Internal Linking Don’ts

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Written By Robert Dunford
I am a Marketing Consulting in the Great Toronto Area with over 25 years experience in building and implementing marketing plans for small business.
#websitebasics

Internal linking knowledge is one of the website basics that every site owner should possess to be able to influence their web page ranking positively. However, it’s often an overlooked part of website optimization that can lead to lost ranking opportunities. Let’s have a look at some of the frequently seen internal linking don’ts and review why they’re a bad practice, as well as how you can fix them:

Causing Internal Redirect Chains and Loops

In the case of a redirect leading to another redirect, you can inadvertently create a loop that will damage both your ranking and user experience. Make sure to link your redirects to the final page, and re-evaluate whether a redirect is needed at all.

Putting Too Many Links in Your Content

Spamming links helps no one’s SEO, so make sure only to incorporate relevant internal links and keep the number low. Don’t use any links that aren’t important for your audience, no matter how much traffic you want to have on that page.

Not Checking Whether Links Work

Broken internal links happen as a result of malformed URLs or page deletion. They’re one of the primary metrics that Google uses to determine whether the site is high quality or not, so if you don’t check whether your internal links are still working, it will undoubtedly negatively impact you. Replace all broken internal links with live ones or create a redirect from the page that’s broken.

Bad Temporary and Permanent Redirects Practices

Search bots register temporary redirects as a signal that they should index both the old and the new page. If you don’t have the intention of restoring the original page, consider changing temporary redirects to permanent ones. However, don’t overuse them, as they make it more difficult for search bots to crawl your website effectively. Change permanent redirects to a target page URL wherever you can.

Using Nofollow for Internal Links

There is no reason to use the Nofollow tag on internal links unless you want to prevent a search bot from indexing your website’s registration forms and similar content.

More Than 3 Clicks to Reach Important Pages

If you need more than three clicks to reach an essential page from your homepage, your website’s crawl depth is off, and both visitors and crawlers will have difficulty reaching those pages. Make sure your essential material is easily accessible.

Too Few Internal Links

With minimal incoming internal links to a page, it has a lower chance of being discovered by search bots and users. Sticking to the acceptable practices of relevant linking, ensure that essential pages on your website have enough internal links.

Following the best SEO practices for internal linking ensures that crawlers and users will have a better experience on your website, which improves your web page ranking. However, that’s only a small piece of the SEO puzzle that might take months to provide the results you want.

If you wish to see the results of your SEO efforts coming to fruition sooner, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d love to discuss your marketing strategy and help in any way I can.

Rob Dunford is a Marketing Consultant in the Great Toronto Area with over 20 years of experience in implementing marketing plans for small businesses.

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