Affiliate links | Hey, hey, hey! How are you? I feel like I haven’t wrote a blog post advice kinda post in a long ass time. I definitely feel like in terms of my content, lately I’ve been focusing more on the well-being and personal growth side of my niche. I still love sharing blogging advice though and will continue to do so whenever I have something I feel is valuable to share! Which is the purpose of today’s post on WHY you should be internally linking in your blog posts.
Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash
SEO and getting ALL THE TRAFFIC is really “in” right now. Honestly, I’ve never seen so many tweets in my life in such a short space of time about SEO, Pinterest and tips and techniques to grow your blog traffic. Everyone is on a traffic overdrive, it seems. But, if you want to grow your blog, grow your audience and even potentially earn money from it then traffic is definitely important.
Internally linking in your blog posts is something that will come up when you search for SEO advice because it’s an important aspect of SEO. I’ve always internally linked within my own blog posts – even before I knew ANYTHING about SEO – because it just made sense to me to do so.
This post is only going to cover this one aspect of SEO but if you’re ready to really dive deep into SEO, I’d highly recommend checking out these eBooks from The Navigatio – who seriously knows her stuff when it comes to SEO!
So today let’s talk about internally linking, why it’s important and why you should DEFINITELY start doing it!
What does it mean to internally link within a blog post?
Internally linking within a blog post means to link to other content from your OWN site within a blog post. You’ll notice above that I linked to my Pinterest account and to my Beginners Guide To Growing a Following eBook. Those are external links, as they’re taking you to pages outside of this blog.
Internally linking would be if I were talking about SEO and broken links, I could then internally link to my own blog post from a couple of months back that I wrote specifically about broken links. You’ll see this broken link example a lot in this post – sorry!
Is there a right or wrong way to internally link?
Yes and no. For the sake of SEO (here we go again), it’s worth trying to internally link using key words. By this I mean, not internally linking your post to the word “here”. For example:
“Click here for more information about broken links”
The word “here” isn’t a key word but “broken links” could be. Google and search engines are more likely to notice you linking to key words and it’ll boost your SEO efforts that little bit more instead of linking to seemingly irrelevant words, like “here”. In terms of layout of your blog post, people like to internally link in 2 ways mostly. Example 1:
“Check out this blog post I wrote last week on broken links for more information!”
In this example, the internal link fits naturally within the sentence. Or example 2:
“Related: A Beginners Guide To Broken Links“
In this example, the link is usually placed in it’s own sentence within a related blog post. For example, you wouldn’t say “Related: 7 Reasons To Start Yoga”, within a blog post about broken links because it’s not related. But anyway, these are 2 easy examples on how to internally link. I use both, depending on the blog post. But it’s more so example one.
Other things to remember when it comes to internally linking:
- Try and link near the top of your post. If some people don’t finish reading your blog post then your links are at the top and they’ll be more likely to click on them.
- Not too much, not too little. Think about Goldilocks here. You don’t want to not be internally linking enough because that way, search engines might not recognize them. Too much and it might be considered spam. Around 4/5 internal links in a post is sufficient enough.
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
Why should I be internally linking?
It creates a better reader experience
By internally linking to more of your relevant content, it provides the reader with a more useful experience. If they’re reading a blog post on SEO and see you’ve linked to another blog post about broken links and another one about key words and another one about something else related, they’ll know you know what you’re talking about and that you have more useful content for them.
It boosts your SEO
Internal linking is such a easy way to boost your SEO. First of all because it’s entirely within your control. You don’t have to rely on other sites to link to yours to show Google that your content is relevant. You can do that yourself! By internally linking to your other content, it shows Google that you content is relevant. This is where the keyword thing comes in too.
The more posts on your blog with related links to OTHER posts on your blog, the higher your chances are for search engines to find you. Woopie! Internally linking is not enough to send your SEO sky-rocketing though. There’s loads of other practices you have to put in place to establish a good SEO strategy for your blog. Internally linking is a good place to start.
For more help on SEO, I’d suggest following Nele on Twitter, who is full of tips and advice on SEO!
It keeps people on your site for longer
Handy for your bounce rate and building up a relationship with your readers, internal linking is great for keeping people on your site for longer. If they love what they’re already reading and see you’ve linked to something else that they might be interested in, chances are, they’ll click on it there and then.
