Internal Linking

An internal link is a hyperlink that connects one page on your website to another page on the same site.

Because such a link allows you to move around a website, internal linking is a critical part of site navigation, as well as user experience (UX). Sound internal linking allows site visitors to enjoy a broader range of content, while poor internal linking can drive them away from the site entirely.

Another reason why internal linking is important is because it’s one of the factors that search engines consider when they’re making sense of a website. Links between different pages on a site reflect the site’s structure to search engines.

This, among other factors, helps search engines to assess the usefulness of a website, which, in turn, then influences the site’s ranking in search results. Sites that appear on the first search engine results page (SERP) will generally have a good internal linking strategy, while poorly linked sites are less likely to enjoy such visibility.

Here are some more key reasons why internal linking is important.

Share Link Equity

When one page links to another, it implies that the page it’s linking to contains credible info and, therefore, that that page is valuable and trustworthy. The same connotations apply for the page where a reader first encounters the link.

Such notions of credibility are known as link equity, and this equity is critical to establishing a degree of trust that site visitors have in a site. It also helps search engines to assess a page’s usefulness when they’re compiling their rankings.