What is best practice for internal link building?

[wiltonbiz]

I hear and read a lot of different things about internal linking on a site, but I'm still a bit fuzzy on what is the best practice. From a good SEO point of view, what is the optimum internal linking strategy? I have read that each page of a site should have at least 2 or 3 internal links pointing to it. True or false? I've also heard that it's good to have plenty of internal links pointing to the home page. True or false? Any other thoughts?
Thanks,
WiltonBiz

[St0n3y]

Every page should at least link to the home page and every page should have at least one link point to it. Other than that, do what makes sense to your site visitors.

[glengara]

Best practice is not to overdo it, so that means not too many link "repeats"per page, and not inflating page numbers simply to increase internal linkage.

IMO internal linking is the single most important component in SEO, it does take a bit of time to plan the proper "architecture", so is best done at the design stage.

My personal favourite is the "themed pyramid" structure, which allows me to point a few links with the proper anchor text to even the deepest pages.
That structure also compliments the use of increasingly focused keywords in the file names, something that has in the past been included in the G Allinachor calculations.

h**p://www.searchengineworld.com/engine/theme_pyramids.htm

[wiltonbiz]

From Glengara's post, I read the article you cited about themed pyramids, and I was struck first by the statement that the index page has low ranking value. This did not seem correct to me. And don't some people think that this idea of "themed" sites is just plain incorrect? I'm still not getting a good sense of why the internal linking structure is so vital to SEO, and what is best practice. Any other thoughts out there?
Thanks,
WiltonBiz

[jewboy]

Traditional Javascript dropdown menus provide users with a quick and unobtrusive way to hop from one page to another. A great way to get from one page to another with a single click. However, The problem with Javascript dropdowns is that you don't get the value of internal embedded anchor text.

The trick is to use DHTML drop downs. You get the same consistent feel of JS dropdowns, plus the benefits you get from keyword enriched hyperlinks links.

A simple search for "DHTML drop downs" on the engine of your choice should point you on the right track.

My 2 cents.

[wiltonbiz]

Thanks. Good suggestion. But the post is going off-topic a little -- my question was about the best practice for internal linking in terms of architecture -- for example, is it true that it is good to have a lot of internal pages pointing back to the home page, besides via a site map? Should it be a pyramid structure? A themed pyramid? Somebody even mentioned an "inverted pyramid" in one post that I read. That sort of thing. People talk about the importance of internal linking all the time, (for SEO) but I haven't heard it well explained yet.
WiltonBiz

[glengara]

*.. but I haven't heard it well explained yet.*

I'm not sure what else there is to explain, anything you know pertaining to incoming links, is equally relevant to internal ones.

[Gurtie]

internal linking structure is important because

a) it helps visitors move around your site

b) it disperses PR (for want of a better way of describing perceived page importance) around your site.

You should plan your linking structure based upon a) imho

But if you also want to look at b) the internal linking structure for SEO is going to depend on where in your site external people link into (these will be the pages that gain a higher PR from external sources) and where on your site the 'important' pages are.

Generally speaking important pages (those which you want to appear in the SERPS for specific keywords) will be pages you also try to attract outbound links into anyway.

I'm sure there are circumstances where not linking to the less important pages from every page will increase the PR flow to the pages which are important - so if you only care about 3 pages on your site ranking (red widgets, green widgets, blue widgets) and there's no reason for linking to the sitemap, terms of trade and contact us page for the sake of humans, then adapt your linking structure accordingly.

To me though the benefit in terms of conversions of a consistant nav throughout the site outweighs any tiny benefit from internal links at least until the site gets so large that you need to start linking on a 'hub' basis for usability as well.

Actually though - does anyone think it does really matter on sites of 500 - 2000 or so pages? I guess stopping 500 spiderable links passing an exciting PR3 to the contact us page actually might edge some of the more important pages up by PR3/499. Is that really worth sticking a javascript link on?

[Marcia]

There's also an issue of excessive identical anchor text causing problems with Google. Some are relating it to sites not turning up in searches for their own site name or domain name.

So that's something that should be taken into conderation with internal site navigation as far as internal backlinks to the homepage are concerned -especially if there will be a lot of inbound links that use the site name/domain name as the anchor text.

It also affects search keywords, for example, in cases where people link back to the homepage within their site using their main search term. If they get IBLs on top of that, it could go over the percentage that some people consider safe. Not that there's a "figure" that's for sure, just that it should be varied.

Using internal anchor text within sections of a site prevents it from going overboard, especially if there are IBLs using the anchor text.

The other side of the coin is that having a variety of keywords in navigation throughout the site gives more opportunity for expanded traffic based on odd/targeted search terms.

There's a plus and a minus to either way.

glengara
IMO internal linking is the single most important component in SEO, it does take a bit of time to plan the proper "architecture", so is best done at the design stage.I agree 100% ! Unfortunately, it's the most neglected part of SEO.

Gurtie
I'm sure there are circumstances where not linking to the less important pages from every page will increase the PR flow to the pages which are important -Good point. And fully meshed navigation isn't considered the optimal way to distribute PR, though some believe that PR no longer has any weight for ranking.