Google’s original ranking algorithm relied on inbound links to evaluate the quality of a page. Despite other suggestions, links are still important for organic rankings. Frequently asked questions include internal linking tactics, the value of outbound external links, and anchor text strategies.
Sure, I could share my 15 years of search optimization experience, but some advice from a Google guy would be helpful too. Here’s the answer:
Internal Links
Internal links play a big role in rankings in two ways:
- Importance. The number of internal links pointing to a page tells Google its relative importance.
- Content: Internal link anchor text and surrounding copy Google Help Understand the purpose and relevance of the page you are linking to.
While there is no limit to the number of external links on a page, Google tends to weight links in navigation and footers less highly than links in the body of the page. The text surrounding these contextual links in articles, product descriptions, and categories indicates relevance.
therefore, Effective strategies What’s Included:
- Product descriptions link to articles on how to use them,
- Linking to related products or categories from your blog posts;
- Links to buyer’s guides from product categories.
Too many links?
E-commerce owners often add lots of internal links to related articles, products, categories, cross-sells and up-sells (“items frequently bought together”), etc.
So how many links is too many?
Google’s answer is that there are no limits, Google’s John Mueller said in response to a question from LinkedIn. stated“At Google, no one counts links or words on blog posts.”
Other Google representatives have said much the same thing. Leaked Documents Earlier this year, it was suggested that Googlebot might not crawl long pages to the end. While it is unclear what Googlebot’s maximum page length is, leaks suggest that links at the bottom of long articles may be ignored.
Over-optimization?
Should site owners be worried about using exact match keywords in their internal anchor text? According to Google: answer The answer is no, there is no such thing as over-optimizing internal links.
Use anything Anchor text Your choice is yours, but keep in mind that even if you have access to a well-optimized anchor, a relevant, contextual link is more likely to be effective for ranking. For example, a link to your running shoes product page is likely to be more effective from an article about running than from an article about car repairs.
External links
Google Long-stated External links do not improve a page’s ranking or credibility, even if they link to a .gov (government) or .edu (education) site.
I can’t confirm either way, but at one university study Last year, we found that generative AI engines (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) more frequently cite articles that contain links to trusted sources.
Google Search is now powered by gen AI technology, A trusted source It could help your rankings, especially if it’s useful to humans too.