And following on from that, it also makes things super easy for the reader. Back to the example of the blog post about SEO. If you simply MENTION that you’ve written another blog post with more information about broken links, readers are much, much, much less likely to go searching for it themselves compared to if you provide a link there for them.
[…] chance it has of showing up in search results. DA is based off, among other things, how well you interlink your posts, how niche-specific your site is, and the number of OTHER sites in your niche linking back to your […]
I found this blog post really accessible and much easier to understand than some other articles I’ve come across on SEO.
Thank you so much ☺️
Great post! I think you have nothing left to talk about, and that is very difficult on the subject of internal linking because it is very extensive. You knew well organize each section and the explain is very interesting. It is a good reference guide. Congratulations for the post!!
Hi Jenny! I love these blogging tips you post, and wanted you to get some recognition for this. So, just to let you know that I’ve tagged you in my SEO award blogpost: https://joannajournals.com/2020/05/18/ive-been-nominated-for-the-seo-award/. I hope you get involved, and look forward to your submission!
I’m really trying to learn more about SEO so I can up my efforts with it and this is very helpful! I internally link, but not enough, and I’d like to go right back to the start of my blog and give it a once-over. I had no idea about the need for keywords in your links, so that’s fab to know!
Glad this helped!
I’ve been been getting better at internal links recently, but I know there’s still a lot of older posts on my blog that have none! This is such a great, informative post Jenny.
Thank you 😌
I always try do do this, I’m really into SEO more than ever so I know that this will help so many bloggers!
Great hoe to post girl!
Rosie
Thank you 😌
I’ve been linking to key words for quite a while now but I used to be a ‘here’ person and one of the admin tasks I’ve given myself for my time off actively blogging in May (all 31 recipes are scheduled before May 1st for the first time) was to fix that in my older posts and I already know I’m going to hate past Sophie before I’ve even started 😂 x
Sophie
Hahaha I can relate!
This is such a helpful post! I have always wondered about internal linking and whether I was doing it right. Thanks for the tips!
Amber – https://theunpredictedpage.com
You’re welcome 🙂
Thanks so much I’ve totally been doing the internal linking thing wrong by either doing the “click here” or just not doing it. This post is great I get exactly why I need to do this now and how. Thank you.
You’re welcome!
This is so useful; especially for someone who is relatively new to blogging! Thanks x
You’re welcome!
Oh, I def don’t use 4-5 links LOL but it also depends on what I am writing about. For sure 1-2 though. It also look me a long time to get out of the habit of the CLICK HERE thing. It was hard to break, after doing it for SO MANY YEARS.
tonyalee @ http://vivaciousbibliophile.com
The click here thing is so easy to do isn’t it!
Ooh ‘eck. I started off this post feeling proud (second book in a series? I totally link to the first book). That proud feeling then disappeared – definitely don’t hit 4-5 links and a lot of my posts don’t link to anything else. Hmm. I never know what other content to link to when it’s a review although I definitely understand the benefit. Thanks for sharing the great advice.
I suppose a review could certainly be hard to link to. Perhaps linking to other book reviews of books similar to the one you’re reviewing? Like, “if you enjoyed this, you might like: *link, link, link*
Thanks for the tip. I started internally linking my posts and I always get a pingback as a comment in wordpress. Do you know by any chance what that means?
It just means that WordPress has acknowledged your link! If you accept the ping back it’ll just show up in your comments x
As always, you have all the best tips! I’ve been internally linking but at least I know where all my little hiccups are now! Amazing post, lovely!!
Daisy xoxo | TheDeeWhoLived
Thank you 🙂 Glad this helped!
Very useful! Thanks so much Jenny! I do internally link however, I’m probably linking the wrong words so that aspect has really helped me. Thanks so much ☺️
Ashleigh
You’re welcome, glad this helped!
This was really helpful to read, something I should definitely work on! I’m really bad with links, and sometimes do internal links but even then I will often do the click here ones – so this has been super helpful to read and something that I will try and work on for future posts – thanks for sharing.
Chloe xx
http://www.chloechats.com
You’re welcome, glad this helped!
