What is internal link building?

Internal link building plays an essential role within an entire link building campaign. People often value external links above all. These are also very valuable for your website. However, this does not mean that internal link building should be forgotten. Unlike external link building - which focuses on collecting as many qualitative external links as possible - we pay attention to the so-called internal links. Internal links are links on a page that point to another page on the same site. They can be used in different places within the website. Obviously in the navigation bar on the page, but they can also be used in other places. But what exactly is internal link building? Is it really that valuable? And how do you best apply these internal links? 

Definition of internal link building

Internal link building is the way in which you process internal links on the same domain. The links point to pages on the same site. This is very important for the SEO of your website. Applying internal link building has roughly two different goals: 

Better visitor navigation 

Never forget for whom you have created the website. Of course you want to be found and to be attractive for search engines. But none of this makes much sense if the visitors themselves can't use the information they find on your website. That's why it's important that you prioritise the convenience for the visitor. Navigating within a large website can be quite difficult. You can help visitors by placing internal links. This way, they don't have to search through the entire website, but they can easily and quickly find the information they need. 

Better for SEO 

Internal link building can also play an important role in getting more organic search traffic. Web crawlers are nowadays increasingly able to 'read' the website as a visitor would. This requires a clear hierarchy and layout of the website. By focusing on the right content and helping the crawlers find the information they regularly search for, you increase the findability of your website. The use of internal links is therefore not only important for the visitors, but also for your position within the search results. 

How to apply internal link building? 

But how do you apply internal link building properly? It's very important to put the links in the right place. If you don't, these links won't be followed in the right way and therefore won't appear in the search results. When optimising internal links, the URL structure and the anchor texts that are added to it should be taken into account. Internal links can be used in the menu, but can also be incorporated in blogs on the website, for example. This is a perfect way to attract more visitors and to give each page a higher ranking within the search results.