What is Deep Linking for SEO?

Deep linking for SEO is when you add links to specific, relevant pages on your website rather than general ones like the homepage. Like blog posts, pricing pages, and case studies.

This process helps your content rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). 

And makes it easier for users to navigate your website.

Deep links can be internal or external. Internal deep links are links within your own content that point to your specific pages. 

For instance, in our “Link Building for SEO: The Beginner’s Guide” piece, there’s an internal link to our “What Is Anchor Text? Best Practices for Optimizing Link Text” post.

While external links are backlinks from other websites that take readers to your relevant content.

Like this Backlinko piece that links to our anchor text blog post:

Why is Deep Linking Important for SEO?

Links are one of the most important ranking factors.

Why?

Because links in and pointing to your content help you build credibility in the eyes of readers and search engines. Deep links, in particular, demonstrate the depth and breadth of relevant, useful content that your site contains.

So, deep links help you establish your Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Which play a key role in Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines.

Fun facts: 

• In studying 11.8 million Google search results, Backlinko found that higher rankings were “strongly” correlated with a website’s link profile. And, on average, web pages ranking for the top spot have nearly four times as many backlinks than the second through 10th spots.
• AuthorityHacker also found that, on average, pages that ranked in the top four spots all had more internal links than those in spots five through 10.

It Distributes Link Equity and Boosts Your Credibility

Google uses its PageRank algorithm to measure the value of your content based on the number and quality of links pointing to it. 

And deep linking for SEO passes link authority, otherwise known as link equity or link juice, from the linking page to the target page. It’s like getting a “thumbs up” on your content that Google sees as a vote of confidence.

The more link authority you distribute, the more pages that have a better chance of ranking.

Some pages, like your homepage or pillar pages, probably have more links pointing to them. But other pages, like specific blog posts on your website, may have fewer links. 

By deep linking from high-authority pages (e.g., homepage) to lower-authority pages (e.g., blog posts), you can pass more link equity to those pages and boost their ranking potential.

Further reading: Everything You Need to Know About Google PageRank

It Creates Clear Connections Between Your Pages

Deep linking for SEO makes it easier for search engines to find, index, and rank your web pages. 

Basically, it creates a clear “map” for search engines to follow. Without this map, it’s harder to locate your content. And if Google can’t find your web pages, it’s even less likely that people will find them.

Topic Clusters 

For example, say you have five pages on your site about planning a trip to Disney World:

1. Disney World Planning Guide
2. Disney World Packing List
3. Disney World Budgeting
4. Disney World Restaurants
5. Disney World Hotels

Adding deep links between each of these pages helps users and Google find them easily. And this interlinking shows Google that you have content on related, relevant concepts. 

Which demonstrates your website’s subject matter expertise, helping you climb the SERPs to drive more traffic.

These kinds of related, interlinked pages are known as topic clusters or content hubs.

So, your topic cluster on Disney World might look like this: 

Using a tool like Keyword Manager, you can group together keywords to figure out topics that can fit together as part of a larger topic cluster.

Anchor Text

The anchor text you choose also impacts Google’s understanding of your site content and structure.

Anchor text is the text a user clicks to visit a link. 

Basically, the anchor text gives Google a sneak peek of what the linked content is about. And helps it form connections between the linked topics.

So, using clear, descriptive anchor text tells Google what topics and keywords your website covers.

(We’ll go over this more in the “Optimize Your Link Anchor” section later).

Further reading: Keyword Clustering in a Flash: An Update to the Keyword Manager Tool

It Makes It Easier for Users to Browse Your Website

Deep linking for SEO gives users easier access to relevant content on your site. So, they’re more likely to visit multiple pages and stay on your site longer.

The result?

Readers gain trust with your brand, so they can start to move them down the marketing funnel. And your website’s bounce rate goes down.

Important:

Your bounce rate isn’t a direct ranking factor. But a high bounce rate tells search engines that users don’t find your content useful. And content quality is the cornerstone of SEO success.

Check out our bounce rate guide for other tips on how to lower it.

How to Implement Deep Links on Your Website

There are four core practices you can use as part of a deep linking for SEO strategy. Each of these will help you thoughtfully build more deep links that’ll improve your website’s rankings and traffic.

1. Evaluate Your Existing Content for Linking Opportunities 

Start by identifying deep link opportunities within your existing web pages.

Here’s how you can do this with our Site Audit tool:

Under “On Page & Tech SEO,” click on “Site Audit.” 

Then, click the blue “Create project” button.

Type your domain into the box. And click the green “Create project” button.

Go through the Site Audit Settings to set up your site audit. (If you need help, check out our Site Audit tool guide). You can also set up the site audit for existing projects. 

Then, click “Start Site Audit.”

After the audit is finished, you’ll see a dashboard pop up. Scroll down to the “Internal Linking” box. Click “View details.”

On the Internal Linking report page, you’ll see the Internal Link Distribution widget. This gives you a high-level look at how you’re spreading link equity across your content.

Our Internal LinkRank (ILR) metric ranks your content in three different categories:

• “Strong” pages: ILR greater than 70. Have the highest number of internal links pointing to them. These are usually the most frequently visited pages (e.g., homepage, landing pages). 
• “Medium” pages: ILR between 10 and 70. These pages have a medium amount of links pointing to them.
• “Weak” pages: ILR below 10. Have relatively few internal links. These pages have little to no link equity.

In this example, 77% of all internal links on the site point to just 21% of the site’s pages. So, there’s plenty of content (59%) that can benefit from being linked to more often.

