Links are important for SEO. When another site links to your site, some of that site’s authority  and SEO ranking strength are passed on to your site. Why? Because Google thinks of a backlink as a ‘vote’ for your site. This is the same logic for internal links too. On lead-generation sites, internal linking can be an effective way to improve search engine crawling and rankings if done correctly. And not only do they help a site’s SEO, they also play a crucial role in website navigation and user experience.

Think about it like this: If a page on your site has no or very few links pointing to it from other pages on your site, it’s signaling that the page is not that important. But if that same page has lots of internal links pointing to it, you’re signaling to Google that the page is very important, thus it should be ranked higher. 

Unique Attributes of Lead-Generation Websites and Internal Linking

The main goal of lead-generation sites is often to get people to sign up so that they become a lead. It can be newsletter sign-ups, requests for more information, or a simple Contact Us form. Internal linking in websites typically involves guiding users to these pages where they can submit their information.

And internal links pass on ranking strength, thereby helping the pages that have sign-up options rank better too. 

Websites often feature informative top-funnel content to attract and educate potential leads. This can be blog posts, articles, and related sources, building trust and interest. Internal linking helps direct visitors through the funnel to conversion. They navigate to conversion pages, focused on lead capture, where they can submit their contact details.

Finally, informative and engaging content is important to keep people on your site. Links are designed to make it simple for visitors to access the information they need and to take action. Strategically adding them to content that is helpful for users, encourages people to click and stay on the site longer. This, in turn, tells Google that people like your content, and Google will often reward that with higher ranking (all else being equal). 

Specific Ways Internal Linking Strategy Improve Your Lead-Gen Site’s SEO

Improved Crawling and Indexing:

Search engines use links to discover and index your lead-gen site’s content more effectively. When search engines can easily access and index your pages, it increases the chances of your content appearing in search results. And when you create a new page, building internal links to it is the best way to get it indexed and ranked.

Distributed Page Authority:

By creating internal links between pages, you can distribute the authority and ranking power throughout your website. Pages with higher authority, such as your homepage or top-level category pages, can pass on some of their authority to other linked pages, helping them rank better in search results.

Enhanced User Experience:

An important goal is to keep your site visitors on your site for as long as possible, consuming your content and eventually becoming a lead. Internal links help users navigate your website by providing relevant, contextually related content. A well-structured linking system can improve the overall user experience, keeping visitors engaged and reducing bounce rates. 

Better Keyword Optimization:

Internal links allow you to use keyword-rich anchor text. When you link to other pages using descriptive and relevant anchor text, it provides search engines with context about the linked page’s content, potentially improving its ranking for those keywords.

Enhanced Page Relevancy and Hub & Spokes:

Internal links help you establish topical relevance and content hub and spokes on your website. Lead-generation sites often use a lot of top-funnel content, like blog articles and resources, to drive organic traffic. Organizing this content in a hub & spoke framework will help its rankings. By linking related content together, you signal to search engines that these pages are closely related and should be considered as a group. This can improve your site’s authority and visibility for specific topics.

Lower Bounce Rate:

Effective internal linking can reduce bounce rates, which is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page. A lower bounce rate is a positive signal to search engines because it suggests that visitors find your site valuable and engaging. 

Improved Site Structure and Navigation:

A well-organized site structure with clear internal linking makes it easier for both users and search engines to understand the hierarchy of your content. This can potentially lead to improved rankings and easier navigation for visitors.

How to Choose Which Pages On Your Lead-Gen Site to Build Internal Links On

Let’s say you have a new page that captures leads and is a high priority. You’d obviously like it to rank well. As discussed, building links to it from existing pages on your site will help. But how do you choose which pages you should build these links on? It’s simple. The pages that have the most authority on your site are the best ones on which to place internal links.. That way, you’re transferring the most power you can to the pages you want to rank higher. 

One way is to identify pages that perform the best in organic search, which are pages that rank high and get a lot of organic traffic. You can do this by looking at your analytics. Pages that get a lot of search engine traffic may have some authority. 

And another way is to identify the pages with the most unique referring domains linking to it. Finding these pages is relatively easy if you have a tool like Ahrefs or SEMRush. 

Whether you use high organic traffic or high referring domains (or both) as your criteria, it is important that you only add internal links from pages that are relevant to the page you’re linking to. Avoid adding internal links to irrelevant pages. 

The best internal links come from pages that are relevant to the target page, have some organic traffic, and have some referring domains too. 

