Internal Linking Strategy, The purpose of links in body copy Options

[BeantownSEO]

Hi everyone, I was curious to hear everyone's thoughts on the importance of internal linking when it comes to rankings. I am not speaking on site architectural issues or navigational linking, but internal links found in the page copy. Do these types of call-to-action links provide any SEO benefit or are they more of a usability thing for web users to navigate to related content? From my understanding they help to build keyword relevance and theme for the particular page being linked to but any benefit these links provide for the linked to page isn't exactly known. I believe that there are many other factors that can come into play in this scenario but is it foolish to think that a keyword rich link within the body copy of a web page to a related page on the same site will provide any SEO benefit whatsoever?

Curious.............

[Randy]

I'm not quite sure of the question you're asking BeantownSEO. Are you wondering if links in the copy are more valuable in some way because they're in the copy?

If so, the answer I'd have to give is No, they're not ascribed any special value.

All links, whether external, internal in the navigation or internal in the copy, have the possibility of passing both link popularity and relevance to the target page. The placement of those links in the nav block or copy doesn't really have any huge bearing.

That said, many times you're limited in how much text you can use in a nav block link because of the nature and design of ones nav block. So in this limited sense sometimes it is easier to provide better relevance with your anchor text by providing a link in the copy. Not that I'd ever let this stop me from also linking to important pages in the nav block of any site.

Setting SEO aside, as to the potential user benefit you'd need to test it for your individual site and its users, but I can tell you I've seen positive conversion movement by strategically including ceratin links in the copy in the right places.

[BeantownSEO]

I wasn't asking if they are more valuable, just what the extent of their value is, if any at all in terms of the things you mentioned in your reply: passing link popularity and pagerank flow to the target page, and in helping the linked to page rank for the keyword / phrases used in the anchor text of the link. I of course understand this concept from an external link point of view to your site and how important the use of keyword phrases in the anchor text is in terms of helping you rank for those terms. I wouldn't expect that keyword rich anchor text links within the body copy of a web page to a related page on your site would do much in terms of providing any ranking boosts, but others I have spoke with feel that inplementing this can provide a big lift. They also feel that the words surrounding the anchor text link help to provide the engines with even more relevance to the target page..........I was just trying to gauge the importance of this practice, if it is indeed helpful in terms of helping a site rank for the keyword phrases in the anchor text.

[incrediblehelp]

In general you internal navigation and internal linking whether it is in the text or not is VERY valuable.

[Randy]

In many ways your internal linking, whether in the copy or in your navigation, is more important than external links. After all, you get to control which pages get linked to most prominently, which is usually the pages you consider to be most important, and you also totally control the anchor text.

From everything I've been able to tell over the years the engines certainly seem to treat internal links as if they're every bit as important as external links for the most part. If they didn't, how many of your internal pages would actually get indexed and ranked? Considering the fact that most times the vast majority of external links going to point to your home page, your other pages would never stand any chance of getting indexed let alone ranked if internal links and their anchor text were anything other than important in the eyes of the search engines.

[lenwood]

I've found Eric Ward's input particularly helpful in this area. Someone asked him about link building best practices, and in his answer he states, "...Google has a great deal of trust for the anchor text I use to point to my own pages. It's true that the trust I speak of comes from the overall collection of inbound links I've earned over the years in the first place, but the point lost in this is once you have such trust, don't ignore it as a driver of rankings... for yourself."

What he's saying here is that internal linking can help when part of a larger link building strategy. We don't have control over the text that other sites use when linking, but we can link to our own sites however we wish. I raise the issue of internal linking with each of my clients. Some of them aren't comfortable with it, which I understand, but the bottom line is that this is a perfectly legitimate technique. Not even a hint of gray.

HTH

[Randy]

Well said Chris.

And Eric by osmosis. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/giggle.gif)

Do you have a link to where Eric's quote comes from? Proper attribution is a good thing, and Eric does give some good advice others might find useful.

[torka]

I'm not Lenwood, but I found it as part of a larger article on "Anchor Text Best Practices" from April 2008. The whole article is well worth a read, IMO. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumbup1.gif)

--Torka (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_prop.gif)

[lenwood]

Torka nailed it, that's the link. The text that I quoted comes from point #4.

[www.NissanMods.c...]

If internal links are valuable, what about placing an index at the bottom of all your pages listing all the major pages and sub-pages on your site. Will this boost your sites relevance.... Is more better?

[Randy]

Don't you already have those main pages listed and linked in your normal navigation?

If yes, the footer links aren't going to help you in my experience. Though they can be quite useful if some main pages don't fit in the normal nav, or if the normal nav is not bot friendly.

Putting the same link 2 or 3 or 20 times on a page isn't going to do anything extra for you, if this is what you're asking.

This post has been edited by Randy: Sep 4 2008, 06:50 AM

[Jill]

If internal links are valuable, what about placing an index at the bottom of all your pages listing all the major pages and sub-pages on your site. Will this boost your sites relevance.... Is more better?

Here's a thought. Why not just actually make them your main navigation?

[nethy]

Don't you already have those main pages listed and linked in your normal navigation?

If yes, the footer links aren't going to help you in my experience. Though they can be quite useful if some main pages don't fit in the normal nav, or if the normal nav is [u]not[/i] bot friendly.

Putting the same link 2 or 3 or 20 times on a page isn't going to do anything extra for you, if this is what you're asking.

My experience is inconsistent here but, I've found that links introduced in addition to the main navigation (but not a duplicate navigation such as the footer links) does give more weight to these. I suspect Google makes some sort of distinction between site-wide navigation links & non-navigation links.

[Randy]

You're talking about links to select internal pages that appear additional times in body content of a page, right nethy?

If so, I concur. Though I can't quantify it. As you said the boost seems to be inconsistent. The idea is good for users, so I don't much care of there's a search engine boost or not. But if the engines want to consider those pages to be a bit more important because I'm linking to them in the body of a page or two, all the better as far as I'm concerned.

FWIW, I've seen no indications of a similar boost from a footer links block. Those seem to be treated just like normal navigation.

[Jill]

My experience is inconsistent here but, I've found that links introduced in addition to the main navigation (but not a duplicate navigation such as the footer links) does give more weight to these. I suspect Google makes some sort of distinction between site-wide navigation links & non-navigation links.

If this is true, it sort of flies in the face of what some others have been saying (on other forums) that only the first link counts. They were specifically talking about anchor text though.

I never felt that was true, however, although I couldn't quantify it either.