Top Six Internal Linking Tactics To Get Top Google Rankings

by Jason O'Connor
(Plano TX)

If you own or run a website and are not following these six
tactics for properly linking your website together then you're
losing Google traffic as you read this. First some definitions.
Internal linking is the links on your website that point to
other pages within your same website. External linking is when
you link to another website. Tactics are specific things to do
to achieve desired results, or any mode of procedure for gaining
advantage or success.

There are things you can do when developing or refining your
internal linking structure. If you carry out the following
tactics, you're going to achieve two things. One, you'll make
your website better from a user's perspective. Two, you'll rank
better in Google. And it's no coincidence that Google rewards
you for doing things that make the website user's experience
easier and better. In fact, the most important thing I can
recommend is that you create, design and link your website
together in a way that benefits the visitor first. Your visitors
are most important, not Google rankings.

One last thing before I get to the tactics. Have you heard that
links from other websites that point back to your website are
essential in getting top search engine rankings, especially with
Google? It's true. These links vary in their effectiveness and
value depending on the website from which they're coming. But
did you also know that internal links often can have similar
effectiveness and value as external links? So bear this in mind
as you read on.

1) Add links in your navigation or footer as text links to all
your important pages and main sections.

This is a very easy and an extremely effective tactic that not
all sites do, and even fewer do for maximum results. This is the
first thing I look for when reviewing a website for a client.
Unfortunately, sometimes artsy Web designers add cool buttons,
which are images, to all the main sections of the site, but
neglect to include text links as well. Or a programmer decides
to make the website's navigation a dynamic drop down menu in
DHTML or JavaScript but forgets to include text links to the same
pages represented in the menus. Search engines cannot follow
image links or links created in JavaScript, they can only follow
simple text links, so be sure you add them to your site as well.

So if you want search engines to visit and index (or record) ALL
your website's pages, be sure there are text links pointing to
all the main sections of your site and to all your important
pages.

2) Make use of the rel="nofollow" HTML tag.

This is fairly simple. Google created this tag which tells them
NOT to count the link in their search engine ranking algorithm
when used on a link. There's debate that maybe Google does count
them a little, or will some day in the future. But for now, this
tag does greatly decrease a link's value in Google's eyes.

Therefore, consider using this tag on some of your links within
your site. For example, let's say you have a homepage and then
create two inner pages, and that's the extent of the site. Let's
further say that you add a link to both pages on your homepage.
If your homepage has some external links pointing to it, then it
has some value in regards to Google's ranking system. When you
link to each of your two new pages within your site from your
homepage, each page gets only 50% of the value the homepage has.
(This is all measured in Page Rank). Let's then say that your
first inner page is the one you want to rank well in Google,
but you don't care if your second inner page even gets found by
Google or ranked. You could add the nofollow tag to the second
link on your homepage, thereby giving the first inner page 100%
of the homepage's value.

Think of the implications. Imagine if you had a website with
hundreds or thousands of pages and used the nofollow tag
throughout. To understand how to implement this tag, see
the two links in HTML below, one without it and one with it
correctly included. (add < in front of all the html tag)

a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com">Your Website

a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com" rel="nofollow">Your Website

Finally, if you have pages such as a privacy page, terms page,
checkout pages or contact pages that you don't care if they rank
well in Google, be sure to use the nofollow tag when creating
internal links to these pages.

3) Use descriptive & different phrases to point to the same
inner page.

The words that are in the text of a link (also known as the
anchor text) affect your search engine rankings. For example,
the anchor text in the two links above is "Your Website". If
enough of these links that were on quality and valuable sites,
including your own website's inner pages, pointed to the same
page, it would eventually rank well in Google when someone
searches for the phrase "your website".

Therefore, be sure to make the anchor text in all your internal
links the phrases you want the pages to be found for in Google.
If you have a page that sells "blue widgets", make the anchor
text in links on other pages within your website that point to
this page "blue widgets". Do it like this:

a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com/blue-widgets.htm">Blue Widgets

Going back to the number 1 tactic above, you would be far
better off making the anchor text in all your footer links as
descriptive as possible. If you want to rank well in Google for
"affordable blue widgets" then use this in your links that point
to this page:

a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com/blue-widgets.htm">Affordable
Blue Widgets

Finally, vary your anchor text when pointing to the same page
within your website. For instance, on some of your pages you
could link to your Blue Widgets page with the anchor text of
"blue widgets", then on other pages link to it using "affordable
blue widgets" and then maybe use "widgets that are blue". This
allows you to get the page ranked for multiple terms and helps
the user since you're being descriptive and making your anchor
text better match the content of the page it's on.

4) Make links in your content.

If you have text on your site, make some of the words within the
text, links that point to other pages within your website. For
instance, if you have an article about blue widgets, or a page
that describes how great your blue widgets are, make the first
or second occurrence of the phrase "blue widgets" in the text a
link that points to your Blue Widgets page.

5) The Home link solution.

If your website is typical, you'll probably have a link on every
page that points back to your homepage. And you should because
this helps users. By doing this, you're supplying a lot of link
value to the homepage since it is getting all these internal
links pointing back to it. Since in the number three tactic I
recommended that you make your anchor text the same as what you
want to rank for, the word "home" does you no good. I'll assume
that you're not trying to get your homepage ranked for the word
"home", so make the anchor text what you do want it to get
ranked for.

The other option is to add the nofollow tag to all your 'Home'
links, thereby canceling out the word "home" altogether.

6) Make important pages at most 2 folders deep with your site
and at most two clicks away from your homepage.

The farther away a page is, the worse it ranks. So if you put a
page in a folder that is five folders deep within your website
folder structure, Google will likely consider that page not as
important as a page only one folder deep. Also, make the pages
in your website that are most important to get ranked two or
less clicks away from the homepage. This is good for users and
allows Google to index these pages more quickly.

By following these top six internal linking tactics, you'll be
far ahead of the competition, you'll rank better in Google and
you'll be making your website visitors' lives easier.
================================================================
Jason O'Connor is the owner of Oak Web Works, LLC
(http://www.oakwebworks.com), an Internet strategy firm that
specializes in helping businesses make money with their business
websites. From Web design and programming to strategic Web
marketing, providing free resources for Web professionals and
regularly publishing The Net Gazette (http://www.thenetgazette.net),
Oak Web Works is a center for online strategy.
================================================================

Copyright © 2008 Jayde Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
SiteProNews is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.

Network Marketing Facts – Learn the Truth! Avoid the Lies! Demand the Facts!
Our purpose is to help Frustrated Network Marketers succeed.