Backlinks
People generally consider these to be links that flow from one Website to another.
And they are. Or at least that is one element of them.
There are others that have equal or even greater importance. For example, many websites would benefit greatly by linking away from their website to other authorities within their niche.
HOT TIP: When doing the above be sure to use the target=”blank” attribute. Doing so will cause your website to remain open while they are checking out the other authority which you have recommended. What do you think they will think of your site after returning from your on-topic authority reference?
Think synergy. However, there is an even more powerful backlink then those mentioned so far. The meet of this article will be covering how to get high quality backlinks internal to your site content.
Introducing Internal Backlinks
Who is a better authority on your take on the niche you are building than you?
Why not create a link from one internal page to another within your own project?
Google loves this largely because it increases the value that your audience receives. However, this is not to negate the power and relevance of the other linking strategies. Ultimately you want to be able to use all linking strategies together without neglecting any one concept.
The problem is keeping track of everything. This one point is why many people don’t really create a linking program for their site which is a serious deficit in my opinion.
My Internal Link Road Map
For tracking purposes I personally create a private post on WordPress for many reasons including ease of access. You can do the same thing with notepad or something similar so the following concept can be used within any platform.
First, I gather all the links together. You might want to reference your sitemap to do this.
Next I break them into chunks of 5 and identify them as project 1, 2, 3 accordingly. Each project contains 5 links. I will share in detail why I group in 5’s shortly.
Then I add the following categories to this page.
- Working
- Ready
- Finished
All the groups of links start out in the “ready” section. Move into working one group at a time and once done are placed into the finished section.
I now have a road mad that I can follow if I don’t forget to add my link once a new piece of content is released.
HOT TIP: Make sure to give each article a tag as it is created. However, add the tag only after the article has been added to your organizational chart. This will serve as a check and balance as you build out your link structure.
Using Internal Link Wheels
In the past, people gamed Google with external link wheels based on spun content.
Google doesn’t like being manipulated like that and so caused the idea not to be penalized.
However, Google has nothing against internal link wheels if they are done correctly.
By the way, a link wheel is when you link from one article to another and complete the circle. This is the reason for the groups of 5. As you project builds you will end up having numerous link wheels because of following this process.
Here is what it would look like.
- Article 1 links to article 2
- Article 2 links to article 3
- Article 3 links to article 4
- Article 4 links to article 5
- Article 5 links to article 1
Did you notice the difference in point #5 above?
Instead of linking to article 6 it goes back to 1 and completes the loop.
I personally like doing this twice per article within groups of 5 so it would actually look like this.
- Article 1 links to article 2 & 3
- Article 2 links to article 3 & 4
- Article 3 links to article 4 & 5
- Article 4 links to article 5 & 1
- Article 5 links to article 1 & 2
However, that can get confusing. I recommend starting by linking to only 1 internal article and once you have the idea crystalized, then you can move to doing the 2-link concept.
I don’t recommend going beyond 2 links because then things start to look spammy in the eyes of Google and your viewers.
Adding Anchor Text
At this point we have successfully created internal backlinks. Doing the above in and of itself will bring positive results from Google.
However, it can get better. Much better.
One of the ways this happens is by the implementation of anchor text. Have you see clickable hyperlinks on the Web?
If you haven’t, then you’re not paying attention. They are all over the place and in a variety of formats.
There is the naked anchor text which is displayed just by the clickability of the URL listed within the page of content.
There is the untargeted anchor text which shows up when words like “click here” or “order now” are setup as clickable hyperlinks.
Then there is the targeted anchor text which we will be speaking about here.
Let’s say you create a page about unique cat toys. In the process of doing the link wheel as described earlier you want to be sure that the page which is targeted to “unique cat toys” is linked to with that exact keyword phrase from one of the other internal pages that are part of the set of 5 link wheel that you are creating.
This might look something like this.
- Article 1 (original cat toys) links to article 2 (unique cat toys)
- Article 2 (unique cat toys) links to article 3 (inexpensive cat toys)
- Article 3 links to article 4
- Article 4 links to article 5
- Article 5 links to article 1
Notice how the link coming into the page targets the exact keyword phrase while the one leading away from the page does not associate with the keyword that page is targeting.
Advanced Anchoring Strategies
Google very much wants to know that it is serving its audience high quality information. One way some marketers have gamed Google is by linking exact match keyword phrases (i.e. unique cat toys). So, Google doesn’t give those links as much attention as it once did.
Instead Google would like to see longer hyperlinks within page content. The ultimate in Google’s eyes would be that the keyword not exist at all within the link.
I’m willing to meet Google half way on this one.
I’ll hyperlink long phrases, but that phrase will contain my exact targeted keyword.
Instead of hyperlinking these words:
Cats love original toys they can play with.
I would hyperlink these words:
Cats love original cat toys they can play with.
Given that the keyword in the example above remains to be “original cat toys”.
Internal Linking Strategy Bonus
In closing you may think that we have now covered internal link building in detail.
And, we have.
However, there is yet another point of consideration that I would like to bring up in this article.
Every Website is created for some purpose. In my own case, it is to get the word out about my coaching, speaking and writing services that I provide within the world of affiliate and online marketing.
I have one for each of these topics that deal with these exact points. Given that they are the core of my business my goal is to get more internal links pointing at those pages than any other.
To that end, once I have my groups of 5, I make sure that each of those 5 articles points to 1 of these core pages. In time those pages will have so much internal link juice that they will be critical pages to the project at hand and Google will rank them accordingly.
Building links the right way is not as easy as it might appear at first. Anyone, can highlight text and drop a URL on it so that it becomes a clickable hyperlink. However, to tap into the real power of what is available one much truly develop that skill.
It is my own hope that this article has essentially coached you into understanding effective ways of building ultimate power into your backlink marketing strategy.
What did I miss?
What would be good to add?
Please leave your thoughts in the comments below and let’s build some Google ranking internal backlinks.