \u2192 Top pages<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"top](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/top-pages.png\")
<\/p>\nThis list includes the most important pages on your site from an SEO perspective. It is based on the current number and quality of internal links of each page. <\/p>\n
If one of your priority pages from step 1 isn\u2019t showing up here, it may be an indication that it needs to be linked more often. And the opposite is also true. If the list contains pages that are less important for your site from a strategic perspective, you should ask yourself why they\u2019re linked so often and if the number of links could possibly be reduced.<\/p>\n
By clicking on one of the URLs, you can easily find out which pages link to it.<\/p>\n
Onpage \u2192 Page details \u2192 Links<\/p>\n
![\"incoming](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/incoming-links.png\")
<\/p>\nWhen you\u2019re taking stock of your internal links, another important thing to look at is the link distance<\/strong>. To let Google know that a certain page is important, it should be located as close to your homepage as possible.<\/p>\n
The \u201cPage levels\u201d analysis in Seobility shows you how \u201cdeep\u201d your link structure is. <\/p>\n
Onpage \u2192 Structure \u2192 Page levels<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"page](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/page-levels.png\")
<\/p>\nIn the example, a value of 6 would mean that Google or a human visitor has to click six times to get to these pages. So they shouldn\u2019t be that important, right? Let\u2019s take a look at the report.<\/p>\n
![\"page](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/page-levels-details.png\")
<\/p>\nAs a matter of fact, these pages really aren\u2019t that crucial for the overall success of the Seobility website. If you do find important pages in this list, link them closer to your homepage<\/strong>. Ideally, you should be able to reach your important pages in less than three or four clicks starting from the homepage or from an important link hub. (We\u2019ll come back to the topic of \u201clink hubs\u201d in a moment.)<\/p>\n
Step 3: Fix problems with your internal links<\/h3>\n
Internal links can be affected by a variety of problems. You should fix these problems so that your internal links can unleash their full impact.<\/p>\n
Broken links<\/h4>\n
Links with a 404 status code<\/a> that point to a non-existent page should be removed, corrected, or redirected using a 301 redirect<\/a>. Dead links aren\u2019t just bad for user-friendliness. They also send link juice down the drain. With Seobility, you\u2019ll find dead links in the \u201cTechnical problems\u201d analysis.<\/p>\n
Onpage \u2192 Tech & meta \u2192 Crawling statistics \u2192 Pages with technical problems<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"technical](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/technical-problems.png\")
<\/p>\nLinks to internal redirects<\/h4>\n
Redirects<\/a> are very convenient when you need to change a page\u2019s URL, such as when you\u2019re moving your website to a new domain.<\/p>\n
However, you shouldn\u2019t use redirecting URLs in internal links. Add a direct link to the target of the redirect instead. This way you avoid potential errors in case the redirect is removed at some point in the future. It also ensures that the link juice reaches the target page without making any detours.<\/p>\n
Luckily, Seobility provides a list of all internal redirects found on your website.<\/p>\n
Onpage \u2192 Structure \u2192 Links \u2192 Redirects<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"redirects\"](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/redirects.png\")
<\/p>\nDelete unnecessary links<\/h4>\n
If your pages have too many links, you\u2019ll need to tend your link garden by pulling the weeds. This can be just as important as adding new links.<\/p>\n
Optimizing your internal link structure really is a lot like gardening. A neatly structured garden lets the most beautiful flowers bloom in full glory, and that\u2019s how it works with your internal pages, too.<\/p>\n
By deleting less important links, you create space for the truly important ones. But what makes a link less important? <\/p>\n
Suppose you run an online sock shop. The main menu has 8 links to various categories.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Black socks<\/li>\n
- Blue socks<\/li>\n
- White socks<\/li>\n
- Purple socks<\/li>\n
- Pink socks<\/li>\n
- Spotted cow socks<\/li>\n
- Christmas socks<\/li>\n
- Humorous socks<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
In your experience, only the first three sock categories are big sellers. So why should the other categories get just as much link power as your top 3?<\/p>\n
The solution: Move the other sock categories to another page in your online shop and redesign the menu:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Black socks<\/li>\n
- Blue socks<\/li>\n
- White socks<\/li>\n
- More socks…<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
This lets you focus your internal links on the most important pages. The fewer internal links there are on a page, the more link power gets passed on by each individual link<\/strong>. In our example, categories 1, 2 and 3 would benefit from slimming down the menu.<\/p>\n
