For most companies the right Internal link building strategy is measured by how high that page can get in the search engines. But as much fun as it is watching your Web page go from number five to number four on the list, it is secondary to the major advantage of effective internal link building.Internal link building might not be the fastest way to get to the number one slot on a search engine, but it does provide a great user experience as well as bumping conversions once users are on your Web site.

Here are some ways to improve your internal link building:

• Make it make sense. Don’t link a page on bagels to a page on rubber chickens. They aren’t related and the customer will only find themselves frustrated if they are trying to decide on the perfect bagel only to find they’ve been directed to the perfect rubber chicken.
• Dig in and embed. Make sure your links are embedded in your content, not listed off to the side where your potential customer can’t easily find it. When embedded in content the link will be embedded into a keyword or keyword phrase that the page is targeting for the search engines through its meta tags and content.
• Connect the dots. Provide the user with a valuable reference between pages of the web site. Contextual link building is best used when it makes sense that the user will need to be referred from one page of the web site to another to clarify a point or give deeper understanding into a piece to the information that is presented on that page.

Internal link building can offer your user a higher quality experience and keep them from leaving the site to search elsewhere for information. Don’t let them leave when you could direct them to a different page on your Web site that gives them what they need to make a purchasing decision. Although a site map and navigation links offer users easy access to many pages of the site, they just can’t compare to the ease of use contextual links within a website will give.

You have the power to give your potential customer the perfect information at the perfect time. Perfect.

Jennifer Gniadecki is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments. WriterAccess is powered by ideaLaunch, a full service content marketing agency serving hundreds of clients and thousands of writers since 2000.

Tags: content marketing

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Content Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.