Internal Links, as the name suggests, are hyperlinks pointing one page to another page on the same domain. Internal links help to create a web of web-pages for a website which helps search engines crawl the website with ease. It is true that external links add value to your website but they do so only for the pages they are being linked to. With the help of internal links, you can pass on some of that value to the other pages of your website which might not be getting much value from external links pointing to them. This makes internal links highly supportive for new web pages of your website.
Internal linking
Benefits of having internal links on your website:
• Improves navigation by helping visitors to your website find those pages which are not included in the primary navigation of the website.
• Spreads ranking power from high-performance web pages to newly added or low traffic pages of the website.
• Having relevant internal links will decrease the bounce rate for your website while increasing the page views.
• You can use internal links to guide your website visitors to high-converting pages of your website which improves the lead generation ratio.
SEO best practices for internal linking:
• For the anchor text of internal links, use descriptive phrases with relevant keywords.
• The link structure of the website should be easily crawlable by search engine crawlers.
• Use do-follow links and create deep links
• Create appealing content which can hold the visitors and engage them to spend more time on your website
An optimized internal link structure will help your website with improved navigation, higher page authority and clear content hierarchy.