Internal linking is essential to a website’s SEO strategy, but you can hurt your overall rankings if you’re doing it the wrong way. This post will cover some of the most common mistakes people make when internal linking and how these mistakes can be avoided.
Internal linking is something that many local SEO experts neglect as they keep external linking on priority to claim a good position on search engines. Of course, creating backlinks is very important for website ranking, but internal links are also important for your overall search engine ranking.
Why is Internal Linking Important for Website SEO
Internal links are important for SEO because these links help search engines understand your blog’s content. In addition, search engines use internal links to determine how users navigate, affecting their rankings in the SERP.
A website with a well-designed page hierarchy and labeled headings will have an easier time ranking for certain keywords because it’ll be easier for search engines to determine what each page is about.
10 Internal Linking Mistakes That Harm Your Website SEO
Internal Linking Mistakes that You Should Avoid
Linking to Spammy Websites
The best way to avoid spammy links is to avoid them. If you want to stay away from shady sites and the people who post them, take the time to find out what your competitors are doing on the web.
You can do this by checking out their backlinks and looking at how they’re ranking in search engines.
If you see many spammy links posted by your competitor’s websites, then it’s likely that those sites have been penalized for posting these links on their site or within forums where other people share content.
This means that if anyone follows those links from one domain directly into another domain with no other context around them (like an image), Google may consider it as a low-quality article which will lower its rankings over time as more quality content gets added underneath each piece of text when users scroll through pages deeper into search results pages.”
Using the Same Keywords Repeatedly
Use the same keyword repeatedly: This common mistake can cause major issues for your website’s SEO.
The most obvious mistake is using the same keyword on all your pages, including the page title and body text.
This will help you rank for that keyword, but it may also lead people looking for other related terms to think there’s something wrong with your site when they find one of these repeated keywords on their search results page.
Adding the Many Internal Links on Your Page
It’s a good thing to have links on your pages. Links help search engines understand what you have written about and help readers find their way around the site.
However, there is a limit to how many internal links you can add on one page before it becomes too much information for the reader to process.
Too many internal links can confuse and distract visitors looking at your site while trying to find something specific or useful in general terms (such as “how do I get my business listed on Google?”).
They will probably leave without finding what they were looking for because they didn’t understand how everything fits together well enough!
It’s important that each piece of content has its unique link and that those links are relevant enough, so users don’t feel like clicking through too much spammy nonsense just because someone thought it was cool.
Duplicate Content and Internal Linking
Duplicate content is bad for SEO. Search engines use the unique content on your site to rank it higher in their search results, so having duplicate content can be detrimental to your website’s rankings.
Duplicate internal linking also harms your site’s SEO because it makes it harder for search engines and users alike to find the information you want them to find.
If duplicate internal links exist between two pages within a website, those pages won’t be able to exchange information as effectively as they could if they were linked only once.
In addition, having too many small internal links can slow down page loads significantly—which means less time spent reading and more time wasted waiting around on pages that aren’t loading properly.
Avoiding Long-Tail Keywords in Your Anchor Text
Long-tail keywords are more specific than broad keywords.
These keywords are searched less often, but they convert better because they’re easier to rank for in the SERPs and tend to be more “brandable” than broad terms like “best laptops.”
Long-tail keywords are more likely to attract links from other websites, so you must use them consistently throughout your content creation process.
Using Links to Lead People Off of Your Site
Another common mistake is to use links to lead people off your site. Please don’t do it! It will hurt your SEO, and it’s a bad idea for several reasons.
Internal linking is vital for your SEO, but if you’re doing it wrong, you can hurt your overall rankings, so make sure you’re doing it right!
Internal linking is an important part of your SEO strategy, but it can hurt your overall rankings if you’re doing it wrong. So, make sure you’re doing it right!
Redirect Chains and Loops
The redirects are the events that take you from one page to another. Redirects can create loops, slow your website, and sometimes confuse search engines.
Direct links to destination pages improve user experience and can be set manually if required.
Using Nofollow in Outgoing Internal Links
If you need to redirect, do it directly to the final page. Again, understanding the redirect issues’ reasons will help you identify and fix the patterns.
Adding a nofollow link to your blog or website tells search engines not to follow that link.
It’s important to use the correct tags when doing so. The most common mistake is using the nofollow tag on internal links and forgetting that those are passed along without the designation.
If you use the nofollow tag on internal links, review your site and remove any links that don’t need it.
Top Internal Linking FAQs
What is the difference between Internal Linking & External Linking
Internal links are one of the most important aspects of SEO. If you have a page on your site which is not very popular, then it is important to increase the number of internal links, which could help that page to be ranked at the top by Google.
An external link is a link sent from one web page or website to another internet page that lets people know who published or connected online.
Is internal linking only useful for SEO purposes?
Internal links are useful for SEO purposes by allowing users to link to multiple pages on a website and improve the search engine ranking of these linking sites.
The correct number of internal links will depend on many factors, such as whether one site is linked with another site frequently, if there are only a few pages within the website, and how often they change.
How many internal links should a page have?
The number of links a page has is important. The more links a page has, the more authority it has and the more likely people will find it useful.
It is also good for your site’s search engine rankings because it makes the site easier for search engines to crawl through, and the more crawling that occurs, the better chance you have of being found via search engines’ natural language queries.
We typically recommend that most pages have between 10-15 internal links.
Should internal links open in a new window?
Internal links open in a new window should be set because it confuses users when they come across a product page and open many internal links simultaneously.
The links will then appear broken and cause the user to leave your site, wasting their time and making them less likely to buy from you again.
Conclusion
Internal links are vital for your SEO, but you can hurt your overall rankings if you’re doing it wrong. So make sure you’re doing it right!
