There are many different strategies to improve your site’s Google rankings. One factor that is often overlooked is internal links. Internal links are links that bring users from one page on your website to a different page within the same site. Internal links don’t just keep visitors on your site longer; they also help Google understand your site and improve your search rankings. Here are some ways to use internal links to improve your rankings on Google.
The anchor text of a link is the text that the reader sees and can click on to get to the new page. It’s important to choose your anchor text wisely and make sure that it gives a good description of what the link contains. Explaining the link clearly in your anchor text will help Google understand what the link is about. Additionally, if there is a keyword you want to rank for, use the keyword in your anchor text in order to improve your ranking on the linked page.
There might be some pages that are more important than others as far as search rankings and driving traffic, but you should avoid linking to the same pages over and over again. Try to link to pages that are more difficult to find in order to improve their traffic. Google provides a free Internal Links Report tool where you can see a list of your site’s internal links. You can use this list to figure out which pages need more links directed to them and which ones need less.
Because internal links are so helpful, you might think it’s a good idea to include as many links as possible on each page. However, too many links can actually hurt your rankings. Overloading your page with links will confuse Google, making it difficult to understand what your page is about. When Google can’t discern the meaning of your page, its rankings will suffer.
Be sure that the links you include on each page are relevant to what the page is about. Relevancy between the links on your page and the page itself will help Google understand the page. It will also improve your search rankings, as your page will become more relevant to different searches and keywords.
It’s important to make sure all of your links are active and functioning properly. When a link is dead, Google will still attempt to follow it, which will cause confusion. Dead links not only confuse Google, but make your site appear less trustworthy, which will ultimately harm your search rankings even more. In order to make your site appear relevant and trustworthy to Google, make sure your links are all active.
There are so many different factors to consider when attempting to improve your site’s search rankings. Internal links are just one of the ways you can help optimize your site for search. Because there are so many different factors to consider, it can be difficult to manage these concerns yourself. Don’t be afraid to call in the experts!
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