In this article I discuss the importance of internal linking for search engine optimisation success. As we see a marked decline in the number of inbound links that a website attracts (due to fear of Google penalties), this places a greater emphasis on the need to have a clear internal linking strategy and authoritative hubpages.
To demonstrate this our SEO expert will be looking the Guardian and Mail Online internal linking strategies building up to the Rugby World Cup in 2015. Although we are looking at news websites, the principles apply for any website, big and small.
In the run up to the Rugby World Cup we will see many websites try and battle it out for page 1 rankings. However, what we will see is those sites that have built a specific hub page for the term Rugby World Cup and then continually link back to that hub in every new RWC article will occupy top positions. The Guardian have very clear hubpages for each of their sports, when they create new articles and posts, each continually link back to the main hub for their given search phrase. As a result, over the coming months and into the New Year, the Guardian will eventually occupy page 1 rankings along with Wikipedia and the Official Rugby World Cup website.
Snapshot of SERPS in SEPT 2014 (1 year away from RWC)
Whereas the Mail Online don’t link back to hubpages and when they publish new articles, each one will essentially cannibalise one another and will fail to send a clear signal to Google. What the Mail Online need to do, is build their Rugby World Cup hub page, and when they publish a new article, each one needs to link back to that hub for the term Rugby World Cup (and similar phrases). We’ll following this topic over the coming months and building up the tournament in Sept 2015 to see exactly how this unfolds. We’ll put money on the Guardian achieving page 1 success, whilst the Mail Online will not.
For our clients, we do a very similar thing. Although we may not build hubpages for every topic, we will link to specific pages that we would like readers to visit. We just make sure that we mix up the anchor text we use, and don’t want links to seem at all unnatural. We do exactly the same on our own website. We publish many articles on the topic Inbound Marketing for small business in Birmingham, and SEO and Conversion strategies for small businesses, but we make sure that each article links to a main hub page.
Summary
This articles outlines the problems that websites face when they create content on the same topics. Big or small, where you can produce multiple articles on the same topic, make sure each link back to a main hub.
Adding lots of articles on the same topic can have the effect of cannibalising search rankings against other pages on its website.
Make sure you mix up the anchor text, to ensure that the links do not appear unnatural.
What you should do now
If you are serious about having a great website, you should read my blog, it’s packed with ideas and suggestions to help improve your site.
If you’d like me to dramatically improve your website and bring you new customers, visit my website designs for small businesses page and then contact me for more information.
And if you have any comments or questions about this article, contact me.
