When executed effectively on an eCommerce site, internal link building can play a significant role in improving SEO. The idea of internal linking can be thought of as linking from one page on your site to relevant information on another of your pages by means of a hyperlink. Having a healthy link building strategy not only improves user navigation, but also helps to keep users engaged for longer on your site. Below are a few internal linking tips specifically for an eCommerce websites.
Link Product and Categories from Relevant Content
Internal linking is only really effective if there is enough relevant content to link from. One of the most common areas to use internal linking is a blog section or news section. This is a common practice for most websites, however for eCommerce sites linking directly to a product page or category page may help increase engagement and the likelihood of a purchase. A common pitfall is linking to an irrelevant sections to the site or linking excessively, which may make the visitor frustrated and eager to leave. The objective is have your visitors be interested enough to stop reading and venture to the product or category page for additional information.
Link Products to Other Products
Especially for eCommerce sites, internal linking related products or services pages not only helps user experience but can be greatly beneficial to overall SEO efforts. If your product is sold in a different style, model, brands, or even colors; make sure those pages are referencing each other. It’s important to make sure that undecided shoppers have the ability to ‘shop around’ and not struggle to find what they need.
Use Proper Anchor Text
Using descriptive anchor text when creating an internal links not only allows the reader to know what the link opens up to but also provides additional information to the search engines. To clarify, anchor text is simply clickable text that appears highlighted in a hyperlink. This may seem like a perfect opportunity for additional optimized text however, creating super optimized anchor text may appear keyword heavy or spammy to search engines. A properly used anchor text will link relevant text to additional information that ultimately brings further value to the visitor.
As mentioned before, properly implementing internal links such as, using anchor text, linking from blog content, and linking product pages to other coinciding product pages helps strengthen your SEO efforts by providing search engines with additional information about other relevant content on your site.