Internal and External Links

Internal links are predominately used to direct users to another web page within the same website or domain. An example of this would be Wikipedia, where these internal links would lead the user to another Wikipedia page. An external link is when these links will direct you from one web page to another completely different site. You might see this in a news article talking about a particular business and a link will be available to go directly to the business in question.

External links are best known for providing quality to your website, by including external links from authentic and well known trusted sites (when used wisely). It is important to remember the quality over quantity rule here. Although external links are sure to boost traffic and stimulate Google’s search engine algorithm, links from low quality sources could potentially harm your website’s standing and it is key to be mindful about where they are coming from.

Internal links also come with many SEO related benefits. By having internal links on your website, this supports web crawlers in exploring as many corners of your website as possible within a single visit. Web crawlers, spiders and bots are the clever systems that search engines use to copy and index the information available on blogs and websites and this process is carried out frequently in order to keep search engines as up to date as possible and in the know about any latest editions to your website.

Among the internal and external links throughout your site, it is paramount that none of these links become broken. Broken links have the capacity to completely bring your search engine optimisation score down quite substantially. Broken links (especially external broken links) can be out of your control at times, as certain digital platforms may become unavailable so it is beneficial to have a manageable amount of links that are effective, and manageable.

Although internal and external links may appear to be basic and somewhat boring on the outside, their existence is quite vital and significant and will always be worthwhile for your website.