How To Use Internal Links To Enhance SEO ?

This article is a guest post by Sonia Jackson, who has already published several guest posts at Tech Ghoul.

This article explains the basics of internal linking and how it relates to a websites search engine optimization. It then explains how these basic principals can be exploited to enhance the search engine optimization of a website. Internal links are not powerful little search engine manipulation tools in the same way that external links are, however a poorly internally linked website can damage the search engine optimization of a website. Poor internal linking can act as a drag factor that stops web pages from ever appearing on a search engines first results page.

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What is SEO?

It is an acronym and stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. You may hear it described as an amount (e.g. increasing SEO), and you may hear it described as a process (e.g. He is going to SEO his website). SEO is an umbrella term for making a website more “Search engine friendly.” A website can be made more search engine friendly through things done to the website directly (known as on-page SEO) and things done outside of the website (known as off-page SEO).

What Is A Link And How It Is Structured? 

A link is a piece of programming code that allows the user to click a point on one page and be taken to another page. The part that of the page you click is called an anchor. An anchor can be a page element or an image, but it is usually a written URL or a piece of text with a URL embedded in it. The anchor is therefore named after what it is, i.e. anchor element, anchor image, or anchor text.

When the anchor is clicked, the web browser will load the URL of the page that the anchor is linked to. This is called the landing page. The landing page can be any URL, but if it is one that is within its own domain (on the same website) then it is an internal link. If the link leads to a landing page outside the domain (another website) then it is an external link.

Do Internal Links Increase A Pages Search Engine Ranking As Backlinks Do? 

External links are also known as backlinks, and backlinks have a far more powerful and fast acting effect than internal links do. If you have backlinks pointing to your website then it will help to increase your position on the search engine results. Internal links are supposed to point at your own pages, so will not increase your search engine results position.

Your on-page SEO will help to get your site listed higher up the search engine results, and if your website is very well internally linked then your website is deemed as easier to navigate, and will slowly rise in the search engine results pages over time (so long as you also update your website routinely).

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Can Internal Links Be Strong Like Backlinks Can Be? 

No, they cannot but they do have a good and a bad side. If your internal links stay active (don’t break) then Google will continue to keep slowly pushing you up it search engine result. If a few of your internal links are broken, (maybe you deleted some pages), then your website is deemed as more difficult to navigate, and it will be harder to rise up the search engine results.

How Should You Internally Link Your Articles ?

Try to have at least three internal links on every page. On every page you should give the user the opportunity to go back to the main pages. The main pages are your home page, sitemap page, contact us page, and any of your larger category pages. Another good trick is to add a “back” link so that people can return to the pages they were previously looking at.

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Use a link-checking tool to search through all of your internal links and point out which ones are broken. This is a lot quicker than trying to check every one manually. If you have broken links, you must repair them, change them or delete them. Do not leave them on your site.

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Sonia Jackson

About the Guest Author:
My name is Sonia Jackson. I represent the Australian web-site http://www.essay-bag.com. We’ll help you to solve all problems with writing different essays and research papers according to the rules of the universities and colleges in Australia.