You’ve put a lot of time and effort into crafting fantastic blog posts. But you notice that it’s taking a significant amount of time for Google to pick up your new posts and show them in the search results. Is there a way to speed up that process? External links to that post will help, but again, link building takes time. So then, what can you do to speed up the process of discovery and indexation? Enter interlinking.
In this post, we’re going to unpack the concept of interlinking and the importance it plays for each and every new post.
Let’s get started.
What Is Interlinking in Blogging?
Interlinking is the process of hyperlinking from one page on a domain to a different page on the same domain. In layman’s terms, an internal link is one that points to another page on the same website.
The main method of how Google crawls through your site is by following internal links. Think of these internal links as doorways to new pages and content on your site; sure, there are other ways that these pages and content can be reached, but the easiest way is through aN interleading door, A.K.A an internal link.
When your new post is published, chances are there are only going to be one or two links pointing to it (one from the home page and another possibly from a category or tag page). As such, an SEO best practice with new blog posts is to add a few internal links from other pages and posts to the new one. This way, it will increase your chances of Google discovering that page a lot sooner than it would have if there was no internal linking pointing to that page.
Benefits of Internal Linking?
Aside from helping Google crawl through your site and make sense of your site’s hierarchy, interlinking benefits more than just Google.
Internal links are crucial for users. You might not think so, but have you ever spent time on a site that has no internal linking structure in place? It becomes very intensive to navigate. Having internal links makes it easier for site visitors to navigate your site. Internal linking also helps reduce bounce rate.
Interlinking also helps beef up low-ranking pages. By linking from a high-ranking page to a lower ranking page, it will pass on some of its link authority, helping it to rank better.
Types of Internal Links
There exist four main types of internal links that you should know of: navigational, contextual, footer, and image links. Let’s take a brief look at each.
Navigational Links
Navigational links form part of the navigational roadmap that you create on your navigational bar to make it easy for visitors to move from one page to another.
Contextual Links
Contextual links are the type of links that we were discussing earlier on; the kind of links that you share in the context of your web and blog content. For example, the Social Media Services page on IMS links to the Content Creation services page, giving users more context surrounding how the individual pages they visit fit into a larger ecosystem of sub connected content.
Footer Links
These are links in the footer section of a website. Generally seen as boilerplate links, these links usually show on each page of your site.
Image Links
Image links are internal links that are usually present under the visuals that you share. Oftentimes these link types are used to link to another blog post under an image source.
The important thing about interlinking is being specific about what, and how you link. Link to content that’s relevant and fits the context of the topic. Sure, interlinking helps Google discover new pages on your site, but if you interlink just for the sake of it, without taking your user in mind, you’re not going to see the value you should.
Keep your user front of mind and do what you can to enhance their experience via internal linking. Google will follow.
