Internal Links Are Important And Add Value To SEO
Internal links are important in website design. In fact, many SEO services use internal links in their SEO efforts. Internal links bring more traffic to a website. Visitors that are interested in a topic related to the one they are currently reading, will stay on the website if there’s a link to that type of content. Usually, the topic is linked by a group of words, which is called the anchor text. The anchor text reveals what the page is about. For example, if the web page is about new designs in car manufacturing, the anchor text may be ‘new car designs.’ This link would be appropriate on a web page about new cars used in movies. The anchor text attracts the reader to new content that is on the website, which saves the reader the time and effort it takes to find a new source of information. Many website design firms in South Florida take this into consideration.
Placement is Key and Low-Risk
The location of the internal link is important. Its relevance is affected if it’s placed in the footer or navigation area. In fact, there could be a penalty if the placement is viewed by Google as unfair. One practice that receives a penalty is adding lots of internal links in the footer and navigation and then quickly removing it. The website may be ranked highly for a short time, then it will be dropped. The penalty assessed by Google for this can be overturned, however, so the risk is minimal to the website administrator.
The Link’s Relevance
The web page that is targeted by internal links will gain authority, especially if it has lots of incoming traffic from other web pages. But the links have to be related to the topic. It’s more likely that the web page will attract search engine traffic if it is linked to by web pages with similar content. Despite the value of internal links, Google counts the first link on the page and ignores the rest. The format of the link is important as well. HTML is a better choice than JavaScript. One bit of information to remember while building internal links is that the ‘alt’ attribute becomes the anchor text for the link.
How Do Internal Links Compare with External Links
Despite the advantages of internal links, they are less valuable than external links. The anchor text of internal links also have less value than the anchor text of external links. But if there aren’t enough internal links, it could prevent the page from getting ranked by search engines. There’s also a downside to having too many internal links. The value per link decreases. By taking away an internal link, the value of the other links dramatically increases.
Internal link development should be on the list of SEO services offered by web design firms.
