Internal Navigation

The method to connect internal resource on a website is called internal link building. We usually name those internal resources as webpages.

What is an HTML Internal Link

• A link is a combination or URL and anchor text bounded in ‘a’ tag. They collectively called a link.
• An HTML link is simply the representation of ‘a’ tag with ‘href’ attribute to display a relation with other webpage e.g. on page SEO elements
• An HTML internal link is a link that connects ‘internal’ webpages only.

Internal Link Building for Search Engines

Have you ever thought about how search engine (like Google) collects keywords for your website, more clearly for individual webpages? It mostly takes them from some HTML elements on webpage i.e.

• From title tag
• SEO heading tags
• Anchor texts used to link webpages
• Text content written on webpage

So, internal links are important for search engine optimization as they provide the keywords to search engines to rank webpage for as well as they strengthen the webpages internally and results in better rankings.

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Internal Link Building for Users

When a user lands on some website it may look for other webpages as well if he finds the content interesting on your website. Consequently, internal links actually help that user to navigate your site to explore the treasure you have put on your website.

Navigation on a website, if optimized effectively, can be very useful to improve the ranking of your website as well as the user experience that results in myriads of people visiting your site every day.

Types of Internal Links

Website navigation design generally fall into five main categories which are classified below:

Header Links (Menus)

Header links appear at the top of your page in the menu section. They normally contain links to all the major sections on your page and often contain drop down menus which point the user to the subcategories.

These links are often used for off-site navigation as well. For example, they often provide link to sister sites or forums.

Header links do not usually carry much importance with regard to SEO, since they are the same on each page, and Google considers them only once.

Left-Right Navigations (Sidebar Links)

These links appear in the sidebar menu (left or right) of a webpage. Sidebar section is also sometimes referred as the blog roll. Links to the recent or most popular posts are present there.

Sidebar links have a fair share in the optimization of your webpage and carry more importance compared to the header links.

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Contextual Links

A contextual link is the linkable text- usually a keyword or phrase- in the written content of a webpage- that points the user to other relevant pages. These can be internal or external links as long as the content is relevant.

Contextual links carry utmost importance in web page navigation and can provide huge benefits from SEO perspective. This is because these links are found in the written content which makes the webpage unique from others. Moreover, content of a site is mainly responsible for informing the search engines about its relevancy.

Breadcrumbs Navigation

These are the links on a webpage that help the users track their path from the homepage to the current page. Although breadcrumb links facilitate the user on a webpage, they are equally important in helping the search engines to understand the structure of your website. If used properly, these links can be a great advantage to the optimization of your site.

Footer Links

These links appear in the footer section (bottom) of a webpage. These are usually the links that are not of importance to the user, but may have a little worth for the search engines. Footer links are the least important among all the links on your site.

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SEO Linking Strategy

Internal linking is very effective when it comes to optimization of your site. The best part is it is not only very easy, but rewarding as well. All you need is to follow above advices to get the best website navigation which will eventually help you to start enjoying the perks of an online business very soon.