Effective Internal Linking Practices
We should all know that outbound links to fresh, original, relevant content on other blogs or websites are vital when it comes to providing users with quality content. But often times we overlook the importance of good internal linking strategy within our own domains.
I’ve put together what I believe to be a fairly solid list of tips to use when linking to your own content via a new post or page. Of course, this list is compiled of methods I’ve used with a decent level of success, so I provide these tips to you as a testament of my own experiences. As always, you should use your own judgment and do research when applying new methods of linking to content.
-Choose Your Blog Post Subject (You might want to choose a blog post subject based on SEO strategy)
This one is a given for the most part, but if you have your blog post subject well established before you start writing, you’ll likely find it easier to build an internal linking strategy as you create your post.
I find that if I know exactly what I want to write before I write it, I can use the search function to pull out five or so related posts and use them to establish the post content before I write the first sentence. Having the post URLs readily available also helps me establish the keywords and keyphrases I’ll want to use throughout the post.
-Keywords and Keyphrases
Once you’ve established your post topic and you’ve opened up several pages within your site that you wish to link to (I have these pages open in multiple tabs in Firefox), you’ll want to choose keywords and keyphrases to be used throughout the post. These keywords are to be used specifically in the anchor text used to link to the related internal pages. Note: Make sure these are the right SEO keywords for your blog.
-Use Title Tags in Your Text Link
Many SEO opinions state that title tags are not important. I would argue, however, that they can do no harm, and in many cases have proven to be healthy with regards to good blog SEO. So, with this in mind, toss in your title for the link like title=”Anchor Text Title”.
Yes, it’s an extra step and can be time consuming, but you want to make sure you cover all areas of your link for maximum search engine exposure.
-DO NOT Use No Follow On Internal Links
Personally, I do not use no follow on ANY links… both internal and external. Unless, of course, they are sponsored links. That being said, if you do use no follow on your blog/site, make sure you allow the search engines to follow internal links by removing the tag on internal links.
This is vital in increasing pagerank through smart internal linking.
-Link Directly to Content Pages
You’ll want to link directly to blog posts and pages. Never link to a category or archive page unless you need to do it as a part of your narrative. Search engines love those permalink URLs that are full of unique, original content. Your category and archive URLs are, for the most part, full of duplicate content. Plus, one of your main goals should be to get your readers immediate access to the information they want to find, not keep them hunting for it.
If you follow these simple steps religiously when writing new posts, search engines will begin crawling your pages on a much deeper level, they’ll begin seeing your posts as providing access to much more information, and your readers will find what they’re looking for when they read your post.
Rob O. | May 12th, 2008 at 2:20 pm #
I’m very mindful to use internal linking - or “deep linking” - in newer posts to refer back to older, related posts. This gives the search engines another path to dig into, but more importantly, it prompts your readers to explore your older posts even more. It’s a nice way to establish some continuity also.
Sometimes, you can even use this as fuel for a new post if your creative juice is dried up - just find a favorite old post and do a follow-up. For example. maybe some piece of software that you had blogged about being forthcoming has now been a part of your daily toolkit for a couple of months. Let the world know how the app is living up to the pre-release hype.
Also, I think it’s perfectly legit to edit an older post to provide an additional link forward from it to a newer, related entry. I’m not talking about doing a George Lucas-style overhaul, just a minor tweak. I don’t do this often, but on posts where I have done so, I’ve indicated it with a little red “Update” notation, so it’s more apparent. (You can take a look at my FiveFingers For Your Ten Toes article for an example. Oooh, see that? I just “deep linked!”)
Eric Odom (Post Author) | May 12th, 2008 at 2:36 pm #
Rob, great point on the editing of older posts!!! Not only is it legit, in my opinion, but it’s also very helpful for readers who might land on that particular URL for the first time.
One of the reasons Google has changed its ALGO to bring newer content to the front is because we’re all looking for NEWER content! There for, it’s good for everyone if older URLs are providing fresh content to readers.
David Shaw | May 12th, 2008 at 5:18 pm #
I am very tactical with my internal linking, always linking to the posts with good keywords.
I also use the nofollow tactically on my site as well, to control the ‘SEO Juice’ around my site.
Has worked well so far.
Nice Post!
Otto Marasco | May 12th, 2008 at 5:22 pm #
Eric Odom (Post Author) | May 13th, 2008 at 9:34 am #
@ David
Honestly, I’m not “huge” on the whole no-follow idea. A lot of this is just my distaste for what Google is doing with it. That being said, it is a good SEO practice and I’ve seen it work across the board.
By the way… love the site! Just added your feed to my reader.
@ Otto
It’s something you should always be mindful of. You don’t need to go completely all out with it, but try and be aware when creating internal links.
Zoobie Joy | May 13th, 2008 at 5:34 pm #
Absolutely True Eric!..It is very important to remember these things when you are building links for your site..^^ anyways thank you for sharing it with us..^^
Budhi | May 13th, 2008 at 8:23 pm #
Great tips, I does it with one of my niche blog since every post is some sort of a series hence I need to invite reader to check related post (never thought it has another benefit thou). I’ll apply it with my other blogs right away.
Amrit Hallan | May 21st, 2008 at 10:03 am #
Internal linking practices also encourage you to create better, “linkable” content because whenever you are generating new posts or pages you’ll have in your mind that some day you’ll be linking to them.
Interlinking is also good for making all your important information easily accessible. Good tips