Google and other search engines give much attention to both internal and external links on your blog, the words that you use in your links, and which pages you link to. A large part of your search engine optimization is naming your anchor text and using internal links correctly.
A good internal linking structure can increase the number of pages your blog gets indexed in search engines. It can also increase the authority your blog articles receive and can improve their search engine rankings.
I will now look at the steps you can take to optimize your blog internal linking structure. Following 8 steps will help Google and other search engines find, index, and rank your blog site.
1. Text based navigation. Make sure your blog navigation and internal links are crawlable. Use text instead of images to display important content and links. The Google crawler doesn’t recognize text contained in images. Also if you have Flash navigation or your links are contained within Javascript, they will not be followed by the search engines. So keep it simple and use good old text based navigation.
2. Breadcrumbs and tags. Make a blog site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every blog page should be reachable from at least one static text link. Breadcrumbs are a great internal linking tool. Try also to have between 3 and 7 tags in each of your blog posts.
3. Anchor text. Your links should indicate what they are linking to. Phrase like “click here” as a link anchor text does not indicate what you are linking to. The anchor text should describe where the link will take your blog reader and should include keywords you want to rank for.
4. Pretty permalinks. Make your blog permalinks pretty and keyword-rich.
5. Create a sitemap. Google uses your XML sitemap to learn about the structure of your blog and to increase the coverage of your blog pages. Offer a site map to your users as well with links that point to the important parts of your blog. A good sitemap is useful for visitors, useful for search engines and will improve your blog crawlability.
6. Permanent redirect your domain name and be consistent in your linking behavior. If you decide to link to homepage.com, always link to homepage.com, and not to www.homepage.com or www.homepage.com/index.php.
7. Link to your content. Link to your popular blog posts and latest posts from your blog sidebar. Link to your relevant blog posts at the end of your blog article. Use in-content links within your blog articles as well. These links have a higher click through rate usually, and they improve the usability and add value to your blog readers.
8. Check for broken links Search engines and your blog readers do not like broken links so use the Broken Link Checker WordPress plugin to check for broken links.
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