Take a look at each individual internal link and ask yourself if it really needs to be there. To make this a little easier for you, you can use the Seobility analysis \u201cPages with many internal links\u201d to find pages containing much more than the average number of internal links.<\/p>\n
Onpage \u2192 Structure \u2192 Links \u2192 Pages with a high number of internal links<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"pages](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/high-number-of-internal-links.png\")
<\/p>\nOn larger websites, it can be impossible to check every internal link individually. But you should at least analyze your homepage and any pages with a lot of backlinks. Check whether reducing the number of links would make sense in order to utilize the page\u2019s link juice more efficiently.<\/p>\n
Avoid using identical link texts for different pages<\/h4>\n
For Google, link texts are an important way to understand what the linked page is about. That\u2019s why you should link every page as uniquely and specifically as possible.<\/p>\n
For example, if there are two or more similar pages on your website such as \u201cgreen jeans with zippers\u201d and \u201cgreen button-fly jeans\u201d, you should avoid linking both pages with the general link text \u201cgreen jeans.\u201d That would lead to both pages competing with each other in terms of keyword optimization.<\/p>\n
The best solution would be to list both types on one category page and to use the link text \u201cgreen jeans\u201d only when linking to that category page.<\/p>\n
Seobility lets you find out whether identical link texts are being used for different pages on your website.<\/p>\n
Onpage \u2192 Structure \u2192 Problems with anchor texts \u2192 Identical anchor text for different pages<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"identical](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/identical-anchor-text.png\")
<\/p>\nFind unlinked pages<\/h4>\n
Sometimes updating your content can lead to certain pages disappearing from your internal link network. Such pages are called orphan pages<\/a> and should be avoided at all costs \u2013 unless of course there\u2019s a good reason to keep them unlinked.<\/p>\n
![\"orphan](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/orphan-page-1.png\")
\nIllustration: Orphan Pages \u2013 Author: Seobility \u2013 License: CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/small><\/p>\nBut how do you actually find these pages? Every CMS is different, but usually, there are plug-ins that can display unlinked pages. For WordPress, for example, LinkWhisper<\/a> has this function built in. Here\u2019s a YouTube tutorial on how to use it: 3 Ways to Find Orphaned Posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Step 4: Identify the best link sources<\/h3>\n
After fixing any problems with your current internal links, the next step is to identify the best link sources for new links.<\/p>\n
This is one process that we don\u2019t recommend automating. It\u2019s true that there are plug-ins like Internal Link Juicer<\/a>, LinkWhisper<\/a>, or Interlinks Manager<\/a> that can help with optimizing your internal linking. These plug-ins solve multiple problems (at least for WordPress users) and can help you find new opportunities for internal links. The problem is, they make the process so efficient that you may end up spamming your own site with internal links.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s probably better to use such a plug-in than to do nothing. But if you\u2019re going to work strategically on your internal linking, we recommend the manual process described below.<\/p>\n
To find the best link sources, it\u2019s most important to focus on topical relevance<\/strong>. Just linking each page with some other page won\u2019t get the job done. Internal links need to fit and make sense for website visitors.<\/p>\n
Topical relevance can also give your rankings a significant boost. For example, Google has a paper on Topic-Sensitive PageRank<\/a> that describes how a search engine can weigh thematically matching links more strongly.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s probably okay if a page is linked by a thematically irrelevant page, but if the topics of the pages are a perfect match, it\u2019s a major benefit. <\/p>\n
In the SEO field, siloing<\/strong> is a popular approach. If your website covers several clearly distinguishable topics, you should avoid linking them with each other too often. What does that mean?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s assume your online fashion shop focuses on three product categories: tops, trousers, and accessories. Siloing means that pages in the \u201ctops\u201d category only link to other pages in the same category and possibly to the homepage of the other categories \u2013 but not to individual pages in the other categories. This helps Google understand your website\u2019s topic clusters.<\/p>\n
![\"siloing\"](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/siloing-1.png\")
\nIllustration: Siloing \u2013 Author: Seobility \u2013 License: CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/small><\/p>\nHere\u2019s an extensive tutorial about siloing from Bruce Clay: SEO Siloing: How to build a website silo architecture<\/a>.<\/p>\n
So much for the theory. But how does the process of finding the right link sources work in practice?<\/p>\n
Find the right pages for internal links with Google site queries<\/h4>\n
