INTERNAL LINKING FOR SEO- IMPORTANCE AND BEST PRACTICES

Internal linking is an important SEO practice for publishers. In this article, we will take a look at its importance as well as the some helpful tips for effective linking.

What exactly is Internal Linking?

Different web practitioners have different terms for this, but internal linking is the term that is well understood by the SEO community. In general terms, internal linking refers to any links from one web page on a domain which leads to another web page on that same domain. This can refer to the main site navigation or the links within articles to related content. In this article, we will focus more on the latter- the editorial links within articles because it is a more commonplace SEO tactic that is controlled by the site’s editors and writers as opposed to a tech team.

Why is Internal Linking so important?

The main reason why internal linking is important is because it’s one of the few tactics site owners can use to make it known to Google and site visitor’s that a particular page is important. From a strategic perspective, it also helps site owners to bridge the authority gap between their content that is more linkworthy with their content that is more profitable.

There are other reasons on its importance:

• Internal linking provides your visitors with more reading options.
• It can help you promote events and other paid services.
• It helps Google crawl the site and index pages more effectively
• Internal Linking helps you improve your ranking for certain keywords

There are instances where large websites like travel sites that have a huge amount of content and the differences between their landing pages are often very slight. Without correct interlinking, these subtleties could confuse Google, especially if there are no external links directing back to those pages.

How significant a role does Internal Linking play in rankings?

Internal linking is easily one of the most crucial and the most overlooked factors when it comes to achieving your ranking goals. One of the reasons internal linking is often overlooked as an important SEO tactic is because many people simply think that it’s not a concern anymore as sites today have such multifaceted navigation menus. Nevertheless, internal linking will help you drive considerable results solely on the back of optimizing internal navigation structures. Many SEO experts have now recognized that Interlinking related factors have strong weight within the Google algorithm.

How to use Internal Linking more effectively

• If you’re using WordPress, there are plugins that will automatically turn keywords in page text to keyword relevant links directing to some of your most important content.
• Though it’s a bit complicated, you can use pivot tables and filters in Excel on data exported from SEMRush to find the pages with the most rankings. Once you’ve recognized those pages, comb your site to find five to fifteen new links from the existing site content to those pages. The number depends on the size of your site.
• Before inserting a link, ask yourself: what is the possibility that a user will click on it? The higher the chances are, the more effect this link will have and it will have the most value from an SEO perspective.
• On the home page, make sure to add links to the most important pages. This could be the main categories or a product page; it depends on your SEO strategy.
• Factors like the position of the link on a page, the anchor text, the font and color of the text, the context it’s used and its relevancy all influence the effect of the link.
• Make sure that whenever you include new content that you are including links to relevant and important landing pages. This will guarantee that any links yourinclude in your content will also share a secondary benefit on the pages you have internally linked to.
• Add internal links in moderation. Every link you place on a page will receive a share of the link authority of that page, so the more links you have, the less value it will collect.
• Links included within content generally carry greater value because they are surrounded by contextual words which can have another benefit in terms of ranking for these related words.
• Ensure that that links add value. Though SEO is a factor to focus on, links should also add value to your audience.
• Make sure that internal links appear natural and not contrived. Links should be included along the natural flow of a piece of content and shouldn’t appear to be out of place to a reader.

Top Marketing and Digital Marketing Trends for the year 2011

Year 2011 is going to be a challenging one for everyone, especially for marketing professionals year 2011 is yet another tough year with minimum marketing budget and competition. Apart from traditional marketing marketers should need to learn how to leverage all the new digital marketing capabilities. Because digital marketing is the best way to cut down marketing expenses and reach the target audience more accurately. Following are the predicted marketing and digital marketing trends for the year 2011.

1 – Customer value is the key – Customers will never think of buying excessive, whatever buy they might have a reason for buying. Purchase matches the need. That’s it.

2 – Firms will only perform well in the market when they deliver superior value to the customers.

3 – Understanding customers well is a key factor for success. It is not about just selling, knowing the customers well and selling is the concept. Database, data mining and one to one marketing is going to be important in marketing activities.

4 – Winning the customers heart is the key, not just by offering superior products and services, but through social responsibilities. These efforts will need to be believable, sustained and engaging.

5 – Innovation– Brands / firms need to pull the “me too” mindset away from the customers. They have to differentiate themselves compared to competition.

6- Right word of mouth is going to be the key in driving the business. Their purchase decision will strongly influenced by peer group thoughts and views towards the brand. Social networking is growing and people talking about their lovable brand everywhere.

7 – Customers will seek for human touch / human interaction. Automation will further irritate customers in several ways.

8 – Loyalty marketing continues to be the important. Probably point based loyalty scheme will continue to work but not the privileged based one.

9 – The importance of digital media continues to increase. Marketers need to know more about digital media and how they can take maximum use out of it for less cost. Following are some digital marketing trends for the year 2011.

• Marketing budget will continue to shift online – Customers spend their time more on internet. People are bombarded with ads and other traditional medium. Digital media has changed the way customers purchase products. Post purchase evaluation will start in the beginning; people will build initial relationship with brands and then only buy it. Most of the firms in Sri Lanka actively recruiting people to do online marketing as they know the city population is now online.

• Traditional media tends to lose their prominence in marketing activities. Click here to watch a video

• Social media marketing will take new shapes such as social listening research, influencer marketing, community marketing and social gaming.

• Mobile marketing will take off – I would say year 2011 firms will continue to use mobile marketing than before. I would name year 2010 as a year for spamming. I get several spam mails from companies in Sri Lanka. Most of the reputed brands in Sri Lanka also used e-mail companies to market their product. Unless there is a need exist people going to get irritated with spam e-mails. For sure 2011 sms marketing will pick its boom in Sri Lanka.

• Personalized marketing gets connected with e-mail, mobile and online marketing activities. Marketers will collect more information about the customers and they will try to use the data at their maximum level. The data mining process is going to be the critical one in database marketing. Marketers are encouraged to identify more unique variables about customer’s behavior.

• Search engine optimization will become more critical; marketers need to ensure their brands are in the top list for targeted keywords.

• Real time help and quick responses will continue to delight customers.

• Integrated digital media marketing will get stronger in year 2011.
Adapting to these changes will require changes on the measurement of results, manging and marketing the brands. If brands are going to ignore these trends, it’s going to be a hard time for them.