Internal Linking – SEO Tip Week 5
As with most SEO tips, this one is simple, overlooked and easy to do. Your site’s navigation is an important part when providing a pleasant user experience and it can be beneficial in aiding your SEO efforts. Even important is how you handle your internal linking strategy, or your body text links.
Repeat after me: “I must include internal links within my content.” This is the very foundation for Internet: hyperlinking text to provide more information about the linked text. Not only is it crucial for SEO it just makes good sense.
For example, let’s take a look at this page on our client’s site, Agee Woodworks. Within the copy of this web page are a number of keyword phrases that link to other pages within their site. Some of these internal linking phrases include “custom fireplace mantel” and “fireplace shelf“. This is simple and clever way to increase the link popularity of other pages within the site. A text link from the home page is delivering PageRank to internal pages with a targeted keyword phrase. This helps both pages. The only links you can control are the links on your own site, so use them to your best advantage.
Another example, Grote Consulting Services Page, shows how internal linking can guide you through the site and provide a lift for the link destination pages. One of the terms linking on this page is “performance appraisal systems” and when I search in Google for that term it shows a first page listing for the link destination page (http://www.groteconsulting.com/services/performance-appraisal/index.asp). While other factors clearly play a role, don’t discount the helpfulness of an internal link especially when it is one of the few things you have total control over.
Fortunately, for you, very few sites are aware of the importance of internal linking. By using this SEO strategy you help the search engines index more of your site and more importantly those internal links will contribute to higher rankings because of the keyword-rich anchor text that is being used.
Don’t ignore internal linking; use it and watch your own rankings increase.
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2 Responses to “Internal Linking – SEO Tip Week 5”
By Industrial Search Engine Marketing on Feb 23, 2007 | Reply
Great post. We’ve recently found another element of strategy to inject into the creation of an internal linking structure, having to do with keyword weight and visibiltiy variance between Booster Pages and destination pages.
Thoughts?
By Shell Harris (164 comments.) on Feb 25, 2007 | Reply
I took a look at your Booster Page article and I totally agree with your hypothesis and I can guarantee you are going to find successful results. In fact, I think any quality SEO company does this as part of the optimization process or as part of the monthly service they provide. Since this is a strategy you are using in your seo work I would say you are ahead of the game and understand the right way to do things. Good SEO is usually a large dose of common sense with the research to back it up. Well done!