Let\u2019s assume that our Core Web Vitals Guide<\/a> could use another link. Currently, that blog entry has 16 incoming internal links, as we can see in Seobility\u2019s \u201cPage details\u201d analysis.<\/p>\n
![\"incoming](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/page-details.png\")
<\/p>\nThat\u2019s pretty good. We could add at least one more to give the article a little boost, though. But where?<\/p>\n
To find out, let\u2019s do a site query on Google.<\/p>\n
site:https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/blog\/ “Core Web Vitals” -“Core Web Vitals Guide”<\/em><\/p>\n
This site query returns articles from the Seobility blog containing the phrase \u201cCore Web Vitals\u201d but not the phrase \u201cCore Web Vitals Guide.\u201d This helps us find an older article with the title \u201cSEO Audit: How To Optimize Your Site And Boost Your Rankings (Step-By-Step)<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n
Site queries like this are incredibly powerful. Since you\u2019re using Google to search for similar articles (and not a WordPress plug-in, for example), you get suggestions directly from the search engine, with already indexed pages. In contrast, results from other providers may not be as relevant.<\/p>\n
This method is also great for finding link opportunities for newly created content<\/strong>. So next time you publish a post, use a site query to check which internal links you could add in the process.<\/p>\n
Use link hubs<\/h4>\n
Usually, a site\u2019s homepage is its best link hub \u2013 i.e. the page with the most backlinks and thus the greatest external link power. That\u2019s why one common solution is to use this page strategically to distribute \u201clink juice\u201d across your whole site<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
But sometimes the homepage might not be the page with the highest number of backlinks. Or maybe there are multiple pages with a handful of backlinks each. These pages should also be used as strategic link hubs.<\/p>\n
To do that, we need to find the pages on our site that are frequently linked by other websites and then add links there to our most important pages.<\/p>\n
The first step is to download a list of backlinks to your site in Seobility\u2019s Backlink Monitoring.<\/p>\n
![\"backlinks](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/backlinks-csv-export-1.png\")
<\/p>\nClicking on \u201cExport CSV\u201d will give you a CSV file of all the links, which you can then sort or edit in any way you\u2019d like.<\/p>\n
For this example, we\u2019ve filtered out all the links to our homepages (in German, English, and Spanish) so that we\u2019re left with tools and editorial content only. Now we can either count how often each link target is included by using the built-in Sheets features, or we can just sort the list from A to Z.<\/p>\n
![\"link](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/link-hubs.png\")
<\/p>\nAs you can see, there are various tool pages that are quite popular, such as our TF-IDF tool (1). Several of our wiki pages are also frequently linked, such as the article on AB Testing (2) or Backlinks (3).<\/p>\n
All three of these are link hubs, so internal links that are added to these pages should have an even greater impact.<\/p>\n
Step 5: Add links strategically<\/h3>\n
Now we know which pages to use as link sources. The next question is: What\u2019s the best way to add the links? What does John Mueller mean by \u201cstrategically\u201d?<\/p>\n
To answer this question, we\u2019ll take our learnings from the two studies mentioned above, what\u2019s known from Google\u2019s official statements and patents, and good old experience. All these things result in the following guidelines:<\/p>\n
Good links get clicks<\/h4>\n
Building internal links is about far more than just SEO. Every link on a page should be useful for site visitors<\/strong> and actually be clicked. One of the primary tasks of internal links is to help users find their way around your website.<\/p>\n
Optimizing internal links isn\u2019t about randomly scattering 20 additional links into your text. And it\u2019s not about just dumping links at the end of an article \u2013 as CMS plug-ins often do when creating links to \u201csimilar articles\u201d.<\/p>\n
Google rewards user interaction with internal links.<\/strong> Not only have Google\u2019s official statements repeatedly verified this, but it also reflects the content of various Google patents, including User-sensitive pagerank<\/a> and Ranking documents based on user behavior and\/or feature data<\/a>. Both patents discuss what affects the weight given to a link depending on its position and interaction with the link.<\/p>\n
But how does Google record which links are clicked in the first place? Is this something Google Analytics does behind the scenes? No. If you use Google Chrome or Android, Google is busily collecting your click data. By the way, you can view your click data on Google\u2019s My Activity<\/a> page. Big Brother is watching you. Always.<\/p>\n
The conclusion for us SEOs is to actively place internal links in a way that site visitors are more likely to click on them<\/strong>. That means: at the top rather than at the bottom of a page, and toward the beginning of a section rather than toward the end. In addition, links should be clearly visible and highlighted from regular text.<\/p>\n
Although the studies mentioned above indicate that 20\u201340 internal links per page are a good rule of thumb, that doesn\u2019t mean that two or three additional links wouldn\u2019t have the same impact. Personally, I think that 1-2 strategically placed internal links are better than 20\u201330 random links.<\/p>\n
