… starting from the point where the story stopped.
My Internal linking strategy revisited
A common mistake is including as many internal links as you can think of, just for the sake of ticking that on-page SEO checkbox. Instead, you should always be mindful of the number of links and link to the most valuable pages only.Kalpesh Guard
Correcting my mistakes (see the first part of this post) is the first step. To reiterate, I will strive for a balanced approach, linking only when it adds clear value. By focusing on posts that provide significant value and relevance, I should already accomplish much more than before. However, there is more to internal linking than this. There are actual ‘internal linking strategies,’ which I will briefly touch upon in the upcoming sections. Briefly only because these SEO-focused strategies are primarily intended for marketers, not simple bloggers like me 1. Besides, they involve all internal links, not just the contextual ones.
Promoting high-quality content (only)
As mentioned earlier, although this blog aims to provide helpful, engaging, and informative content, events from four years ago dramatically impacted the quality of my posts. Due to time constraints, I often resorted to deferment tactics, leading to lackluster padding posts. I’m not proud of those, and there’s no need to burden my readers with them again…
Building a strategic internal linking approach involves identifying key pages that need more visibility throughout your site or in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and ensuring they are linked appropriately.Kalpesh Guard
Given this premise, identifying my key content pages will be relatively easy. Why do I mention this? It’s to contrast with the typical recommendation of identifying your top-performing pages using link analysis tools like Google Search Console or other SEO platforms. In my case, I just know 2 which posts provide informative content and which do not. As I mentioned earlier, my goal is not SEO-driven; it is to improve the overall quality of my blog and enhance reader satisfaction. Therefore, I won’t focus on identifying my most authoritative pages (those with high-quality backlinks). Nor will I conduct keyword research.
Google, like any other search engine, uses internal linking to gauge a page’s importance on a website. More links to a post signify greater value. Google ranks pages based on metrics like value, relevance, and authority. Previously, my misguided strategy gave equal value (in terms of internal links) to high-quality, informative posts and posts lacking substantial content. What must Google—and my readers—have thought about this confusing message?
Internal links tell search engines which pages are important. So the more incoming internal links a page has, the easier it is for search engines to find that page and then rank it.Luke Harsel
Orphaned content
According to Marieke van de Rakt, Head of Strategy and former CEO at Yoast, Orphaned content is content that doesn’t get any links from other posts or pages on the same website.
She specifies that “links” in this context means contextual links. If other content is linked to from the homepage, sitemap, or category and tag pages, but lacks text links, it’s still considered orphaned content.
In her article on the subject (What is orphaned content?), she explains that orphaned content can affect your website because it is hard to find for both search engines and site visitors. Remember, Google crawls pages via links; therefore, it usually has a tougher time finding orphaned pages 3. If Google can’t find your orphaned page, it won’t be indexed, meaning it won’t appear in search results. Since search engines see them as less important, this can also be an SEO issue.
Google will consider this type of content less important than other content that does have lots of links to it. So, if an article is important to you, you should make that clear to Google (and your visitors). Make sure to link to that specific article from other related content.Marieke van de Rakt
Is the reverse true? What about removing all the links to my posts that bring no value? By deliberately making them orphan, maybe I can ensure that search engines focus on the content I want to highlight or, at the very least, hinder the indexing of my less valuable posts.
By prioritizing links to my best, most informative posts, I will not only help my readers find valuable content but also boost the visibility of those insightful articles. Hopefully, this will make the thin content (the aftermath of my lack of time) fade into oblivion—without the need to delete these pages (as sometimes suggested by some).
“Okay, that sounds like a solid plan. But what about the links for the sake of storytelling? You need them for your readers to follow your story, yet they don’t always point to your most valuable posts.”
“Good point. Thankfully, there are techniques to help differentiate the value of your links. I’ll come to those later.”
Improving site architecture
Why did I initially reject these strategies? Beyond the fact that the examples and explanations were oriented toward eShops or business websites (not blogs), I couldn’t relate to them. Most articles started with Your website’s basic structure organizes content within your menus and navigation from your homepage to deeper pages.
I have a blog, not a website. No menu, no strategy! Despite this first issue, I kept reading about these strategies to go beyond the basics of strengthening your linking. However, their message still didn’t resonate with me (i.e., my blog): You should write some main articles—your cornerstone articles—and write various posts about subtopics of that topic. Then link from these related posts to your cornerstone articles and from the cornerstone articles back to related posts.
I don’t use this structure—or at least not yet 4. I have a blog, and I am not promoting any product or service! And for this reason, I was about to turn my back on the whole concept. But then I read an article about the importance of your site structure for SEO; this section, in particular:
It prevents you from competing with yourself
On your site, you might have blog posts that are quite similar. If, for example, you write a lot about SEO, you could have multiple blog posts about site structure, each covering a different aspect. Consequently, Google won’t be able to tell which of these pages is the most important, so you’ll be competing with your content for high rankings. You should let Google know which page you think is most important. You need a good internal linking and taxonomy structure to do this, so all those pages can work for you instead of against you.
