On-page Optimization of links on your website

How to optimize links for your website  - a short guide for beginners.

I was recently asked about internal and external link with regards to on site search optimization.

It is no secret, anyone who has ever read a bit about SEO knows that links are an important factor in optimizing your website for search.

There are two types of links: internal and external.

Internal links link between pages in your website.
External links link to and from your website to other sites.

But what to do?

First things first – you need to understand that the best way to create a link network is to systematically create links over time. So yes, you need to be committed to this process. The good news is that you can control quite a large portion of your link network and create is naturally. If you create this network using simple logic, the links will work well for you. Google encourages the natural way to thinking. This means, if you do things the way it makes sense to do them, it will probably work well with Google too.

So how best to arrange all these links?

Here it is in a nutshell, a procedure that anyone can conduct on their website if they are willing to invest the time.

Internal links:

One of the on-page optimization tactics you can create yourself is a hierarchical set of internal links - meaning links between pages in your website.

The idea is to link between the pages on your website but using logic and hierarchy.

Consider that Google crawlers use links to move between the pages. If your network of internal links is done logically, it will help Google better understand your site and optimize it for search.

So what to do?

1 - Create links using your keywords for each page.

2 - Hierarchy in internal links mean that sub-pages link to the parent page in the navigation and main navigation pages link to home page. And vice versa. Linking between pages that share a theme is also a good logical pattern.

For example:
My site has a home page, an about page, contact us page, a products page and an applications page.
I have three products and two applications.
One product serves one application and the other two serve another application.

What would my link network look like?

Home page would link to about, products, applications and contact.
Links can be nice CTA buttons (contact) or a word of text (about, products, applications).
About, products, applications and contact would each link to the home page (link at the bottom with the word "home" would do, just next to the "back to top" link on each page).
The three separate product pages would link to the products page.
The two separate application pages would like to the applications page.
All product pages would link to one another.
Each product page would link to the relevant application page.
Each application page would link to relevant product page.
Each application page would link to the other application.

All these links are done with keywords in the middle of the text.

Product links can look like a CTA image inviting the reader to learn about more products.

This image is a very simple map for internal website linking between pages.

3 - If you have a blog, make sure you link to previous blog posts and to relevant product/ application pages (per above example).

4 - Create CTA for each page per relevancy to link to landing pages.

Product pages CTA can be inviting the reader to learn more about other products. Application page CTA can be an invitation to download an eBook about a certain connected subject.
Blog CTAs can be an invitation to read more blogs or to download a tool or eBook to further deepen knowledge about a certain theme relevant to the blog post.

The secret ingredient to a good CTA:

Always think what your reader should do next. How to keep them interested so they click another CTA and stay on your website, getting closer to purchase with each step.

External links - outward:

It’s good for SEO for your website to link to other sites in your field.
You can create a news / PR page and link to interesting news items in your field.
You can have a recommendations page on the similar principle.

In your blog posts you link when you quote someone. This gives then their due credit and prevents you from poaching on their information. It also gives your information the authenticity it requires.

It’s always good to link to sites that have authority in your field. They might just notice you and reciprocate.

External links - inward:

You need to get other websites to link to your site.
Guest posting in a way to go (if you can get the placement).
Paid advertising and banners also serve this purpose, but they cost money and are considered less authoritative. If you start out, it could be a fast way to promote your site.
Commenting on social media groups and linking the comment to your site is a free way to go about this.
Indexing your website in free indexes and forums in your field is also good.
Publishing articles in free article websites is good.

Syndicating your blog posts by placing them on LinkedIn Pulse and other free blogging platforms will only cost you your time. (This is what I am doing here.)

Generating your link network

All this will generate a links network over time that will lift your site in the search ranks and help Google understand what your site is about.

Hope this helps, please comment if it does.

Ofra

Teaching the Mean and Lean method for DYI marketing for small businesses.

This blog was originally published on my marketing blog:

https://contentguru4all.blogspot.de/2016/08/on-page-seo-links-optimization.html