Internal Link Building to Boost your Search Engine Rankings
Today, I am going to talk about the most overlooked Link Building strategies. Most of the times I am surprised how most people completely ignores this powerful link building strategies. This is how sites like Wikipedia and Amazon dominates the front page of Google. It’s actually your own internal Link structure. The internal links within your own site can have a large impact over your Search Engine Rankings. This is especially true if you are having a large website/blog with many pages.
You can increase the ranking of the individual pages within your site by adding the right link in strategic places. In fact you can boost your own Search Rankings simply by modifying and doing few simple tweaks to the internal link structure of your site. You are basically funneling the link juice within your own site to boost certain pages of your site.
There are three main aspects of internal linking – site navigation, in-context linking and anchor text.
1. Site Navigation
Proper site navigation is a basic and integral part of on-site optimization. You want to link to your top pages from the navigation menu – whether those are main categories or just key internal pages.
You will probably have more than one navigation menu – a main menu for site navigation, and a secondary menu for informational pages (about,contact etc.)
The site navigation has just one purpose – to highlight the main sections of your website. Think of which top-level pages are the most important, and add them to your main navigation. If you have a blog or website and if it has several categories, then you can list them in a ‘third’ menu in the sidebar of your website.
2. In-Context Linking
Search engines give more weight to in-context links than link lists (on a links page or in the sidebar). This makes in-context linking important for off-site links as well as internal links.
Ideally, you want to make it so that all related posts/pages are interlinked amongst each other through in-context links. You can make use of Related Posts plugin(both blogger and wordpress have this).
If you look at Wikipedia their most of the word are interlinked with another article of Wikipedia. This is one the excellent example of how authoritative domains with smart internal linking practices and proper on-page optimization can dominate search engine rankings for all types of keywords.
However, if you do this on a personal blog or a blog related to something specific only; it might not look as good to the readers. So make sure you only choose some relevant pages to be inter linked.
But do note that Inter-Linking on a site with hundreds of pages will have a bigger effect than just a handful of pages.
3. Anchor Text
Links are important but without using the right keywords they will not deliver the required benefits. Links without related keywords are like shooting arrows blind – you are sending link juice y to those pages, but you’re not telling the search engines what topic those pages are relevant to.
These tips really works. If you don’t’ believe me I can show you a proof of this own blog.
Go to Google> In the search field of Google enter link:www.smartbloggerz.com Or you can simply just click this google link directly.
As you can see in the results on the front page; two of my pages are already been considered as backlinks by Google and they rank well on the search results too.
At he end I would say that don’t underestimate the power of strong internal link structure. A site that is properly themed and properly structured to target a specific series of keywords has a much greater chance of dominating the front page of Google.
Hope you might have understood the power of Internal Link Structure and would try to follow it. Waiting for your response 
Article written by Typhoon
Yo! I am Typhoon a.k.a Sushant, a 16 yrs. old blogger from India and the owner of SmartBloggerz. Here I try to share useful Blogging related articles which would help a blogger to succeed. You can connect to me on Twitter.
Typhoon has written 317 superb article(s) on this blog
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87 Comments Add yours
Twitter: @123today
November 14, 2009
11:06 am
I thought the best link building technique was link exchange, anyway i have learnt a new method.
Thanks
Twitter: @cks1988
November 22, 2009
8:51 am
i have tried to use the internal link build. But i still not manage to get some backlinks from that. I also havent get my pagerank. Is it because of my failure on link building? Thanks for information!
Cytogenetics and Cancer Research´s last blog ..Apoptosis | Type 1 Programmed Cell Death Pathway
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 9, 2009
11:01 am
There is no connection with back links and internal links. Internal linking helps you to pass the page rank (or link juice. technically speaking) to the other pages of ur site.
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..Take Care Ann, Your Blog can be Spammed
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 9, 2009
11:03 am
Bro, internal linking increases the PR of other pages. Technically speaking it passes the link juice to other pages to distribute the PR you get for one page.
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..Take Care Ann, Your Blog can be Spammed
Twitter: @akira07
December 11, 2009
2:57 am
Yeah that’s sound logically. But however, we’re it’s rare to find our article PR is increased. Most of website only have PR on their homepage.
akira07´s last blog ..Make or Break – Website Review
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 13, 2009
3:55 pm
No if u do internal linking effectively it will spread. Why should have PR 7 in home page when PR 5 is enough, at these times u can share this PR with other pages to get constant PR.
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..How To Use Facebook Effectively
Twitter: @surveys4moneyau
January 8, 2010
3:58 am
I have page rank on a lot of my internal pages, so this is something I should do more. I was doing it a lot at the start, but got lazy!
Tom@Surveys For Money´s last blog ..Make Money Online Survey Website
December 2, 2009
7:50 am
I was under the impression that the only way to increase PR and rank in search engines was link exchanging. Thanks for the insight on a new method that sounds much more beneficial!
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 9, 2009
10:56 am
Bro, Link exchanging can get you PR for some page and if you want to distribute it to other Pages you must go for Internal Linking.
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..Take Care Ann, Your Blog can be Spammed
Twitter: @akira07
December 11, 2009
2:54 am
It’s nice reason even i don’t know if Google giving same weight or no to the internal link for the PR measurement.
akira07´s last blog ..Make or Break – Website Review
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 13, 2009
3:56 pm
It doesnt give u same weight, but the matter is u do receive PR and why shouldn’t u accept it by linking internally.
