An SEO power technique that can boost your content marketing is Internal Linking. In the following paragraphs, I’ve chosen to focus on internal linking for content marketing. It is one of the easiest and simplest ways to experience SEO uptick.   

The Definition of Internal Linking

What an internal link does is connecting one page of a website to a different page on the same website. In an internal link, the source domain and target domain are the same.

The Purpose of Internal Linking

Internal linking can have many benefits, but three main purposes are as follows:

• Aids in website navigation
• Defines the architecture and hierarchy of a website
• Distributes page authority and ranking power throughout the site

We’ll be spending our time discussing that third point — how internal linking can spread authority and rank throughout multiple pages of a website.

The Six Commandments of Internal Linking for Top-Notch SEO

1. Create lots of content
2. Use anchor text
3. Link Deep
4. Use links that are natural for the reader
5. Use relevant links
6. Use a reasonable number of internal links

1. Create lots of content 

In order to create lots of internal links, you must have lots of internal pages. The first step to having an amazing internal linking strategy is to have a nice content marketing strategy. You can’t have one without the other.

When there is lots of content, you can have lots of linkable content. By having more links to more places, you can have a better internal linking strategy.    

Some internal linking strategies propose extremely complex layers of pages, silos of content, and a mathematically-balanced formula for the number of links to levels of pages. I say it doesn’t really matter. Internal linking doesn’t require organizational spreadsheets and trigonometric derivative charts.

To create keyword-rich content, with the idea of naturally linking pages, you need a strategy. Ubersuggest can help you find appropriate keywords, which gives you the direction you need to create lots of high-quality content.

2. Use anchor text

In keeping with the content theme of internal linking, your internal links must utilize anchor text as opposed to linked images. Image links are good if images are not the main source of links and assume the image is properly alt-tagged.

By using a proper anchor text, of course, it can open a new can of worms. Obviously, you don’t want optimized anchors. Just use natural, unoptimized sentence fragments as anchor text, and you’ll do just fine. No cute tricks. No overthinking it. Just highlight, link it and be done.

3. Link Deep

The deeper your links go, the better.

You should avoid using two types of links in your contents:  

1. Home page:

Most of the websites have lots of links to the homepage as it is. You would rather intensify internal pages to boost the overall SEO of your site, rather than point more links at the homepage.

2. Contact us:

It is one of the common mistakes of many who start out in content marketing. Normally, at the end of the posts, most of the writers write something like, “Give us a call to find out more about our awesome services!” Then, they link to the “contact us” page using the anchor “give us a call.” Don’t do it unless absolutely necessary.

In general, you want to avoid links to the top-level pages on a site — pages to which the main navigation menu already has links.

The best links — and the most natural links in a content marketing strategy — are deep within the structure of a site.

4. Use links that are natural for the reader

Internal linking needs a user-focused approach to adding value and information. The link value that you distribute throughout the site is secondary to this key point — providing value to the reader.

One of the benefits of internal linking is that it improves user engagement on your site. When there is an informative link and the user sees it, they are likely to click on that. It can be an external link, as long as it’s something that the reader will be interested in. If that link is and internal link, the site visitor stays longer and becomes more involved in your website experience.

When you link in your content you’re telling the engine that the target of your link is so relevant and important that you want your visitor to simply be able to click a link and go straight there. 

Content links are a signal to both the search engine and the user that the content you are linking to is really good. By doing this you can help both the reader and your SEO. 

5. Use relevant links

Internal linking, as I’ve made clear, is less rigorous and scientific than some might think. But you still have to be intentional. Don’t merely link for the sake of linking. Instead, link to content that is relevant to the source context.

As much as possible, link to relevant content in your internal linking.

6. Use a reasonable number of internal links

You don’t need tons of links in your internal content. Google’s instructions are simple: “Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number.”

Question: What the heck is a reasonable number?

Answer: Nobody knows.

Smart people have tried to answer the question, but not even Matt Cutts has provided a definitive statement. He wrote, “It seemed about right to recommend 100 links or so,” and “in some cases, it might make sense to have more than a hundred links.”

So, should you go for 100 links? Maybe, but that 100-total links includes all the links on a page — footers, headers, nav bars, ads, everything. 100 links isn’t as hard as it sounds, once you calculate the total number of HREFs on an entire page.

When it comes to internal linking, I suggest around three to four, depending on the length of your post. I usually write articles that exceed 1,500 words, and I don’t have a link-heavy navigation bar. So, I wouldn’t feel bad about throwing in ten or twenty internal links if I needed to.

There’s no magic number. There is, however, the all-important user. Add as many links as would be helpful for the user.

Conclusion:

Internal linking when undertaken with these six commandments in mind, is a cinch. It’s not overwhelming, complicated, or difficult. The great thing is, you’ll experience a stronger link profile and better SEO by consistent internal linking. It’s even worth it to go back and audit your old content to make sure it has sufficient internal linking.