Very useful tips… sometimes I write “click here” till I read it does not help and I’m glad you said so in this post. I’m always trying to improve my SEO. Thank you for this post
Definitely use actually words / keywords / sentences instead 🙂 x
I do this occasionally but I need to do it more x
5 times per post is optimal x
I’ve noticed a great difference in my bounce rate and my traffic since making it a habit to use more internal links in my posts! I also have adopted the trick of not linking to ‘here’ but an actual keyword instead, so hopefully that’s helping a bit too x
Yasss that’s great! x
Thank you so much for this post! I am just trying to get my head around SEO at the moment as a baby blogger (and there is SO much to learn!) but this really helped! Thank you! xX
There is a lot to learn but you’ll get there! x
This is great advice – I currently have a 0% bounce rate and I think that must be partly down to my use of internal linking as I always have at least three (usually “see also” types). Next step is fixing broken links!
That’s brilliant! Ugh broken links suck!
This is a very useful post! I do link to other posts in most of my blog posts but I need to start doing it within my text as well! So that is something to add to my to do list for my blog. Thank you for this! Xxx
You’re welcome!
Oooh! I am really bad with linking to internal posts unless I am referencing something from the past. Though, I should do a better job at this! SEO is so important – especially if you want your brand to get out there. Thanks for sharing all of these thoughts!
Nancy ♥ exquisitely.me
Referencing things from the past is a good place to start, just make sure you’re doing it regularly!
This is fantastic advice! If I really enjoy a blog post, I will spend a lot of time looking through the rest of the blog. It’s a fantastic way to get someone to stick around on your site longer 🙂
Thanks for adding to my workload! No, seriously, I used HERE and will go over and look for keywords. Thanks.
Whoops, sorry haha! Glad this helped though!
Since I do not write many longer articles, chances for internal linking do not come up often but I tell you as a blog reader that I love checking out what bloggers have written, especially if it expands on a small idea in one post in another post. Having links near the top of the post is also handy if the site does not have a ‘related content’ bar at the bottom. 🙂
Thanks for your feedback from someone who often used those links!
I just started doing this and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier. I often have interlinking themes, posts that support other posts. This is such a great idea!
Interlinking themes are perfect for internal links!
Great post as usual Jenny, very helpful, I didn’t know about the internally linking closer to the beginning of the post bit. I’m usually pretty good at including at least two or three internal links in my posts but one tip I have picked up recently (although am yet to implement) is to go back to all my old blog posts and link them to newer posts. At the moment all my links point back to older posts and I need to rectify that! xx
Lisa | http://www.lisasnotebook.com
Ah yeah that’s an important thing to do as well!
I normally include lots of internal links in my posts if something I’ve talked about in pervious posts is mentioned in the current one, or if the concept of a pervious post is related to the current post.
For example, I have a post about suicide prevention, thus anytime I mention suicide I always link back to that post
Yep, that’s the idea 🙂
Informative 👍🏻
Thank you.
This is a great post. I try to remember to link to my own posts, but I’m still in the “This seems to be too much self promotion and do peope really wanna go check out more of my posts” phase. Hopefully it’ll become more natural the more i do it.
Don’t worry about that! Get those internal links in there! You’re not forcing anyone to click on them.
Such useful tips! I love that you gave a shoutout to Nele in the post, she’s so knowledgeable in SEO!
Right, she’s literally the SEO queen x
This is so useful! And a great reminder to me to go back to older posts and link to my newer ones! Thanks so much for sharing ☺️
You’re welcome!
Awesome tips! This is one thing I always make sure to do, I like to link at least two internal and two external in each post. I know too many puts me off so I don’t want to overload but it really does work well for SEO!
Anika | chaptersofmay.com
It sure does! Internal and external links in a post is great to do x
Like you I’ve always interlinked because it just made sense to do but I definitely used to be guilty of interlinking to the word ‘here’ in the early days. Now I take my time to structure a keyword sentence when I’m interlinking!
Lauren | http://www.laurenyloves.co.uk
Oh I’ve linked SO MANY posts to the word “here” haha!
This is such a great post, I knew about internally linking and we do that but I didn’t realise how it does effect the SEO like that but it’s good to know we’re doing something right!
Jessica & James | http://www.foodandbaker.co.uk
Absolutely! x
Ooh I didn’t realise how important internal linking was! I do like… one internal link per post, but is that enough?
