Link building is a killer SEO strategy to have under your belt for a small business, because there are a ton of different innovate strategies that can be used.

If you run a website, you want your pages to be seen in search engines. In other words, maintaining a website should also include optimizing your pages for search engine spiders.

Speaking of spiders, imagine a cobweb with many fibers. The more fibers a cobweb has, the better its stability is. It’s the same case with your website pages – when they are connected to each other, your chances of bringing your entire site to the higher echelons of Google rankings become better. This is the basic premise behind internal link building, which is basically connecting your web content to the other pages within your website.

Let me share with you four ways to build your internal link structure, to ensure a solid connection between your pages:

1.  Use anchor text wisely

It’s easy to get lost and excited in the world of SEO, and some website content creators tend to flood their articles with links to other pages. Make sure that your intention to put links is to help the reader get more information, and not to juice out as much SEO power as you can.

One tip in putting anchor texts on your content is to add a “Related Articles” section, where you can list a number of site pages with a similar topic.

2.  Use keywords through categories and tags

Bloggers are very familiar with using tags and categories as keywords to make their pages searchable by site visitors. Even if your site contains corporate information and not blog posts, you can still implement the use of keywords. Place your site articles in specific categories, so that people who discover your website can navigate through your content better. These keywords are also discoverable by search bots, which will index your pages in their proper categories or topics.

3.  Fix broken links

Much like disconnected calls, people don’t like to know that the page that they want to see does not exist. The dreaded 404 error should be one of your worst fears as a website owner. Perform a site check every now and then to look for broken links, and repair them as soon as you see them.

4.  Implement 301 or 302 redirects

There are cases wherein your internal link building will direct visitors to a page that is either missing or has changed its URL. If, for some reason, you cannot fix the broken link or the missing page, then you can always opt for redirection. You can assign either a permanent (301) or temporary (302) redirect, so that when people click on the broken link, they are sent to a page that is related to the old one. Don’t lose your followers by leading them to a dead end or a cliff.

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In addition, an effective internal link building structure also makes your website user-friendly. People who visit your site can conveniently reach your other pages, if they see link existing on the content that they are reading. In short, internal link building improves your site SEO and increases your organic footprint. Want to learn more about link building and off page SEO?