Should You Internal Link Between Blog Categories?

Internal linking is a strategy most bloggers consider just before publishing their posts – I’m talking very last minute.

But it should actually be considered before you even start writing your blog post.

I recommend an intentional internal linking strategy where you plan out your internal links before you write posts, typically based on a topic cluster keyword strategy.

However, as much as we’d like to be “perfect” about our internal linking, we’re going to have times where for whatever reason we need to consider linking outside of the same category or topic cluster.

Is it ok to do so?

In short, yes. But not all the time.

Why We Link Within Categories

For Google

The main reason to internal link within the same category is for Google to understand our topical authority.

By linking the two posts about the same topic, we draw a very clear line for Google showing off their connection.

Yes, Google is smart. And with semantic SEO they can kind of figure out that you’ve written 50 posts on Rome. But if you internal link them all together, you’ve saved Google a lot of hassle.

It’s like how servers at a restaurant appreciate it when you stack your plates for them (or I did when I was a bartender). You’ve made their life a bit easier so they’ll be nicer to you and probably come back to your table faster or add a little bit of a heavier pour to your next drink.

Many topic clusters aren’t as clear cut as having “Rome” in all the titles though.

Maybe you have posts on the Colosseum and what “ciao” means.

It can be harder for Google to connect those dots.

That’s also why we make these links do follow.

For Users

Internal linking within the same category is also better for user experience and clicks.

If a user comes to your site looking for “things to do in Rome”, they probably aren’t planning a trip to Prague and Romania at the exact same time.

They’re most likely planning a trip to Italy.

So the more content you can offer them around that topic, the more likely they are to read more content on your site. That gets you more pageviews and more money, while they get answers to all their questions – win, win!

That’s why topical authority is so important, and why we want to underline that we have this topical authority.

Yes, you can do this in a manually created “Related Posts” section at the end of your blog post, but most readers bail long before the conclusion.

That’s not to say they don’t like your content. Skimmers often value content but read quickly and want to keep moving to the next answer to their questions.

Only putting internal links at the end of your blog post actually loses you pageviews from all those people willing to click to other posts on your site.

But Can You Link Outside of the Category

100% yes you can link outside of the same category for a post.

This post is in my “internal linking” topic cluster. But I’m going to link to my overarching silo of SEO. I may even link to my AI articles on writing blog posts or my travel blogging silo with some of the examples I give.

But I do this sparingly.

It’s important to focus on your topic cluster first.

We need minimum 10 internal links pointing out from each post, so I’ll try to find 10 inside my cluster.

In this case, this is my 5th post in the cluster, so I won’t have 10. I have some more in the pipeline, but not to be published ASAP so I’ve got to fit in a few more from other categories.

I’m also keeping it to things that are related or that I specifically referred to.

I’m not going to link to something about travel blog cameras if we haven’t talked about photography at all. I’m going to find posts on my site about blog posts/writing in the other pillars and link those.

Or find comparisons I’ve made – like that one in the last paragraph. Did you catch that sneaky way of linking to the cameras post?

I’ve done this in a number of travel posts where I naturally compare living in two countries, refer to a trip I just took beforehand or the last experience I had with that travel style, or even just mention the food.

But I’m not relying on these links to hit my 10 quota.

And I’m not prioritizing them above the topical links in the cluster I’m working on, because they’re more relevant to my audience.

I also don’t internal link willy nilly. Like if I was writing a blog post about “best restaurants in Rome”, I’m not going to link from the word “restaurant” anywhere in the post to another post about “restaurants in Ottawa”.

My user would be like “why are we in Canada now??”

I’ll only internal link between categories if the anchor text makes sense, actively refers to the different category or it wouldn’t be a shock for the user to end up at that category from that anchor text, and if it adds to the post.

What If You Only Have One Post in a Category?

There are two versions of this question: 1) it’s a new cluster and you’ve only published 1 post, and 2) you’re only planning to write one post on the category.

For scenario #1, just add relevant anchor text for the other posts you’re planning in the topic cluster and add the links later.

I do this with Link Whisper all the time.

For scenario #2, don’t publish that post.

Why would you publish on a topic you never intend to write about again?

It gives your user serious content blue balls to show up, read a great post about “things to do in Rome” and then find no other information on Rome on your site.

