External linking is very important for organic search rankings, and internal linking is just as important for the same reason–it can build the overall websites link equity.
The clickable part of the text that we call a link is technically named an “anchor” element (HTML element <a> or <a href=”/link-here/”>Anchor text here</a>).
While exact match keyword anchors are okay in moderation, we do not want all exact match anchors throughout the content. It’s better to use anchors that have more stop words and that are part of a sentence or several words.
Here is an example: “Having artificial grass installed comes with several benefits that start with having a great looking lawn” <- this is an exact match keyword anchor example of “artificial grass”, a better anchor might be “Having artificial grass installed in your backyard comes with several benefits that start with having a great looking lawn” you’ll note we added extra words yet it still makes sense from a usability point of view.
Be mindful that the link you are adding will potentially move the visitor to a new page, we need to be absolutely sure that the visitor will be happy with the page you are taking them too. In other words, make sure the anchor text reflects the page you are linking to, we don’t want take the visitor to a page that doesn’t make sense or we may lose the potential customer.
Guidelines
- Avoid multiple links to the same content:
Avoid adding the same link more than once on the same page, unless it really makes sense from a usability standpoint. Pro tip: Google only uses the first anchor it finds on a page as an SEO signal. - Number of links per page 4-8:
For an average 500-1000 word piece of content, we should aim for around 4-8 internal links. In some cases we might have less, others we might have more. More doesn’t mean better. The general goal should be to provide the visitor with the information they are looking for. - Link to related internal content:
We want to link to related content, for example if the content is about “bathroom faucet repairs” we should link to the main “plumbing” hub page, as well as to other “bathroom plumbing” content such as “toilet repairs” and “bathroom sink leak repair” so on and so forth. - Okay to link back to homepage:
It’s not uncommon to link back to the homepage, again if it makes sense for the visitor. Perhaps by using the branding/company name as the anchor (e.g. the company SYNLawn of Tuscaloosa is well known for its…). - CTA link at bottom of content:
It’s good practice to add a link to a CTA at the bottom of a page (e.g. If you would like a free consultation, please reach out to our friendly team via email or by calling 555-555-5555.) - Exact match keyword anchors okay occasionally:
As we discussed above, exact match anchors are okay sparingly, though it’s often better to link a partial sentence with 3 or 4 words. Limit anchors to 7 or 8 words max - Avoid links in first paragraph:
Generally we shouldn’t add internal links to the first paragraph (unless there is a good reason), the thinking here is that if you land on a page and we’re trying to push the visitor to a new page that maybe this content is not what the visitor was looking for. - External links should open a new tab:
Any links to external domains should open in a new tab. We don’t want to lose the potential customer by purposefully moving them away from our clients website.