What is the Difference Between Internal and External Linking in SEO?

ByPreeti Gupta
What is the difference between internal and external linking in SEO

Internal and External linking is a debatable subject within the SEO community. 

While all SEOs agree that internal linking is good for SEO, some hesitate on the topic of external linking. 

Some argue that while internal links can help you get better rankings, external linking might tank your rankings. 

Here, we will explore and know the real side of both. Which one is great and which one to avoid? 

Too Long; Didn’t Read

The main difference between internal and external linking is that in internal linking you link to a page on your website, but in external linking, you link to another website.

What is Internal Linking in SEO?

Internal linking is linking a page to another page on the same website. 

Here’s the Internal linking visualized:

Internal linking in SEO

According to Google, “ Link architecture—the method of internal linking on your site—is a crucial step in the site design if you want your site indexed by search engines. It plays a critical role in Googlebot’s ability to find your site’s pages and ensures that your visitors can navigate and enjoy your site.”

In essence, internal links help both Google and users. They help Google find your pages in an efficient way. And help in user experience, as a user can find supporting information about particular content. 

Internal linking can also help establish the context within the content. Ross puts it beautifully in this tweet:

They also help people stay longer on your site. I mean think about it, if you are linking to a page on your site and user like your first piece of content, they might want to read another one. 

And if that content is internally linked, it will be easier for them as they don’t have to find that blog post. 

Another cool way to internal link is to use jump links. They can help users jump from one section to another.

Here’s how Lily puts it:

John Mueller also has a take on the same.

He says, “Yes, absolutely.

It’s something where internal linking is super critical for SEO.

I think it’s one of the biggest things that you can do on a website to kind of guide Google and guide visitors to the pages that you think are important.

And what you think is important is totally up to you.

You can decide to make things important where you earn the most money or you can make things important where you’re the strongest competitor or maybe you’re the weakest competitor.

With internal linking, you can really kind of focus things on those directions and those parts of your site.

And that’s not something that you can just replace with structured data.

So just because there is a structured data in a page somewhere, I wouldn’t see that as a replacement for normal internal linking.

Even if in the structured data you also provide URLs, we don’t use those URLs in the same way as we would use normal internal links on a page.

So it’s definitely not the case that hreflang annotations replace links between country versions or breadcrumb annotations replace links between different levels of a website.

You should really have normal HTML links between the different parts of your website.

And ideally, you should not just have a basic set of links, but rather you should look at it in a strategic way and think about what do you care about the most and how can you highlight that with your internal linking.”

You can watch the whole section here:

That being said, everything too much is bad. So, excessive internal linking is bad too.

Internal links don’t need to be in the header or footer of the website. They can be present within the content also. These are called contextual links. 

Contextual links are important because you shouldn’t randomly link to any page on the website. If that page is relevant to this page, context-wise, then it’s good to add those links.

Meaning, don’t just internal link for the sake of it. Use this power wisely.  

Internal Linking Example

Suppose I am writing an article on how to make strawberry jam cake. So the recipe is that we are making a vanilla cake, and in the filling, we will use strawberry jam. 

And I also happen to have a page on my website that shows how to make strawberry jam. 

So on my cake recipe page, I will link to the jam recipe whenever there is any mention of strawberry jam. 

So the linking should be something like this:

“In the filling, we will add strawberry jam along with buttercream. I also have a recipe for strawberry jam, you should definitely check that out”

And you can link to that page in this line. 

A more real example of this can be:

“I have a page on Zero Search volume keywords on my website, so if there is any context of that, I can link to that page.”

Notice that the link takes you to another page on Packted’s website. This is what an internal link is. 

Now we should move to…

What is External Linking in SEO?

External linking is linking your page to another website. In internal linking, the source would link to the source itself, but in external linking, the source would link out to a different website. 

Here’s the External linking visualized:

External linking in SEO

According to Google, “it’s better to link to good documentation elsewhere than to try to thoroughly document someone else’s standard in our documentation.”

Let’s break this statement.

Suppose you are writing a piece on “type of redirects”, but you also want your readers to know “what is redirection”. And you found a great piece on someone’s website that showcases everything about redirection. Also, they are authoritative and relevant sources. 

So instead of summarising the whole thing in your blog, you can link out to them. That way you become credible. 

I mean this makes sense right? But there are many people who are afraid of linking to other websites. And this is really a myth actually. 

You should link to other sites whenever relevant. 

Google also talks about what types of sites you should link to. They say, “Make sure that any site that you link to is high quality, reliable, and respectable.

Link to the most relevant page on a site. Link to the most relevant heading on a page.”

Fili Weise also says that “the more external linking is there, the more “worth crawling” the website becomes”

So external linking is awesome, right?

When you want to provide more context or provide relevant information related to the topic, you should definitely consider outbound linking. 

John Mueller also has a take on this. Here’s what he says:

He says that watch out for the following things:

  • If you link to me, I’ll link to you
  • Advertisement
  • Comment links

In either of these scenarios, you should make all of these links as rel= “nofollow”. Because these links aren’t relevant to you or your users. So they aren’t worth rel= “follow”.

Chima Mmeje also presents us with a new perspective on outbound links. Here’s the full thread:

So do you think outbound links are a ranking factor? I don’t think so… because according to many google representatives, they just help understand the context between two pages and it makes you credible. 

Let’s look at a….

External Linking Example

Let’s do this again with the strawberry jam vanilla cake recipe. 

But there is a slight change in the linking style now. 

You are writing a blog on how to make a vanilla cake with strawberry jam filling. And you recommend having homemade strawberry jam. 

But you don’t have this recipe on your website. But Gordon Ramsay has an excellent recipe that matches your requirements. 

So instead of adding his recipe to your blog, you would link to the page/video where he is making that recipe. 

This does two things:

  1. Your readers get more context, and
  2. It makes you credible and authoritative

And both are awesome for user experience! 

Now let’s take another example:

I am writing this blog on internal and external linking. And to provide more context to our readers, I would link to this Google guide on outbound links. This would be helpful for our readers to know more about external links and why they are helpful.

See I didn’t link to one of the articles on my site. This time, it’s google’s website. This is what an outbound or external link is.

What is the Difference Between both?

The main difference between internal and external linking is that in internal linking you link to a page on your website, but in external linking, you link to another website.

Internal links also help you build a site structure and hierarchy. And external linking makes you authoritative. 

Both are extremely important for a solid content strategy. 

Final Thoughts

I think people still have a stigma over these linking strategies. Well, I think that these can help your site in long run. 

You should definitely have a mix of both in your content. 

So what are your thoughts on this post? I would love to know it in our community! Also, email me if you want or come to hang out on LinkedIn! 

See you soon!

P.S. If you are looking for a solution that helps you analyze internal links, and analyze competitors, you should definitely check out SEMrush!

Suggested Reading: What are the “Serve images in next-gen formats”?

Preeti Gupta is product-led growth consultant at Packted. She helps SEO SaaS companies attract the right users—ones who try, love, and keep using their product through product-led growth. A recognized voice in the SEO community, she has spoken at BrightLocal’s SEO for Good. Her expertise has earned her mentions in HubSpot, Collaborator.pro, Search Engine Land, Women in Tech SEO, Moz, SEOFOMO, and more.