Vary the Anchor Text

When it comes to creating internal links on a website to a specific page, try to sometimes use variations of the anchor text. Anchor text refers to the clickable text within a hyperlink that directs users to another page on your website (or external websites). Search engines use anchor text as a signal to understand the relevance and context of the linked page.

The different words or phrases used as anchor text can help paint a more complete picture of the page they link to, and can potentially help it rank for a larger set of keywords. 

Improving User Experience with Strategic Linking

Strategic linking within a lead generation website not only serves the purpose of helping your SEO efforts, but also plays a significant role in enhancing user experience. When people stay on your site longer because they are enjoying the user experience, the site’s organic rankings can increase. 

By strategically placing internal links throughout your website, you can guide users through a sort of journey, ensuring they discover relevant and valuable content that meets their needs and keeps them on the site.

Types of Internal links and Their SEO Effectiveness

Navigation Links

These are typically found in the website’s navigation menu, header, footer, or sidebar. They help users easily move between different sections or pages of the website, such as the homepage, about page, contact page, or blog. They not only help your site users navigate your site, they can also help the pages they link to in the rankings, signaling to search engines that they are important enough pages to be included in the navigation. 

Contextual Links

These links are embedded within the content of a webpage, often as anchor text. They provide additional information or related content. These are weighed relatively heavily by Google and are some of the best types of internal links to build to help improve rankings. 

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are a form of navigation that shows the user’s location within the site’s hierarchy. They typically appear at the top of a page and provide links back to parent pages or categories. A breadcrumb trail might look like “Home > Category > Subcategory > Page.”

Related Posts/Articles

At the end of a blog post or article, there may be a section that suggests related or similar content. Clicking on these links takes users to other pages within the same website that are thematically related to the current page. This can help keep people on your site longer. 

Table of Contents

On long articles or guides, a table of contents at the beginning can contain links to different sections or subsections of the content, allowing readers to jump to specific parts of the article. These links help users navigate a long page but don’t contribute much to helping rankings. 

Footer Links

The footer of a website often includes links to important pages like the privacy policy, terms of service, sitemap, and contact information. Search engines tend to weigh these links very low so they don’t help rankings much at all.

Internal Search Results

If your website has a search feature, the search results page may include internal links to various pages that match the user’s query.  

Tags and Categories

If your website uses a tagging or categorization system for content, each tag or category can have its own dedicated page with internal links to articles or posts that share the same tag or category. They help search engines find and crawl your content but they tend to weigh these links very low so they don’t have a lot of strength.

Button Links

Call-to-action buttons within content or on landing pages may link to other relevant pages within the website. For example, a “Learn More” button on an informational page might link to a page where a person gives their information and becomes a lead.

HTML Sitemaps

An HTML sitemap is a page that provides a structured list of links to various sections and pages of the website. It can be helpful for both users and search engines to navigate the site. They help search engines find and crawl your content but they tend to weigh these links very low so they don’t have a lot of strength.

Strategies for Effective Internal Linking

When building internal linking on your lead generation website, it’s important to implement effective strategies that can improve your site’s search visibility and user experience. Here are some key strategies to consider:

Create useful content

The more content, the more internal linking opportunities there are. One of the foundations of effective internal linking is having a wealth of high-quality content on your website. This provides a lot of good opportunities to incorporate relevant links within the content. 

Utilize anchor text

When creating internal links, make sure they have descriptive anchor text that accurately reflects the content of the linked page. Avoid generic or vague anchor text (like ‘click here’) and instead use keywords or phrases that provide context. And don’t use the same anchor text in links to the same page more than once. 

Deep link

It’s essential to link not only to your homepage but also deep within the structure of your website. Like mentioned above, this helps distribute link authority throughout your site and promotes the visibility of all pages.

Contextual linking

Internal links should be inserted within relevant and contextually appropriate sections of your content. This ensures a good user experience and reinforces the relationship between related topics.

Use relevant links

When adding internal links, choose pages that are directly related to the topic at hand. Relevant links provide additional value to users and reinforce the authority of your content.

Conclusion

Internal links on lead-generation sites are a powerful way to positively affect your users’ experience and your site’s rankings. Remember, choose the best pages to add your internal links to and intelligently choose the most appropriate type of internal link to build, and be strategic. 

By improving crawling and indexing, distributing page authority, lowering bounce rate, helping users find the information they are looking for, and providing a rankings boost to the pages that are linked, internal links are a critical SEO element of every website. 

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Contact us to discuss how we can help you to effectively build internal links and any other SEO-related inquiries.