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Internal Linking Strategies

Posted June 2, 2009 in Search Engine Marketing
Search Marketing Dept.
Search Marketing Dept.

Internal links connect one page of a website to another page within the website. Unlike navigation links, internal links are natural links that occur in the copy of a web page. A strong internal linking strategy benefits both the user and search engine spiders. From a user-experience perspective, internal links allow for convenient transitions to other areas of the site a user is interested in. From a search engine standpoint, search algorithms use the internal link text to better understand the linked page’s theme and content. Here are a few tips to ensure you have a strong internal linking strategy in place.

  • Try to keep the number of links on any one page limited. This will allow each link to carry a realistic degree of importance. Each page on your website should have a text navigation menu which will allow the spider to easily crawl from one page to another. All pages on your website should be available from anywhere on the site with a maximum of two clicks.

  • Include keyword-centric text within your text links. Text links are links that can employ anchor tags and target keywords. Be sure to point the link toward the content that is most relevant to the linked text. Most likely, you will find many opportunities to link a text phrase on your site to another page, therefore passing along link juice to the respective pages.

  • Links placed within the footers of your pages are also a good way of implementing internal linking. This will allow visitors to quickly and accurately find the specific information they are looking for.

  • Google Webmaster Tools offers a good internal linking tool that can be used for verified site owners. Webmaster Tools has a feature that will help you verify your pages' internal links. This is especially useful if your site uses navigation involving JavaScript which Googlebot doesn't always execute. You'll want to make sure that Googlebot is finding internal links as expected.

Overall, Internal Linking is an important component of SEO and should be used in your online marketing strategy. Internal Links help search engines and visitors find and understand your content, which in turn will lead to increased page views, increased time spent on the site, and increased conversion rates.