No Comments Written by Robert on August 13, 2008 – 3:09 pm

In order for search-engine spiders to locate and index all your Web site content, you need to develop a linking structure that allows search engines to find each and every page.

At the same time, in order to maintain relevancy to particular topics, not every page on your site should be linked to each other because it would cause different categories, or themes, of your Web site to “bleed” into each other. Search engines favor pages with similarly themed content and tend to dislike pages that are not part of a larger subject or theme.

Think of your linking structure as a means to logically progress from one page of your site to the next. By avoiding a haphazard linking structure, you ensure maximum effectiveness for both the search engines and your users.

Think of your linking structure

Proper linking between pages on your Web site enables search-engine spiders to find, index, and rank each page. If the search engines cannot crawl every page of your site, some pages will be left out, not found, and therefore not included in search-engine results. A proper linking structure not only allows search engines to find all your pages, but also helps search engines determine the theme or themes of your Web site.

Link in a Hierarchy

Be sure to link from your home page to all the major themes or categories of your site. Do not link directly from your home page to individual pages within your site’s main categories. Instead, link to those documents from your main category pages.

Through your linking structure, you should logically guide both users and the search engines from page to page. Your linking should create a hierarchy of your pages from the top-level main categories down through your individual content documents or product pages.

Link Directly

You should avoid linking from one page to another on your site if the pages are not directly related to one another. For example, if you have a site that sells cell phone accessories, try not to link from a page about Verizon headsets to a page about AT&T chargers.

When doing this, you tend to dilute your themes. Remember, search engines consider links very strongly in their ranking algorithms, and not just links to your site, but also links from your site. If you link from one page to another page that is not directly related to the first, even if they are both located on your own site, you can give the search engines the impression that these pages are directly related.

Avoid Broken Links

You can use free software like Xenu Link Sleuth, found at http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html, to check your Web site for broken links or pages that do not exist. If you link to a page that does not exist, the search-engine spiders may try to crawl and index that page.

You can be negatively penalized by the search engines if too many of these broken links exist, either as internal or external links on your Web site. If you are linking to external pages on other Web sites, do frequent checks to make sure they have not been taken down or moved. Although you cannot control the actions of other Webmasters, you can at least make sure that you do not link to pages that no longer exist or whose content has changed.

Avoid Error Messages

Most Web hosting packages come with entry-level Web site statistics. Check these statistics often to see if your visitors are receiving any error messages. The problem may be that other Webmasters are linking incorrectly to pages on your Web site. If so, your visitors may be receiving 404 Page Not Found errors which should show up in a Web site statistics package. Incorrect links of this type can be addressed by setting up 301 redirects to the correct pages.