10 Reasons to Invest in Internal Linking Software for SEO
In today’s competitive SEO landscape, automation is the name of the game. From backlink analysis programs to keyword research tools, entrepreneurs need all the support possible to maximize their online real estate.
Internal linking software is the next step in this automated revolution. Automated internal linking does more than speed up the process of managing and creating internal links.
The question is: Do you need it?
Stay tuned as this resource dives into the 10 compelling reasons why internal linking software is an essential investment for any web owner serious about SEO.
What is Internal Linking?
Let’s go back to the basics.
Internal linking is the process of building links that take users from one page to another on the same website.
These links serve as signposts to guide users to relevant pages in their search journey. On the other hand, search engines use internal links to explore the vast ends of a website.
What is Internal Linking Software?
Internal linking software is designed to streamline the creation and management of internal links on your website.
In its most basic functions, internal linking software identifies link gaps in your content and provides suggestions for bridging them.
Some other tools may offer a more advanced toolset than others. It’s important to review all available offerings in the market to find the one suitable for your needs and goals.
10 SEO Benefits of Having an Internal Linking Software
(While different internal linking software also has varying functionality, we’ll use LinkStorm for the discussion below.)
Let’s explore how having an automated internal linking tool can benefit your SEO:
1. Unmask internal linking opportunities
Internal linking software helps uncover hidden linking opportunities within your website. These tools often come equipped with web crawlers that analyze content and structure and identify relevant connections that might not be obvious at first glance.
With LinkStorm, users can select between two algorithms to find internal link opportunities:
- Semantic Similarity: Uses AI and semantic analysis to suggest contextually relevant internal links
- Content Matching: Finds seed keywords between content to suggest relevant connections
This automated discovery is essential for maintaining an organized, well-linked, and SEO-friendly site architecture, ensuring no potential internal link is overlooked.
2. Boost SEO performance
Like other link-building methods, internal links also help spread link value or link juice. With more internal links pointing to a page, the target page will have an improved PageRank and, theoretically, perform better in search results.
Internal linking is a strategic process. Websites that build internal links indiscriminately will fail to maximize their SEO impact.
Directionally controlling the flow of internal links from high-performing to low-performing content can boost the performance of those inferior pages on SERPs.
3. Improve user experience and navigation
A well-structured internal linking strategy creates a clear path for users to navigate your website. This allows them to find related content easily, keeps them engaged for longer, and ultimately improves the overall user experience.
Additionally, effective internal links allow web crawlers to explore websites better. This allows Googlebot to explore pages that have been buried deeply in a site’s architecture.
4. Anchor text optimization
Some tools may offer anchor text optimization functionality in addition to finding internal link opportunities. This allows you to diversify the anchor texts on your website, making them keyword-rich and more descriptive.
Ideally, a good internal linking tool lists all the anchor texts on your site with their distributions:
Using the same anchor texts on a website may make it look spammy in the eyes of search engines. Sites on a red alert with Google’s spam policy may suffer from penalties, resulting in a decrease in SERP performance.
5. Reduce click depth
Click depth is one of a website's most inevitable and persistent issues. As more content is produced, the click depth of all pages increases. This makes them more difficult to reach for users and search engines. Moreover, stale content tends to fall off the SERP rankings.
Internal linking software show click depth to help users strategically maneuver their internal links.
Building internal links from low-click depth to high-click depth pages minimizes the number of clicks needed to reach the target page. Plus, this increases the crawlability of websites.
6. Fix internal linking issues
Internal linking issues ruin users' search experience. They also impede search engines from fully crawling a site, potentially preventing them from indexing new content and transferring valuable equity across web pages.
An internal linking software is designed not only to uncover linking opportunities but also to fix issues in your site’s link structure. Ideally, it should detect the following problems:
- Broken links: website dead-ends; happens when the target link is non-existent
- Redirects: sends users to a different page from the URL initially requested
- No-follow: target links qualified with a rel=“nofollow” that are inaccessible for web crawlers
Here is what it looks like from LinkStorm’s interface:
By fixing these issues, the software ensures that users can effectively explore a website without any hassle. This also helps Googlebot crawl the whole website, improving the site's overall efficiency.
7. Scalability and efficiency
Manual internal linking is manageable for small websites. Granted, the process will take several days to complete, but it is realistically doable. This fact changes when you own a website with thousands of pages.
Internal linking software is key to scaling SEO efforts efficiently across large and growing websites. These tools save significant time and reduce manual workload.
LinkStorm allows users to implement link suggestions automatically on the website after clicking the accept button.
To achieve this, users simply need to paste an HTML snippet into the website’s Head/Body/Footer and then verify the installation via LinkStorm.
As your website expands, manually adding internal links becomes increasingly time-consuming. With this solution, you can ensure your website implements the tool’s intelligent link suggestions straight from the LinkStorm dashboard.
8. Data-driven insights
Data must be at the helm of any SEO strategy. Powered by data-driven insights, users will have a more systematic roadmap in achieving their SEO goals.
A good internal linking software is founded on data. It provides detailed analytics on site performance and traffic flow.
Moreover, the tool should also provide valuable insights into each individual link’s performance.
LinkStorm integrates Google Search Console data into its link opportunities tab, enabling SEO professionals to make informed decisions about optimizing link placement.
9. Cost-effective in the long run
Like all other SEO tools, internal linking software requires upfront payment, and the cost can vary from tool to tool. This upfront cost is often the deal breaker for many SEOs and site owners.
However, the benefits of having one far outweigh any upfront costs when considering the time and effort you save by having a tool at your disposal.
Internal linking is less tedious than other SEO approaches. In other words, armed with a tool, you can manage your internal linking activities yourself without hiring an in-house or third-party SEO team, which costs way more.
Subscription costs of internal linking software vary. But for perspective, this is how much each plan costs for LinkStorm:
10. Convenience at its finest
Convenience is the number one reason for automation, and the same is true for internal linking software.
An automated internal linking toolkit can complete in a few minutes what would normally take people several days or weeks. Unlike humans, its efficiency and effectiveness remain consistent even with continuous usage, preventing errors from arising. Ultimately, using a specialized tool is more economically viable in the long term.
Where humans are messy and complicated and error-prone, a system provides consistency and predictability.
Automate Your Busywork - Aytekin Tank, CEO of Jotform
Sure, users will have to shell out a few bucks upfront. But as the adage goes, “Time is money.” With more time in your hands, you can let the machine do its work while you focus on the revenue-generating aspects of your business.
Key Takeaways
Internal linking is crucial in any effective SEO strategy.
Manually building internal links is possible, but it will take significant time and money. An internal linking tool expedites this process by automatically suggesting internal link opportunities and uncovering issues that permeate a website.
Every internal linking tool offers a unique range of functionality that benefits a business. You are responsible for choosing which tool can help you achieve your SEO goals in the shortest time and the least amount of money possible.
Our personal pick is LinkStorm, an AI-powered, all-in-one toolkit for helping SEOs and site owners manage their internal links effectively.
How about you? Which do you think is the best tool on the market? Tell us in the comments!
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