Text Links
Internal text links are a method of interlinking pages within a single domain. If implemented properly, internal text links can not only contribute to better search engine rankings but also make your website more user-friendly by allowing in-text navigational options for site visitors. The text link is different from a traditional navigational link, and appears within the textual content, as opposed to a formatted navigational block.
Structure of a Text Link
A text link is made up of two basic parts, the anchor text (the text which is linked–generally appearing as a different color than the surrounding text and/or highlighted by an underline), and the destination link (the URL/page to which the link is pointing).
How to Use Text Links
Thinking about text links as textual markers to additional information or resources will help you to not only use them properly but perhaps, more importantly, to not abuse them. Text links are words or phrases within sentences and paragraphs which link to appropriate and relevant content which helps expand on a subject without encroaching on the current line of thought or information. For example, if you operate a website selling widgets, on a particular page you may talk about how beneficial it is to have a blue widget, and within that context, you make mention of the importance of maintaining your widget well. Instead of having an entire section about widget maintenance on the same page where you are touting the benefits of blue widgets, you can link from that page to the widget maintenance tutorial page (assuming you have one–you should have one if you don’t already). This will help guide both humans and bots to
additional information, you have published on your website about widgets.
Example
Blue widgets are extremely useful in keeping a household budget; however, to make sure that the widget performs at the highest efficiency, it is important to maintain your widget in the best condition possible.
Link Destination Consistency
Link destination consistency refers to a website’s internal linking structure and the idea that the target pages for specific keywords should not change from link to link. For example, if you are linking the word ‘widget(s)’ five times from multiple areas on your site, all those links should point to the same page on your site, instead of a few pointing to widgets.html and a couple to red-widget.html. This helps better the relevancy of widget.html to the keyword ‘widget(s)’. Of course, if there are abbreviations, contractions, or other representations of the same topic on your site which are being linked, then those should be pointed to the same destination as well.
Anchor Text Variety
Just like the importance of being consistent, it is essential to have natural variety as part of your search engine optimization efforts. This is doubly true for your link profile, both internal and external. Since you have absolute control over your internal links, it is important to take full advantage of this opportunity and make sure that there is a natural variation in your anchor text.
When you use similar but varied anchor text to link pages dedicated to a subject topic, it is known as anchor text variety.
For example, the website may have a page about ‘widget services,’ and your goal should be to link to that page with keywords that define the content closely; at the same time, it is necessary to make sure that not every link signifying the ‘widget services’ page has the identical anchor text. If there are five links from across your site denoting to your ‘widget services’ page, following are some examples of what a varied link profile would look like:
widget services
widget repair
widget repair services
widget service
affordable widget services
As you’ll note, these are very similar terms, but they introduce variety into the internal link profile which doesn’t make your internal link effort look forced and spammy.
