How Can a Bad Internal Linking Ruin Your Search Engine Optimization

“We’ve been creating content, we’ve got an SEO strategy… but it doesn’t seem like any of this is working. What are we doing wrong?” 

Before I came to Website Depot, there was a page on here that compared your digital marketing to cars. I’ve always loved the analogy. The idea was basically “a website with Search Engine Optimization is like a car with an engine,” something like that. 

To continue the analogy of comparing your SEO strategy to a vehicle, when it breaks down, it could be for any number of reasons. It may be something obvious, such as the website won’t load (or the tires are flat). That said, it could also be for something that’s less obvious on the service, such as faulty internal linking. 

Over the years, we’ve helped so many of our clients to have an internal linking strategy that works, boosting their SEO as well as their company. 

Why Is Internal Linking Important to Search Engine Optimization? 

You might be asking, at this point, “why does it matter if there are internal links on my pages?” 

The answer is that, more or less, links are how the internet judges authority. 

A page with more links, internal or external, has more authority. It’s a better page as it’s been linked to more times. 

As one-page links to another, it bestows a bit of credibility on the page it links to. In turn, that makes it more possible that the second page will rank. 

Again, a “real world” analogy here can help. 

Think of each “link” as an endorsement. When someone tells you “hey, I vouch for this person,” it makes folks that much more likely to look favorably upon the person who’s been vouched for. 

(This also, in turn, shows why “link-stuffing” doesn’t work. A person who gives an endorsement every now and then is someone you might trust. Someone who non-stop talks about all of the other people they know is someone that you aren’t going to trust. The same goes for link-stuffing.) 

So, internal linking is important. But, how do you go about doing it properly? This is the kind of thing you want to think about before you sit down to it so that you can draw it up properly. 

Internal Linking Done Right: “Put the Money Where the Money Is” 

Years ago, I was having a conversation with a big-time television writer. They told me that they always work to make sure that the most important lines are given to the stars. Or, as he put it, we “put the money where the money is.” 

That same idea should be used for your internal linking. 

There are pieces of content on your site that are more important or perhaps just perform better than others. Perhaps they’re pages of your best product, your best service, and so forth. 

Those are the ones that you want to have your internal linking strategy focused upon. 

Centering your internal linking strategy around those is a great way to boost your SEO. Or, another way to look at it, you’re boosting your SEO where it counts. 

Now, you might read this and think: “wait, why do I want to boost my SEO on just one piece of content? Don’t I want to use my internal linking to boost everything?” 

It doesn’t really work that way. 

When Google looks at your site, it looks at everything, but it certainly takes linking into account more than many other factors. 

If it seems that your internal links are too “spread out,” or not focused on what’s most important, you’re that much less likely to rank for anything. 

However, a properly done internal linking strategy can show Google “hey, this is what we want people to focus on because it’s the best about us.” In turn, Google will make that more likely for people to see. 

We can help with that and plenty more. For additional help with growing your business, you can reach us at (888) 477-9540.