SEO is often associated with inbound linking gathered from quality and relevant websites. However, internal linking structure also has a contribution and it actually has an effect on SEO performance. Proper internal linking may make a difference between 1st and 2nd pages ranking. Many websites are aimed to rank well with various keywords and it is important that you fulfil all the requirements. It is important to know that links that come from internal structure is also essential and you should know links that actually work. Properly used internal links can become one of the most important weapons in your arsenal. Proper internal links are essential to ensure proper navigational structure. It means that it will be easier for spiders to scan all pages in the website. This will increase the relevance of your website if you aim to rank higher for specific keywords. More pages will be indexed and shown in search engine results for specific search keywords.
Proper internal linking is even more essential for larger websites that contain hundreds or thousands of pages. If most pages are indexed, you will have a chance of getting trickle of traffic for each. Improper internal linking could cause many of your webpages to become hidden, because search engine bots rarely get there. Proper internal linking also needs to take into account the type of keyword that you want to focus on. It means that you need to have a well-defined objective, such as what keyword that you want to get ranked on. Using proper anchor text for internal linking will also increase relevance for specific page. You should know that internal link doesn’t increase the SEO value of each of your page. It simply increase the relevance of each page for specific keyword, so search engine algorithm knows about the main topic of your website. As an example, if one page in your website discuss about web hosting, you also need to use the term “Web hosting” for the anchor text of internal linking. By using the proper keywords for anchor text, your website will become a more desirable place for search engine bots.
In many cases, homepage is a place where all the internal linking starts and from this page, you should be able to reach major categories and important pages in your website. In order to ease thing, it is also quite common that links for menu, categories and important pages are placed in header, sidebars and footer. These are also paths that search engines bots will use to crawl all your pages. If you have dead-ends and bottlenecks, bots won’t be able to reach some or many of your webpages. It is important that each of your new webpage can be reached easily from the main page. It shouldn’t take more than 3 or 4 levels of navigation to reach all pages in your website, including the newest ones. You need to diffuse the weight of keyword prioritization of each webpage and this can be achieved by having categories name and webpage title that contain primary keywords.
