How Many Internal Links To Use Per Page for SEO

You probably already know that search engine optimization is vital if you want your website to climb to the top of Google’s ranking algorithm. What you might not realize is that SEO is about more than well-written content and high-quality keywords. Links are one of the top two criteria Google uses to rank pages (high quality SEO Content is the other).

External links to high-ranking websites and reputable sources can be helpful, but internal links are even more important. Internal links lead from one page on your website to another one on it. Smart SEO practices utilize internal linking to make sure their most productive/important pages are linked to the most. Google sees internal linking structures and uses it as a metric to see which pages on your site YOU think are the most worthy to visit.

Too few or too many can drop your website lower in page rankings, so it is important to understand how many internal links per page SEO best practices call for.

How Many Internal Links Per Page for SEO?

The number of internal links to include on each page depends on what the page is for, how long the content is, and how relevant the links are. Although there is no set minimum, search experts recommend an average of five to 10 links for every 2,000 words. This means you should include an internal link every 200-300 words or so.

Keep relevance in mind. Google frowns upon stuffing too many internal or external links into pages in the same way that it devalues keyword stuffing. Pages that don’t have a lot of information should naturally have fewer internal links. Pages that are more information-heavy, such as trending news articles, often naturally accommodate many internal links. 

Not only that, the anchor text you use in the link should be relevant to where it’s being sent to. If you link to a page about snowboarding using the anchor text “skiing”, your link is likely to look a little spammy as well as be unhelpful for a user on your site.

How Many Internal Links Are Too Many for SEO?

According to John Mueller, a senior search analyst at Google, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. He says that internal links can do more harm than good if there are too many of them. Too many links dilute your website’s structure and make it harder for bots to understand what your page is about.

If a page has more than 150 internal links shooting out from it, Google won’t crawl it at all, so be sure you’re only linking to relevant information within your website. Keep in mind that any links in the header, sidebar, or footer count as part of that total.

Best Practices for SEO Internal Linking

Now that you know how many internal links per page SEO requires, it’s time to learn about the best practices for SEO links. First, ensure your website already has plenty of SEO-optimized content and that you’re continually adding written content by publishing industry-relevant, strategic SEO blogs. From there, you can begin using these practices to create your internal links.

Only Use DoFollow Links

Make sure your link’s HTML is not using a “nofollow” tag, as Google doesn’t index links with these tags. Ensure your HTML says “dofollow.”

Use Proper Anchor Text

The links you create should use anchor text that tells the reader what they’ll find if they click the link. The words or phrases you use should be descriptive but not exact matches to keywords. Avoid linking anything longer than a few words (think 5-7 max) and using phrases such as “click here,” which doesn’t provide any value.

Link Pages That Have Plenty of Content

The best internal links are either between two informationally-rich pages, such as two in-depth blogs about a related topic, or betweeen an informational blog post and a core service or product page on your site (that brings in leads/sales/ROI).

Informational Blog Post Inter-Linking

In the first exampleIf you write a long-form blog post about how to deep-clean a home, for example, you could link to a previously written blog post about the best products for deep cleaning. This SEO internal linking strategy potentially boosts the ranking of both pages by helping Google bots understand how pages on your site are related and creating a clear path for readers to follow.

This helps to reinforce an organic keyword profile on your site about those specific subjects.

Pillar Page Internal Linking

From a marketing perspective, internal linking between an informational blog post (near the top of the marketing funnel) and a core service pillar page (mid-bottom of the marketing funnel), is a way to help boost the overall importance and ranking of those main pages on your site.

This site structure/hierarchy is a core SEO tactic when it comes to trying to rank for high competition, high-search volume keywords. If your blog post is rewarded with a lot of keyword ranking and traffic, you can pass some of that along through internal linking.

This is also especially true when it comes to white-hat link building. If you’re paying for backlinks (think guest posting) to come back to your site, it’s ALWAYS better to link back to an informational (unbiased) post on your site than directly to your product/service pages! The reason why is a direct link to a service or product page from a guest blog indicates it’s fake, or has an ulterior motive than just providing educational value. Google is getting really smart about catching backlinks that look “spammy”.

The better way to do link building is to link back to an informational blog post on your site, and then use an internal link from that blog post to the core product or service page on your site you’re trying to boost as a means of passing that link juice over.

Add New Links to Old Articles

After publishing, you can adjust how many internal links you have per page to further improve your SEO. Updating old content is recommended as a best practice and doubles as a way to add more current and relevant links to previous blog posts. Be sure to remove and replace any information that is now outdated.

If you aren’t sure which pages on your site should be pillar pages you are linking back to, you might want to look into getting an SEO content audit to see where your internal linking opportunities lie on that front.

Understanding Structured Internal Links

Structuring your website’s internal links is essential for ensuring Google’s robots can crawl them. The optimal internal linking structure is in the form of a pyramid.

Your website’s home page is the main page. It flows into subpages (or pillar pages), such as one for company information, one for products, and one to contact you. Each of those pages, in turn, feeds into the pyramid. For example, a “products” page will link to individual pages for each item you sell. If you follow the pyramid structure, Google can more easily index your site and is more likely to raise your search rankings.

We Help You Determine How Many Internal Links To Use Per Page

It isn’t enough to know how many internal links per page SEO best practices advise if you are too busy running other aspects of your company to tackle the task. That’s where we come in! BKA Content’s team of experienced and professional SEO content strategists is available to create new strategic content, update old pages, engage in link building and improve your internal links, too. Contact us to learn more!