Create a simple strategy that works
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2025 3:49 am
You have a lot to lose and a lot to gain when it comes to search engines crawling your site.
If you ignore any crawling issues from a technical SEO perspective, some of your website pages may not be visible to Google.
However, if you fix crawling issues, Google is more likely to correctly identify links in search engines.
You can avoid technical issues by evaluating your site for broken or blocked elements that restrict its crawlability.
Kevin Indig , VP SEO & Content at G2dotcom, emphasizes the importance of the synergy between the sitemap and the robots file:
What surprises me is that many XML sitemaps are not referenced in the robots.txt file. For me, this is a standard that should always be used. What is not surprising is the large number of websites with only one internal link to some pages or even orphan pages. This is the classic architectural problem that is only relevant for SEOs.
A missing sitemap.xml file in your robots.txt file, for example, can cause search engine crawlers to misinterpret your site architecture, as Matt Jones , SEO and CRO Manager at Rise at Seven, states:
Sitemap.xml files can help search engine crawlers identify and find URLs on your website, so it's definitely a great way to help them gain a deeper understanding of your website and in turn help you rank higher for more relevant terms.
Most common problems found by web crawlers:
14.- Nofollow attributes in outgoing internal links
Internal links that contain a nofollow attribute block any potential passing through your site.
In this example, the "bad leasing options" page would link to another page in the "VAT on leasing" silo.
These would be contextual links that naturally make sense within the flow of the page. Take note of these examples as you create your own topic group or cluster.
Step 3:
Support the silo from these pages if they link to the previous pages and the main pillar page.
For example, a "VAT on renting" page can link to a "bad renting options" page.
As well as reaching the “renting” pillar page:
It might also make sense to implement internal linking between pages at the same level of a topic group.
What you're doing at this stage is creating topic clusters to ensure that all related pages link to each other in the most appropriate directions.
This can have a positive impact on both SEO and UX.
Once you've completed these first two steps, you'll understand how to france mobile database check internal links and can plan how you'll use them to create topic clusters.
Expert advice:
Run a content audit to identify opportunities to improve your support pages and further strengthen your topic clusters.
Step 3 - Choosing the right anchor text
The next part of the strategy is choosing the right anchor text for your internal links.
A common question is whether you should always use your primary target keyword as internal link anchor text.
You won't actually be penalized for using exact match anchor text for internal links.
When it comes to external links, of course, manipulating anchor texts in this way is a violation of Google's webmaster guidelines , but the same doesn't apply to your internal linking strategy.
There are a few things to keep in mind to get the best results:
Variety: While you won't be penalized for only linking this way, it's not natural. Try to diversify your anchor texts whenever possible, but don't forget the great efforts you've made in SEO to optimize certain keywords. The virtue lies in the middle ground.
Length: Using long-tail variants of your keywords could help rank that particular term for your landing page, as long as it is written in a colloquial way for the population.
Relevance: Never force an exact match anchor text into an internal link in your content. Look for natural opportunities to place it without losing relevance.
Andy Drinkwater summed this up nicely when he appeared on our Show Me The Links webinar! Internal links:
“You want to make sure that the anchor texts make sense for the pages they’re pointing to. That’s the main idea about them. If you have one anchor text and you’re just using the same term, you might think that the signal is positive. But it’s not. You want and need variation there. So you should be using four or five different variants of that particular anchor text.”
Plan carefully how you will use anchor text in internal links to make them work to your advantage.
It is an effective way to indicate thematic relevance and contextual connection between two pages.
Keep in mind that this stage greatly contributes to having a positive impact on your customers' customer journey.
You have complete control over the anchor text used in each internal link on your site, so be sure to use it in a way that correctly indicates the topics of the target pages.
Expert advice:
Use the Google Search Console performance report to find long-tail keywords for which your pages are getting impressions, even though they don't rank highly.
Update the anchor text of your internal links to reflect your search terms and you may see some small improvements.
Step 4 - Identify your site's authority pages
Now that we have a process in place for grouping topics, it’s time to look at how you can leverage any existing authority within your site.
