Internal links play a crucial role in e-commerce SEO. They boost your website’s crawlability and indexability, share authority and relevance, and improve usability and engagement. Moreover, internal links contribute to higher conversions and increased sales. The anchor text, which is the clickable text users see, is essential. It should accurately represent the linked page’s content, align with user intent, aid search engines in understanding your pages, transfer link juice from high-ranking to lower-ranking pages, offer valuable information to users, and guide them through the buyer’s journey to prompt action.
In this article, we share what to do and what to avoid when creating internal links to boost your e-commerce SEO.
1. How do you create an internal links strategy for e-commerce?
Creating a robust internal linking strategy is paramount for enhancing the overall SEO performance and user experience of an e-commerce website. Start by thoroughly auditing your site’s existing content and identifying key pages that drive traffic or contribute significantly to your business goals. Once you clearly understand your content landscape, prioritize linking from high-authority pages to those that need a boost. Utilize descriptive anchor text that provides context and relevance to users and search engines, facilitating a seamless navigation experience. Additionally, consider implementing breadcrumb navigation to guide users through the site structure, making exploring related products or categories easier.
Incorporate a logical hierarchy into your internal linking structure, ensuring that the most important pages receive the highest number of links. This hierarchy should align with your business priorities and user journey, guiding visitors from general category pages to specific product pages. Leverage product recommendations and related items strategically within your content, encouraging users to explore additional offerings.
Finally, use tools like Google Analytics to evaluate the performance of your strategy. By implementing a well-thought-out internal linking strategy, you improve the search engine visibility of your e-commerce site but also enhance user engagement and satisfaction.
2. Internal Linking for e-commerce: Things to Do
Identify Your Website’s Central Pages
Begin by identifying and listing your website’s central pages, commonly called “hub pages.” These pages generate the highest traffic and typically focus on short-tail, broad keywords instead of more specific, long-tail phrases. In e-commerce, these hub pages often correspond to category pages, such as a “cooking” category for a kitchenware-selling site.
Create Topic Clusters
Develop topic clusters, which are collections of pages and posts sharing similar information and linked internally. Start with the previously identified hub pages and establish links to other pages that delve into more specific topics. Here’s a step-by-step approach:
- Link hub pages to subcategories and products internally, maintaining relevance within the hierarchies.
- If applicable, link out from subcategories and products to relevant blog posts. Ensure reciprocity by linking blog posts back to products and subcategories where relevant.
- Foster interconnectivity among relevant blog posts by establishing links between them.
This strategy creates an interconnected web of content and products, facilitating seamless customer navigation and improving your site’s visibility on search engines.
Optimize Anchor Text
Use relevant anchor text when creating links, ideally incorporating the targeted keyword for the linked page. For instance, if you operate a fitness store and have an article on foam rolling, link to the foam roller product using “foam roller” as the anchor text. Prioritize natural flow and consider using longer-tail versions of keywords for better integration.
Use Authority Page Internal Links to Enhance Other Page Rankings
Identify your site’s authority pages, which are pages with backlinks from authoritative external websites. Utilize SEO tools to pinpoint these influential pages. Once identified, strategically leverage internal linking to transfer some of their authority to other pages you wish to enhance in search rankings. For instance, if a major industry blog links to one of your blog posts, consider it an authority page. Integrate natural mentions of your products or subcategories on this page, internally link to other relevant pages, and boost their visibility in search results.
3. Internal Links for e-commerce: Common Mistakes to Avoid
Avoid Orphaned Pages
Avoid orphan pages, which are pages in your store without any internal links to or from other pages. Even if your content is strong and SEO-optimized, these pages won’t rank high in search results. Additionally, orphan pages can use up your “crawl budget,” especially if they duplicate existing pages on your site.
Don’t put links in forms that require submissions
Refrain from placing important links in forms that require submissions, such as surveys or contact forms. Search engine crawlers don’t follow links within these forms, impacting your SEO efforts.
Don’t Go Overboard With the Number of Internal Links for a Page
Be mindful not to overload pages with excessive links. While internal links contribute to SEO when they provide value, search engines typically cease crawling links beyond the 150th on a page. Sticking to a maximum of 150 links per page is advisable to ensure optimal performance.
Don’t Forget to Update Internal Links
Prevent broken links by updating them regularly. Broken links hinder SEO, as crawlers don’t extract valuable information when following them. High bounce rates, resulting from customers unable to find information due to broken links, can further harm SEO. Conduct site audits periodically to identify and fix broken links. Redirect or remove broken links whenever possible to minimize the negative impact on SEO.
That’s it for our guide regarding internal linking for e-commerce. Don’t forget that an updated blog with great content is also crucial for e-commerce. ArticleHub can help you craft the most engaging content to help you improve your site’s ranking. Contact us to get a quote.
