Welcome to the Link Juice bar.
Distributing page authority between pages is one of the best ways to boost your SEO performance.
If you want to start improving, then it’s vital that you understand how to get there.
So, let’s expand your internal linking knowledge and get into it.
Understanding Page Authority
Page authority, often abbreviated as PA, is a metric developed by Moz to predict a webpage’s ability to rank in search results.
Various factors influence it, including the quality and quantity of backlinks, content relevance, and on-page SEO.
The higher a page’s PA, the more likely it is to rank well.
The Significance of Internal Links
Internal links connect one website page to another on the same site.
They serve several purposes, like improving UX and site navigation.
However, one often overlooked aspect of internal links is their ability to distribute page authority.
Types of Internal Links
1. Contextual Links:
These are within the content of a page.
They can direct users to related content, improving their experience of navigating your website.
2. Navigation Links:
These are found in menus, headers, or footers.
They’re essential for helping users easily find their way around your site structure.
3. Footer Links:
While less prominent, footer links distribute page authority.
These links also, like the others, improve site navigation.
What’s Good About Distributing Page Authority?
Improved Search Engine Ranking
The most obvious and immediate benefit is the potential for higher rankings.
Pages with higher page authority are more likely to rank well in SERPs.
By sharing the link juice, you can improve the visibility of specific pages.
It causes increased organic traffic and a greater chance of reaching the envious top 3 positions.
Enhanced User Experience
It’s a key component of page authority distribution: internal linking can greatly improve UX.
Users who can easily navigate your website, find related content, and access valuable information are more likely to stay longer.
This reduced bounce rate and increased time spent on your website send good signals to search engines.
Better Content Discoverability
As you distribute page authority across your site, you guide search engine crawlers and users to discover your content more efficiently.
Linking relevant pages together makes it easier for visitors to explore similar topics and find what they want.
Increased discoverability can lead to higher engagement, more page views, and a deeper understanding of your content.
More Authority in Niche Topics
It means you can establish your content as an authority in your niche.
Creating topic clusters and linking them together shows you have in-depth knowledge and that it’s valuable to users.
This also creates a large sense of credibility, attracting a loyal following and building trust with your audience.
Reduced Dependence on Backlinks
While backlinks from external sources are important for SEO, being nifty about your PA can save you from relying on it.
It’s especially useful when it gets tricky to get quality backlinks.
You can easily create a robust foundation for SEO success by distributing page authority really well.
Gradually improve your backlinks whilst focusing on your site’s internals.
Flexibility and Adaptability
Page authority distribution offers flexibility and adaptability.
You can continually refine your linking strategy based on performance data and SEO trends.
As your site grows and your content evolves, you can adjust your internal linking structure to align with your current goals and objectives.
Strategic Internal Linking for Page Authority Distribution
To distribute page authority with internal links, you need a good strategy to do it well:
- Identify high PA pages: These are the most likely to rank well in search results.
- Determine target pages: Decide which lower PA pages you want to boost; these are the ones that need page authority to rank.
- Anchor text optimisation: Choose relevant text and research keywords to find anchor text that aligns with your SEO goals.
- Linking hierarchies and structures: Think about using hierarchical structures like topic clusters they help organise your content and guide users to it.
- Avoid over-optimisation: Don’t stuff keywords into the copy, anchor text, or add too many internal links; it’s spammy.
Measuring Success
You need to keep an eye on how your efforts are doing because what’s the point if not?
To do this, you can use various key performance indicators (KPIs):
- Organic Traffic: Track the increase or decrease of organic traffic to pages by adding internal links.
- Bounce Rate: A decrease in bounce suggests that users are exploring more pages on your site for longer times.
- Page Authority: Regularly monitor the PA of both source and target pages to make sure they improve.
- Conversion Rate: If your goal is to drive conversions, track the conversion rate of the target pages.
- Ranking Changes: Watch the SERP rankings of the target pages improve over time.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
It’s not unlikely that you’ll make some mistakes here and there.
If left untreated, they can seriously affect your overall SEO performance.
1. Overloading Pages with Internal Links
You’ve got the spirit, at least.
Too many internal links on a page can overwhelm visitors.
When they come across a page with loads of links, it becomes difficult to figure out the most relevant.
It can lead to confusion and drive them away from your site.
Best Practice: Quality over quantity. Focus on providing links that add something valuable to your reader’s experience.
2. Using Generic Anchor Text
“Click here” or “read more” doesn’t cut it anymore.
They are vague and give minimal context to users and crawlers about what’s behind the link.
Effective anchor text should be descriptive and contain keywords accurately reflecting the content.
Best Practice: Think keywords. Try to keep the text as similar to linked content as possible without having the same text every time for the same content.
3. Neglecting Older Content
As you grow your site, don’t forget about your older content.
Neglecting older articles, blog posts, or pages by failing to update them or add internal links can result in missed opportunities for page authority distribution.
Older content can still be valuable and relevant, and internal links, alongside adding content, can breathe new life into it.
Best Practice: Audit your site’s older content and find where you can add links. Keep it fresh and interesting.
4. Ignoring Mobile-Friendliness and Usability
Leaving mobile devices out is a big mistake.
Internal links that work seamlessly on desktops but fail to deliver a user-friendly experience on mobile devices aren’t great.
Many people rely on different devices for everything, so accommodate everyone’s needs as best as possible.
Failure to do so can increase bounce on your site.
Best Practice: Use responsive designs to ensure your links are optimised for mobile devices. Test that it works!
Future Trends in Internal Linking
The world of SEO is constantly evolving.
Here are some future trends in internal linking to look for:
Voice Search: As voice search becomes more “every day”, optimising your internal linking structure for more casual language will be crucial.
Artificial intelligence: AI can help analyse user behaviour and suggest the best linking structures for UX.
User Experience: Google increasingly values user experience, so expect more emphasis on user-friendly internal linking techniques.
How Can WILO Help?
WILO is a tool that is built solely for internal linking.
Unlike other kitchen sink tools like Yoast and Link Whsiperer, WILO only does internal links, so you can add the plugin to your site even if you already use another SEO plugin, as it adds additional benefits to these other, already great SEO tools.
Whether for your site or if you work in SEO and have just inherited a large WordPress site, WILO helps you see all your internal linking and empowers you to improve or fix it.
The free plugin works on the front end of your website, so you can easily see the following:
- How many internal links the current page has
- The anchor texts of those links
- The number of duplicate links
- The number of duplicate anchor texts
- The link juice being passed (as a percentage)
- The context of the link, not just the anchor text
- If linking pages have too many links
- If there is a reciprocal link
Get our free internal link tool today and start improving your internal links!
