It’s all too often that a user stumbles onto a site with convoluted links. Either the link structure is too complex, with footer links taking up half of the page, or it can’t be found at all. Bad internal links frustrate users and trip up search engine spiders. What’s worse, there’s really no excuse for such bad linking systems.

Bad internal link structures most commonly fall into one of two errors. The most common is probably the ‘missing link’ syndrome, in which a site fails to provide a clear navigation path. There are many excellent articles in the SEO community offering solutions for this problem. Slightly less common, but still prevalent, is the cluttered link system, which comes from entirely the opposite direction. Sites with cluttered link systems obviously realise the value of their internal links, but don’t know exactly how to use them.

The first symptom of cluttered links is if your footer links take up more than three lines. Footer links shouldn’t take up more than three reasonably-sized lines, in font that is no more than two points smaller than the rest of the page’s content. Small fonts can grab the attention of search engines in a bad way if the links seem to be in micro text intended for search engine spiders only.

Footer links should also support your navigation bar in a way that’s helpful to your site’s users. Some sites simply replicate their navigation bar in their footer links. This means all links are handy wherever the user is on the page, but it can get a little tedious. Often, sites place the links to company information and repeat links to major pages in footer links. Footer links are also a good place to link through to terms and conditions pages and other legal information, as the user is generally used to legal terms being placed at the bottom of a page.

Your site map is an often overlooked way of maximising on hard-coded links while not over-linking. If you have placed a link to your site map in your footer navigation, no-one can get lost and search engine spiders can crawl your site more freely. On your site map, don’t make the mistake that many early companies did and link through images. Put your links in clear text, with a short page description if there is room. This will help the search engines and your users.

It should go without saying that carefully planned links help your SEO. ‘Carefully planned’ means placing keywords with precision, rather than forcing them into every link. Slipping a keyword into every second or third link in your navigation bar is what you should aim for, as any higher a keyword density in this area tires users. Remember that keywords in content are also a great place to anchor internal links to cross-link between pages. If you would like advice on anchoring keywords in content, it can help to have the services of our experts on board at SEO Consult.

The format of your internal links needs to be straightforward. Navigation is best done without bells and whistles. Links set in images may look pretty, but they take longer to load, can’t be seen by search engines and usually require text as support. A well-planned internal structure can be immensely valuable in search engine optimisation. A quick audit of your linking system may return ranking rewards.

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