Once you have a fair number of posts on your blog, it’s time to start interlinking posts together. There are a number of different strategies you can use to create meaningful, relevant flows of traffic for your audience.

What’s important is not necessarily the exact strategy that you implement, but the ability to be consistent about how you approach internal links. While some blog posts will lend themselves to links better than others, it’s usually a good idea to keep the format as consistent as possible.

How Many Internal Links Should You Use?

The first question that always comes up when talking about optimizing internal links is one of quantity. Exactly how many links should you use in a blog post, and where?

For me, I go by a general rule of no more than 1-2 internal links per 100 words of a post. This doesn’t mean that my links are evenly spread out, however (they often tend to be concentrated towards the beginning or end of a post), it’s simply the number I try to incorporate.

If a post has 300-400 words, I don’t usually add more than 6 links and try to include at least 3. If it’s a longer post, however, more links may seem appropriate

How to Optimize Affiliate Sales

The point of including internal links is twofold.

The primary reason you should include any linked content is because that content provides additional, helpful information to your reader. Do NOT post random internal links just to include extra links on a page.

That said, the underlying purpose of your linking strategy should be to gradually steer the reader towards an affiliate product that’s right for them. This doesn’t mean blatantly spamming one product all over your site, but rather channeling the reader based on information that he’s looking for at the time.

If your site is about travel to Chicago, for example, a post on “Best Chicago Boat Tours” probably shouldn’t link to a hotel booking page, but a post on “Best Neighborhoods to Stay in Chicago” would be a more reasonable step into actually booking the accommodation.

To see how this works in a real life example, I’ve posted a great case study on how understanding the reader can increase sales.