Good links are contextual<\/h4>\n
A good link is one with a descriptive link text that tells exactly what you\u2019ll find on the target page<\/strong>. For example, if it\u2019s a category page in an online sock shop that lists various \u201csports socks,\u201d then the link text should be either \u201csports socks\u201d (exact) or \u201cselection of sports socks\u201d (something containing the main keyword). The more precisely the link text describes what can be found on the page, the better Google can recognize the page\u2019s topic and index the page accordingly.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why using keywords in internal link texts<\/strong> is essential. But it\u2019s not the only contextual information Google takes into account when evaluating links. Google might also evaluate the text surrounding the link<\/strong>, so you should try to embed your links in content that is related to the topic of the target page.<\/p>\n
For example: For ultimate running comfort, you\u2019ll find a broad selection of \u201csports shoes<\/strong>\u201d in our store.<\/em><\/p>\n
Besides the link text \u201csports shoes,\u201d Google is also able to take the words \u201ccomfort\u201d and \u201crunning\u201d into account because these words are located near the link. So the page may also rank for \u201ccomfort running shoes.\u201d This becomes even more likely if you add another link to the sports shoes page with precisely that term (comfort running shoes) on another page.<\/p>\n
If possible, you can also add an image or video to the linking page to create even more context.<\/p>\n
By the same logic, you should avoid using generic or trivial link texts<\/strong>. The Seobility analysis \u201cInternal anchor texts that need improvement\u201d will help you find such links.<\/p>\n
Onpage \u2192 Structure \u2192 Problems with anchor texts \u2192 Internal link anchor texts that need improvement<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"internal](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/anchor-texts-that-need-improvement.png\")
<\/p>\nContent management systems sometimes use vague or meaningless link anchors like \u201ccontinue reading\u201d by default. That\u2019s not ideal, since they\u2019re repetitive and don\u2019t tell search engines what the topic of the linked article is. That\u2019s why you can either set them to nofollow<\/a> or better yet, replace them with meaningful link text. When in doubt, just use the title of the linked page as a link text.<\/p>\n
Fresh links are better<\/h4>\n
According to Google\u2019s Freshness-based ranking-patent<\/a>, site visitors prefer newer content. Just changing the date on an article or adding a naked link probably isn\u2019t enough to make Google re-assess the linking page. So you\u2019ll be killing two birds with one stone by rewriting a paragraph or adding a new one to the linking page<\/strong> before adding the link.<\/p>\n
Variation can pay off<\/h4>\n
If there\u2019s one thing that\u2019s clear from the studies discussed above, it\u2019s their findings about the importance of varying link phrases used for internal links. The more unique links you can add to your pages, the more impact it might have on your rankings.<\/p>\n
But what exactly does variation mean?<\/p>\n
Internal links with exact-match anchor texts are important, but they don\u2019t have to be repeated indefinitely. So rather link your page by using different variations of your primary keyword.<\/p>\n
But more isn\u2019t always better. What has the biggest impact is finding just the right amount of links. Never force an internal link onto a page without a good reason.<\/p>\n
So much for optimizing your internal links strategically. For the sake of completeness, we should also take a look at some technical aspects of internal links \u2013 because technical mistakes could unnecessarily block your success.<\/p>\n
Technical link optimization<\/h2>\n
The right use of Nofollow<\/h3>\n
By using nofollow<\/a> on internal or external links, you\u2019re telling Google that these links shouldn\u2019t pass on any link power. In simple words, you\u2019re saying that you don\u2019t recommend the linked pages.<\/p>\n
For internal links, that means: If they\u2019re set to nofollow, they don\u2019t inherit any link juice. So the linked page won\u2019t benefit from it.<\/p>\n
To find this type of link, you can install the Nofollow Chrome extension<\/a>, for example, which displays nofollow links with a red border (which can be adjusted using CSS code).<\/p>\n
![\"nofollow](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/nofollow-chrome-extension.png\")
<\/p>\n
- Although Google itself and most SEOs advise against using naked URLs (such as https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/<\/a>) as an anchor text, this study found that it doesn\u2019t harm rankings.<\/li>\n
- Better ranking pages are located higher in the website\u2019s hierarchy. That is, they\u2019re \u201ccloser\u201d to the homepage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Zyppy: 23 Million Internal Links \u2013 SEO Case Study<\/a> (July 2022)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
- How important are internal links to Google?<\/a><\/li>
![\"nofollow](\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/wiki-nofollow-links.png\")
<\/p>\n