{"id":34,"date":"2018-09-28T15:06:12","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T15:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2018\/09\/28\/how-to-make-the-most-of-internal-linking-for-higher-rankings-and-improved-organic-search-visibility\/"},"modified":"2020-03-16T17:36:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T17:36:00","slug":"how-to-make-the-most-of-internal-linking-for-higher-rankings-and-improved-organic-search-visibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2018\/09\/28\/how-to-make-the-most-of-internal-linking-for-higher-rankings-and-improved-organic-search-visibility\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make the most of internal linking for higher rankings and improved organic search visibility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An internal link is a hyperlink pointing to a page within the same domain. Internal <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/03\/12\/social-media-how-does-it-affect-seo\/\">linking<\/a> is crucially important for both website rankings and usability:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Internal links allow <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2018\/12\/21\/guide-google-analytics-confusing-terms\/\">users<\/a> to conveniently navigate around the website (i.e. in order to complete a purchase, learn more about a product or read about your business)<\/li>\n<li>Internal links allows crawlers discover more of your site pages, even those that have no external <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/03\/12\/social-media-how-does-it-affect-seo\/\">backlinks<\/a> (especially important ones)<\/li>\n<li>Internal links are thought* to improve each given page authority (Google puts some emphasis on the signal: The more internal links a page has, the more internal authority it is supposed to have).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>*This has never been officially confirmed by Google (unless I missed the announcement) but we&#8217;ve seen web pages doing considerably better once we add internal in-links pointing to it, so let&#8217;s say this one is an educated theories backed by multiple experiments.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the question is however how to use internal links correctly. Let&#8217;s see&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>1. Internal Linking Basics and Best Practices<\/h2>\n<p>I won&#8217;t repeat what Rand said in this\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/moz.com\/blog\/links-headers-footers-navigation-impact-seo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Whiteboard Friday video<\/a>\u00a0because I agree with most (all?) points. But let me recap:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Well-structured navigation is crucial both for user experience and crawling&#8230; however<\/li>\n<li>In-content internal links (links embedded within meaningful context) seem to carry more weight for rankings<\/li>\n<li>Google is believed to give the least importance to footer links<\/li>\n<li>Internal anchor text does matter. This has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/google-anchor-text-internal-links-24817.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">almost been confirmed<\/a>\u00a0by a Googler. That said, if you target specific queries for a specific page, use descriptive keyword-focused (but meaningful) keyword links when linking to that page (when that makes sense). However stay away from always using exact-match anchor text, as it may seem unnatural.<\/li>\n<li>If there are two internal links to the same page on one page, only top anchor text seems to matter to Google<\/li>\n<li>Google seems to like text links more than image links with an alt text<\/li>\n<li>Generally, the more in-links a page has, the better its rankings (this is easy to test: Just pick a page on your site and start linking to it consistently. You are likely to see it moving up in SERPs)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>2. Analyzing and Evaluating the Internal Link Structure<\/h2>\n<p>Surprisingly, given the amount of weight SEOs put on <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/09\/25\/topic-clusters-increase-seo-rankings\/\">internal linking<\/a>, there are not many <a href=\"https:\/\/sewprod.wpenginepowered.com\/2019\/07\/15\/keyword-research-tools-free\/\">tools<\/a> that allow you to see internal structure clearly. Yes, there a few powerful crawling solutions including\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tools.seochat.com\/tools\/online-crawl-google-sitemap-generator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this free one<\/a>\u00a0as well as one of my favorite ones\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.screamingfrog.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Screaming Frog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But there&#8217;s no easy way to analyze how each specific <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/09\/11\/landing-page-copy-tips\/\">landing page<\/a> is linked to throughout the site.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jetoctopus.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jet Octopus<\/a>\u00a0solves that problem by introducing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jetoctopus.com\/product\/a14-product-update-linking-explorer-a-database-on.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Linking Explorer feature<\/a>. Crawl your site using Jet Octopus and open the Linking Explorer section (Behind &#8220;Explorer&#8221; link in the navigation). From there you can provide the URL of your (or your competitor&#8217;s) landing page to see how exactly it is linked to from other pages on the site.<\/p>\n<p>I love the section of the report that shows in-linking anchor text. This gives you a great insight:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you are doing enough optimizing your internal anchor text (or if you are over-optimizing things to the point where it looks a bit ridiculous \/ unnatural)<\/li>\n<li>What <a href=\"https:\/\/sewprod.wpenginepowered.com\/optimize-instagram-account-search-engines\">keywords<\/a> your competitors want to rank each specific rankings for<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/annsmarty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/jetoctopus-inlinks.png\" alt=\"Jetoctopus Link Explorer\" width=\"600\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>3. Using Structured Data for Internal Linking<\/h2>\n<p>Apart from anchor text, there&#8217;s a more beautiful way to signal Google of your internal structure by linking: <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/01\/02\/quantum-supremacy-and-eight-seo-trends-2020\/\">Schema<\/a>.org<\/p>\n<p>Some of <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/01\/11\/voice-search-optimization-guide-2019\/\">Schema.org<\/a> properties have been confirmed by Google as impacting the way they interpret websites (at least the way the page look when listed in SERPs). Others are presumably helping, because, as\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesempost.com\/adding-structured-data-helps-google-understand-rank-webpages-better\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">confirmed<\/a>\u00a0by Google, <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/05\/30\/implement-googles-how-to-schema\/\">structured data<\/a> in general helps Google understand websites better and it\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/google-structured-data-ranking-factor-25510.