In the last installment of our article series, we took a close look at the URL - the address of your homepage. This is because links play a central role in the search for the treasures of search engine optimization. Internal links serve as a guide for Google & Co. through your website. So let's venture a little deeper into the SEO adventure and take a look at how you can use internal links in a targeted manner. Your hard work is guaranteed to be rewarded!
What are internal links?
An internal link is a cross-reference to another subpage of your own website. If you use internal links cleverly, you can increase the overall time spent on your website and the total number of clicks. This has a positive effect on your visibility in search engines. For example, you can link directly to another interesting article in the body text. Internal links are usually clickable words with a blue background. As in this example for a related Blog post by MainetCare on internal linking.
Internal links help search engines to better understand your website overall. This is because they provide clues as to how the content relates to each other. In addition to the internal links in the body text described above, this also includes links in the page navigation, in the footer at the bottom of the website or in a table of contents.
Throw out the anchor with keywords!
The clickable link text (the so-called "anchor text") is of great value for internal links. If you use your keywords in the anchor text, this will be particularly rewarded. Always use the same keyword when you link to a specific internal page. This way, Google notices that this subpage is particularly important for this keyword. Don't give away this ace up your sleeve by simply writing: "click here" or "find out more". An example: You have created a subpage for a specific product that you sell. Keep linking to this subpage from different places on your website with the same keyword in the anchor text.
Internal links show the little leprechaun the way
Imagine Google is a little goblin trying to read websites like a human. Show it the way through your internal link structure to help it find its way around your homepage. Show the leprechaun that your website is well structured, well maintained and provides valuable content for your central keywords. His rating will be all the more favorable!
Conversely, it has a negative effect if you have outdated or faulty links on your site. You should therefore regularly check whether all links are working. There are free tools for this, such as the Link Analyzer from SmallSEOTools.
To be continued ... in part 6 we will look at external links