But you can\u2019t let a challenge stop you from driving more traffic<\/a> and generating conversions for your business. Optimizing your content is easy when you understand the why and how of internal link building.<\/p>\n Quick Takeaways<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Consistent internal linking is an essential content marketing<\/a> technique that promotes more traffic, a stronger link profile and enhanced SEO.<\/p>\n Internal links are hyperlinks that guide visitors to another page of the same website. These are not to be confused with external links, which are hyperlinks that guide visitors to a different<\/em> website.<\/p>\n Although both are key to a thriving SEO strategy, internal links are essential to keeping visitors engaged on your site. They also reinforce essential components of SEO success:<\/p>\n Image Source: Terakeet<\/em><\/p>\n Internal links can be found on the homepage of websites, or within published content, such as blog posts<\/a>. They\u2019re most effective when anchored within text, offering readers their next destination to learn more about a specific topic or keyword.<\/p>\n Internal link building generates traffic and circulates existing authority from backlinks throughout the rest of your site. It encourages site visitors to engage with your content as they\u2019re organically presented with answers to their questions.<\/p>\n A recent study<\/a> by Zyppy found that webpages with 40-44 internal links receive an average of 8 Google Search clicks, whereas pages with 0-4 internal links only receive 2 clicks. However, clicks become unstable as the number of internal links rises above 44.<\/p>\n Image Source: Zyppy<\/em><\/p>\n Clearly, internal link building is a vital part of any SEO strategy, but it begs the question of how internal linking can be optimized for your specific site. Understanding how navigation links and anchor text variations perform will help you find the perfect balance.<\/p>\n Navigation, or sitewide, links are internal links found in the navigation on every page of a specific website. Research shows that as the number of navigation links increase, site traffic tends to decrease.<\/p>\n Although, this doesn\u2019t mean that navigation links are less effective than other types of internal links. In fact, their effect often depends on the size and following of your website.<\/p>\n Research shows that large, high traffic sites benefit from the inclusion of many navigation links. In contrast, small and medium businesses see less success as their number of navigation links increases.<\/p>\n Anchor text refers to the specific words that make up a clickable link. Pages can have many variations of anchor text linking to them, or just a few. The most popular web pages generally have a wide variety of anchor text variations, generated from external links.<\/p>\n Although, research shows that pages with at least one exact match anchor, or anchor text that matches a topic or keyword exactly, is strongly correlated with more clicks.<\/p>\n Image Source: Zyppy<\/em><\/p>\n The graph above shows that web pages with exact match anchors can generate up to five times more traffic than those without. Although, simply using exact match anchors isn\u2019t always enough to see a noticeable impact on traffic. Internal linking works together with other optimization techniques to improve your site\u2019s ranking<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to increased traffic, internal link building comes with several other benefits. Understanding the effects of internal linking will help you optimize your SEO strategy and reach your target audience.<\/a><\/p>\n Internal linking allows you to define a journey for your audience, encouraging them to explore and engage with your site. This can help to both reduce your bounce rate<\/a> and increase time spent on a specific page.<\/p>\n\n
What Is An Internal Link?<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nWhy Start Internal Link Building?<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nNavigation Links<\/h3>\n
Anchor Text Variations<\/h3>\n
![\"bar](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/internal-link-building3.png\")
<\/p>\nBenefits of Internal Links<\/h2>\n
1. Improve Engagement<\/h3>\n
2. Enhance User Experience<\/h3>\n
![\"infographic](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/internal-link-building4.png\")
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