Written by Joel CariñoInternal links play a crucial role in any holistic SEO campaign.
Using internal links strategically improves the user experience and assists web crawlers in exploring a site’s internal linking structure.
Unlike other link-building approaches, building internal links is generally free and low-difficulty. Yet, many site owners overlook the impact of internal linking on a website—a big mistake.
So, it begs the question: What is the best way to find internal link opportunities?
Stay tuned because this resource explores two methods for finding internal links on a page.
Benefits of Identifying Internal Link Opportunities
Improved website navigation
The original purpose of internal links is to help users and search engines reach other pages on a website. However, different internal link types achieve this goal differently.
For example, navigational or menu links connect major web pages, like the homepage, services, contact, and blog sections. Meanwhile, contextual or in-text links make it easier for visitors to find relevant content.
Finding internal link opportunities helps you guide users along a logical path, which keeps them engaged and actively exploring the website.
Enhanced user experience
People use Google to find answers, but not one web page has all the solutions. Sometimes, it takes users several clicks before a search query is satisfied. Without relevant internal links, many users often bounce off a page and click another result.
By maximizing internal link opportunities, you give visitors the option to explore other relevant pages that might have the answer. This improves the user experience by reducing frustration and ensuring visitors can quickly find the information they need.
Increased website authority
Like backlinks, internal links distribute link juice across pages, strengthening their relevance and credibility. When high authority pages link to underperforming ones, they pass on SEO value, helping the latter rank better in SERPs.
However, the number of internal links on the page influences how much value each linked page receives.
More links on a web page means more pages will share from the linking page’s authority. Therefore, finding the ideal number is advisable to maximize the impact of internal linking.
Boosted site crawlability
Search engines depend on internal links to navigate to unindexed or updated pages on your website.
Internal links create a clear pathway between relevant pages, ensuring all the essential content is discovered. Moreover, this helps Google better understand your site structure and the contextual relevance between your pages.
By optimizing internal link opportunities, you ensure all pages are discovered efficiently without excessive crawl depth and using too much crawl budget.
Prevents orphaned pages
Pages without incoming links (whether backlinks or internal links) are called orphan pages. Google cannot access these pages, which means they often remain undiscovered and unindexed.
Sometimes, web pages become accidentally orphaned after a site restructuring or redesign, especially if these pages have few incoming links.
By maximizing internal link opportunities, you create all possible connections between web pages. This ensures all pages receive attention and prevents the possibility of harboring orphan pages on your site.
How to Find Internal Linking Opportunities on Your Website? (2 Proven Methods)
1. Manual approach
Conducting a manual internal link audit is the most straightforward approach to finding internal linking opportunities. Apart from being budget-friendly, anyone can do it. However, this process is slow and tedious. We recommend manually finding internal link opportunities if you have a small website with few posts.
Here are the essential steps to help you find internal link opportunities manually:
Step 1) List existing content
Create a content database that lists all of the content on your website. There are three ways to go about this:
- Manually scan your website and list web pages as you encounter them
- Use Google Search Console and export the list of indexed pages
- List the pages found in your WordPress Posts section
We created a downloadable Google Sheets template you can use to list your pages.
As you review each article, write the essential information in the dedicated cell on the template, which includes:
- Category
- Page title
- Publication date (optional)
- URL
- Blog excerpt (optional)
- Keywords
- Additional notes (optional)
For example, consider our resource on topic clusters.
In the category section, I can put “Internal linking strategy.”
For the excerpt, I can write, “This resource explores what topic clusters are, the benefits of using them, and how you can implement this strategy on your website.”
Other sections are self-explanatory.
Do this for all your blog posts. This workbook will serve as your primary content database for internal linking. Of course, update the workbook as you publish more content on your website.
Step 2) Page-by-page inspection
Systematically review each page on your website, paying close attention to the content itself.
Read each blog content and locate key sections or viable anchor texts where you can insert internal links. Moreover, consider the current page’s category. Most internal link opportunities will likely come from pages belonging to the same category.
You may refer to your spreadsheet from Step 1. The excerpt and category sections will be helpful for a quick read of the content before linking.
Embed the relevant internal link as you encounter each opportunity so you do not miss or overlook anything.
Step 3) Use search operators
Search operators like site:yourdomain.com [target keyword] are useful for locating related pages on your site that can link to your target content.
For example, suppose I’m looking for internal links to our content on broken internal links. I can search site:linkstorm.io [broken links] to locate all the pages that mention the term.
All identified pages are opportunities for internal linking.
Do these steps repeatedly until every page on your website is interconnected with other relevant pages.
Remember that manual check-ups take a lot of time and effort. The only upside is that this process is free and can be done without hiring external help. However, if time is not on your side, this is probably the least effective and efficient strategy.
2. Use LinkStorm’s Opportunities Tab
LinkStorm is an internal linking software that automates finding internal linking opportunities. It uses proprietary crawlers and semantic analysis to provide highly relevant internal link suggestions.
Start by adding a new project. Input your website’s name, description (if any), and URL.
From the homepage, LinkStorm’s tool will crawl every blog post on your website and scan the content using AI.
After completing the scan, you can now access LinkStorm’s suite of features. From the LinkStorm dashboard, locate the Opportunities tab from the lefthand menu.
This will reveal the list of internal link opportunities found on your website. For example, this is what LinkStorm’s Opportunities dashboard looks like:
Every column shows essential information that can help you build internal links:
- Relevance score. Contextual relevance between the source and target page
- Referring page. The page where the internal link will originate.
- Depth. Click depth or the number of clicks from the homepage to reach the page.
- Suggested placement. The anchor text and its surrounding content.
- Target page. The page where the internal link leads.
- Status. Whether Accept or Reject.
If needed, users may also opt to add essential Google Search Console metrics to the dashboard using the column settings drop-down:
Unlike other internal linking tools that rely on exact-match anchors, LinkStorm can find internal link opportunities even in the absence of key phrases. This is essential for diversifying your anchor texts.
Accepting or rejecting internal link opportunities is as simple as one click.
Once you’ve installed LinkStorm’s code snippet on your website, you can accept internal link suggestions from LinkStorm’s Opportunities dashboard without having to embed them manually.
After clicking the Accept button, the links will automatically be added to your selected anchor in real-time.
LinkStorm makes finding internal link opportunities easier. No more skimming web pages, and say goodbye to embedding links one by one.
If you value your time and have some SEO budget to spare, automating internal links is a worthwhile investment.
Ready to Find Internal Link Opportunities On Your Website?
Creating internal links is one of the most effective and budget-friendly approaches for optimizing websites for search.
However, finding these linking opportunities makes the process a little tedious and complicated.
While anyone can spend time and perform internal linking manually, a reliable all-in-one toolkit removes the hassle and speeds up the process!
Try LinkStorm for FREE—no credit card requirement, no commitments—to see if this tool fits your internal linking campaign needs perfectly.