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..How To Use Facebook Effectively
December 3, 2009
9:32 pm
This method are effective, i guarantee it. If you do as what typhoon says. Thanks typhoon for share your SEO knowledge for public like us.
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 9, 2009
10:55 am
I can see Typhoon good at SEO too besides Blogging. Are u familiar with SEO, Typhoon?
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..Take Care Ann, Your Blog can be Spammed
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
December 9, 2009
4:08 pm
Yeah, webmaster niche is of my interest.
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 9, 2009
5:15 pm
So have you learnt SEO or everything from just experiences?
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..Take Care Ann, Your Blog can be Spammed
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
December 9, 2009
9:19 pm
Yeah, pure experience
Twitter: @HollyJahangiri
December 7, 2009
1:38 am
The concept of interlinking is a natural one for me; my first experience with hyperlinking came from Windows Help design and content development. But I need to practice using stronger anchor text than “click here” – the link should be on the “to learn effective SEO techniques” (or whatever you want the reader to “click here” to do. Links should be natural, meaningful, and useful to your human readers, though.
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Ethics in Blogging
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 9, 2009
10:54 am
Of course, and when it comes to blogs, its good to mention the old posts so that people can find it and it s a good internal linking strategy
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..Take Care Ann, Your Blog can be Spammed
Twitter: @akira07
December 11, 2009
2:52 am
Or you can choose some fixed keyword to be linked to fixed article. I mean, when you type a word of “contest”, always link it to another article titled “Contest Strategy To Get Reader”. And you can do it for another word.
For make it more clear, you can see the example. Techzoomin.com is the one who apply it.
akira07´s last blog ..Make or Break – Website Review
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 13, 2009
3:58 pm
There are some plugins for it and WP Robot does it I think. Isn’t it Typhoon?
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
December 13, 2009
6:58 pm
No, WP Robot doesn’t have that kind of functionality yet. Where you read that?
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 14, 2009
5:18 pm
I haven’t read it. But, I saw at ur blog, that some of keywords turned into links automatically. How did that happen? I guessed it was by WP Robot.
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..How To Use Facebook Effectively
Twitter: @madhurivats
December 10, 2009
1:55 pm
I am running on of the real estate website http://www.propertieshut.com and I made good internal linking but not getting good results and somebody suggest me I need one way linking as well. How can I do that.
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
December 10, 2009
7:49 pm
You should just focus on one technique. InterLinking will only help to make your website structure better and also the search engine will get more to index. You will have to build backlinks to get better listing… You can try free ways like blog commenting, forums posting with your signature links, directory submission, article submission to various article directories etc and you ill surely see the result.
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 10, 2009
10:01 pm
Agreed. Spend link building for building PR for home page and use internal linking to spread that to other pages
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..Take Care Ann, Your Blog can be Spammed
Twitter: @akira07
December 11, 2009
2:45 am
Agree that internal linking is only supportive technique and a way to make old article not forgotten. The main is still external linking. Have a lot of internal linking is a waste if you have no good external link.
akira07´s last blog ..Make or Break – Website Review
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 10, 2009
10:03 pm
Go for Forum posting and blog commenting. Its easy way to get back links. Paid links are not good to get one way links
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..Take Care Ann, Your Blog can be Spammed
Twitter: @akira07
December 11, 2009
2:46 am
Do you mean, peope who visit your site not clicking it? Maybe it’s because real estate topic is updated frequently, so their think there is no use for reading old article. Same is happen to technology/finance related.
akira07´s last blog ..Make or Break – Website Review
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 13, 2009
3:59 pm
Are u saying about paid links? I cant get u Bro.
December 11, 2009
7:04 pm
I have seen many times websites with a lot of content ranking very well in search engines. All of them have an internal link structure very well planned and very few links with other sites. The key for this, is not to compete for highly competitive keywords.
Twitter: @SNVInfoTech
December 16, 2009
1:46 am
Internal linking strategy is very important for getting some good backlink. If you set the navigation structure properly than you surly get lot of link from it.
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 17, 2009
9:45 am
Yes and search engines at the most time loves Bread Crumb navigation. This can help them not to leave any pages unindexed.
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..7 Questions You Should Answer Before Blogging
December 16, 2009
11:47 am
I use in context-linking in my blog. I usually link my article with other article in my blog. I suggest that we have 3 link to other post in our blog. Google like it. In future I will consider to use related post in my blog. thanks for your useful article.
irfan@the princess and the frog movie´s last blog ..invictus movie trailer
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 17, 2009
9:43 am
Its also one way of internal linking right, and most of the blog authors do that.
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..7 Questions You Should Answer Before Blogging
Twitter: @buckdat
February 15, 2010
5:31 pm
I have seen excessive use of Internal Link Building on Eric Ward’s site. I feel Internal Link Building not only helps you increase the internal crawling but also helps in allowing flow of Link Juice and PageRank to internal pages (Money pages) on the site.
All in all, a really informative post. Thank You for sharing!
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 9, 2009
10:58 pm
That must be wonderful. You have a long way to go, Sushant.
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..Take Care Ann, Your Blog can be Spammed
Twitter: @akira07
December 11, 2009
2:50 am
Knowledge which come from experience is always the best because it’s honest and pure and also already tested.
Is this internal linking come from your research and experience also?
akira07´s last blog ..Make or Break – Website Review
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 13, 2009
4:01 pm
I had no experience in Internal Linking or Link Building too. But, when I started blogging, I read articles and network with people to know bout it. Its always good to learn from experience.