Intro
Internal links are those that connect two pages on the same domain. These hyperlinks are directed at targets on the same domain. In simpler terms, an internal link connects one page to another page on a shared website. To create an ideal internal link, the anchor text should include descriptive words that relate to the target content.
Internal Links Defined
Internal links are those that use a link to connect pages on one part of a domain to pages on another part of the same domain. Internal links are typically used to construct site navigation menus. The main reason these links are useful can be summed up in the follow short list.
Top Reasons For Internal Links
- They make website navigation easier for users
- They create an information flow chart for the website.
- They help strengthen the ranking power of the website.
Top SEO Tactics: Internal Links
Internal links are widely used in the formation of a website. Internal links are used to establish links that spread credibility and ranking to pages throughout the site. This credibility is called link juice. When building a website that is search engine optimized, internal links are integral to that goal. On the individual pages of a website, there should be content that helps search engines index its pages using the embedded keywords.
SEO friendly websites should also have a link structure that is conducive to spider pathways used by search engines to index all the pages on a website. Many websites experience critical errors constructing their websites due to hidden navigation of their main links, which makes their sites inaccessible to search engines. When search engines cannot access a website’s pages, it cannot index those pages and list them in results pages. Because of these inaccessible pages, to Google it is as if these websites do not exist. Essentially, great keywords, well-written content, and elevated marketing will not help a web page that is built improperly.
The optimum website structure is constructed in a triangle formation with the homepage at the pinnacle. This ideal construction has the smallest amount of links possible while still connecting the homepage with other associated pages on the domain. This triangle structure increases the ranking power or link juice running through the pages on the site. Additionally, the addition of supplemental URLs increase the likelihood of the pages of a website being indexed by all major search engines.
Images and text can be used in linked tags as long as there is a clickable portion on the page for the user to the interface. Users can move to different pages within the domain by clicking on link tags, and this is where the concept of hyperlinks originated. The reference location on the link tells the browser where the search engine where the link should be directed. The portion of the link that is visible to users is called the anchor text. This text is a descriptive of the linked content. This is a basic link format and highly comprehensible to search engines. They know they should add the link to their graph of the web and include it in query independent variables. It is further used to index relevant information on the associated page. When a page cannot be reached, it cannot be indexed.
The Top Seven Reasons For Non-Indexed Pages
Submission Form Links
search spiders do not submit forms and any links and content that requires a submission will not be accessible to the indexing tool making them invisible to search engines.
Search Box Links
millions of pages of content that require search commands within the constraints of the website search box. Spider bots will not perform searches to access this content.
UnParseable JavaScript Links
depending on the implementation of the JavaScript used to create links, some may be inaccessible and impossible for search engines to understand. To avoid this error, it is suggested that HTML be used instead of JavaScript links.
Flash and Plug-in Links
links are typically inaccessible if they are embedded within the coding of Java applets, Flash, or similar plug–ins.
Blocked Links
some files allow owners to restrict the access of search engine spiders from their content pages.
Pages with Large Link Volumes
due to the limits of spider crawls, when page links exceed 200 or more it can be missed or skipped for more important pages. Most search engines’ crawl limit max out around 150 links per page. After reaching 150 links, they may abandon additional links, which would result in the loss of those pages being indexed.
I-Frame Links
frame and iframe links are accessible to spider crawls, but structural problems prevent some engines from easily accessing this information. Frames and I-Frames can present search engines problems with organization and following. Users with advanced search engine indexing understanding should attempt to manipulate their page coding to make changes to these elements with regards to internal linking. Webmasters can stave off potential errors and have clean HTML links open to spider crawls that leave access to content pages.
External Resources
- The original PageRank algorithm research paper written by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine
- Google's Official Guidelines for Webmasters. Webmaster Guidelines
- Head of the Webspam Team at Google, Matt Cutts', thoughts on hyperlinks in relation to SEO and Google.Text Links and PageRank
