Internal linking is the goddess of user experience. She forgives none and honors those who perform. There are many rules that go along with keeping this goddess happy; obey her and ye shall seek profits.
- Always use the same URI when linking.
- Use helpful anchor text. e.g. Instead of “this” or “click here” use the actual name of the file or describe the content.
- Mix up the anchor text for better rankings. e.g. 5 links with “SEO guide”, 5 links with “SEO tutorial”, 5 links with “SEO tips”, but do so only within the content area not the navigation.
- Link to related internal pages using keywords as anchor text.
- Limit the number of links on any given page to less than 100, this includes template navigation links.
- The lower the number of template links per page the better. Breadcrumb navigation is best, but is usually not possible for user experience and in most cases unless teamed up with other navigation.
- Use breadcrumb navigation on sites that will link to other pages often.
- When linking heavily externally, be sure to link internally as well.
- Template links give less link juice than regular content links.
- Use static URLs whenever possible (which is almost always). A dynamic url is one that uses the $_GET function within the URL, e.g. http://example.com/?form=pie change to http://example.com/pie You can do this by using htaccess.
- Promote seasonal content heavily weeks before. This will help the pages long before the time comes.
- Link to new content lower on the domain, e.g. Link to new content on the homepage.
- Place low ROI pages lower in the link structure and higher ROI higher in the link structure.
- Display as much content per page as possible without using pagination.
- Fix 404 errors as quickly as possible, fixing all internal link problems.
- Links with text around them work best, particularly descriptions of the linked page.
- Links within content areas work best as opposed to the navigation.
- Keep pages within 3 links from the homepage, anymore is ticket to Google’s supplemental index (as if they don’t have it anymore >.>)
- Use absolute linking whenever possible.
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Written: Jun 5, 2008Tags: internal linking, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo
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As someone who is getting heavily into aspects of internal linking, this will be a definite reference guide, thanks!
I love #11. Coming from a direct sales background, I know how super important that is.
Thanks for your kind comment once again.
For others reading:
I should also note that #11 goes for anything that is time sensitive, not just content according to seasons/holidays.
Something like a new book coming out, movie, product, etc. Getting a review or the actual product up as quickly as possible is extremely important, especially if you rely on SEO whatsoever.
Get links, get listed, do all the normal SEO you can with the time available.