The Big Picture: How Links Work for Your Website
In the world of SEO, a link is a signal of trust and authority. A link is a connection from one page to another, whether it’s on your own website or on a completely different one. A search engine uses links to crawl the internet, discover new content, and to determine the authority of a page.
Understanding how to use links correctly is a fundamental part of any successful SEO strategy. This guide will walk you through the best practices for internal, external, and backlinks to help you get more traffic and a higher ranking.
The Three Core Types of Links
1. Internal Links
An internal link is a link from one page on your website to another. Internal links are the foundation of your website’s structure. They help a search engine’s bots find, crawl, and index all the pages on your site. They also help a search engine understand the relationship between your pages and which ones are the most important.
- Use descriptive anchor text: Your anchor text should be a descriptive phrase that tells a user and a search engine what the page you are linking to is about.
- Avoid orphaned pages: An orphaned page is a page that has no links pointing to it. You should ensure that every page on your website has at least one internal link pointing to it.
- Keep it natural: Your internal links should be a natural part of your content. You should not force them in.
2. External Links
An external link is a link from your website to another one. External links are a great way to show a search engine that your website is a trustworthy and authoritative source of information. When you link to a high-quality website, you are providing a user with a valuable resource.
- Link to high-quality websites: You should only link to high-quality, reputable websites.
- Use descriptive anchor text: Your anchor text should be a descriptive phrase that tells a user and a search engine what the page you are linking to is about.
- Check for broken links: A broken link is a dead end for a user and a search engine’s crawler.
3. Backlinks
A backlink is a link from another website to your website. Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors in SEO. They are a signal to a search engine that your website is an authority on a topic.
- Focus on quality, not quantity: A single high-quality backlink from an authoritative website is worth more than a hundred low-quality links from spammy sites.
- Use a variety of anchor texts: You should have a healthy mix of branded, naked, generic, and keyword-rich anchor texts.
- Monitor your backlinks: You should regularly monitor your backlinks to ensure that your profile is healthy.