You’ll be competing with your content for high rankings.
Your site needs to have a defined structure because, without it, it’ll just be a random collection of pages and blog posts.Marieke van de Rakt
“Exactly! My blog is just a random chronological collection of blog posts!”
“Not quite. Site structure is all about grouping and linking the content on your site.”
WordPress uses taxonomies to group content. The default taxonomies in WordPress are categories and tags (these two linked posts are high-quality content articles, by the way). By categorizing my pages, I created a well-organized, pyramidal-shaped structure 5. I have a homepage, categories, subcategories, and individual posts. I even have a navigation menu with the Categories widget in the sidebar. Great! Except that I still don’t have these so-called “cornerstone articles.”
Category and tag archives help us structure content on our website, and they’re essential for SEO. Although they’re both taxonomies that WordPress uses to group content together, they should be used differently. Categories help you bring hierarchy to your pages, whereas tags help you group content on the same topic.Camille Cunningham
Tags act as a grouping system, making it easier for readers and search engines to find information on a specific topic and related content. Similar to categories, they will be listed under archive pages. Most WordPress themes display on top of the archive page what you enter in the description field when you create a tag. By providing well-written descriptions detailing what this tag, or category, is, you can transform these landing pages into… let’s be crazy… some sort of cornerstone articles.
Taxonomies, like categories and tags, help you organize your site and help users and Google understand your content. If you have a blog, adding internal links to the taxonomies to which the post belongs could be beneficial. Adding links to the category and tags helps Google understand your blog’s structure and helps visitors navigate related posts more easily.Marieke van de Rakt
“Nice, but what about the internal linking strategies you mentioned earlier? You haven’t described them yet.”
The topic cluster model
As opposed to the hierarchical model, which links from top-level pages down the site structure, this internal linking strategy involves organizing related content around a central theme or main subject, known as a “pillar” topic. The pillar page should broadly cover a topic and link to all other relevant or related pages on the site, referred to as “cluster” pages. Each cluster page, linking back to the pillar page, should cover a single aspect of the content mentioned on the pillar page in good detail. They also interlink with one another.
The goal of this method is to create a more logical site architecture and effectively boost the site’s authority, and in turn, rankings. Unlike the hierarchical model, which misses out on one important factor—connecting related content—this strategy connects clustered content with internal links and a pillar page. According to this video by HubSpot, topic clusters are The Next Evolution of Content Strategy.
The strength of this model is its ability to distribute link equity evenly between all relevant pages. It also provides a great search experience for users, since no matter which page they land on, they always get access to more relevant information on the topic. In terms of SEO, this model works effectively because topic clusters help indicate topic relationships clearly to search engines, helping them better understand your content and what phrases to rank it for.
Search engines have shifted their focus from keywords to topics due to changes in user search behavior. As a result, SEOs now strive to dominate topics rather than just keywords to compete in the competitive search landscape.Mitul Gandhi
Internal linking is an easy way to create a neatly structured topic cluster. You’ll likely have a comprehensive article in your topic cluster that touches on many ideas, and each of these ideas is expanded into a cluster page.
This can now be understood as: “You’ll likely have a well-optimized (tag) archive page in your topic cluster that touches on many ideas, and each of these ideas is expanded into a cluster page (i.e., a post with that tag).” The beauty of this approach is that all related posts, whether from a category or a tag, are already linked together thanks to the links provided at the end of each post (at least with my Twenty Seventeen theme).
Pro tip: Some WordPress themes display tags with each post, but some don’t. Ensure your tags are available to visitors somewhere, preferably at the bottom of your article or in the sidebar. Google isn’t the only one that likes tags: they are useful for visitors wanting to read more about the same topic.
Following this idea, I don’t even have to identify my site’s pillar pages in the conventional sense. Pillar pages typically target broad keywords with high search volumes rather than specific long-tail keywords.
I already have my pillar pages listed in the Tag widget in my sidebar. All I need to do now is prioritize these archive pillar pages over individual blog posts for internal linking.
A website with good interlinking between pillar content and topic clusters might convince Google that the website has extensive, authoritative information — a positive signal of a website’s quality.Bernard Huang
To sum up, I will now emphasize internal linking to create a clear hierarchy, signaling to search engines which pages are most important. Failing to do so could undermine my site’s structure. Well-structured clusters should show search engines how extensively I cover each topic, potentially leading to better rankings.
Internal links are most useful for establishing site architecture.
Not overdoing it
It’s vital to maintain a balanced approach and ensure that links genuinely provide value to the user’s journey, rather than overwhelming them with excessive links. A typical question is: How many internal links are too many?
