Internal Linking
Internal linking is important for both user experience and search engine crawlers, to help them find relevant and important pages. Our SEO Office Hours recaps on internal linking topics cover queries including the importance of internal links for SEO, how anchor text is used as a ranking signal, and how Google handles internally linked parameter URLs for indexing.
For more on internal linking, check out: 5 Internal Linking Strategies to Boost SEO and Drive Organic Traffic
Hidden Links are Counted
Links which aren’t visible in the rendered page should carry the same weight as visible links.
Crawl Errors Priority Metric includes Mixture of Signals
The priority metric for crawl errors in search console is a mixture of pages being returned in search results, included in Sitemaps, and if it has internal links. The higher the priority are the ones Google thinks might have content which Google wants to index.
Solve Duplication with Redirects, Canonical and Linking
John recommends using redirects, canonical tags, and consistent internal linking to the primary page to solve duplication. He says Google are against using robots.txt to prevent content duplication, because Google can’t recognise the pages are duplicated if they cannot crawl it.
Overstuffed Text will be ignored
If you overuse the same text too much on a page, including in links, then Google may consider it keyword stuffing and choose to ignore it.
Unlinked Landing Pages are Not Spam
Landing Pages which aren’t linked from the main site are not spam but may take longer to be crawled, and without links, Google will have trouble understanding the context, so John recommends they should be linked internally.
Limit Links On a Page to 3000
Google webmaster guidelines recommends a maximum of 3000 links on a page, and anything over that are likely to be ignored.
Internal Linking of Details Pages is Helpful
Internal cross-linking between your details pages such as product or blog posts, is helpful for search engines to find pages and understand the relationship between pages.
Depth of Content Affects Crawl Rates
If content is buried deep in the site, it might take longer for Google to discover it, or changes. so improving internal linking from higher levels will help pages be crawled faster.
Add Internal Links to Pages with Backlinks to Pass Authority
John says it makes sense to add links from content pages with backlinks, into relevant product or category pages to pass the authority on to those pages.
Links Impact Page Quality
Links on a page can improve the quality of a page, but they are not directly measured as a ranking signal.