In a recent Google Hangout, John Mueller corroborated the importance of internal linking for SEO and suggested a strategic approach for implementing it. Today’s blog looks at the importance of internal linking.
When asked about internal linking, John Mueller confirmed that internal linking beyond site breadcrumb navigation is one of the most important things that an SEO content writer can do to tell Google which content is the most important.
A website provides a “breadcrumb” trail (think Hansel and Gretel) in the form of a breadcrumb site navigation so that a site visitor can navigate back through the structure of a website, starting at the homepage, then progressing onto a category page, then an article or product and so on.
Breadcrumb structured data (or schema) reflects the breadcrumb navigation or internal navigation and tells Google what the topic of a website category is. Internal navigation makes it easier for users to navigate through a website between categories and subcategories to find exciting things to read or purchase. Google’s John Mueller states that internal linking is an opportunity to communicate to Google something more than what internal navigational links can display. However, he reiterated that having structured data on a page is not a replacement for regular internal linking.
It would be best if you think strategically about what is most important for your website and highlight that content with internal linking.
Internal linking is not a ranking factor but a good way to tell Google which pages in a site are important. Every SEO professional or web developer will think of a website as a pyramid. At the top is general site information and what the website offers. As you go through layers of categories and subcategories via the site navigation, the topics go from very general (at the top) to increasingly more and more specific, down at the bottom.
Suppose you own a big site with lots of content. In that case, it is more likely that important content can get buried and remain forgotten, so John Mueller suggested that strategic internal linking is a way to point Google and site visitors to the most popular or important topics.
In Summary, look at internal linking strategically, what you care about most and how to highlight this through internal linking, pinpointing your most important, valuable content for search engines so that they can find and rank it.
Click here for more information about our services or view more of our blog.
