Using internal links

You use internal links by pointing from existing pages, with descriptive link text, towards new or overlooked pages, so both visitors and search engines find their way there.

An internal link does two things at once. It helps a visitor go further when they want to know more and it shows a search engine which pages you consider important enough to refer to. Pages linked from many other pages usually carry more weight, even when they have built up few external links of their own.

How to use internal links effectively

• Descriptive link text. Use the subject of the target page as the link text, instead of “click here” or “read more”, so the link itself already hints at what sits behind it.
• From strong pages. Link from your best-visited or best-ranking pages to pages that get little attention, so part of that trust travels along with the link.
• Logical within the text. Place the link at the point where a reader would genuinely have that question, and not at the end as a loose addition nobody reads.

What you achieve with them

• Spread of authority. Internal links pass part of the trust of a strong page on to a weaker page, which lets that weaker page grow along faster.
• A shorter route to deep content. A visitor who needs three clicks to find something drops off more often than with one clear link from the page they are already on.
• A clearer site structure. Search engines read internal links as a map of what belongs together, which also helps with on-page and off-page SEO.

Want to see which pages on your site get too few internal links? Take the free AI-zichtbaarheidscheck.