Internal and external links make the web navigable. When utilized appropriately, they are both great for your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
If you are just starting your SEO journey or are planning to hire a
search engine optimization agency, you might have seen the term 'internal links' and 'external links' and wondered what they were. In this blog, we will take you through what internal and external links are, the difference between them, the benefits, and how these can help you in your search engine optimization strategy.
Internal Links vs External Links
First, let us understand what internal links are. Internal links on a website are the links that direct users to other pages within the same domain. Meanwhile, external links are links in your site that link to external sources and domains. External links help search engines establish valuable, relevant domains and pages.
What Are the Benefits Of Internal Links?
Some of you might wonder what the point of doing that is? Well, linking internally to your pages improves the user experience, increases overall time spent on your website, and encourages better conversion rates. These are all crucial elements of a successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
Therefore, by giving the viewer a positive user experience, internal links encourage them to become a customer of your business.
For example, if you are a solar panel business, you might link your products to your blog. A person who Googles online articles and resources about the benefits of installing a solar panel might be potentially interested in buying a solar panel for their home. Therefore, writing a blog post and linking to your product within the same encourages higher conversion rates.
After reading your blog, the reader will not have to look up the panels themselves. After all, by linking to your product, you make it easy for them to navigate through your website and purchase your product.
Internal links are hence often used as a call-to-action. They prompt a user to read or learn more about a topic by clicking on the link or asking the viewer to contact you, schedule an appointment or view your products/ services.
Internal links will improve your website's visibility and rank on the search engine. Internal links will also help Google find other new web pages on your site. A page that is easy to navigate for users and search engine bots will get indexed properly.
With our search engine optimization service, we help clients boost traffic to their site and improve their site's rank on Google's results page.
What Are the Benefits of External Links?
Inbound external links
Suppose many external pages link to your website, through what
search engine optimization specialists call
inbound links. In that case, it sends a signal to the search engine that your page is valuable and will therefore provide value to other users.
Google regards these links as a vote of confidence in your website. The more inbound external links from authority domains in your niche, the higher your pages will rank on search engines.
Outbound external links
The links from your website to other sites are
outbound external links, and they help your readers find more information on a topic.
Although outbound external links may sound counterintuitive-
as they will make customers click on them, thereby leading them away from your site- linking to trustworthy material helps you appear to be an authority and help Google figure out what your content is about.
Therefore, having external links adds authority to your page and helps it rank higher. The quantity and quality of the external links that you use matter. Having a trustworthy and informative link of high quality to your pages will help improve your website's credibility, whereas adding poor quality and spam links will only hurt your website.
External links are a great way to reach out and make connections in the content creation and digital marketing world.
Using Links to Improve Your SEO
There are many factors that need to be considered when you want to rank higher on search engines like Google. Internal and external links are just a fraction of a robust search engine optimization strategy and can help boost SEO rankings significantly.
Internal links help in improving user experience, keep your visitors on your site for longer and reduce the bounce rate.
Outbound external links make your content more valuable to your readers and help build your website's authority.
Inbound external links serve as a vote of confidence to your site by other websites, and it helps search engines gauge the trustworthiness and authority of your website.
Confused about how to tackle the link building process on your own? Contact us today for our search engine optimization service to see how we can help on a larger scale.
