Everybody loves a good story. But what makes a story so good? It’s the details! When you tell someone about the time you had dinner with the Queen, you don’t just say, “One time I had dinner with the Queen.” Well, you could, but what kind of story is that?
A story’s context, the people involved, the locations, and all the other details are just like internal links. You pull from and reference tidbits here and there to paint a fuller and more interesting picture. To help get your story straight, SendPulse is showing us how to master internal linking and why it matters.
Why does it matter? Internal links help people find what they’re looking for on your site. Whether they are jumping to other relevant articles within your blog or just trying to navigate from your homepage to your “About Us” section, internal links will show them the way.
How to implement an effective internal linking strategy:
- Review your menu and footer links. These make up the core of your site’s navigation. Links in your menu and footer are the “Beam me up, Scotty” of links. These will take people to your most relevant pages no matter how deep within your site they are.
- Create a list of important pages and frequent search terms. Put all the URLs you used in your menu and footer links into a spreadsheet. Head into Google Search Console and select the “Performance” tab before clicking “Search Results.” Go into “Pages”, and you’ll see your 25 most popular pages. Clicking “Queries” will show you what people searched to find these pages. All this will help you understand where your content can be linked together if it isn’t already.
- Review and update your content. Review each piece of content on your site and make a list of relevant content you have elsewhere on your site. Link this content in appropriate places with relevant anchor text.
Read on for more great tips.
