Adding and managing internal links in WordPress is a crucial step in improving your website's SEO and user experience. Not only do internal links help improve the accessibility of your website, but they also enhance the relevance of pages to each other, which in turn improves your search engine rankings. In this post, we'll dive into how to add and manage internal links in WordPress, including adding them manually, using plugins, and some best practices to follow.

Why are internal links important for SEO?

Internal links are links that link the content of a page to other related pages on the same website. These links not only help users navigate better, but also help search engines better understand and crawl the site's content. Specifically, internal links are important to SEO in the following ways:

1. Enhancing the user experience: Internal linking directs users to more relevant content and increases the amount of time they spend on the site. This not only improves the user experience, but may also increase conversions.
2. Help search engines crawl content: Through internal links, search engines can better understand the relationship between pages and prioritize crawling and indexing of important pages.Google will use these links to determine the relevance and authority of the content, and thus determine the ranking in the search results.
3. Enhance page authority: By linking internally, more traffic can be directed to high-value pages, thus increasing the authority and ranking of those pages.

How to Manually Add Internal Links in WordPress

Adding internal links manually is the most basic operation for those who want more control over their links. Here are the steps to add internal links manually:

1. Navigate to the page or post you want to edit: In the WordPress dashboard, select "card"or"web page"→"All Posts"or"All Pages", edit the selected page or post, or newly add into the editor screen.

2. Highlight anchor text: In the editor, select the text to which you wish to add the link (i.e. the anchor text). The anchor text should be as descriptive as possible so that users and search engines can understand what the link is about, e.g. "In the selection of theSuitable WordPress SEO PluginsWhen doing so, it's vital to understand the pros and cons of different plug-ins."
3. Add link: Click on the link icon in the editor to bring up the link box. Enter the keywords of the page or post you want to link to in the search box and WordPress will automatically match you with the relevant page. Select the page you want to link to and click "Apply".

4. Publish or update: When you are done adding links, click the Publish or Update button to save your changes.

draw attention to sth.: To make sure you link to the most relevant pages, you can do a Google search using "site:[yoursite.com] [topic you're looking for]" to find pages on the site that are relevant to that topic.

utilizationplug-in (software component)Automatically add and manage internal links

Managing internal links manually is tedious and time-consuming. Using plugins to automate this process is a good option. Here are some commonly used WordPress internal linking plugins:

1. All in One SEO - Link Assistant::
   • functionality: AIOSEO's Link Assistant feature provides smart internal link suggestions for each post and page. Users can easily add internal links based on the suggestions.
   • drawbacks: Suggestions are primarily based on keywords and may be irrelevant.

2. Rank Math::
   • functionality: The plugin quickly scans website content and provides internal link suggestions. Users can copy and paste the suggested links into the editor.
   • drawbacks: Rank Math does not support adding links automatically, all links still need to be added manually.
3. Link Whisper::
   • functionality: This is a premium plugin that suggests and automatically adds internal links directly in the WordPress editor. Users can customize the link suggestions and choose what to include and exclude.
   • drawbacks: The auto-add feature is only supported in the advanced version of Link Whisper, and its AI may not fully understand the context of the content, leading to some irrelevant link suggestions.

Best Practices for Internal Linking

To ensure that internal linking works optimally, the following best practices should be followed:

1. Links to related pages: Make sure the link points to a page that is relevant to the original search intent. For example, if the article is about employee advocacyavoidsLinks to articles related to PPC advertising settings.
2. Use descriptive anchor text: use descriptive anchor text that is relevant to the content of the linked page.Avoid generic terms like "click here" or "view here".
3. Rationalize the number of links: Each article should contain 3 to 5 internal links. Too few links will make it difficult for Google to crawl all the content, while too many links will make the page look cluttered.
4. Drive traffic to high converting pages: Try to direct users to high-converting pages, such as product pages or subscription pages, provided the links are still relevant to the original content.
5. Regular inspection and repair of broken chains: Broken links not only affect the user experience, they can also lead to SEO downgrades. Use Link Whisper or otherbroken link detector, regularly check and repair broken links.

summarize

Internal linking is an important tool for enhancing your website's SEO and user experience. Whether you choose to add links manually or use a plugin to automate the process, it helps to ensure that you link to relevant content, use descriptive anchor text, and regularly check for broken links. By following the guidelines above, especially in conjunction with WP self-taught website builder Offers practical tips to create a more relevant, user-friendly and search engine friendly WordPress website.