In a series titled “SEO Made Easy,” industry professionals have shared insights on effective intra-site linking to optimize both SEO and user engagement. Demonstrated through illustrative anchor texts, balanced link volume, and strategically positioned internal links, these guidelines aim to enhance user navigation and site discoverability.
Martin Splitt, SEO expert, communicated how smartly arrayed internal links can uplift the visibility of content and can provide a streamlined user experience. This practice assists search engines in understanding the association between web pages, thereby potentially upgrading website ranking.
Splitt underscored the power of internal linking in driving visitor engagement, assisting search engines in understanding your website structure, and amplifying the website’s placement on search engine result pages. Splitt’s recommendations are based on three key aspects: User Navigation, Search Engine Crawling, and Effective HTML Practices.
Emphasizing the need for a clear navigation structure, Splitt discussed the significance of guiding users throughout a site, helping Google’s crawling bots to navigate, discover new pages, and understand page relationships. He accentuated the importance of using accurate HTML elements, especially the <a> tag with an href attribute, for crafting effective links.
A relevant navigational structure should be user-friendly and easily parsed by Google’s crawling bots.
Enhancing SEO with effective intra-site linking
The presentation of your website’s key URLs to Google via a well-structured, current sitemap encourages efficient crawling and indexing. Pertaining to effective HTML practices, Splitt highlighted the role of significant attributes in making a webpage more accessible and SEO-friendly. Annual checks and adjustments to these SEO practices are paramount for constant performance improvement, says Splitt.
Splitt then went on to discuss the significance of using clear and meaningful anchor text for links. He also advised against excessive internal link usage. Planning and creating logical connections between related content will ensure a clear main theme and prevent user overwhelm. Splitt stressed the need for a balance in outbound links and relevance in linked content.
He warned against non-standard elements as links and insisted on adhering to HTML structure and coding standards. Any unconventional methods could pose issues with user-friendly functions like keyboard navigation or screen readers. It’s vital, Splitt points out, to maintain valid and semantic HTML to promote a seamless user experience and robust SEO performance.
