Internal link text
-
Hi
With internal links, should I make sure to always use the same anchor text im trying to rank the page for?
For example im having a tidy up and have realised im linking to the same page in multiple blog posts using different anchor text.
Whats the rule of thumb here?
Thanks
Chris
-
Exactly, it depends as per the content & structure of the page and website. Make it sure, whatever you are doing should be for humans not search engines. Best practice is, you can use combinations of anchor texts, like exact keywords as anchor texts + long phrases having your targeted keyword.
-
It really depends what you are trying to accomplish, and there are two ways to look at it.
The first way to view it would be, yes, technically speaking you want the search engine to see what page you are about to send the user to. I would imagine your anchor text matches the URL and keywords used on the page?
Second, depending upon how your site is structured, the audience will react different ways to visiting the links. If you are referencing a subject matter, I would use a more general form of anchor text. EXAMPLE: "You can view the FULL ARTICLE here" The "full article" text being the link to your other page. If it is in the nature of navigation, I would use exact match text to the page URL or title, because its clear to the user what is about to happen. Promoting interaction on your site and increasing on page time by intriguing your users can also have a positive effect on traffic. Remember, build your site around users, not search engines. Use whatever method allows users to navigate your site the easiest.
-
Hey Chris,
I saw this Q&A post a while ago that addresses this issue. Peter answers it quite well here: http://moz.com/community/q/internal-linking-anchor-text
Hope this helps!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Too much internal linking?
Hi everyone, Too much of anything is not good. In terms of internal linking, how many are too many? I read that the recommended internal links are about 100 links per page otherwise it dilutes the page's link equity. I have a concern about one of our websites - according to search console, the homepage has 923 internal links. All the pages have a corresponding /feed page added to the page URL, which is really weird (is this caused by a plugin?). The site also has an e-com feature, but it is not used as the site is essentially a brochure and customers are encouraged to visit the shop. I assume the e-com feature also increases this number. On the other hand, one of the competitors we are tracking has 1 internal link site-wide. Ours is at 45,000 site-wide. How is it possible to only have 1 internal link? Is this a Moz bug? I know we also need to reduce our internal links badly, however, I'm not sure where to start. I don't know how these internal links are linked together - some aren't in the copy or navigation menu. When I scan the homepage links using 'check my links', the total links identified for the homepage is only 170. kAeYlTM
On-Page Optimization | | nhhernandez0 -
Linking back to the homepage im trying to rank - Using exact match anchor? Linking from footer?
Hello, Our site is an basically advertisements / listings website. Structure is as following <last 200="" adds=""> (homepage trying to rank) < category 1 > < category 1 > < category 1 > < category 1 > < category 1 ></last> My question - each of the categories links back within the menu back to homepage. The link text currently is last 200 adds. Can i use exact match anchor? Or should i use just last 200 ads? The issue is that one of my categorys (category 1) has already the exact match anchor im trying to rank for. So i can not use the same to link back to homepage. Im worried that google does not see any exact keyword anchor texts back to homepage hence will rank my homepage with lower strenght for that keyword . Im also worried that the category 1 page might now compete with the main homepage for this word (even tho at the moment category itself does not rank for this keyword) Can i link from footer back to homepage with an alternative keyword then to give some "context" to google more? Would this be spamming?
On-Page Optimization | | advertisingcloud0 -
Links in my website are indexed as separate pages
Hi All, We have pages which has names of people which we have created a Alink when clicked it goes to the related persons name. Now Google has indexed it as a seperate page example www.xyz.com/person/name www.xyz.com/person/name?alinks Now the same page is seen in google 2 times. How can i handle this please
On-Page Optimization | | jomin740 -
Links to Paywall from Content Pages
Hi, My site is funded by subscriptions. We offer lengthy excerpts, and then direct people to a single paywall page, something like domain.com/subscribe/ This means that most pages on the site links to /subscribe, including all of the high value pages that bring people in from Google. This is a page with an understandably high bounce rate, as most users are not interested in paying for content on the web. My question is are we being penalized in Google for having so many internal links to a page with a very high bounce rate? If anyone has worked with paywall sites before and knows the best practices for this, I'd be really grateful to learn more.
On-Page Optimization | | enotes0 -
Nofollow all outgoing links?
If nofollow keeps link juice from leaking from a site, why not use nofollow on all external links? What would be the benefit of an external link that does not use nofollow? Best, Christopher
On-Page Optimization | | ChristopherGlaeser0 -
Number of links in breadcrumb
Does google take the number of links in breadcrumb as a indicator to the depth of the page in the site structure? That will mean that a page with 5 links in the breadcrumb is a page very far away from the index, therefore a less important page.
On-Page Optimization | | seo.academy0 -
Breadcrumb links
Hello. Are the breadcrumb links valued more over other links ? (google searches for them specificaly to display them in the results)
On-Page Optimization | | seo.academy0 -
Site wide internal links in footer
What is your take on site wide inernal links in the footer, e.g. for the most competitive keywords? Do you think those links are still useful or are those links of little value from your experience? It is an old school tactic but I still see many sites doing it.
On-Page Optimization | | Florakel0