Start off by adding links on “Strong” pages that point to “Medium” and “Weak” pages.

Click on the link that says “XX Weak pages” and open it in a new tab.

This “Weak Pages” report will list all the pages that could use some internal link boosts.

Then, go back to the Internal Link Distribution widget. Click the “XX Strong pages” link and open it in a separate tab.

Then, you can see a list of your pages with the most link authority.

Go through both lists and look for strategic opportunities to add links to weaker-scoring pages from higher-scoring ones.

When looking for places to deep link, consider the following:

• Relevance: The content you link to should be relevant to the topic of the page containing the link
• Business value: Prioritize adding links to specific, valuable pages within your site, such as product pages, key articles, or landing pages that have a low ILR
• Content pillars and clusters: Adding links to related topics (cluster pages) on pillar content, or in-depth cornerstone pages, helps search engines better understand your website structure

Further reading: The Most Common Internal Link Building Mistakes: A Semrush Study

2. Build Internal Linking Into the Content Creation Process 

The sooner you make deep linking a habit, the faster your content performance can improve.

It’s easy to skip adding internal links when writing new web content for the sake of time. Especially if you have a lot of content or don’t have a content team to support you.

But without deep linking, you’re missing a powerful way to improve your rankings and traffic. 

And it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. You can quickly find relevant content to link to by heading over to Google and performing a Google site search.

Here’s how it works:

Visit Google.

In the search bar, type “site:[website.com]” and a keyword or topic that you’re discussing in the piece of content you’re working on. You don’t need a “www.” before the domain. 

Say we wanted to find Semrush content on internal links. Our search would look like this:

Press the “Google Search” button. Then, you’ll see a list of web pages on that website that mention your topic keyword.

Then, review the results for pages to link to.

Continue to do this each time you have a new post. And run a Site Audit once a month or quarterly (depending on your bandwidth) to make sure you’re effectively spreading that link authority around.

3. Optimize Your Link Anchor Text

As we previously mentioned, your anchor text is as important as the link itself.

Your anchor text tells both readers and search engines what topic is being covered. So, it needs to be specific and relevant.

Don’t use generic anchor text like “click here” or “this article.”

Instead, use descriptive anchor text like, “SEO guide” or “packing for Disney World tips.”

And incorporate target keywords into your anchor text where it feels natural. 

Check out our anchor text guide for more tips to optimize your text.

4. Reach Out to High-Quality Websites to Write Guest Posts

Internal deep links are an important part of your SEO strategy. But building backlinks from external websites are just as important for improving your rankings.

Writing guest posts on another website is a common way to do this.

Why?

Because many brands are willing to publish content from outside experts. 

This way, they can quickly publish more high-quality content without having to pay for more writers. And you build your authority, traffic, and backlink profile. It’s a win-win.

When looking for guest posting opportunities, you want to choose credible websites that are relevant to your niche or industry. 

So, how do you find them?

You could search manually. But that takes a lot of time.

Instead, try our Link Building Tool.

Enter your homepage URL and click the “Start Link Building” button.

Click on the “Keywords” tab. Then, enter relevant keywords or topics in the “Add your keywords” box. Click “Add.”

Now, click on the “Competitors” tab. 

You’ll see a list of suggested competitor domains. If you want to remove them and add in your own, hit the red “Remove all competitors” trash can in the top right corner. Then, type your new ones in.

When you’re finished, click the green “Start Link Building” button. 

After a few minutes, you’ll see a box that says “Collecting and analyzing data is complete.” 

Click the “View prospects” button. 

Now, you’ll see a custom database of relevant sites where you could potentially guest post.

Click on “Advanced filters” to sort through your results. We suggest using “URL Type” first and selecting “Blog” to narrow things down.

Now, click the column labeled “AS” to sort these websites by our Authority Score. Generally, the higher the AS, the more credible the site is. The highest score is 100. 

We determine each website’s AS by evaluating:

• Link power: Quality and quantity of backlinks
• Organic traffic: Estimated monthly average of traffic 
• Spam factors: Indicators of manipulation or spam in the link profile

Save the sites you’d like to write for by clicking the drop-down arrow next to the “To In Progress” button > “Guest post.”

This will add the site to your “In Progress” tab, where you can keep track of your outreach efforts. Our cold email templates post can help you write solid pitches. And the tool can help identify the correct email addresses for sending pitches.

Once you’ve gotten the green light to guest post, keep these tips in mind while writing:

• Avoid competing with yourself: Don’t write an article that’s too similar to something you’ve already written or are planning to post. Put a new spin on the topic you’re covering so it doesn’t compete with your own site for rankings and traffic.
• Focus on being helpful to readers, not just yourself: It’s obvious when brands are salesy or overly-promotional. And it steers readers away from wanting to revisit your content. Attract new traffic and higher rankings by creating unique, useful content.
• Keep the links to a minimum: While guest posts are great opportunities to build your backlink profile, you don’t want to go overboard on the deep links. Or your piece will seem spammy. One to three links back to your website is reasonable.

Once the post goes live, make sure to share it on social media to help boost its reach and your opportunities to earn backlinks.

Further reading: How to Guest Post for SEO in 2023

Take Your SEO to the Next Level

Using deep links is a powerful part of an SEO strategy.

But it’s just one piece of the puzzle. 

Take the guesswork out of optimizing your pages with our On Page SEO Checker.

From internal link suggestions to content tweaks, this tool gives you comprehensive recommendations on how to improve your rankings for any page on your site.