HomeGlossaryInternal Linking

Internal linking is a strategy aimed at directing web visitors to relevant pages on a site and making it easy for search crawlers to find deep site pages. With news pieces, blog posts, case studies or any other website content, internal links to other articles or landing pages drive traffic throughout the website and provide prospects with easy access to pages that may contain the information they desire.

Internal link anchor text is often a keyword that businesses incorporate into their content marketing material.

Internal linking for SEO

As part an SEO strategy, using internal links to direct users to keyword, product or service landing pages helps them find the information most likely to satisfy their needs. This idea is part of an overall focus on creating a quality website, which is, ultimately, the most important component of an SEO strategy.

Additionally, links within articles and other site content are detected by search crawlers, which increases the chances that deep pages will be indexed. Links that lead to other high-quality pages can improve a business’ SERP standing by acting similarly to inbound links from across the web. Matt Cutts has discussed the benefits of internal linking for SEO in a Google Webmaster Central YouTube video.

See also: Deep Linking

Internal linking for conversion marketing

Aside from the SEO benefits of internal linking, the concept is a critical part of both conversion marketing and conversion optimization. These principles essentially call for the use of relevant internal links and optimal call-to-action placement to seamlessly direct prospects through a sales funnel.

Each linked page within the process directs users to the next step with more information and more calls to action (or direct conversion opportunities).

Placing internal links in the location most natural to the user will increase the chances that their website navigation ultimately ends in a conversion. See also conversion optimization.