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">may even be<\/a>\u00a0a ranking factor.<\/p>\n<p>So when using internal linking which <a href=\"https:\/\/sewprod.wpenginepowered.com\/2019\/07\/12\/how-to-get-featured-snippets-no-link-building\/\">Schema<\/a>.org properties can be implemented?<\/p>\n<h3>1. \/BreadcrumbList<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/data-types\/breadcrumb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google says<\/a>\u00a0marking up breadcrumbs using Schema.org is one of the enhancement tools that could positively influence your website&#8217;s organic visibility and engagement (i.e. click-through)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The markup helps Google understand the website&#8217;s hierarchy better<\/li>\n<li>\/BreadcrumbList markup helps Google generate breadcrumbs-like format of the URL structure which is more appealing and may increase click-through<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/annsmarty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/breadcrumblist.png\" alt=\"BreadcrumbList\" width=\"600\" height=\"263\" \/><\/p>\n<p>[Indicate the position of each URL in the site&#8217;s hierarchy using BreadcrumbList]<\/p>\n<p>There are a variety of WordPress <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/02\/08\/17-top-plugins-extensions-seo\/\">plugins<\/a> allowing you to easily implement the markup, including\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wpsso-breadcrumbs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this one<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Authorship<\/h3>\n<p>Even though Google&#8217;s authorship has been discontinued (meaning authors are no longer highlighted in search results), that experiment revealed two things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Google pays attention to who wrote a piece (we&#8217;ve seen traces of this again and again, including their Raters&#8217; guidelines that introduced\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.seosmarty.com\/signals-quality-web-page-e-a-t-expertise-authoritativeness-trustworthiness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) concept<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Google appreciates any help they can get when identifying an author of the page<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That being said, making their life easier never hurts, so marking up internal bio links using Schema.org\/author is a smart idea.<\/p>\n<h3>3. \/ListItem<\/h3>\n<p>Another way to stand out is search is getting intro those search carousals.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/guides\/mark-up-listings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Officially<\/a>, Google supports list format for the following content types: Recipe, Film, Course, Article. However, as they confirm, this list is ever growing, so marking up your product lists is not a bad idea.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/annsmarty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/google-carousel.png\" alt=\"Google Carousels\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>[Here is an example of a list from a single website shown in a carousel]<\/p>\n<h3>4. Reviews!<\/h3>\n<p>Reviews get huge SERPs visibility. It&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dirjournal.com\/articles\/higher-search-engine-visibility-through-rdfa-rich-snippets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one of the oldest<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/05\/30\/implement-googles-how-to-schema\/\">rich snippets<\/a> Google has been experimenting with and today Google supports a variety of types,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/data-types\/review\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">including<\/a>\u00a0&#8220;including businesses, products, and different creative works such as books or movies. &#8221;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/colorlib.com\/wp\/review-plugins-wordpress\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Here&#8217;s a solid collection<\/a>\u00a0of <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/02\/08\/17-top-plugins-extensions-seo\/\">WordPress plugins<\/a> for each supported type depending on what it is you are doing. All of the plugins in that list are Schema.org-based.<\/p>\n<p>Google recommends using schema.org\/URL whenever you want to point them to the page with the full review.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/annsmarty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/rating.png\" alt=\"URL\" width=\"600\" height=\"388\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>5. More!<\/h3>\n<p>Again, whether Google is currently supporting a certain Schema.org type or not, it&#8217;s always worth thinking &#8220;What else should I do to help them understand your site easier&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Besides, Google has stated it many times that they are working on supporting new and new schema properties including FAQ and HOW-to (just recently). So whenever you are working on creating or editing pages, consider Schema.org properties that make sense there. For example, you can:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Point to your About page using schema.org\/Organization<\/li>\n<li>You can link to your home page using schema.org\/copyrightHolder whenever you are publishing a new content asset, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What internal linking tactics are you using to maximize your website&#8217;s organic visibility? Please share in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A how-to guide on internal linking, with code snippets and tools, to get higher rankings and improved organic search visibility for a website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":35,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17,18,19,20,21,22],"content_type":[27095],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo","tag-how-to","tag-internal-linking","tag-internal-links","tag-organic-search","tag-ranking","tag-seo","content_type-news"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_793509910-120x90.jpg","category":"SEO","timeago":"7y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}