Boost SEO With Clever Internal Linking - A Hidden Ranking Gem

Last Updated February 20, 2025

Internal linking is a powerful yet often overlooked SEO strategy that can significantly boost your website’s search engine rankings. By connecting your blog posts and pages through relevant internal links, you can improve your site’s structure, help search engines understand your content better, and provide a seamless navigation experience for your readers.

What is Internal Linking?

Internal linking is the practice of linking from one page on your website to another. For example, if you have a blog post about “content marketing examples,” you can link to it from another relevant post using that exact phrase as the anchor text. This simple technique can help search engines and users find and navigate your content more easily.

The Benefits of Internal Linking

Passes Link Juice: Internal links help distribute link equity (or “link juice”) from one page to another, which can improve the overall authority and ranking potential of your website.
Improves User Experience: By linking to relevant content, you encourage readers to explore more of your website, keeping them engaged and increasing their time on site.
Boosts SEO: Strategic internal linking helps search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your content, making it easier for them to crawl and index your pages.

Best Practices for Internal Linking

Use Relevant Anchor Text: Choose descriptive and relevant anchor text for your internal links. However, avoid using the exact same phrase every time, as it may appear spammy to search engines. Instead, vary your anchor text slightly, such as using “examples of content marketing” instead of always linking with “content marketing examples.”
Link to Your Most Important Pages: Whenever you publish a new blog post, make sure to link to your most important and relevant pages. This will help boost the visibility and authority of those key pages.
Keep It Natural: Only add internal links where they make sense and add value for your readers. Stuffing your content with irrelevant links can harm your SEO and user experience.

Tools to Simplify Internal Linking

If you use WordPress, there are plugins like Link Whisper that can suggest internal linking opportunities within your content. While these tools aren’t always perfect, they can save you time and provide helpful recommendations for improving your site’s internal linking structure.

RightBlogger allows you to use internal links from your site while generating content (in tools like the article writer). This feature is excellent for quickly analyzing your site and seamlessly incorporating the best organic links into your content.

Conclusion

Internal linking is a simple yet effective SEO strategy that every blogger should implement. By connecting your content through relevant internal links, you can boost your search engine rankings, improve user experience, and ultimately drive more traffic to your website. Start incorporating internal links into your content strategy today and watch your SEO soar!

How many internal links should I add to each blog post for SEO?

There is no perfect number, but most blog posts do well with several helpful internal links spread naturally through the content. For a 1,000 word post, aiming for 5 to 10 useful internal links is a good starting point.

Focus on quality over quantity. Each link should point to a page that truly adds more value or detail to what the reader is already learning. If a link feels forced or off topic, it is better to leave it out.

As your site grows, update older posts with new internal links to fresh content. This keeps your content network strong and helps search engines find and index your newer pages more quickly.

Where should I place internal links inside a blog post?

Place internal links inside the main body of your content where they feel helpful and natural to the reader. Good spots include right after you mention a topic that you have a separate post about or when you use a key phrase that matches another page.

Try to link from high traffic posts to important pages you want to rank, such as pillar guides, money pages, or core resources. This helps spread authority through your site and guides readers to the pages that matter most.

You can also add a short “Further reading” section at the end of long posts and link to 2 or 3 closely related articles. This keeps readers on your site longer and increases session depth, which is a good user signal for SEO.

What is the difference between an internal link and an external link?

An internal link connects one page on your website to another page on the same website. For example, linking from one of your blog posts to a related guide or to your contact page.

An external link points from your website to a page on a different domain, like when you link to a helpful resource on another site. Both types of links matter for SEO but they serve different purposes.

Internal links help search engines understand your site structure and pass authority between your own pages. External links can show that you are citing trusted sources and provide extra value for readers. You can learn more about linking out to other sites in the external link glossary entry from RightBlogger.

How can RightBlogger help me build better internal links faster?

RightBlogger can scan your content and suggest smart internal links while you write, which saves you from manually searching your site every time. When you use tools like the RightBlogger AI Article Writer, you can pull in existing posts and pages as internal links directly into your draft.

You can also use RightBlogger’s feature for internal links projects to analyze your site and uncover posts that need more links. This is especially useful when you have many articles and do not want to audit them one by one.

Combined with SEO insights from tools like their SEO reports and optimization workflows, you can quickly see which pages should receive more internal links. This turns internal linking into a repeatable system instead of a guess.

Which anchor text is best for internal linking without looking spammy?

The best anchor text is short, clear, and describes what the reader will find on the linked page. Instead of using “click here,” use a phrase like “email marketing guide” or “content marketing examples” that matches the topic of the page.

Avoid using the exact same keyword every single time you link to a page. Instead, use close variations that still make sense, such as “examples of content marketing” or “real content marketing examples.” This looks more natural to both readers and search engines.

Make sure your anchor text fits smoothly into the sentence and does not break the flow. If you can read the sentence out loud and it sounds normal, the anchor text is probably a good choice.