Have you ever wondered what makes sites like Amazon and Wikipedia so addictive? When you visit these sites, you can’t stop clicking; one link leads to another, and each page is more intriguing than the last. This is accomplished using a simple technique that you can mimic on your own website or blog: an effective internal linking strategy.

Think about it; in Wikipedia, practically every significant word or phrase in every article is linked to another article that deals exclusively with that subject. You might intend to read up on World War II and end up following a trail of links to an article about pirates or Romanian folklore. As far as website content tips go, leading your visitors deeper and deeper into your site—treating them to one wonder after another, like Alice as she tumbled down the rabbit hole—is at the top of the list.

Amazon takes this gem of content marketing even further; it recommends products to you based on those you have already looked at, lets you know what other people have ordered after viewing  those products, and provides you with lists of similar products—lists created not by Amazon itself as a marketing tool, but for fun and by customers like you. This strategy is based on a solid hypothesis: that if you happen to like one gothic romance, Marvel comic book, or young-adult urban-fantasy novel, you will like more of the same.

If you want to improve conversion, there is no better strategy than linking every page of your website to half a dozen other pages that tackle similar material from a fresh angle. Updates to one part of your site should be advertised on every other part, and it doesn’t hurt to have an interactive section where your customers can share their favorite products or services with visitors who are still on the fence.

Remember, interesting links keep your visitors clicking, and the more time they spend on your site, the more likely they are to find something they are willing to pay for. Internal links are also an integral part of search-engine optimization. If you want the best possible results, you can hire a marketing agency to help improve your internal linking strategy.

*Image from http://www.thecampussocialite.com/blog/images/alice-falling-down-rabbit-hole.jpg

Emily Robinson 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 Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Content Creation, Content Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.