If you ignore any crawling issues from a technical SEO perspective, some of your website pages may not be visible to Google.
However, if you fix crawling issues, Google is more likely to correctly identify links in search engines.
You can avoid technical issues by evaluating your site for broken or blocked elements that restrict its crawlability.
Kevin Indig , VP SEO & Content at G2dotcom, emphasizes the importance of the synergy between the sitemap and the robots file:
What surprises me is that many XML sitemaps are not referenced in the robots.txt file. For me, this is a standard that should always be used. What is not surprising is the large number of websites with only one internal link to some pages or even orphan pages. This is the classic architectural problem that is only relevant for SEOs.
A missing sitemap.xml file in your robots.txt file, for example, can cause search engine crawlers to misinterpret your site architecture, as Matt Jones , SEO and CRO Manager at Rise at Seven, states:
Sitemap.xml files can help search engine crawlers identify and find URLs on your website, so it's definitely a great way to help them gain a deeper understanding of your website and in turn help you rank higher for more relevant terms.
Most common problems found by web crawlers:
14.- Nofollow attributes in outgoing internal links
Internal links that contain a nofollow attribute block any potential passing through your site.
In this example, the "bad leasing options" page would link to another page in the "VAT on leasing" silo.
These would be contextual links that naturally make sense within the flow of the page. Take note of these examples as you create your own topic group or cluster.
Step 3:
Support the silo from these pages if they link to the previous pages and the main pillar page.
For example, a "VAT on renting" page can link to a "bad renting options" page.
As well as reaching the “renting” pillar page:
It might also make sense to implement internal linking between pages at the same level of a topic group.
What you're doing at this stage is creating topic clusters to ensure that all related pages link to each other in the most appropriate directions.
This can have a positive impact on both SEO and UX.
Once you've completed these first two steps, you'll understand how to france mobile database check internal links and can plan how you'll use them to create topic clusters.
Expert advice:
Run a content audit to identify opportunities to improve your support pages and further strengthen your topic clusters.
Step 3 - Choosing the right anchor text
The next part of the strategy is choosing the right anchor text for your internal links.
A common question is whether you should always use your primary target keyword as internal link anchor text.
You won't actually be penalized for using exact match anchor text for internal links.
When it comes to external links, of course, manipulating anchor texts in this way is a violation of Google's webmaster guidelines , but the same doesn't apply to your internal linking strategy.
There are a few things to keep in mind to get the best results:
Variety: While you won't be penalized for only linking this way, it's not natural. Try to diversify your anchor texts whenever possible, but don't forget the great efforts you've made in SEO to optimize certain keywords. The virtue lies in the middle ground.
Length: Using long-tail variants of your keywords could help rank that particular term for your landing page, as long as it is written in a colloquial way for the population.
Relevance: Never force an exact match anchor text into an internal link in your content. Look for natural opportunities to place it without losing relevance.
Andy Drinkwater summed this up nicely when he appeared on our Show Me The Links webinar! Internal links:
“You want to make sure that the anchor texts make sense for the pages they’re pointing to. That’s the main idea about them. If you have one anchor text and you’re just using the same term, you might think that the signal is positive. But it’s not. You want and need variation there. So you should be using four or five different variants of that particular anchor text.”
Plan carefully how you will use anchor text in internal links to make them work to your advantage.
It is an effective way to indicate thematic relevance and contextual connection between two pages.
Keep in mind that this stage greatly contributes to having a positive impact on your customers' customer journey.
You have complete control over the anchor text used in each internal link on your site, so be sure to use it in a way that correctly indicates the topics of the target pages.
Expert advice:
Use the Google Search Console performance report to find long-tail keywords for which your pages are getting impressions, even though they don't rank highly.
Update the anchor text of your internal links to reflect your search terms and you may see some small improvements.
Step 4 - Identify your site's authority pages
Now that we have a process in place for grouping topics, it’s time to look at how you can leverage any existing authority within your site.