Same goes for a travel style. Why would I write about traveling with kids on a solo travel site? And then never mention it again? I’m pretty sure someone is gonna call child support services to ensure I didn’t toss my kids off that cruise ship in the first post (for legal purposes this is a joke, and my family have already assured me they will call CPS themselves if I ever have kids just to keep things chill).

It’s also probably not going to rank well, because you really need topical authority to rank.

So give the post away as a guest post instead.

Does it Hurt SEO to Link Between Categories

Nope!

In fact, it’s good to internal link throughout your site.

If you just internal link between the posts in one category, there’s no connection between them and any other category on your site.

They can’t pass link juice either from backlinks you’ve built.

This is probably the #1 reason why I internal link outside of a category if I haven’t directly referenced the other post. It’s because I’m trying to find an opportunity to pass a good backlink further through my site – although I’ll usually point it to the silo pages so it gets dribbled out to more posts.

It’s kind of like hiding your partner from your family and trying to do Christmas with both of them without the other finding out. You’re making it needlessly hard for yourself.

So sparing links between categories are totally fine.

But you really should prioritize links within the same category or topic cluster first before you consider adding any others. And you should keep the anchor text highly relevant so the user knows where the heck you’re sending them.

Is There a Perfect Ratio Between In and Out of Category Links?

No and please stop asking SEOs for perfect numbers and ratios.

There’s a reason we say “it depends”, and it’s because it does.

That’s like asking your accountant how much money you need for retirement and not giving them any information on your living expenses, earnings, debts, assets, etc. They really can’t give you much help.

And the more minute you get with this, like asking for a specific % of out of category links that are acceptable, the more likely you are to have someone tell you a percentage they’ve completely made up just to appease you.

In the end, it always comes down to user experience.

If a post only links to out of category posts that have nothing to do with it, then it’s not beneficial to the user.

But if it only links to posts within the same category and you’ve skipping links to things you’ve referenced that they might want to know more about, you’ve also let down your users.

It’s like how I used to try not to talk about my time living abroad cause I worried I’d annoy people, but then every now and then I’d mention an anecdote about living in Italy when I was 16 (often how I got drunk in our town’s Colosseum and tried to crawl away from my friends). Eventually my friends were like “dude, did you live in Italy or not? Like I want to know about this!”

Your users will be the same if you’re hinting at a way to save money on travel but you never actually link to a post about it in your Rome guide.

It’s all about finding the happy medium as you write the post.

When in doubt, read through it like you’re the user and think about where you’d want links to extra resources.

Don’t Forget Inbound Links!

I’ve mostly focused on adding links as you’re writing a post, but don’t forget to go back and link to new posts from old posts.

It’s one of the easiest ways to get posts indexed faster because it tells Google what the heck the post is about, that they already trust you, and can even pass link juice from backlinks on other posts.

In Link Whisper, I start by filtering for “same category” to show me the top suggestions. Then once I’ve added those, I try to find opportunities elsewhere on my site that might fit.

This ensures that I start with on topic links – and grab those empty anchor texts I probably left in old posts for the topic cluster that I forgot about (memory of a goldfish thanks to two concussions over here).

Psst.. You can grab Link Whisper for $15 off with their code “podcast” 👇

Conclusion

When in doubt, add the link.

The worst thing that’s gonna happen is it doesn’t help you much.

But it’s better to take action than to not. You can even check if it’s received clicks within a few months and delete it if it’s off topic and no one is clicking on it. (I do this with Link Whisper.)

Just make sure you’re not cluttering posts with a million internal links and making it hard for the reader to actually read the post.

At the core of it all, we need to focus on the user. Even if that means we skip a link or two that we might want to include.

If it matters that much, then you’ll find another place in the post for it!

Now that you’re an internal linking pro, it’s time to learn about backlinks! Let’s talk pitching for backlinks and why you need to start doing it today.

Read More About Internal Linking

• How to Use Link Whisper to Automate Blog Internal Links
• Link Whisper Review: SEO Expert’s Take on the Internal Linking Tool
• Should Internal Links Be No Follow or Do Follow?
• What is Internal Linking? An SEO Guide
• How to Use Link Whisper to Increase Affiliate Conversions
• How to Create Jump Links in WordPress in 2 Steps 🤯
• How to Add a Hyperlink in WordPress (Block and Code Editors)

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