Internal Link Building – Better Rankings, Happy Users
Internal link building is one of the crucial components of an effective search engine optimization strategy that is often overlooked by SEO professionals. In the race for external incoming links people often have no time or desire to take care of the internal linking structure. However, when properly implemented internal link building can provide for a number of benefits.
Internal link building builds Reputation
First of all, well developed internal links are a great help for the visitors. Following your internal links Internet users can easily find other content related to the topic they are interested in. By improving the users’ experience and directing them to more quality information your website gains reputation as an expert resource in its field. Besides internal links also have a direct impact on the search engine rankings of a page.
Internal link building gets Better Rankings
It’s common knowledge that inbound links are a major factor determining how high a website ranks in the search engines. Although internal links are not as effective they also have significant impact on the search engine performance, mainly because they are a great tool that enables you to redirect some of the juice of incoming links from one page to another. The key element here is context. Just like with incoming links anchor text is critical for internal link building. Anchor text should bear the targeted keywords that are relevant to the content a link leads to. Thus you will give more weight to the content in the eyes of the search engines getting all the juice out of every link.
Some pages tend to have more incoming links and rank better than others. You can reinforce lower ranking pages with the help of internal links from the better ranking ones. Although this won’t be as effective as getting an external link, it will still make a difference.
Internal link building provides Easy Navigation
Internal link building starts with a good navigation structure. Unless your website has a well developed primary navigation you won’t get much from internal links. Make sure that the navigation is both user and search engine friendly. This is a rule of thumb for every aspect of a SEO campaign. You need to do everything from the points of view of search engines and users, since they perceive your website differently. It’s important to rank well in the engines to generate targeted traffic, but this is just a means. Once the visitors arrive at your website you need to make them want to stay for the back button is not too far away after all. Internal link building is a great way to keep visitors at your website longer. Internet users tend to prefer links within the text body of a page rather then the ones on the navigation bar.
Thus internal link building gives a boost in the rankings (often a quick one) and makes your website more appealing to the users.