Internal Link Structure: Build a Strong Foundation

Apr 29
2010

Internal Link Structure: Build a Strong Foundation

Internal link structure – For some reason, this is a topic that is not discussed as thoroughly as it ought to be among SEO circles and between business owners and their SEO companies.

An internal link structure is the network of links that you have within your website directing pages of your website to other pages within your website for a variety of purposes.

One of the biggest mistakes companies have made through the years is to put these internal links as hyperlinks from one page to the next over the phrases “click here” and “contact us” and “more info” and so on….

What is being missed when doing this is a huge opportunity for assistance in online positioning….one of the most important aspects of SEO.

Take Advantage of Every Opportunity for Online Positioning Increases

Each page of the website is an important opportunity to build your Google and Alexa rank.  Every single page can provide power for your website in search engines, leading to increased exposure, branding and ultimately, lead generation in order to grow your business through increased sales.

While there are many aspects of achieving increased sales, the bottom-line is that the customer first has to be able to find you online.  Next, you need call to action content.  Content is still king in cyberspace, but the way that you set up that content is a vital aspect of making it as powerful as it could be.

Use your web content to develop anchor text.  Some will attempt to tell you that key phrase density is no longer very important.  This is not necessarily true.  However, while key phrase density within your web pages through content, alt text, h-tags and titles is important, it is also extremely important that you turn some of those key phrases into anchor text so that they will better stand out to the search engine companies as words that heavily connect to the information you are providing the consumer public.

Creating a strong internal link structure as the foundation of your business website is one important way to develop the anchor text that you need in order to achieve desired online positioning.

Another important aspect of the internal link structure is that it shows your site is easily navigated for the ease of public usage.

There are many, many pages that are created in websites that no one bothers to link to.  You have the opportunity to provide links for yourself throughout your very own web pages.

If you do a link search for your website in Google, you will find that at times, your own internal links actually are providing you with credit as backlinks….Strange, but true fact.

Your Business Website is an E-Book

Every web page is basically a website, although attached to the same root domain and held within the same server files.

Creating many new pages creates a robust appearance for your root domain and you can even think of your root domain as almost being the name of a book or the cover of your book.  The pages in your website are like the pages within the book.  In SEO you are attempting to let the search engine companies know that your book is the most resourceful, modern and updated book on each particular topic.

You also want to let the consumer public know that they can visit your website at any time and find relatively recent information, so that they are not wasting their time during their Internet searches when they click on your link or read your “book.”

Your business website should basically be an illustrated, article compilation e-book.

There are firefox add-ons that can help you to look at your website in much the same way as the search engines look at your business website.  When you look at your website through the eyes of the search engine company, it is a very basic, simply way to develop a better understanding of just what your website looks like and can help you to comprehend some points you may need to adjust.

Use Relevant Key Phrases for Online Power

If your website has words such as “click here” that are hyperlinked, then that is telling the search engine companies that when their consumers search for the phrase “click here” that your website is among the millions or billions that they ought to bring up in the search results.  If you want to come up at the top of those search result listings, then you had better have about a million pages in your root domain folder, all with the phrase “click here” linked in them.  Will that increase your sales or put you in front of the eyes of your potential customers when they are performing a key phrase query relevant to the products and services that you offer??

Take advantage of opportunities to link to new pages after you have created them so they become as powerful as the first few pages that you created.  Make sure that you demonstrate what the pages you are linking to are actually about or regarding by using key phrases that you want the search engine companies to display your web pages under in search engine result listings.

Internal links, or hyperlinked key phrases in your web page will help to provide credence to the fact that not only is the page you are linking from about this particular topic, but also that the pages you are linking to are about that topic as well.

Remember that while content may be king, so is relevancy.

***Alicia Crowder is the owner of SEO Web Content Writing Solution.  Her catch phrase: “Turn Your Business Website into a Lead Generating Machine”***

Additional Commercial Links:

Houston Shelving Company

Wedding Photographers in Houston

Wedding Dress

Insurance Quotes

Window Insulation

Laptop Security Carts

The Art of Give and Take in SEO

Apr 18
2010

The Art of Give and Take in SEO

Ah! The art of give and take in SEO.  There are a lot of methods that people use in attempting to get their business website to rank higher in Google search engines.  One of these methods is through link building. Link building includes both internal link building (often overlooked by businesses and SEO companies alike) and External link building, i.e. back-linking.

