Internal Linking Strategy For A Search Engine Optimized Blog

by Jacob Cruz

Do you want to win the battle? Are you in for the long run? Do you have what internal linking strategyit takes? A simply internal linking strategy can help you win the battle. Don’t have to be a guru, just learn basic seo here.

Internal Linking Strategy For SEO

Why internal linking seo?

When you link within your pages you let Google know what your website is about by your text and anchor text. Don’t use the same anchor text repeatedly, but switch it up.

For example, if one of your keywords is “bell whistle’, vary the anchor text. Some examples can be, whistle, whistles, where to get bell whistles, the best bell whistles, etc. Vary the text. Too much of the same anchor text could get you penalized. Ouch! We are not spammers, we are professionals.

By using varied anchor text, it is actually good and healthy for your internal link strategy. It will seem more natural.

Internal Linking Strategy Relevancy

 

Make sure that the content of your internal links is relevant to the anchor text. The anchor text is describing what your page is about. So simply describe it in the anchor text. Also misleading your readers into clicking an internal link that is not about what the anchor text said it was going to be about is wrong. Tell them what they will get when they click.  Don’t play tricks on them.

If in a page you are writing about seo, you can internal link to a different page that is not about search engine optimization, linking to a page that will provide them with value is good. Just don’t mislead with your anchor text.

Internal Linking Strategy For More Time On Site

One of the factors that will determine your search engine rankings is how much time visitors spend on your site. Do they come and leave right away or do they come and stay for a bit. A good way to have more time on your blog is to use an internal linking strategy. Link within your pages.

Here is another one. When putting internal links in your pages, make them open in a new window. You’ll have this option in WordPress when putting anchor text. It will then open the link in a new window and now you have two pages open. If they forget to close both windows. Now that visitors has more time on your blog. Hooray! Just playing by the rules here.

By putting videos on your blog it will also increase time on blog. That is good for you. Use it your advantage. Put some videos! If you have good content and videos on your blog. You’ll be able to average about three to five minutes visitors on your site. Without videos, it is much lower. Videos work, attract, and drive traffic.

Passing Authority From Page to Pages

A great internal linking strategy is to pass authority from one page to another by internal linking. Pages with less authority will gain authority from pages that have more authority. As you can see having an internal linking strategy is just not about linking randomly. It is about understanding how linking works to provide your visitors a better experience. Also to let Google know what your blog is about, seeing you as the authority figure.

 

{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }

Linda March 26, 2012 at 10:28 pm

Thank you Jacob!

You have given me an ‘Oh! I see’ moment. I’m new to blogging and have been at best ‘random’ in my internal linking – truthfully didn’t know what I was doing or why (except to keep people on the site longer!).

And now I have to find out how to embed the videos rather than sending people off the site to look at them elsewhere…. is there a post coming about that, I wonder….. :-)
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Kostas March 27, 2012 at 1:34 am

Hey Jacob,
Nice post, many webmasters forget how important it is to use internal linking not just for SEO but most importantly for better user experience.

Of courses the links should be relevant to the page and not just links for the links, they should be used in a way that makes people click them and actually get what they look for and not something irrelevant.

Something else that we forget (except internal links) is that we should not be afraid to link to another site if this will be relevant and helpful to the readers.

Actually linking on other relevant and high authority sites helps the SEO of our own page too since google sees that you link in a relevant and helpful page so it realizes that you offer value to the readers and with this you will rank better…
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Jacob Cruz March 29, 2012 at 10:22 pm

Nice point that you brought out. It is nice to link to other related sites. It looks professional and also provides the reader more value. Thanks again.

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Beth Hewitt March 27, 2012 at 11:48 am

Hey Jacob,

This is a jam packed post on SEO! Thanks for all the info.

To Your Success,
Beth
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Jacob Cruz March 29, 2012 at 10:21 pm

Thanks Beth, I hope this helped !

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Shelley Alexander March 27, 2012 at 1:36 pm

Jacob, Thank you for explaining how internal linking helps with getting people to spend more time on my site along with improving your seo. I am new to blogging so the information and strategies that you suggested will really help me.
My next step is to start doing videos!
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Jacob Cruz March 29, 2012 at 10:20 pm

I’m glad that this article helped you, be sure to check out my seo categories where I go more in detail about SEO. Good luck Shelley!

