You’ve added keywords to your blog post, and think you’re done with optimizing it? Not yet! Your next step is interlinking blog posts and pages. But what are internal linking strategies, and why are they important?
When you start a blog, you quickly realize you need to know about search engine optimization (SEO). That’s the advice you get from other bloggers and blog coaches like me.
There are the basics of on-page SEO, which are important to ensure your blog posts are discovered, crawled, and ranked by search engines.
However, as a beginner blogger, I had no clue how applying interlinking strategies to my blog could result in traffic growth. Keyword research is important, but internal linking is just as necessary.
Interlinking blog content serves two very important purposes that we’ll explore in this blog post:
- Giving search engines an understanding of your blog content
- Helping keep readers stick around longer on your site.
What you’ll learn in this post will help you understand what internal linking is, how to interlink blog posts, and smart internal linking strategies that increase organic blog traffic.
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What Is Internal Linking in SEO?
Internal linking is when you link posts and pages with other relevant posts and pages within your own blog.
You may have heard the term “interlinking”. It’s the same as “internal linking”. We’re going to use them interchangeably in this blog post.
However, interlinking is different than external links in a couple of ways:
Internal links:
- Keep people on your site
- Indicate to search engines what your topical focus is on your blog
External links:
- Point people to pages on another domain
- Show search engines that you’re sharing valuable information from reputable sites, boosting your own credibility
You need both in blog content for search engine optimization and better ranking opportunities.
TIP: To build my blogger network and online presence in my niche, I look at including external links to more authoritative blogs in my niche whenever it makes sense to do so.
Why Internal Links Matter for SEO
I just noted that you need internal linking on your site. Let’s look at why they are important.
Interlinks Help Search Engines Crawl Your Site
Your site is crawled by Google bots, which follow links on your posts and pages. This helps them discover your content and how it’s all connected.
Builds Your Site Structure & Topical Authority
Those links that Google bots crawl help Google understand what your site is about. Interlinking explains to search engines how your site is structured and about your niche topic. It shows that you are a topical authority.
Interlinking Passes Link Equity (aka “SEO juice”)
When you have a link from a strong page pointing to a weaker one, it passes on link equity. In the SEO world, this is called “SEO juice”.
Think of it this way: you are a high school junior, and a senior takes you under their wing. Automatically, your social status improves.
The same applies when you link from an older post with a stronger page authority to a new or weaker one.
PRO TIP: Need to visualize this? I like to think of it like a good fairy sprinkling fairy dust all over something to give it extra powers.
Internal Linking Improves User Experience
Finally, internal linking strategies help make readers find related content on your site.
This lowers your bounce rate and increases time on your site, which indicates to search engines that your content is engaging.
What Are The Types of Internal Links You Should Use (and Why Do They Matter)?
Think adding a few internal links to blog posts is all that interlinking is all about? Nope! There’s more to it, and once you realize you can do more than just linking posts together, it will all make sense.
Remember how we’ve talked about internal linking helping Google and other search engines understand the structure of your site?
Let’s look at the ways to do internal linking to give search engines a thorough understanding of your site structure and content.
Here are the four essential internal linking types every blogger should understand and use strategically:
1. Cornerstone Content Links
Cornerstone blog content (also called pillar posts) is key topical posts and pages, containing your most valuable content. They are usually big, long blog posts that are overviews of a top topic.
For example, one of mine is “How To Start A Blog“.
How To Use It: Add links to your cornerstone blog content to your relevant posts, including new blog posts. This indicates to search engines that your content is up-to-date and authoritative. It signals that it should rank higher.
2. “Related Post” Links & Anchor Text Within Sentences
This is probably the way most bloggers know how to do internal linking in blog posts. It’s sometimes referred to as “contextual linking”.
How is it done? It’s usually as part of a sentence, or at the end of a section (related post). When you reference a topic you’ve written about before, link to that post using relevant anchor text.
Here’s an example of this kind of linking:
“Before you craft your title, make sure you understand the difference between a blog headline and an SEO title tag.”
It’s important because:
- It keeps people engaged and on your website longer
- Signals to Google that you’ve got topical authority
- Gives the reader useful context without them having to search on other sites
PRO TIP: Don’t use terms like “click here” or “read more” as your anchor text. Instead use keywords or variations on keywords to point to the relevant post. This gives Google an idea of what the linked post is about.
3. Category & Tag Page Links
Many of us don’t consider doing this, but it can boost your SEO game and overall authoritativeness on your core category topics.
This is where you add a link to a category page or tag page where it makes sense to give your readers an overview of a whole topic.
For example, at the end of this blog post, I could add a sentence like: “Want to learn more about SEO? Read all our tips in the SEO tips category.”
It’s a good linking strategy because:
- Boosts the internal structure of your blog
- Encourages Google to crawl and index your category/tag pages
- Keeps readers checking out more of your content, lowering your bounce rate
READ MORE: What Are Categories and Tags And How To Organize Them
4. Navigation Menu, Sidebar & Footer Links
Some of the best “real estate” on your blog for links are the navigation menu, the footer and the sidebar. These are static, meaning they are always “in your face” for site visitors.
Did you know that placing a blog post link in your navigational menu gives it more “link juice”?
Here’s how you do it: Add your cornerstone, most visited, most important or lead magnet pages to any of these spots. For example, “Start Here” or “Resources” page.
Why does this work?
- It’s access to the top, evergreen content on your site from any page
- It boosts the link juice for important pages
- Creates a better navigation experience for site visitors
PRO TIP: Change your sidebar links every few months to keep the site content fresh for site visitors.
