Links are a vital aspect of all SEO campaigns. Both internal and external links can contribute different SEO value to your website, and should be used according to best practices to ensure that your website can outperform others. Internal links are important as they assist users in navigating a website, help to spread link equity and establish a hierarchy for webpages. But how many internal links are good for SEO?
As a general rule of thumb, it is beneficial to include around 3-4 internal links for each page of your website, adding a link for approximately every 300 words. Over 100 links on a page can damage user experience and result in poor SEO performance.
Keep reading to find out more about how many internal links are good for SEO, and what the best practices are for a SEO internal linking strategy.
How Many Internal Links Should I Include for SEO?
While there is no distinct number that everyone can agree on as the ideal number of internal links to include on a page, it is generally recommended that three to four internal links are included on a page. With more content, this number should increase accordingly, with guidance generally tending to settle on one internal link per 300 words. However, this guidance is highly variable, and it is much more appropriate to consider your unique website on an individual level.
Find out more about the importance of links in our detailed blog.
Are Too Many Internal Links Bad for SEO?
Of course, this rule should not be followed blindly. After a certain point, internal links can actually be damaging for SEO.
Anything below 100 links on a page should facilitate good user experience and positive SEO results, above this you run the risk of cluttering your page with links, which could make content difficult to read and reflect a poor user experience.
Find out more about user experience in our detailed blog.
How Can I Develop a Strategy for Internal Linking for SEO?
So, if at this point you are left feeling as though there is still no tangible answer to the question ‘How Many Internal Links are Good for SEO?’, in this next section we will take a look at how to successfully build an SEO internal linking strategy to help your website out rank your competitors.
Website Structure
As mentioned above, internal links are vital for defining website structure and page hierarchy. A common way to structure a website would be having the homepage at the top of the hierarchy followed by product category pages, with the individual products themselves at the bottom of the structure. By organising your internal links in a logical hierarchy, this makes it easier for both users and web crawlers to navigate and understand the structure of your website.
Find out more about how search engines crawl and index websites in our detailed blog.
Topic Clusters
Internal links are either structural or contextual. Structural internal links are generally included to aid with navigation to key pages, and are usually included in a website’s main menu or footer. Contextual links are included within the content on a website. To create topic clusters, you can include contextual links that connect related content on your website to help search engines understand your website’s structure and content.
Identify Sources of Traffic
It is likely that certain pages on your website are bringing in more traffic than others. If so, you should concentrate your efforts on improving the internal linking of these pages. This can be done using any analytics tool such as Google Analytics.
Flag Authoritative Pages
While high-traffic pages are important, it is also likely that some pages will have a higher authority. The homepage of a website will typically receive backlinks more often than other pages, which will result in the homepage becoming more authoritative. Using tools such as SEMrush, you can quickly check which pages have higher authority and, again, focus your efforts on those pages to improve the internal linking.
Find out more about backlinks and their importance by reading our detailed blog.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the word or phrase that has a link attached to it. By using anchor text that describes the location that users will be sent to if they click the link, users will be more likely to follow it. This technique will also help search engines to better understand the context of the link.
Related Content
Particularly useful for blogs, internal links can provide more information on a specific topic whilst keeping users on your website. If you have written a blog that touches on a sub-topic you have written an entire blog on, consider adding a link to that blog in the original content. This will help to keep users engaged and improve the user experience of your website.
Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords generally have lower search volumes, and can sometimes prove difficult to integrate into main content. By using internal links for long-tail keywords, you can effectively improve your website’s rankings for specific phrases.
What Is the Best Way to Enhance My Website’s Linking?
Internal linking is a vital aspect of SEO and, when employed effectively, can result in positive user experience and improved rankings. At Wildcat Digital, we complete site-wide audits at the beginning of every SEO campaign to analyse the current internal linking structure and identify areas for improvement.
Contact us today to find out more about our SEO experts and how we can help you to outrank your competitors.
Andy Blanchard
Senior SEO Executive
