Link Blog

Are all of your pages indexed in the major search engines? If not do you know why? Are the pages so new that the spiders have not had a chance to grab them? If not then you need to review how your internal links are structured.

It never ceases to amaze how many people miss this simple step. There have been numerous occassions that a client will come to me for help and they are just positive that all of their problems are because they don't have enough links pointing to their site, when that simply isn't the case. Often all of their links are in a javascript, or the navigation of the site is laid out so poorly it is difficult for a spider, let alone a human being, to find all of the pages.

If you have a large site or if you utilize javascript or DHTML for your navigation without providing a static link to a sitemap, you could be hindering your site from receiving all of the benefits of your content. It is crucial that any link campaign start in your own backyard, so to speak. Before you ask for the first link swap or before you submit to your first directory MAKE SURE A SPIDER CAN FIND ALL OF YOUR PAGES!

The best way to make sure all of your pages are accessible is by adding a link to a sitemap into your navigation. Personally, I like to use CoffeCup's Google Sitemap Creator. It allows you to create a sitemap based on the files on your hard drive or by spidering the site from the web. By having the software put together the sitemap based on what it finds online, you can get an idea of how well a search engine spider can read and follow your internal linking structure. Of course, if you use it to create the sitemap based on the files on your hard drive, it will grab all of the files for you and create your sitemap. Once the map is created you simply upload it to your folder and incorporate the link onto the pages of your site. It only takes a few minutes and it is well worth the time.

Internal Linking Structure Elements Strategy is an article written by RustyBrick that provides a lot of useful information. He explains the different types of links and how to make the best use of them. While the article was written in 2003 the information here still holds true. Thank you Rusty for this little gem!

Until next time,
LinkQueen