10 Internal Linking Mistakes That Harm Your Website SEO
Creating links is super easy, did you know there are plenty of internal linking mistakes you can easily make that will hurt your site user experience and rankings?
Photo by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi: Pexels
Internal linking is an essential part of a website’s SEO strategy, but if you’re doing it the wrong way you can hurt your overall rankings. In this post, we’ll cover some of the most common mistakes people make when they do internal linking and how these mistakes can be avoided.
Internal linking is something that is neglected by many SEO experts as they keep external linking on priority to claim a good position on search engines. Creating backlinks is very important for website ranking, but internal links are also important for your overall search engine ranking.
Why is Internal Linking Important for Website SEO
Internal links are important for local SEO because these links help search engines understand the content of your blog. Search engines use internal links to determine how users navigate, which in turn affects their rankings in the SERP.
A website that has a well-designed page hierarchy and clearly labeled headings will have an easier time ranking for certain keywords because it’ll be easier for search engines to determine what each page is about.
Internal Linking Mistake that You Should Avoid
1. Linking to Spammy Websites
The best way to avoid spammy links is to avoid them. If you want to stay away from shady sites and the people who post them, take the time to find out what your competitors are doing on the web.
You can do this by checking out their backlinks and looking at how they’re ranking in search engines.
If you see a lot of spammy links being posted by your competitor’s websites, then it’s likely that those sites have been penalized for posting these types of links on their own site or within forums where other people share content.
This means that if anyone follows those links from one domain directly into another domain with no other context around them (like an image), Google may consider it as a low-quality article which will lower its rankings over time as more quality content gets added underneath each piece of text when users scroll through pages deeper into search results pages.”
2. Using the Same Keywords Repeatedly
Use the same keyword repeatedly: This is a common mistake that can cause major issues for your website’s SEO.
The most obvious mistake is to use the same keyword on all of your pages, including the page title and body text.
This will help you rank for that keyword, but it may also lead people who are looking for other related terms to think that there’s something wrong with your site when they find one of these repeated keywords on their own search results page.
3. Adding the Many Internal Links on Your Page
It’s a good thing to have links on your pages. Links help search engines understand what you have written about, and they also help readers find their way around the site.
However, there is a limit to how many internal links you can add on one page before it becomes too much information for the reader to process.
Too many internal links can be confusing and distracting for visitors who are looking at your site while they’re trying to find something specific or useful in general terms (such as “how do I get my business listed on Google?”).
They will probably leave without finding what they were looking for because they didn’t understand how everything fit together well enough!
It’s important not only that each piece of content has its own unique link but also that those links are relevant enough, so users don’t feel like clicking through too much spammy nonsense just because someone thought it was cool.
4. Duplicate Content and Internal Linking
Duplicate content is bad for SEO. Search engines use the unique content on your site to rank it higher in their search results, so having duplicate content can be detrimental to your website’s rankings.
Duplicate internal linking also harms your site’s SEO because it makes it harder for search engines and users alike to find the information you want them to find.
If duplicate internal links exist between two pages within a website, then those pages won’t be able to exchange information as effectively as they could if they were linked only once.
In addition, having too many small internal links can slow down page loads significantly—which means less time spent reading and more time wasted waiting around on pages that aren’t loading properly.
5. Avoiding Long-Tail Keywords in Your Anchor Text
Long-tail keywords are more specific than broad keywords.
These keywords are searched for less often, but these keywords convert better because they’re easier to rank for in the SERPs and they tend to be more “brandable” than broad terms like “best laptops.”
Long-tail keywords are also more likely to attract links from other websites, so it’s important that you use them consistently throughout your content creation process.
6. Using Links to Lead People Off of Your Site
Another common mistake is to use links to lead people off your site. Don’t do it! It will hurt your SEO, and it’s a bad idea for several reasons.
Internal linking is vital for your SEO, but if you’re doing it wrong you can hurt your overall rankings, so make sure you’re doing it right!
Internal linking is an important part of your local SEO strategy, but if you’re doing it wrong, it can hurt your overall rankings. So, make sure you’re doing it right!
7. Redirect Chains and Loops
The redirects are the events that take you from one page to another. Redirects can create loops and slow down your website, and sometimes even confuse search engines.
Direct links to destination pages improve user experience and can be set manually if required.
8. Using Nofollow in Outgoing Internal Links
If you need to redirect, do it directly to the final page. Understanding the reason behind redirect issues will help you to identify the patterns and fix them.
When you add a nofollow link to your blog or website, it tells search engines not to follow that link.
it’s important to use the correct tags when doing so. The most common mistake is using the nofollow tag on internal links and forgetting that those are passed along without the designation.
If you do use the nofollow tag on internal links, be sure to review your site and remove any links that don’t need it.
Top Internal Linking FAQ
What is the difference between Internal Linking & External Linking
Internal links are one of the most important aspects of SEO. If you have a page on your site which is not very popular, then it is important to increase the number of internal links which could help that page to be ranked at the top by Google.
An external link is a link sent from one web page or website to another internet page that lets people know who published or connected with each other online.
Is internal linking only useful for SEO purposes?
Internal links are useful for SEO purposes by allowing users to link to multiple pages on a website and improve the search engine ranking of these linking sites.
The correct number of internal links will depend on many factors, such as whether one site is linked with another site frequently if there are only a few pages within the website, and how often they change.
How many internal links should a page have?
The number of links a page has is important. The more links a page has, the more authority it has and the more likely it is that people will find it useful.
It is also good for your site’s search engine rankings because it makes the site easier for search engines to crawl through, and the more crawling that occurs the better chance you have of being found via search engines’ natural language queries.
We typically recommend that most pages have between 10-15 internal links.
Should internal links open in a new window?
Internal links open in a new window should be set because it causes confusion for users when they come across a product page and open many internal links all at once.
The links will then show up as broken links and cause the user to leave your site, wasting their time and making them less likely to buy from you again.
Conclusion
Internal links are vital for your SEO, but if you’re doing it wrong you can hurt your overall rankings. Make sure you’re doing it right!
