Posts Tagged ‘internal linking’

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This is a continuation of a series of website marketing checklists. Check out all Web Marketing Checklists in this series.

What this is about: This list covers a few aspects of textual links and call-to-action buttons, and how they should be implemented on your website pages.

Why this is important: Links and calls to action are a great way to allow visitors to navigate from page to page, finding the information they feel is important to helping them make the purchase decision. Without these calls to action many visitors will simply not know what they are expected to do next.

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Many years ago I put my site through a re-design. I worked hard to make sure everything was done just right, including the images and navigation. But one thing I failed to consider was internal linking, separate from the navigational elements. It wasn’t until much later that I realized how much traffic I was losing because my internal linking was (or lack thereof) wasn’t benefiting my visitors.

In-site link implementation can make a considerable difference in how effective your optimization campaign is. Or isn’t. While your site’s primary and secondary navigation is extremely important, you shouldn’t make that the only way for visitors to get around your website.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using both absolute and relative links. Here I will explore the differences between the two, outline some pros and cons and also provide some additional information on how you can create hyperlinks in your site that will ensure that all links to your content remain in tact and properly functioning.

Back in the day, you know… the early 2000’s I loved to use relative links. Inserting relative links made websites development easy in cutting-edge programs such as Microsoft FrontPage. By using relative links you could move files around in your directory structure and FrontPage would automatically update all your link paths throughout the site, keeping them connected to the pages in their new location. No more manually updating all your internal links by hand! It was brilliant.

But now I’m not so big of a fan as relative links as I once was. I don’t have huge problems with them, but I understand the value in using absolute links rather than relative links. But perhaps I should take a step back and explain the difference between the two.

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Building a website gives you a lot of options when it comes to how to set up your internal linking structure. Different areas of your site or web pages may require different linking strategies, but regardless on what kind of internal linking strategy you implement, you want to make sure that it helps you achieve your search engine optimization goals. I’m going to break internal linking into three categories: The search friendly, search un-friendly and search meh-friendly link.

The funny thing about duplicate content is that you don’t really have to have it for it to appear as if you do have it. But whether you have duplicate content on your site or not, to the search engines appearances are everything . The engines are pretty much just mindless bots that can’t reason. They only see what is, or appears to be there and then do what the programmers have determined through the algorithm.

How you set up your internal linking structure plays a significant role in whether you set yourself up to appear if you have duplicate content on your site or not. Some things we do without thinking, setting ourselves up for problems ahead. With a little foresight and planning, you can prevent duplicate content issues that are a result of poor internal link development.

Click here to continue reading at Search Engine Guide…

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• Tips on Content Centered Link Building
• 5 Recommended Ways to Build Your Opt-In List
• Are Internal Links Weighted the Same as External Links by Google?

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• 52 Post Ideas to Help You Stay Inspired Throughout The Year

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• How to Build Links to Crappy Websites
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SEO

• SEG Bootcamp: Robots.txt File
• Internal Links - Are You Making the Most of Yours?
• How to Troubleshoot Dropped Search Engine Rankings

Link Building

• 52 ways to get quality link
• Don’t Blame Google For Your Own Linking Failures

SEO

• Diagrams That Can Help You Define the Proper Anchor Text of Internal Links

PPC

• Upload Google Campaigns in Yahoo! in Three Easy Steps

Social Media

• Social Bookmarking Submission Tools
• Is Social Media Traffic Worth 1 Cent Per Visitor?

Clinics Track, Thursday 12:30 - 1:45 PM
Usability & SEO: Two Wins for the Price of One

Moderator: Gordon Hotchkiss, President & CEO, Enquiro Search Solutions
Shari Thurow, SEO, Omni Marketing Interactive
Matthew Bailey, President, Site Logic Marketing

Shari Thurow says you have to strike a balance between business goals and user goals when looking at usability. Developing personas and profiles includes looking at how these individuals perform their searches. After searching, users want to be sure they find their keywords on the page they land on.

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Learn how to Achieve Higher Rankings and Stay out of Google Hell Via Optimized Internal Linking.