Every SEO campaign should be somewhat unique based upon the current ranking of a website, the popularity of a website, the type of industry and the geographic for that industry, including regional vs. national campaign needs and so on.

All of these matters should be taken into consideration, to list only a handful, when initializing an SEO strategy.  Yes, there are many, many more aspects that should be taken into consideration, such as how competitive the market currently is for that industry and the productive key terms, etc….but this is not an all-inclusive list by any means for this specific article.

Building an Internal Link Structure

Power is provided your Google page ranking status via links that are coming INWARD. This means that it is extremely important to build a strong internal link structure and to receive back-links from other websites.  The internal links also create a number of additional benefits for your online positioning campaign.

Search engine companies will look at your internal linking to determine how high of a placement you should receive under specific key phrases.  Internal linking also adds ease of website navigation. Internal linking is providing your own links to other pages of your website from the various pages of your website.  You cannot have a strong internal link structure if you do not have a variety of pages on your website, nor can you receive very good positioning from a 1-3 page website for the most part.

Some people would tell you that you should never link out from your website to another company website because of the loss of “link juice.”  This is true in some ways, but not entirely.

The art of give and take in SEO involves the process of making your website a highly informative website. It involves partnering up with other companies to join forces in achieving mutual benefits. Be very cautious, however, regarding reciprocal link requests, as this is generally not a good choice for your online positioning.  If a business website with a higher page ranking than your website would like a reciprocal link and if you feel confident that they will both link to you and are a credible company and source for information, then by all means….link up!!

However, the majority of cases are simply other websites attempting to get your “link juice” for their own benefit.

All of that being said, there are actually some very good reasons, beyond that listed above, to link out from your website to other websites.  However, your particular industry or SEO strategy may not be one that benefits best from linking out.  Talk with your SEO provider to ensure that you are making the right choice when linking out to another company’s website.

The primary reason that having outbound links can be good for your website would be to create an excellent resource for your readers.  If your business website becomes known as a good place to find information and easily access a number of links to become particularly informed on a specific topic, then that can help your business via increased visits and popularity.  You may want to consider restricting your resource provisions to one page and simply linking to the resource page from the other pages in your website though, so that you are not focusing too  much of your energy on that particular aspect of your SEO strategy and are simultaneously providing additional strength to your own web pages.

Back-linking to Your Website

The more back-links you can get coming in to your website, the better.  All links are not created equally however, and appearing to have purchased from a link farm does not do you any good service whatsoever…..quite the contrary.

However, if relevant websites make up a large percentage of your back-links and if you can actually get people to back-link to your website mentioning how great you are….That totally rocks! :)

When you check out the number of links going back to some of the very highly listed websites on Google and in other search engines (Google holds more than 65% of the search engine activity and is currently the best choice to optimize for.) you will discover that these websites often have tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands or even millions of back-links.

Sometimes give and take is required.  Sometimes you will truly have to read other people’s articles and web pages in order to fully understand them and connect with them in a sufficient way, doing your part to receive the credible back-links that you really need.

If you focus only on yourself…and make that obvious, you will not be generating any concern from others or encouraging them to give a little to you.  If you are truly involved with others, you have a much greater opportunity to receive quality back-links than via any other way.  Having the help of a good SEO firm who knows how to get involved with others as well is particularly useful.

Remember, have the smarts to use your resources wisely is more effective than just being smart in general and trying to do everything yourself.  You will generally receive better results, have a better life with more quality time included in it, meaning having a better family and personal life and you will usually spend less money as well in the long run.

Leverage your resources, connect with others, build your link structures, carefully analyze your SEO strategy and remember that every aspect of a successful online marketing campaign is an ongoing process that should not end until you decide you no longer need to be in business….and then, of course, even after that, you should find ways to show your gratitude to those who helped you when you were “in the game.”

******The Art of Give and Take in SEO – This article only touched on a few points for this topic, but was hopefully informative and helpful.  The author, Alicia Crowder, enjoys participating in coopetition and providing assistance where she can to other individuals and businesses.  If you have a question, please don’t hesitate to ask!******

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