12 comments » Real Estate Blog SEO Tip of the Week: Internal link relevanceAccording to SEOmoz Search Ranking Factors Thesis, link popularity within a sites internal link structure is of exceptional importance to search engines algorithms.I guess the first question most people have is what the heck is an internal link on a real estate blog in the first place. So, here’s the short answer. Internal links on your blog are links from any page within the blog to any other page also within the blog. From a user standpoint, internal links help keep visitors on your site by suggesting other relevant pages within the site. You stand a better chance of converting a first time visitor to a regular reader if they read more than one article on your site in a single visit, so internal links are very helpful to users. However, internal links are also valued by search engines like Google. According to SEOmoz’ Search Ranking Factors Thesis, link popularity within a site’s internal link structure is of exceptional importance to search engine’s algorithms. Most SEOs agree that the number and importance of internal links pointing to the target page is one of the most important on page ranking factors to a site. Basically, you want Google and all those lesser engines to index and rank your most useful or most popular pages by providing links to those pages from the home page of your real estate blog. You can easily use a “Most Viewed” widget to direct readers to your most popular posts and you can highlight your most useful posts or categories by including graphical links to them through site wide links. Read also: Formula for a successful real estate blog post So, what will a user and search engine friendly site structure look like when you incorporate internal linksinto your real estate blog?
See how there are plenty of links to the most popular posts and the recent posts in the footer of this site? That is exactly what you want. You want to entice users with your most popular posts while interesting search engines with the most recent ones.
See how we direct users right to our most important series of articles "A Year's Worth of real estate Blog Ideas" by placing a link to that category and then link to our SEO tools. The theory behind providing users with graphical links to your most important articles and tools is that not all people think or learn int he same style, so you should identify your 2-3 most significant posts on your blog and create graphical links to them. This way, you entice visual learners not just those that identify with text. Fact is, we are all busy and pretty picture or graphic is more likely to catch our eye than long lists of textual links. Try both these methods and see if you are not able to increase reader retention and subscribers in a relatively short period of time. Related PostsCan your real estate blog rank for your prime keywords within months of going live?Learn How To SEO Your Blog RSS Pieces SEO tools Top 10 Best SEO Web Tools Is your SEO charging you too much? http://www.rsspieces.com/000E2C 
Posted on September 11, 2007 13:34:12
Comment from: Arlington Virginia Condos [Visitor]  · http://www.justnewlistings.comGood stuff!
j  Permalink September 11, 2007 14:54:42Comment from: Arlington Virginia Condos [Visitor] · http://www.justnewlistings.comAwesome!
jay Permalink September 11, 2007 15:01:37Comment from: Property South Africa [Visitor] · http://sa-property.blogspot.comSo now comes the question... Do you link to your internal pages from within your content? Or do you create a navigational menu that links to your internal pages? Also is there not a penalty for doing this too much? i.e. over linking internally or is there no such thing? Permalink September 12, 2007 05:12:34Comment from: Joanne Hanson [Visitor] · http://www.mountain-living.comI have been doing internal linking, but mostly to direct people to something else that is relevant to the post. It is nice to know that the search engines like it! Thanks for the post. I will look into the "most viewed" widget. Permalink September 12, 2007 08:56:12Comment from: Mary Pope-Handy [Visitor] · http://www.ValleyOfHeartsDelight.comThanks for the tips! I'd suspected that internal links were good - but you do it with style! I'm not sure where to get a widget that shows most popular posts, but I will put it on my blog to-do list. Permalink September 12, 2007 09:01:22Comment from: Knox [Visitor] · http://www.atlantaintownlofts.comGreat post. Thank you for the information. I too, like the comment above, would like to know if you can be penalized for doing this too much? Also, another thought that popped into my head was to ask you which "Most Viewed" widgets you recommend? Thanks!!! Permalink September 12, 2007 17:23:14Comment from: Jessica.Malinowsky [Member]  ANSWERS: 1. Yes you can over link to other articles from within your blog. A good rule of thumb is to limit the number of total links (internal and extenal) on each page of your blog to under 100. Use widexl.com to check how many total links you have 2. You can definitely link to other blogs from within your content as well fas from add-on navigation like "most viewed" Try to stick to the 3-3 rule. 3 internal links and 3 external within the content. That seems to be the most successful formula - it doesn't tend to ovewhelm the reader and you get more views. 4. WordPress has tons of "most viewed widgets. Go to WordPress.org to find them. Or you can use an RSS Pieces blog which builds them in automatically. Permalink September 13, 2007 10:35:26Comment from: Jeff Dowler [Visitor] · http://jdowler.realtownblogs.comExcellent information, Mary. I have done some teaching on blogging to agents (Inttro to BLogging) adn wioll be adding a more advanced class to including keywords, linking, and such. Your blog is on the list as a great resource for check out. J Permalink September 18, 2007 09:06:01Comment from: Laurie.Manny [Member] · http://www.longbeachrealestatehome.comGreat stuff, as usual... Permalink September 25, 2007 03:53:48Comment from: Halfdeck [Visitor] · http://www.seo4fun.com/blog/Sitewide links to recent/most view posts can cause supplemental problems because they force PageRank to gravitate to those pages. If you only want your most viewed/recent posts to rank in Google, then that's fine. But if you have some posts in your archives that are slipping into the supplemental results, sitewide links can be the culprit. However, you also want users to have direct access to those links. So what gives? I wrote recently about selectively nofollowing sidewide links based on an idea proposed by Dan Thies in SEOFastStart. Dan followed up recently with a post supporting my idea on his blog, which Rand Fishkin called it a "must read." Keep in mind, this isn't something to worry about if your blog is still young (less than 500 posts) with low link profile. But if you have, say, over 300+ pages in the main index, its something worth thinking about. Even Jill Whalen, an old-school SEO who first resisted against internal nofollow, was tempted to change her mind after reading a few of Dan's follow-up posts.
Permalink September 25, 2007 21:06:50Comment from: Chris Heath [Visitor] · http://www.soho-properties.comGreat information I'll be looking at upgading my blogs with your as always excellent tips. Permalink September 27, 2007 00:52:43Comment from: Rob Wood [Visitor] · http://www.encasabaleares.comGreat information...Really enjoyaed readin it. :) Permalink December 11, 2007 10:44:04Comment on this article This post has 1 feedback awaiting moderation... |
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