Comments on: 12 Internal Linking Best Practices

By: Alexander Zagoumenov

Alexander Zagoumenov — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 20:18:02 +0000

Thank you, Mitch! Glad you agree with the points. Indeed, keeping users on site longer will contribute to your overall site authority and rankings.

By: Mitch Mitchell

Mitch Mitchell — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 04:20:44 +0000

Good stuff on internal linking because I totally agree. I don’t do it with every post but I do it with a lot of them, grabbing at least one former article and linking back to it within the new article. My hope is that it helps keep people on the site longer as well.

By: Alexander Zagoumenov

Alexander Zagoumenov — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 07:59:24 +0000

In reply to Michallo.

Michallo, thanks for your comment! You are correct, static links inside the text are always better than any other link type discussed here. As long as the anchor and the source is relevant. However, all types of body links are considered to be more valuable than navigation. And “related posts” links are part of the body section of a page. And, again, if those are relevant to the post and lead the user to relevant content, then these links also matter and play an important role. I hope that makes sense. Let me know if it doesn’t. Thanks again!

By: Alexander Zagoumenov

Alexander Zagoumenov — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 07:53:08 +0000

In reply to Jorge A. Gonzalez.

Thanks, Jorge! Just corrected it.

By: Jorge A. Gonzalez

Jorge A. Gonzalez — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 07:32:17 +0000

You misspelled breadcrums.

By: Michallo

Michallo — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 22:09:25 +0000

A great round-up for newbies, a cool refresher for seasoned webmasters. One quick question: are plugin-generated links for related posts are as beneficial for SEO as static body links inside the copy?

By: Alex Zagoumenov

Alex Zagoumenov — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:32:52 +0000

In reply to Javi.

Thanks, Javi! I’m glad you liked the content of the post! BTW, I just checked your latest article on keyword research and optimization. Very well put!

By: Javi

Javi — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:33:51 +0000

Comprehensive and well-put, thanks for this Alex! Definitely agree with the comment above, internal linking (and following the best practices mentioned here) are as important from a search engine perspective, as they are from a human visitor’s one.

By: Alex Zagoumenov

Alex Zagoumenov — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 15:18:59 +0000

In reply to Barry Welford.

Barry, thanks a lot for your comment! Yes, I agree, internal linking shouldn’t be looked at only in terms of better indexing by search engines. Well-built internal structure and anchor links play a huge role for retaining the user on your site. At the end of the day, USERS are what sites should be built for, not search engines. However, being an SEO guy, I’d like to think that search engines are an important piece of the puzzle too 😉

By: Barry Welford

Barry Welford — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:37:14 +0000

Thanks for this very thorough article on internal linking. It covers all the bases and has a few wrinkles that were new to me.

You have emphasized the importance of all this for search engines but I think it’s worth mentioning that it all applies to human visitors too. You can see any web page as a node on a journey. The hyperlinks allow a reader to wander elsewhere if they wish as it responds to a particular train of thought. This branching process is one of the most appealing aspects of online content.