Internal Linking Strategies with Freddie Taylor

Hi guys, today I have something really special for you. A video from one of, if not, the best video bloggers in the blogosphere! Yes, that’s right, my main man Freddie Taylor!

Greetings Linkers Blog Family,

Today I want to share some insight on Internal Linking Strategy. First let me thank Danny Cooper for giving me an opportunity to address you today. Let’s get down to business.

Why have an Internal Links?

Before we can address an Internal Linking Strategy, we must address why you should link internally in the first place.

 1) Links are the currency of Google – Google decides on a sites importance by the number and relevance of  incoming links. Naturally, internal links are not going to carry the same weight as links for outside websites, but  they help. Therefore, it helps, it is not a real big deal to implement, then do it!
 2) It’s Easy – Yes. It is easy! This is your site. You control the links. And don’t have to ask anyone’s permission. A  couple of key strokes and you are finished, no big deal. Link inside your site.
 3) Positive Effect on Visitors – You are the host at your site and your visitors would prefer some good old fashion  hospitality. Internal links are like being a good host and showing your visitor around. You help them discover  relevant content they may need, reduce visitor anxiety and frustration, build rapport, and get them to stay on your  site longer. Internal links are just good business.
 4) Positive Website Effects – The bottom line is that internal linking exposes more content to your site visitors. This is the holy grail of internal linking. This creates an atmosphere where your visitors tend to stay on your site longer which raises the Avg. time on site, page views, page views per visit, while reducing your bounce rate. Those are some great benefits.

If that wasn’t enough, this results increase value for your site and potentially increases the value of your advertising slots. People staying on your site longer, visiting more pages makes your advertising more valuable.

Internal Linking Strategy

Ok Linkers Blog Family, let’s get to the crux of the matter and build our Internal Linking Strategy. Every blog needs a strategy. This is not the rocket science, but every blog needs strategy.

 1) Identify Stronger Pages and Link to New or Weaker Pages – You should be using a traffic analyzing software like  GA or Woopra. If not, start doing so immediately. Identify the pages that get the most traffic, holds visitors the  longest, and visitors leave from the least. These are your strong pages.

 From these strong pages, create links to your new or weaker pages. The idea is to capitalize on the popularity of  these strong pages and direct traffic to the rest of your site.

 You are taking time to create these strong pages. Be sure to maximize them to the fullest or it is a waste.

 2) Properly Define Your Anchor Text – Anchor text are the actual words that will be hyperlinked to one of your  internal pages. The major rule to follow here is to not use the “Click Here” crap as Danny calls it, so bluntly.

 This misses the opportunity to use descriptive words to better entice your readers to click through to the next page.  In addition, it misses the opportunity to entice search engine spiders by using effective keyword phrases.

 Hyperlinking the text is a way to capitalize on the Long Tail as well. It is very easy to make your Long Tail phrases  link throughout your site, which gives them further keywords relevance in search.

 3) Two Plugins to Consider and Website Placement – All this strategy and insight is great, but let’s get to the  practical and useful. What plugins should you use?

 A) Related Post Plugins – There are several choices to choose from, but essentially they do the something. These    plugins lace a list of 5 to 10 post that are related to the content being read by the visitors. These plugins are YARPP  and Related Plugin.

 These plugins are great because they give readers more of what they are reading, while leading them to more  internal pages.

 B) Random Post Plugin – This plugin gives the readers a random list of post to be a reader’s thing. This is a way to  allow the readers to see the breath of articles, subjects, and information you have to offer.

 Some great places to insert these plugins are in the side bar, the footer, but my favorite is at the end of a  post….before the comment section. The reason is because once the reader is finished reading a post, the next thing  they see is the Related or Random Plugin. If an article title is relevant or intriguing, readers will click the link and  stay on your site.

It’s Not Rocket Science, But Can Be Effective

There you have it Linkers Blog Family. It is not rocket science, but can be an effective strategy for you and your blog business.

Just remember links are the currency of Google, this is easy, has a positive effect on your visitors, and has a positive effect on your website. Your linking strategy should focus on linking strong pages to weaker ones, defining your anchor text, using Related and/or Random post plugins, and placing them effectively in your site.

The only thing that is left is implementation. You can do it!

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Tags: inner pagerank, internal link building, internal pagerank, linking stratagies