Internal
links and external links: what are the differences?
It has long been known that the use
of internal and external links is an excellent SEO tip to
effectively complement any general SEO strategy this year 2022.
Through this article, you will learn the differences between internal and external links, benefits, and how these links can help you rank higher in Google searches in 2022.
What are internal links?
These
are the links that are within the
same domain and that link to other pages of the same . The
main internal links are those that form the architecture of the main navigation and thus create a
hierarchy of information throughout the menu. In this way they achieve
that the authority of the domain is distributed among the different pages that
make up the web. Links between content or articles on the same domain are very important
because they create a network of pages linked to each other, with a double
function: on the one hand, they allow to enhance navigation within the web,since, in this way, the user
moves from content to content. On the other hand, internal links are also
positive for search engine positioning, since the link between pages allows
these engines to better understand the relationship between them, facilitating
the journey (or crawl) through them. A fundamental element of internal
links are the anchor texts ,
that is, the clickable text that contains the hyperlink. It is highly
recommended to use the keywords in
the anchor text as this will help position the page for these keywords.
Analyze the internal links of your website to
keep track of them and discover if
you can optimize them and if your link strategy is consistent . To
do this, you must check that the number of links is distributed more or less
homogeneously throughout the entire web, that there are no broken links and
that you use keywords in your anchor texts. To detect your internal links
you can use tools like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog.
What are external links?
Also
called backlinks or outgoing links, they are the links that link two different domains . Being one of Google's ranking factors ,
these links are extremely beneficial for improving organic
positioning. There are several reasons that justify their importance: the
first is that they facilitate
indexing for search engines, allowing them to find new content by
jumping from link to link, so the more links there toward your page, the more likely it is that Google will find
it. Another benefit is that users will also be more likely to find you: if
they read an article that has a link to your website, it will give them the
opportunity to visit it. Finally, another compelling reason for the use of
backlinks is that they allow the transmission of
domain authority or link juice. This is the
authority or prestige that one website transfers to another when it links to
it. In this way, Google interprets that if other sites have decided to
talk about your page in their content and link to it, it is because it has
relevant content. Lastly, the
more backlinks and the higher quality these (that is, that they come
from websites with great domain authority), the more beneficial it will be for
the SEO positioning of the website with which they link.
There are two most popular types of
external links, which instruct and educate search engines about the
relationships of one website with another: dofollow on
the one hand and nofollow on the other.
What is a Dofollow link?
We use a dofollow link to point from
one website to another. If another website links to your website via a
dofollow link, it counts as a backlink.
By default, all of these backlinks
are dofollow.
A website may have many backlinks
from a single website. However, it won't have much of an effect on SEO
because the goal should be to get those backlinks from high-quality domains
that become your referring domains.
What is a referring domain?
The referring domain (or referring
domain ) is a site that a backlink comes from. For example, if
you have backlinks from www.wikipedia.org and www.britannica.com, you have two
referring domains.
Referring domains play a huge role in
your backlink profile and play a crucial role in improving your ranking within
Google searches. The more high-quality referring domains there are, the
stronger your domain authority becomes.
For example, if you have 100
backlinks from 10 referring domains, it may seem like your backlink profile is
weak if you don't follow the sites that link to you.
If the referring domains have low
domain authority (DA) scores, then Google will consider these links to be
toxic, which will lower your ranking.
A study of over a billion web pages
suggests that the more unique referring domains a site has, the more traffic it
receives from Google.
Mastering the link building process is essential as it will help your website increase traffic. Remember that without traffic, you can also increase your ad revenue.
What is a Nofollow link?
A nofollow link
tells search engines to ignore the website link that was added to the
article. Publishers use these nofollow links when they don't want Google
to associate their site with a backlink or track that backlink's URL from their
site.
According to Google , nofollow links do not pass any page
authority and affect search engine rankings.
The easiest way to make a nofollow
link is by using a Yoast SEO plugin on your WordPress site. Simply toggle
the nofollow button.
It is important to remember that you should aim to provide dofollow backlinks to high authority pages because it will make your own content more credible. If you want to get backlinks for your page, you must also give credit to other pages.
What are internal and external links in SEO?
Internal linking of your pages within
the same domain is when a site links to URLs located on the same domain, while
external linking is when a site links to URLs located on other
domains.
Internal links help users and search
engines better find the pages on your site and understand the internal
structure of the page, as well as understanding which pages within a domain are
more important and which are not. They can help increase rankings on other
pages on your site.
External links are used to indicate that a page is credible to search engines. To be clear, Google follows the content that is linked to. In this way, the message is sent to Google:
“Hey, this content is valuable and high
quality; therefore, it should be in the first position when people search
for a specific query.”
Benefits of internal links
·
It allows search engines to better
understand what your page is about and to rank it better. Make sure to
insert internal links only when it is relevant and necessary. Otherwise,
search engines will not understand the relevance of one page to another.
·
Internal links can create a great
user experience and improve engagement because users can easily access all the
necessary information.
·
They pass link juice (authority and
relevance) to other pages on your blog and help generate traffic for
them.
·
They help drive organic traffic to
your site by encouraging users to visit more pages in a single
session.
Benefits of external links
·
They can increase your domain authority ,
which measures the backlink profile of your website. Which means that the
more high-quality backlinks your website gets, the higher it will rank in
search.
·
They help improve the trust and
credibility of your website.
·
They help search engines like Google
or Bing better understand what your article is about and add it to
high EAT ( experience, authority, and
trustworthiness ) knowledge graphs.
Do links to other sites help SEO?
Of
course!
By linking to sources with a high
degree of reliability, you make your content even more unique and of high
quality and, in the process, help search engines understand what you are
talking about, which makes your website more trustworthy and reliable.
reputed. It shows the quality of your site and plays a vital role in the
SEO service of your blog in 2022.
It's only fair that good credit be
given to sites that really deserve it, but more importantly, it also helps
educate your readers. And it should always be the key point: create
content that is engaging and provides a great experience to the end user.