Internal Links vs External Links: What is the Difference from an SEO Perspective?

Everyday a number of websites are building up and coming online. However, only few get a chance to come into the limelight among the crowd. It is the link that describes the website’s online visibility. According to sources, 91% of web pages get no visitors due to their wrong links set up. In this blog let’s explore what are the reasons behind it and what is Link’s role in it? How they are boosting a website’s rank. 

What is Linking?

Linking is the practice of connecting web pages through hyperlinks. It is used in the context of SEO and Web development. Links are the filling gaps or the digital bridges that help to link pages internally within the same website. When websites are linked to different other websites those links are described as external links. 

This process is very important for seamless navigation. It not only provided enriched user experience but also worked for search engine optimization. Search engines use hyperlinks to crawl and index the web, so that it affects the website ranks in search results. 

Importance of Links

We can say the internet is a house of links. Based on linking pages, content, data, resources all you find on the internet. It is all about building these connections and links. This helps the web crawlers to go from one page to another to crawl sites. Without links, crawlers would never be able to find website content. They won’t be able to see the website ages. Because links help users to go from one page to another. It helps links to go deeper into your site to other relevant online pages. There are three basic types of links and they are:

• Internal link

• External link 

• Backlink 

What are Internal Links?

Internal links are hyperlinks that direct to a target page to the readers on your website. It is the link that lets you visit from one page to another on the same domain. Internal links help users to navigate through the site and provide a logical structure. For instance, a blog post on a website will link to another relevant blog within the same domain. 

Advantages of good internal links:

• Improves usability through anchor text

• Internal linking improves page rank

• It boots page views

• Decreases the bounce rate 

• Improves indexing of your site 

What are External Links?

These are the links that customers click on links that direct them away from your website. These also called outbound links, play an important role in search engine optimization. These can provide additional information, recommend useful resources, and cite sources. External links enhance the content’s credibility by associating with authoritative sites. 

Advantages of good external linking:

• They help the readers 

• Improve the authority of your website 

• Linking to outside websites will not affect your page rank

• Give extra resources to read that

• Help in enhancing credibility

What are Backlinks?

These are the hyperlinks that take readers from one domain to another and bring traffic to your website. The more quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites you have, the higher the value of your own page gain. 

Internal Links’ Importance In SEO 

• Improved Navigation: The links make it easier for users to find relevant content. A well-structured strategy for internal linking helps visitors spend more time on the website, helps in reducing bounce rates, and improves user experience. 

• Enhanced Crawlability: Search engines use bots for website crawling. Here the links help the bots to discover new pages and understand the site’s structure. Effective internal linking makes sure all pages along with new and updated ones get indexed quickly. 

• Link Equity Distribution: Link Equity often named as link juice describes the value passed from one page to another through hyperlinks. Internal links distribute link equity across the site, supporting important pages that rank higher in search engine results. 

• Keyword Optimization: The clickable text, known as anchor text in a hyperlink plays an important role in SEO. The relevant keywords in internal links help search engines to understand the context of the linked pages and help in improving their rankings for specific search terms. 

External Links’ Importance in SEO 

Loyalty and Credibility: When you link to high-authority external sites, it enhances the credibility of your website content. It increases trustworthiness by showing that you have conducted thorough research and are providing valuable references. 

Relevance Signals: The external links in search engines determine your content relevance. Linking to authoritative sources in your niche can signal to search engines that your content is well-researched and pertinent. 

Referral Traffic: An influx of traffic comes to your site with the help of external links. The relevant links, and high-quality content lead to an increased audience for your site. 

Statistics Highlighting the Importance of Links SEO 

• According to Moz reports, over 90% of the top-performing content on the web have one internal link at least. 

• Ahrefs survey says that pages with more internal links help in providing higher ranks in search engine results. 

• As per Hubspot statistics, 75% of SEO experts believe in external linking which impacts significantly to organic rankings. 

• Backlinko research says, pages with higher number of external links tend to rank better in search engine results. 

Difference Between External and Internal Links:

 

External Links	Internal Links
Difficult to control	Easy, Fast & Free to Control
Appears in the body text, in content	Appears in website navigation & content
Passes SEO authority from one site to other	Passes SEO authority pages on your site
Increase your domain authority	Increase  page authority for specific page
More value	Less value
Connects to external pages	Connects to internal pages
Domain 1A links to Domain 2B	Domain 1A links to Domain B
Improves  web pages quality	Helps bots to find other web pages on site
Increase traffic to your website	Increase traffic to your website

 

How Does Kodehash SEO Team Deals WIth Internal and External Links? 

The SEO team very well understands the importance of external and internal links in SEO. Team’s strategy focuses on creating a balanced linking structure to optimise the performance of the website. Here is how we strategize things:

Internal Linking Strategy:

• Content Mapping: We map out our content to find out key pages and identify how they relate to one another. This helps us create a logical internal linking structure that enhances user experience and crawlability. 

• Keyword-Rich Anchor Texts: The team uses keyword-rich anchor texts to link all the related content. So that search engines understand the context of the linked pages, and work on improving the ranking for targeted keywords. 

• Regular Audits: Conducting regular internal link audits to identify and fix broken links. The team also works on updating old content with new internal links to ensure that the entire website remains interconnected and relevant. 

• Silo Structure: Silo structure means where content is grouped by topic. This structure helps in creating clusters of related content, making it easier for search engines to understand the thematic relevance of the site pages. 

External Linking Strategies: 

• Quality That Matters: We prominently focus on linking to high-authority, relevant resources. This process helps to add value to content and signals search engines to website content as they are credible and very well-researched. 

• Building Relationships: The team actively engages with reputable sites within the industry. To build relationships, we encourage mutual linking that drive referral traffic and enhance our domain authority. 

• Citing Sources: Our team always provides proper citations while using data or quotes from other websites. This practice helps in building trust and credibility to our content with our audience. 

• Updating and Monitoring: Regular monitoring of external links ensures relevancy and better functionality. If a linked page becomes outdated or broken, we update our content with new authoritative links. 

Final Thought 

In Internal Links Vs External Links, both are important for a comprehensive SEO strategy. Internal linking improves crawlability, navigation, and link equity distribution. External links help in enhancing relevance, credibility, and referral traffic. 

At Kodehash, our SEO team meticulously implements and manages both links to maximize our SEO performance. Understanding the leveraging of internal and external links’ strengths, we ensure that our website not only ranks well but also provides a valuable, trustworthy experience for our users. Join Kodehash to learn more about our SEO strategies.