Linking is an essential ingredient for any form of written content, whether it’s an SEO blog post or general “content”. They allow users to navigate from one page to another, giving your users a good on-page experience, and they’re also good for SEO practice. So, if you’ve come here, learn about external link vs internal link. Fortunately, you are at the right place.
When it comes to links, there are usually two types of links used: external links and internal links. Both types of links have their own characteristics and advantages that are important for website owners and digital marketers to understand. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at external and internal links. We’ll learn the differences between them and how you can use them to improve your website’s SEO.
So, let’s dive into the topic without delay.
What are external links?
To make your content authoritative and relevant for the user external links have often used these types of links also called outbound links which are used for bringing your users from one page to another resource to give more relevant and useful information that is hosted on a different domain. In simple words, when you click on an external link, you are taken to a different website that is not the one you are currently on. So, these clickable links work like an addon to your content. right?
Additionally, External links are often used in online content to provide additional information, support arguments or claims, or cite the original source of information. They’re also important for search engine optimization (SEO) as they help search engines determine the relevance and credibility of a website or webpage by analyzing the quality and quantity of external links pointing to it.
For instance, here is, a blue-shaded link in this screenshot, as you can see below;
you can see that this is an article on our website where I’ve provided a hyperlink (external links) to another website that provides additional information on the topic which I mentioned in this post.
Why Do External Links Matter?
So Why Use External Links? and Why Do they matter?
Here we’ve provided some reasons for External links that show the importancy of external linking ;
Providing additional resources: external links provide your audience with additional resources and expand the scope of your content. This helps your readers build trust and establish your website as a reliable source of information.
Building relationships: External links can help build relationships between websites. When you link your site to another resource, you signal to the other site that you find their content valuable, which increases the probability of reciprocal linking that causes increased traffic.
Improving in SEO: You show the search engines that your content is relevant and valuable by providing context and relevance. In this case, SEO is important, and using a relevant external link in your content improves the SEO of your content overall.
Increase traffic: External links can drive traffic to a website. When The reader finds outbound (external link) in the content. They can further click on an external link, and if they find something useful information whenever directed to another website regarding the relative topic from this, they come to your page, which increases the chances of them discovering new content and becoming a returning visitor on your site in the future. that result in the chance of driving traffic on the site possibly improve.
Improving authority: Outbound link can improve the authority of a website by showing search engines that other websites consider the content valuable enough to link to. This can lead to higher search engine rankings and more organic traffic.
Staying current: By linking out to other websites, you can stay current with industry news and trends.
What are internal links?
Internal links, also known as inbound links, are hyperlinks that point to a page within the same domain or website. In order for a website or a particular piece of content to provide a good user experience and be easily navigated to the important page or post on your website, internal linking is used by website owners and bloggers. in essence, Internal link building or inbound linking makes your site structure well-defined as well as affects good on your overall SEO strategy.
a good example of this is Wikipedia. you will see there is a lot of internal linking in their content, often linking to other articles every second and third line of the entire paragraph and even more than one link in a single line.
however, they can be able to do this. Reason? , because it’s a bigger website and tons of articles are there.
For instance; just look at it here.
As you can see in the above screenshot a blueish text which is all internal links, provided by them for adding value to their main topic Which is ‘SEO’.
another example of our website where recently I wrote an article on the topic of “SEO content writing“. I’ve applied this same internal link building process and included some of the relevant links to other posts in that article such as choosing a topic and the best topic for a post something like this, which obviously adds credibility and enhances user experience in regard to that blog post.
Look at the below this screenshot; for instance
we have given two examples of internal linking. So the lesson for you is that you need to be relevant and natural in internal linking and not try to link your irrelevant post unnaturally. Utilize some WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO or Rankmath that suggest for the internal link on your post. got it? Right!
overall, internal linking is an important part of any website for a number of reasons.
Why do internal links matter?
Here are some important reasons that prove why internal links are important for your blogging strategy;
Improving the user experience: Internal links can improve the user experience by helping website visitors navigate your website and find a related post more easily.
Distributing link equity: Internal links can help distribute link equity throughout your website, which can improve the search engine ranking of all pages on your website.
Improve SEO of the site: Internal links can improve your website’s SEO by helping search engines like Google understand the structure of your website and by providing context and relevance to your content.
Increase page views: Internal links can increase the number of page views on your website as users can click on multiple internal links to explore related content.
Reducing bounce rate: Internal links can help reduce the bounce rate & increase the dual time of your site, as users are more likely to explore additional content on your site when they are presented with internal links.
Highlighting important pages: Internal links can highlight important pages on your website and help to make them easily accessible and well-visited.
Encouraging conversion: Internal links can encourage conversion by directing users to relevant product or service pages, or to pages that contain calls to action.
External link vs internal link: What’re the Key differences?
External links and internal links differ in their destination, purpose, SEO impact, and potential risks. However, both are directly or indirectly important factors for the search engine optimization of a website when we talk about similarity.
But the point here is to know the difference between the two, right?
So here are the key differences between external links and internal links. Let’s know!.
| External links | Internal links |
|---|---|
| 1. Links on your website that lead to other websites. | Links on your website that lead to other pages within the same website. |
| 2. Direct users to external sources of information. | Direct users to related content within the same website. |
| 3. Are often used to provide additional resources or context. | They’re often used to improve the user experience and the structure of the website. |
| 4. Can improve SEO by demonstrating the relevance and credibility of your content. | They can improve SEO by spreading link equity across your website. |
| 5. They can direct visitors to your website from other websites. | They can increase the number of page views on your website and reduce the bounce rate. |
| 6. They can encourage social sharing and collaboration with other webmasters. | They can highlight important pages and encourage conversion by directing users to relevant content. |
| 7. Require caution when linking to external sites, as they can affect your website’s reputation and credibility. | Using irrelevant links can destroy user trust in your website and is also not good for search engine optimization. |
How to use external links and internal links for SEO?
When it comes to using external and internal links, there are some best practices you should follow:
Use external links sparingly: While external links are important for increasing a site’s authority and building relationships with other creators in your field, you should use them sparingly. Remember that using irrelevant external links can be seen as spamming and can harm a website’s SEO.
Link to high-quality, relevant resources: Linking to an external resource to your content, make sure it is logical to your website’s content. that will help to enhance your website’s authority and prevent users from leaving your site.
Use descriptive anchor text: When linking to internal and external content, use descriptive anchor text that accurately describes the page’s context. This helps users understand where the anchor link or link text is taking them and can improve the search engine optimization of the website by providing context to the search engines.
Link to older content: If you’re creating new content on your website and you already have older content that is relevant to this new content, map it here. This will keep users on the site longer and help search engines recognize that the site has valuable and relevant content.
Use internal links to improve navigation: Make navigation easy for users by setting internal links so that users of your website can search for any page or important information. This is also important from an SEO point of view, e.g. by showing the search engines your important and useful pages, which helps them crawl them easily.
Conclusion about External link vs internal link
External links and internal links are both essential components of a website’s content and SEO strategy. External links help build relationships, increase traffic, and improve authority, while internal links help with navigation, content organization,, and improving user experience.
By using both types of links strategically and following best practices of SEO strategy, then bloggers and digital marketers like ‘YOU’_ could improve their website’s SEO and provide users with a better overall experience.
