Internal Linking Website Optimisation
Author: Steven Balfour

Linking with Search Terms Rather than 'Click Here'

It has been a common mistake since the Internet began for
websites to use 'click here' or 'read more' links to take the
visitor to internal webpages. Not only is this bad for
accessibility, as it does not say where the link is taking the
visitor, but it will also provide no benefit in the optimization
of your website in the search engines. By adding search terms
into the anchor text of the link you will help describe to both
users and search engines what the subject of the page you are
linking to is about.

Use HTML Links that Search Engine Bots can Follow

To help search engines find all of your website's webpages it
is important that you provide their bots with a path to the
webpages using HTML links. Search engine bots currently cannot
read JavaScript links, Flash links or form drop-down menu links
and by using these types of navigation you will prevent your
webpages from being indexed. It is best to structure your
navigation well and provide top level and sub-level HTML
navigation links relevant to each section of your website.

Site Map Alternative

If (for some obscure reason) it is not possible to use HTML
links within your main website then you should provide users and
search engines with a HTML site map alternative that provides a
list of links to all the webpages within your website. Search
engine bots automatically look for site maps when they visit a
website so providing this service will only benefit the indexing
of your webpages.

Cross-Link Pages to Help Pass Relevancy and Pagerank

Search engines give more weight (PageRank as Google names it)
to pages that are nearer to the top level of your website than
pages tucked away in some remote location. This weight can help
increase your rankings for search terms related to that page. By
cross linking pages with other pages in your website you will
help evenly pass this weight around your website helping all
pages rank well. An excellent example of this is Wikipedia. You
will see that the text in a single Wikipedia page contains many
links to other pages and sections of the Wikipedia website all
with relevant anchor text.

Avoid Using Popup Windows and Frames

Do not add important information within a popup window link. To
create the popup window the link is likely to use JavaScript
which will block the search engine bots and then even if the
popup window webpage is found and indexed it is likely that when
a user visits that page they will have no navigation to take
them through the rest of your website. The same problem happens
when using HTML frames where you have your navigation in one
frame and the content in another.

Summary

Keep it simple, organize your website structure into top level,
categories, sub-categories and so on. Provide users and search
engines with a clear path to your webpages using descriptive
anchor text and HTML links. Where you can, provide links within
your webpage's content to other pages within your website. If
all else fails, provide a site map page which is clearly linked
from your website's homepage.


About The Author: Steven Balfour wrote this article for search
engine optimisation company Position Gold Ltd
(http://www.positiongoldltd.com/).