Best Practices for Internal Linkin g

plans , garage plans , and duplex plans , and let’s say for this example that each page of the site mentions all three plan types.

However, what is each page's specific topic? The different plan types have been mentioned on multiple pages, so each page contains the keywords country house plans , garage plans , and duplex plans . None of the three plan types would be strongly relevant on any of these pages for Google.

The correct way to structure this site is to have one page that discusses only country house plans , another page that discusses only garage plans , and a third page that discusses only duplex plans . Each page is now strongly relevant for one keyword phrase. No “dilution” occurs in any of the pages, and each page should subsequently fair better in the rankings for its particular keyword phrase. This is important.

Next, you would add links on each page so that garage plan pages link only to other garage plan pages, duplex plan pages link only to duplex plan pages, and so forth. By using the applicable keyword phrase in the link text (the clickable part of the link), you can also help strengthen the importance of each page. We’ll discuss in greater detail how to link pages correctly between pages in “Chapter 6 – Linking Your Pages Correctly”.

So, to properly structure a site that offers different products, services, or content categories, you should split the content onto different pages. In the end, you ideally want a single topic, or keyword phrase, applied per page.

Create Lots of Pages

Websites with lots of pages in general rank better than sites with just a few pages, all other things being equal. It is better to have a 50page site with short pages than a 5- page site with long, flowing pages. Each page should however contain a minimum of about

200 visible words of text to maximize relevance with Google.

Short pages also are indexed faster and download faster. Studies show you lose 10% of your visitors for every second it takes your page to download and display in their browser. Much beyond 5 seconds and you might as well forget it – people will click elsewhere. This is important to keep in mind.

Also, you need pages with real content – don’t create just a lot of “fluff” pages that are standard fair anyway – About Us page, Contact Us page, etc.

Keep your web pages simple from a coding standpoint. Try to avoid gratuitous animations, junk graphics, large imagemaps, JavaScript, or anything else that may get in the way of Google or,