How can you create a strong internal linking structure for better UX and SEO?

Internal linking is the practice of linking your web pages to each other, creating a network of connections that helps users and search engines navigate your site. A strong internal linking structure can improve your user experience (UX) and search engine optimization (SEO) by providing relevant information, context, and guidance. In this article, you will learn how to create a strong internal linking structure for better UX and SEO, following these five steps:

1 Identify your goals

Before you start creating your internal links, you need to define your goals and objectives for your site. What do you want your users to do, learn, or achieve on your site? What are the most important pages or sections of your site that you want to rank well and drive traffic to? How do you want to guide your users through your site's content and funnel? Your goals will help you determine which pages to link to and from, and how to prioritize them.

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Bhushan Parikh

SEO Expert | 10 Million + Content Views | LinkedIn Growth | Top Organic & E-commerce SEO Expert | Digital Marketing Expert
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Building a strong internal linking structure benefits both user experience (UX) and search engine optimization (SEO). It improves navigation, helps search engines understand your website's content hierarchy, and boosts the authority of important pages. To achieve this, identify key pages, analyze existing links, plan link placement, and use relevant anchor text. Consider tools like Yoast SEO and Google Search Console for analysis and optimization. Remember to regularly monitor and adapt your strategy based on data and user behavior.

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Jacob Lett

Marketing Manager at VersaFeed | Full-Service Product Feed Management and Optimization for Enterprise
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Most often a business wants to increase visibility to a product/service page or a landing page for lead generation. They then look for ways to create internal links to these pages. However, a visitor to your website might want to learn more on a particular topic. They click an internal link on a topic expecting an informational page and instead get pointed to a sales page. This isn't the best user experience. I would recommend listing your business goals and then spend time reviewing the pages with the most views. Read the page and pretend you are your buyer, what additional questions would they have? How could you help them better understand this topic. This thinking will help you identify internal links to be helpful.

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Hataish Kumar

Founder @HataishKumar.com | $1M+ Client Revenue | 50+ Websites Ranked | 10+ Years Experience | 10,000+ Leads Generated
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Internal linking is beneficial for user experience and search engine optimization. It helps users navigate through the website easily, understand different categories and pages, and also allows them to easily search for different links boosting the search engine ranking. Here I am sharing a few of my tips for building a strong internal linking structure. 1) Map out the entire structure of the website including the hierarchy of pages and their relationships. 2) Group categories and sub-categories. 3) Ensure sufficient link authority to the most crucial pages. 4) Use relevant anchor text and also prioritize contextual links.

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2 Audit your existing links

Next, you need to audit your existing internal links and identify any issues or gaps. You can use tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, or Ahrefs to crawl your site and generate a report of your internal links. You should look for broken links, orphan pages, duplicate content, low-quality links, and inconsistent anchor texts. You should also analyze the distribution and density of your internal links, and how they align with your site's hierarchy and architecture.

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3 Optimize your anchor texts

Anchor texts are clickable words or phrases that link to another page on your site, and are essential for both UX and SEO. To optimize your anchor texts, use descriptive and relevant keywords that match the linked page's title and content. Additionally, avoid generic terms such as "click here", "read more", or "learn more". It is important to vary your anchor texts and avoid over-optimizing or repeating the same keywords. Moreover, keep your anchor texts concise and natural, without stuffing them with keywords or making them too long.

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Jessyca Frederick

Experienced SEO & Ecommerce Product Manager — Specializing in Technical SEO and Leveraging UX Principles for Results
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Internal links are sometimes as powerful inbound links (backlinks). Anchor text of internal links drives that power, but only when there is sufficient variety in the link text. This is one the traps of using your navigation as your primary means of linking between related pages on your site, vs in-content links where the text (and context) are more varied.

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4 Link to high-value pages

One of the main purposes of internal linking is to distribute authority and relevance among your pages, and boost their ranking potential. Therefore, you should link to high-value pages that have high traffic, conversions, or engagement metrics; target high-volume, low-competition, or long-tail keywords; address the user's intent, needs, or pain points; offer unique, original, or in-depth content; and have external links from authoritative sources. This will help ensure that your pages are providing the most useful and relevant information for your users.

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5 Evaluate and monitor your results

Finally, you should evaluate and monitor the results of your internal linking strategy, and make adjustments as needed. Track the impact of your internal links on UX and SEO metrics such as bounce rate, time on site, page views, and conversions. Additionally, measure crawlability, indexability, ranking, and organic traffic, and assess your internal link profile, authority, and relevance. You can utilize tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or Ahrefs to collect and analyze data in order to discover any opportunities or issues. To optimize performance, remember to update your internal links regularly and test different variations and combinations.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How can you create a strong internal linking structure for better UX and SEO?

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1 Identify your goals

2 Audit your existing links

3 Optimize your anchor texts

4 Link to high-value pages

5 Evaluate and monitor your results

6 Here’s what else to consider

Search Engine Optimization

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