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Clint Butler March 28, 2012 at 9:47 am

Internal linking is one for the first things I always set up with a new site. It tells the search engines exactly the main focus of the website and helps increase overall rankings. Within my content I link to the same page from all of my posts. Then I have a plugin that monitors clicks I get from Google. Anything that is getting clicks from a SERP position of 5 or below is added to my sidebar in a keyword anchor text. Great post Jacob!
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Gary Young China Sourcing March 30, 2012 at 5:37 pm

Thanks Jacob,

This is a great post. I didn’t realize the importance of time on site. I always thought it was just about hits. I really like your idea of internal linking to keep the time on site high. Thank you for sharing.
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Michael April 3, 2012 at 1:17 pm

Thank you, Jacob, these are great tips for using internal SEO in a smart way on our sites. I loved it when WP gave us the choice about what content to link to in our posts. That made it a lot easier to keep track of how things linked together inside my site.

I don’t know that I do all of these steps every single time, but I do them enough that it has made a big difference in how my blog looks in the search engines.

Thanks again for some great ideas. :-)
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Jacob Cruz April 10, 2012 at 8:05 pm

It will also help your blog. When you link within post it passes authority to your pages! Pretty awesome.

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Peter Fuller MBA April 4, 2012 at 4:22 pm

Nice tutorial Jacob

Many forget about internal linking in their seo strategy

Peter
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Jacob Cruz April 10, 2012 at 8:04 pm

Yes Petter, it can be easy to forget. Nevertheless it is well worth it.

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Patricia Gozlan April 5, 2012 at 7:48 am

Thanks Jacob with all this precious info on SEO and internal linking.
I’m not an expert on SEO, I’m a life and business coach but I’m saving thes link to remind the people that help me to use internal linking in the correct way.
Thanks!

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Jacob Cruz April 10, 2012 at 8:03 pm

Most definitely it can still help you out in your blog. Link to relevant content that can help your market.

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Edyta April 5, 2012 at 10:32 am

Hi,

I use the traffic travis to search for the best keywords. _I found out that recently it doesn’t work in the free version. Can you recommend other free software for the same task? Thanks!
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Jacob Cruz April 10, 2012 at 8:02 pm

Search Keyword Tool on Google. It is FREE!

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William Earl Amis Jr III April 5, 2012 at 11:27 pm

Jacob,

You have the steps to help all of us. I use to utilize this method and stopped when I switch my site to a blog format. I believe if the content is good and usable. They will browse the rest of your blog. I guess it is a matter of how confident one is with the information they are sharing to the masses.

Your have done a wonderful job in explaining this technique we use in word and most would never think about applying the same method in their blog post. It is given by an easy to follow style. Love it.

Jacob, you are amazing and really give us a way to improve our overall experience online. I thank you for care to share good quality content.

I look forward in learning more about you and from you.
William Earl Amis Jr III recently posted..Your Passion Is Your BusinessMy Profile

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Jacob Cruz April 10, 2012 at 8:02 pm

Thanks for the the warm comment William. You are also very brilliant. Internal linking is a good way to show and give more value to your market.

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Manny April 9, 2012 at 2:41 pm

Hi Jacob,

Great article. I’ve been thinking about reinforcing my internal linking strategy for some days now, but I have a question, and you may have the answer.

> How many internal links should an article contain? Only 1? 2-3 max? More? Let’s say that all the articles on your blog are all around the same subject (pretty much), and that you want to use that internal linking strategy. How to maximise it, without penalizing yourself by putting too many links.

Looking forward to your opinion.
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Jacob Cruz April 10, 2012 at 8:00 pm

Manny you can have a few 5-7 is good. If you put like 100 then that you would probably get penalized. Hope this helps.

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Edyta April 13, 2012 at 5:18 am

Hi Jacob,

Internal linking is very important for SEO. How many internal links should have one article? Is there any limit? Should all internal links be opened in new window? Please let me know your suggestions. Thanks!
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Sadie-Michaela Harris April 17, 2012 at 10:48 pm

Very worth reminding your readers too Jacob the Google’s lasted algorithm seeks out and drops like hot bricks sites which have clearly been using extremely unnatural external linking practices…

Internal links when done correctly can be very beneficial to a sites ranking :)
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