The document discusses the importance of internal linking for SEO. It defines internal links as links within the same domain and explains they help search engines crawl and index pages, improve the user experience by aiding navigation, and pass authority between pages. The document outlines different types of internal links and provides tips for auditing links and developing an internal linking strategy using keyword research and topic clusters. It gives a case study example where implementing an internal linking plan helped services pages rank higher in search results and increased organic traffic by over 1000%.

1. Turn Digi
Heba Said
June 10, 2021

2. Heba Said
➔I have been working in SEO for 6+ years, it all
started by coincidence and a getting remote SEO
Job
➔I worked in an agency and in-house for 5 years
and now I am freelancing and enjoying WFH.
➔I love diving, snorkeling & reading fiction like
Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings while drinking
a hot cup of coffee <3
@TurnDigi

3. Internal Linking. Why you can’t afford to ignore it!

4. Discussion
● What are internal links?
● Why are internal links important for SEO?
○ Important for Search Engine
○ Passing Page Authority
○ Improve User Experience
● Internal linking types:
○ Navigational
○ Contextual
○ Others
● How to Audit internal linking
● Real life example of success
@TurnDigi

5. Internal linking is
linking from page A to
page B on the same
domain
What are internal linking?

6. @TurnDigi
<a href="http://www.same-domain.com/product-
page/" title="Keyword Text">Keyword Text</a>
Internal Link Code Sample

7. @TurnDigi
Why are internal
links important for
SEO?

8. According to Databox survey about
98.6%
said internal linking effort made a positive impact
to SEO

9. @TurnDigi
1. Internal links importance to SE
Search engine will crawl your site and
index its pages.
● Having a good linking structure on
your website is always helpful for
Search Engine.
● Google will understand the hierarchy
and value of your content.

10. @TurnDigi
“Some pages are known
because Google has already
crawled them before. Other
pages are discovered when
Google follows a link from a
known page to a new page.”
Source

11. 2. Improves UX and Navigation
Nothing more important than making
my users’ life easier.
More time-on page, less bounce rate
AKA better user experience and
ranking!
*Pro tip: Aim to increase your clients
revenue through pointing user to the
purchase funnel.

12. @TurnDigi
3. Passing Page Authority
Internal linking passes page authority and
distributes link equity between your site’s
pages.
Example:
Page A: Got 10 external links from an
authority sites.
Page B: Only got 2 external links.
It will pass some authority if we linked
from Page A to Page B.
Page A
10 backlinks
Page B
2 backlinks

13. @TurnDigi
Types of Internal Links

14. @TurnDigi
Navigational Contextual Others

15. @TurnDigi
Navigation Internal Links
They are the main navigational
structure of a website:
● Main Menu
● Footer
● Side bar

16. @TurnDigi
Home Page
Page B
Page A
Sub-Page A Sub-Page A Sub-Page B Sub-Page B
Site Navigation Structure:

17. Contextual Internal Linking
They are links with anchor text that are
placed within the body content of any
page of my site.
They must be relevant to the content
and sound natural, to deliver value for
your content.

18. Adding contextual internal link on a page that got
high authority and high traffic. Will benefit my
other pages.

19. Other kinds of internal links
● Image links: As source link under an
image.
● Jump links: Are Anchor links in the
content that when you click it takes
you to a different part of the same
page. These show in search engine
result page as sitelinks if relevant to
user’s query.

21. How to audit your site internal links
Using any crawler tool like: SEMrush, Moz, Ahrefs, screaming frog etc..
Screaming frog visualization and tree graph, is always cool to find strong
pages or orphan pages (Pages that don’t have any internal link within your
site).

24. How to audit your site internal links
Using Google search console:
1. Go to “Links” > “Internal links”> EXPORT!

25. How to audit your site internal links
In my example I will use Ahrefs and google
sheet.
1. First I need to determine the main keywords
and pages my clients want to rank.
2. Then, find the best pages in my site.
3. Build an internal link strategy to rank these
pages.

26. The main keywords
My keywords were neither ranking
nor ranking with the right pages
(Cannibalization).

27. @TurnDigi

28. First go to the sidebar and get your “Best by links” >
“Internal”

29. Do your keywords research
You need to make a keyword list for all your hubpages / main pages to
help you with your “Anchor Text” then create a “Topic Cluster” around
these pages.
You can get ideas of keywords that are relevant to your content:
● Using Ahrefs or any other tool.
● Using the one and only “Google Search Console” performance report.

30. Google Search Console:
Check the performance report of the “Hubpage” and see queries / long
tail keywords the user are searching for, that got high impressions and
are relevant to your content.

31. Using Ahrefs:
Analyze your Main page > “Organic keywords” >
Then Magic, you can
see all the keywords
that you are ranking
for organically. Why
don’t I use those to
boost the ranking a
little bit?!

32. Create a sheet with your keywords that you
can use as an anchor text.

33. I know my client main keywords
and pages.
In my example they are the
services pages.
I did my keyword research!
I have a plan….

34. 1.I added the
services
pages in
the footer
of the site.

35. Site footer before

36. Site footer after

37. 2. Adding
Contextual
Internal Links

38. Linking from your best linked page
By using Ahrefs “Best by
links” > “External”. I check
the pages of the highest
referring domains and add
an internal link for another
service page if it is
relevant and will add value
to my content.

39. Example of using different anchor texts

40. 3. Creating a Topic
Cluster

41. Topic Cluster
The main idea of Topic Cluster:
Is having a Pillar Content, which is
writing a content about a broad topic.
Then building other content to discuss
specific topic from the Pillar content.
These are called Topic Cluster. We can
link it with the pillar content and vise
versa.

42. Source: blog.hubspot.com

43. Source: seo-hacker.com

44. Content Marketing Plan

45. 4. Linking from old
blog post to new
and vice versa

47. Example: Service page
Pillar Page 1
Number of internal
Links
Rank
Before 212 Not in top 50
After 626 #3

48. From rank #76 to #3

49. +775% increase in organic sessions in a
year

50. Example: Service page
Pillar Page 2
Number of internal
Links
Rank
Before 0 Not in top 100
After 588 #5

51. Wrong targeted pages is easily fixed by
adding an internal linking strategy to let
SE know the correct page for a certain
anchor text “topic”.
Pro Tip:

52. From zero ranking to #5

53. Pillar pages performance +540%

54. The whole site performance after
adding this strategy +1000%

55. @HebaSaidSEO
​https://www.linkedin.com/in/hebasaid/
Thank you