Related Posts Plugin & Theme Features
Check to see if your theme has an option to include related posts at the bottom of your blog post. If it doesn’t, consider using the Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP).
This gives you another option to include links. In most cases, it’s links that are related via categories or tags.
What Are Internal Linking Best Practices?
Here are the rules of interlinking posts and pages that you should follow:
- Use descriptive, natural anchor text: Use keywords and long-tail keywords versus “click here” for linking
- Link from high-authority pages and posts when possible: Boost your newer or lower-traffic posts with the link-juice power of higher authority pages
- Add a link when it’s relevant: no fluff.
- Don’t overdo it: 3 to 10 links per 1,000 words, for most posts; however, some may require more.
- Make sure links open in the same tab: for internal links, keep people on your site
How Many Internal Links Per Page Is Best?
This is a question that gets asked often, but the truth is that there’s no hard rule from Google.
It all depends on the type of content.
For example, a simple, short post may have 2 to 5 internal links. However, your resource page may have 20+ links.
Here’s a general guideline you can follow with minimums:
- Short post (500–800 words): 2–3 internal links
- Medium post (1000–1500 words): 4–7 links
- Long-form post (2000+): 8–10+ links
Always remember that quality is more important than quantity. Stuffing a blog post with irrelevant links will not help with ranking.
PRO TIP: Use Google Search Console to find pages with high impressions but low clicks. Add links pointing to them, and watch them get a boost.
Create An Internal Linking System That Works
OK, we’re now getting to the really juicy part: creating an internal linking strategy that powers your SEO.
Here are the top tips to give Google what you need and keep you on track.
- Use a spreadsheet to track your links. Get organized and keep track of which internal links are used. Create columns for URL, keyword/topic, internal links used, etc.
- Link from old to new posts and new to old. Make this an activity you do RIGHT after you hit publish. Don’t forget to link from the old ones to the new one you just published.
- Group posts by topic cluster or theme. It’s easier to interlink when you’re working with a topic cluster. For example, all posts on the topic of SEO or Email Marketing.
- Use SEO tools to speed up your process. Link Whisper makes interlinking a breeze. RankMath gives you insights into potential posts to link to.
PRO TIP: Use LinkWhisper if you’re rushed for time and need a quick tool to help you out. It scans through your content and recommends posts to link to for passing on “link juice”. It also alerts you to broken links.
Create Content Clusters For Easier Interlinking
Here’s a smart content strategy that creates a smart interlinking strategy for SEO magic: content clusters.
Also called the “Hub & Spoke” method, because it looks like a wagon wheel, this content creation method makes it very easy to link posts together.
What Are Content Clusters?
Content clusters are a group of related posts that link to a main “hub” or cornerstone post. They are easily interlinked because they are on the same relevant topic. Content clusters are also referred to as “topic clusters”.
Example cluster:
- Hub post: “Email Marketing for Beginners”
- Cluster content:
- How to Choose an Email Platform
- How to Write Welcome Email Sequences
- List-Building Strategies for New Bloggers
- How to Create a Freebie for Your Newsletter
Each one links to the hub, and the hub links back to them.
Pro Tip: Build these clusters over time as you create more content. Keep a spreadsheet or mind map to track which posts belong in which clusters.
Auditing Internal Links: When And How To Do It
Think it’s set it and forget it? That doesn’t work!
You’ll always be tweaking your internal links with your blog. Here are some of the key times you should be updating your internal linking:
Update Links When You Do These Things
- Publish new cornerstone content
- Publish a new blog post (link old to new)
- Rebrand or change URLs
- Have orphaned content (no links pointing to it)
Do An Internal Link Audit
- Every 3 to 6 months, or after publishing a batch of new posts, do a thorough review of your links
- Refresh links in your sidebar if you have them
- Update main pages with links to ensure new ones are included
PRO TIP: Plugins like RankMath or Yoast (free) show you how many internal links are pointing to a blog post.
Interlinking Becomes as Easy as Pie
Common Mistakes Beginner Bloggers Make with Internal Linking
Let’s face it, as beginner bloggers, we’re bound to make SEO mistakes. These are some of the bigger ones we make with internal linking (me included, when was I a newbie).
- Linking brand-new posts only and forgetting to link older ones to the new post
- Overusing the same anchor text (exact match – change it up with variations on keywords)
- Not linking to cornerstone content often enough
- Not checking for broken links regularly and updating them
- Forgetting to update links after a content refresh or redirect
PRO TIP: Run your site through a broken link checker like Broken Link Checker plugin or Ahrefs (free site audit). Be aware that the plugin can slow down your site. Use it occasionally and then deactivate it.
How To Interlink Blog Posts: You’re Ready to Start Today
You’ve learned all you need about interlinking in SEO to get started. When you first do an interlinking audit is going to take some time.
However, as you learn to implement interlinking strategies when you’re publishing new content, it becomes easier to manage.
Once again, look at:
- Interlinking posts and pages, including links in navigational menus, sidebars and the footer
- Making sure you have no “orphan” pages
- Adding links from more authoritative pages to new ones for “link juice”
Linking helps Google understand your site and topical authority. It also helps readers and gets you more traffic.
Here’s a simple activity you can do to immediately improve your SEO:
- Go to your last 3 blog posts
- Add 3 links to each of them
- Find 3 old posts and add a link to each pointing to the 3 new posts
- Add 3 old posts to a cornerstone post
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QUESTION: What do you find is the most challenging thing about interlinking your blog content?
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This is awesome! Interlinking is one of the things that I seriously got slack on. But I’m getting ready to work on. I love the idea of the spreadsheet. Do you have an image example of what that looks like? I’m a visual learner. Thanks for all the info!