There isn’t a fixed number of internal links that’s universally considered “too many” because it depends on various factors, including the size of your website, the complexity of your content, and your site’s user experience. Hike SEO
I think the honest answer is: as many as needed to enhance the user’s understanding and navigation—not as many links as possible in every blog post. This means incorporating links that provide relevant and helpful information, making the website easier to use. The goal is not to overwhelm your reader with too many links. Maintaining a reasonable balance is essential. Overloading a page with excessive internal links can create a poor user experience and make the content appear spammy. You might lose readers if they feel they’re merely being used as part of your SEO strategy.
“That is quite an evasive answer. Any numbers? 6“A general recommendation is to include 5-10 links per 2,000 words.
Keep your audience in mind to determine how many links are natural on a page. I’d suggest starting with at least 5 internal links. Add more if they’re relevant.Neil Patel
From a technical point of view, that number could be higher. Search engines can indeed crawl hundreds of links per page (see the excerpt from a Moz article below), but practically speaking, having too many internal links makes it harder for search engines to understand the site’s structure. Not to mention that using too many internal links on the same page can dilute their value. In short, too many internal links on a page do more harm than good.
The search engines all have a rough crawl limit of 150 links per page before they may stop spidering additional pages linked to from the original page. This limit is somewhat flexible, and particularly important pages may have upwards of 200 or even 250 links followed, but in general practice, it’s wise to limit the number of links on any given page to 150 or risk losing the ability to have additional pages crawled.
Generally speaking, the more internal links a page has, the higher its PageRank. However, it’s not all about quantity—the quality of the link also plays a vital role.Chris Haines
Don’t overdo it! Too many links on a page can confuse Google’s crawlers. Additionally, hundreds of links on a page make it hard for users to identify which links are important. As a general rule, try not to force links on any page. When it comes to internal linking, less is more—you don’t want to create a poor user experience. Ensure that links are seamlessly integrated into the content and genuinely enhance the reader’s journey, making it easier for them to find related information. That’s it!
Pro Tip: As you consider how many links to add to a page, remember that your header, footer, and menu links are included in your on-page link count.
Spread apart your links
When you position internal links towards the top of your content, they are more likely to catch the user’s attention, enhancing their discoverability and usability as well as increasing click-through rates. This approach is especially valuable for essential links that direct users to key pages or calls to action. Additionally, search engines may attribute slightly more importance to links near the top of a page, reinforcing the significance of the linked content.Hike SEO
I might have read this piece of advice before, hence the many links in my intro 7. Instead, I think it would be better to maintain a natural flow in your content, ensuring that link placement aligns with the overall user experience and the logical progression of information. In short, I will embed links within the narrative where they make the most sense, enhancing the story rather than interrupting it. Hopefully, this will keep readers immersed while guiding them to additional valuable content.
Include internal links where they’re natural.
Pro tip: Search engines typically give the most weight to the first occurrence of a link (when the same link appears multiple times within a single page). This means that the anchor text and destination URL of the first instance carry the most SEO significance. To optimize your internal linking strategy, ensure that the first occurrence of a duplicate link is strategically placed.
To be continued…
1 How to explain this better? Maybe with this quote—Your goal should be to keep users on your site so they complete your desired action, like making a purchase, filling out a form, buying a product, etc.
I don’t have a commercial goal! My only aim with this blog is to share knowledge and help people. Accordingly, I erroneously thought these strategies wouldn’t apply to my blog. ^
2 That being said, with 326 posts published as of today, a table summarizing this information might prove handy. Handpicking relevant articles to link to isn’t always easy. Even with a small blog, I might not remember every little thing I’ve published over the years. ^
3 Ideally, Google spiders need to have access to a crawlable link structure—a structure that lets spiders browse the pathways of a website—in order to find all of the pages on a website.
Orphaned pages are the exact opposite of this ideal. Note that this is not only an SEO issue; the same problem will be faced by human visitors. ^
4 I thought of my plan to write round-up posts—i.e., posts that showcase your top content related to a specific subject, wrapped up in a single post. But I have not yet started with this seventh and last installment in my so-called “Blog posts housekeeping” journey. ^
5 This is actually one of the aforementioned strategies that I disregarded. It states that The optimal structure for setting up your website’s structure internal links would look similar to a pyramid (where the page on the top is homepage).
I thought I could not have such a structure with my blogs (as opposed to a standard website), but this structure also exists in the form of category and subcategory systems. ^
6 Ethan Smith, CEO of Graphite, a top SEO and growth marketing agency, suggests that 10-20 internal links are optimal. But, in reality, there are no hard and fast rules about the optimum number of links. It may vary depending on the page. For example, a pillar page may have more internal links than a cluster or subtopic page. ^
7 Of course, I did that incorrectly too. The intro isn’t always the best place to include an internal link; you don’t necessarily want to guide readers away from the page they’ve just landed on. Instead, consider including the first internal link(s) in your first section or any other relevant location at the top of the page. ^