Internal Linking Structure

An internal link is a hyperlink between two pages on the same website. They pass PageRank (or SEO value) as well as context through anchor text and surrounding content.

Body content links

These are the most important types of internal links for SEO because they pass both context and authority to the destination page. Think of them like the fiber optic cables of links because they carry so much information.

Breadcrumbs

Not every website needs breadcrumbs. You’ll notice we don’t use them because our architecture is fairly simple. However, ecommerce sites with tens of thousands of product pages should definitely use them.

Main navigation links

Sticking with the wire analogy, navigation links are more like broadband wires. They communicate tons of information about hierarchy and site structure, but they don’t pass PageRank or context the way body links do.

CTAs and sidebar links

Sidebar links are usually more navigational like a list of categories or related content, and CTA modules tend to be more commercially-focused, so they pass very little PageRank.

Footer links

It’s fitting that footer links are at the bottom of the list. In terms of authority, these don’t really do anything for you. Fat footers that are jammed with too many links just appear spammy. Instead, link to your Contact page, Privacy page, Disclaimers, and About Us page.

Setting up an internal linking strategy

It’s crucial for your site’s SEO to evaluate and improve internal linking strategy regularly. It’s one of the ways to improve the fitness of your website. By adding the right internal links, you make sure Google understands:

• the relevance of pages;
• the relationship between pages;
• and the value of pages.

To set up your internal linking strategy, there are several things to take into account. How you go about it exactly, of course, depends on your site and your goals, but the following steps are a good rule of thumb.

1. Determine the ideal structure for your site

We always advise website owners to imagine their website as a pyramid. On top of it is your homepage; below that there are some sections or categories, and further down, there are individual posts and pages (possibly with subcategories in between).

If you do it well, your website’s menu should reflect this structure.

2. Decide what your most important content is

Then, you should determine what your most important content is. In short, it’s your best and most complete content; it’s about the core of your business. It’s the content you want people to find when searching for topics or products you specialize in.

3. Add contextual links

When you’ve written various articles about a certain topic you should link them with each other. This will show Google – and users! – that those articles are topically related. You can link directly from sentences in your copy or add links at the end of your post.

4. Link hierarchical pages

If you have hierarchical pages on your website, link parent pages to their child pages and vice versa. Also, don’t forget to link sibling pages to each other. These pages should be related on a well-organized site, and connecting them like this will make perfect sense.

5. Consider adding a related post section

There are many plugins and modules that add complete related posts sections to your posts. If you use one, we recommend testing whether the related posts actually are related posts.

6. Try adding navigational links

Besides linking from topically-related posts and pages, it’s possible to make your cornerstone content more authoritative by adding links to it from the homepage or the top navigation. You should do this with the posts and pages that are most important to your business. This will give these posts or pages a lot of link value and makes them stronger in Google’s eyes.

7. Add links to your taxonomies

Taxonomies, like categories and tags, help you organize your site and help users and Google to understand what your content is about. If you have a blog it could be beneficial to add internal links to the taxonomies the post belongs to. Adding links to the category and tags helps Google understand your blog’s structure and helps visitors to navigate to related posts more easily.

8. Consider adding links to popular or recent posts

The last option to mention is creating internal links to your website’s most popular or newest posts. Preferably create these sections in the sidebar or the footer of your website to have them appear on all pages and posts.

As link value passes to these most popular/recent posts from many different pages, they get a boost. Besides that, the posts will be easier for visitors to access, which will increase traffic – and more traffic is a positive sign to Google.