Links pointed at relevant content are a critical component of user experience and SEO. Internal links are links included on a site that point to other pages on the same site. They can be added to many places on a WordPress site including the main navigation, sub-menus, buttons and in blog text.
Adding internal links that highlight important keywords and let users know which content is most important is an essential part of an effective SEO strategy. They will help site visitors find content they might be interested in more easily and help reduce bounce rate.
Important for Search Crawlers
Search-bots from Google and other search engines follow any links they find when they’re crawling a page. Seeing how pages are linked together will give search engines a better understanding of how all the content on your site relates.
SEO value is passed from one page to the others through internal links which plays a major role in assigning organic page rank. The homepage of any site is the most common page for search engine crawlers to start so page value will often be divided among internally linked pages from there.
Most Important Links in Main Menu
Main menus give WordPress site designers a chance to highlight the most important items on a site and connect content to valuable keywords. The presence of the main navigation on each page of a site means links included there can be found on each page of the site.
Common main navigation items that will help give search bots a better understanding of what your site is about include About, Services, and Contact links. Sub-menus that break down topics in the main menu in more detail can also help you add more valuable links to the main menu.
Focus on Specific Topics with Secondary Menus
Secondary menus displayed in a sidebar, footer or secondary navigation elements is a great way to give site visitors a chance to dig deeper into your site content. Setting up menus that only show on specific pages with links to more detailed information will help establish your site as a content authority.
Eye-catching Buttons in Callout Sections
Callouts are short blurbs of text and a button placed in a section of a page that’s designed to stand out so visitors will understand the actions you’d like them to take.
Developing a consistent callout style to use throughout a site is a good way to make sure site visitors understand what they can do to take advantage of your service. A nicely designed CTA placed on a popular page like the homepage will help bring more traffic to a page and help boost the linked pages SEO value in relation to any linked keywords.
Internal Links in Blog Content
Publishing new blog posts is a great way to introduce visitors to new ideas, explain benefits, troubleshoot common issues, etc. and is a great way to add new content that drives traffic to your site. Linking important keywords that appear in blog text included in new posts added to your site will help cement your site’s status as a content authority.
It’s best practice to highlight different variations of important keywords in blog text and make sure to always link to relevant content when adding internal links to blog text. Adding title attributes with additional keyword variations is another way to connect additional keywords to a page..
Complete Linking Strategy
Internal links in the main navigation, secondary menus and blog text with a consistent linking strategy as described above will help give the pages a hierarchy that can be great for SEO. All internal links added to your site should have a purpose so pages that are linked to more often will be seen as more important and prioritized in search rankings.
Adding internal links in a diverse set of locations will give users and search bots the ability to find content easily and assign value to a page in the context of your overall site structure. Linking to valuable content is a cornerstone of how the web is built and is necessary for the growth of any SEO campaign.