The links from other websites are a still the most important signal for Google’s ranking algorithms and help your SEO. However, the links on your own website also influence the position of your web pages in Google’s search results. This post explains how to optimise the internal linking structure of your website correctly to make sure that search engines index your pages high in their results pages.

Step 1: Optimise the Menu Links on your Website

The navigation menu of your website has a huge influence on the linked pages as it appears on all pages of your website.

If all pages of your website link to your company profile page with the anchor text “About company name” then it’s very likely that everyone who searches for “about company name” will see this this page in the search results.

A good SEO practice is to use your keywords in the menu on your website to show search engines that your pages are relevant to these keyword phrases.

Step 2: link your product pages to the top categories

Breadcrumbs are a good way to link product pages to the top categories. Breadcrumbs provide a trail for the user to follow back to the main web page.

Step 3: link your product pages

Link from one product page to the other. If you sell trainers and tennis shoes, link from the trainers page to the tennis shoes page and vice versa.

Use meaningful anchor texts that contain related keywords to link from one page to the other.

Step 4: link your category pages

Links between the category pages on your website are an opportunity to pass authority to the category pages. In general, category pages rank higher in the navigational structure of a website than product pages.

For that reason, they can be more important than product pages. Link your category pages with keyword rich anchor texts that describe the categories.

Step 5: link your blog content to your product pages and category pages

If a blog post is relevant to a product or category page on your website, you should link to that page from within the body text of the blog post.

If possible, use the keywords for which you want to get high rankings. If that doesn’t look natural, use a relevant anchor text that describes the product or category page.

If the link does not fit into the article, add relevant links below the regular text: “Related: this category page.”

Why is all of this important?

When you optimise the internal linking structure of your website, you channel the link power and authority of your pages to the most important pages of your website.

Google understands contexts. If you use relevant anchor texts on your website, you will help Google to rank your web pages for the right keywords. A good internal linking structure will also help your website visitors to find the right pages more quickly.

If you need any help with the search engine optimisation of your company website please leave a comment below or call GB Web Marketing on 01293 822755