5 Tips in Setting Up Internal Links

Ranking well in search engines involve a long list of things-to-do. Some elements are considered as critical whilst others may just be mentioned in passing.

Among these, internal linking strategies are one of the many SEO concepts that are heavily underestimated. Most webmasters are caught more occupied with mining for inbound links to increase page ranks while forgetting that the structure of internal links is just as important as external links.

A smartly planned and properly organized website gives you an edge in the eyes of search engine spiders and your live audience. People read websites like they read almanacs. With almanacs, people sift through piles of information easily. Likewise, Google and other search engines rewards websites that are easy to read and sift through.

If your website has thousands of pages and content, it is important for your readers to get from webpage 1 to webpage 1,976 in the fewest clicks possible. In addition, it is also important for your readers to go from one area of your website to another area without going through a long list of links and navigations.

Effective internal linking will help increase page views for the most obscure pages in your website while increasing your metrics’ average time on site, and pages per visit. It is always essential that you let people know that you have something in your website that should interest them other than what is written on your home page

A well-structured website should not hinder how the internet is meant to be read. Google works so that users can go from one related website to another seamlessly. So when coming to your website, they must be able to go through your content without any hindrance to user experience and keeping people moving from one page to another.

If your website is yet to be optimized for smart internal linking, here are some tips that will help you get started.

Sitemaps – sitemaps provide the internal backbone of your site, telling your readers (and search engine spiders) how your website is structured. Sitemaps are perfect for inviting traffic to go deep within your domain for more page views.

Frequently Asked Questions – If you notice, most websites, even personal blogs have their own FAQ section or an “About Us” page. And you can probably find both of these for large blogs and website.

FAQ’s and About Us are supplementary pages that usually have a high landing rate. You can use your target keywords and phrases in the content. Just create common questions that your readers might be looking for in your website and provide a link to that particular information. This is also useful in getting search queries that are interrogative in nature.

Link to Related Posts – Chances are you have a similar blog post for every page that you have. Placing related links after your posts is a great way to field similar pages to increase page count.

Handling 404’s – Most webmasters forget just how many 404 error you generate in a day. Those errors can result to traffic leaving your site immediately. However, if you place your useful links, you can turn your 404 pages into a pipe for your featured pages.

Links in text – Putting related links in your text is a good way to actively promote the other pages of your website. Place related keywords in your links to make your internal linking more effective.

The biggest consideration when thinking about internal link strategies is, how do you make it easier for readers to read your website? A page in your website should always be supported by related content from other pages. This makes it easier for search engine to decide what your website is all about and what the most important pages in your website are.