Around 5 per post is the optimum 🙂 x
Great tips! One thing that I need to get into the habit of doing is going through and making connections with older posts too… for example, if I see a post is drawing traffic and I wrote something related, go back and add that link to the original post! I keep forgetting that step lol
Yesss I need to do that too!
This is all such great advice! I have been trying to interlink my blog posts more too. And I haven’t thought about trying to link it at the beginning but that is such an amazing tip! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome!
I always try and do this when writing new content, I fully learnt a long time ago that it really does boost SEO! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
It really does 🙂
this is a great post full of useful advice – i’ll defo be saving this for when I next write a blog post!
Emily xx
http://www.underthescottishrain.com
Glad you found it helpful!
Great advice! I knew this was important, but I hadn’t thought about placing those links near the top, though of course that makes sense. Thanks Jenny!
You’re welcome 🙂
Very useful, thanks for clarifying the best way to do it!!
You’re welcome 🙂
This is brilliant advice, thank you for sharing Jenny! I try to link back to older posts when I can, but never knew how much it benefited our blogs and SEO, so this is really interesting to read. I will remember your suggestion about linking to key words instead of ‘here’, which I think I’ve done on a few posts before. Thanks again for the tips, really helpful post! <3 xxx
Bexa | http://www.hellobexa.com
Thanks Bexa! It can have a positive effect on SEO for sure! <3 xxx
Great tips Jenny! I always try to link back to older posts where I can, it’s such a simple thing to do but can really have a positive effect to your blog xx
Tiffany x http://www.foodandotherloves.co.uk
Absolutely! It’s so easy to do as well!
This is something I’ve been working on for quite some time, and I found it really helpful to link in older blog posts that relate to the current topic as well as recent blog posts I’ve written too 🙂
Oh yeah link to anything relevant, doesn’t matter how new or old it is!
This is something I have been doing a lot more recently. But normally at the end of the post, so this was useful. Thank you for sharing 🙂 Hope you are well, stay safe x
LottieLately.com
You’re welcome! You too lovely x
Thank you for sharing such good advice Jenny. I like to internally link blog posts but I probably don’t do it enough. You’re always my go to when it comes to all things blogging, so I’m definitely going to keep this all in mind moving forward.
Kate | thelittlecrunch.co.uk
Awh yay! So glad to hear that! <3
This very helpful. I will try this to boost my traffic.
You’re welcome.
Great post ! Thanks for sharing useful tip Jenny ! Loved it 🙂
You’re welcome!
You are absolutely right; thanks so much for your advice. I am an educator, primarily, and so the art of blogging doesn’t come naturally to me. You have no idea how helpful posts like this are to people like me.
I’m so glad!
I totally needed to hear this, internal linking is something I used to do but have completely forgot about recently. Do you reckon it would be a good idea to update older (recent) posts to link to even older ones? x
Yes absolutely!
This has definitely given me more insight than I had before into how links in blog post are effective for blog traffic and engagement. Thanks for sharing Jenny 🙂
Johnny | Johnny’s Traventures
https://johnnystraventures.com
I’m glad! You’re welcome!
Great advice as always Jenny. I try to link my newer posts to my old ones but sometimes is very hard to do as I write about specific topic that do not relate to anyting. I will try to implement some of your advices. Thanks.
Only do it if it’s something relevant and necessary 🙂
Great advice. I try to link back to my older content as much as possible.
It has been hugely beneficial in terms of my bounce rate, you can see that people are clicking on to it from the stats as well which is reassuring to know that it’s a good fit for the post and people are following through x
That’s great to hear!
It is such an easy thing to do but makes such a difference, great tips, thanks for sharing!
I had always included one internal link because, similar to you, if just made sense. But, I didn’t know there was a best way to do it! I’m going to have to go back to some of my earlier posts and change the ‘here’ text to a better keyword! Thanks for sharing Jenny! 🙂
You’re welcome!
ah thank you, this is very useful!xx
You’re welcome x
This is one thing that I actually do a lot but I don’t think I do it enough, i usually only do once or twice in each post but I’m definitely going to start doing it more often! Great tips x
Up it a bit! You seem to be on the right track 🙂