Links to other pages in my website

[jamesray50]

Should I have links from one page to another page on my website? If so, how to I go about doing that? Do I just use a keyword or phrase and link that to another page? How many per page should I do? Will I get better search engine results if I do that?

And what are meta tags and do I need them?

Thanks,

[vangogh]

Absolutely you should link between pages of your website. Without even thinking about search engines it's still a good idea. People are more likely to click a link within your content than to click on your navigation. If you mention your services on your home page you should link the text to your services page, etc.

Where search engines are concerned those links are still links. They probably aren't as valuable as links from other sites, but they are still links. Ideally you'd use a keyword or keyphrase as the anchor text of the link, but make sure first and foremost that the text reads well to real people.

There are a variety of meta tags that pass information to anyone who cares to read them. The two meta tags mentioned most with regards to search engines are the meta keyword tag and the meta description tag. Neither is going to do much or anything to help where your pages rank. The meta keyword tag was so spammed in the past that both Google and Bing ignore the tag entirely. You don't need to waste any time using the tag.

Your meta description may or may not be used as the snippet below your link in search results. It doesn't really help you rank better, but it potentially helps convince someone to click on your link when it is listed in the results. You generally do want to write a meta description for each page of your site. Think of it like a mini ad and a chance to use that text to convince someone they should click through to your page. The tag looks like:


<meta name="description" content="add your description here" />

and it should be included in the head section of your document.

Some people lump page titles in with meta tags. Page titles aren't meta tags, though they are very important. They should be unique on every page and contain the main keyword or phrase for the page.

Hope that helps.

[Spider]

The code you need to add to your page for linking to another of your pages is the same as linking to someone else's site --


<a href="http://yourdomain.com/yourotherpage.html">your other page title </a>
or you could add --


<a href="yourotherpage.html">your other page title </a>

[Harold Mansfield]

You can also link using buttons, and other images. You already have some internal linking since many of your pages link to your contact page.

[Business Attorney]

or you could add --


<a href="yourotherpage.html">your other page title </a>


The second example only works if the page you are linking TO is in the same directory as the one you are linking FROM.

[Spider]

The same folder... but, yes.

[billbenson]

You are talking about relative vs absolute links. You can change directories as well with relative links. Plenty of info if you do a G search.

[Business Attorney]

You are talking about relative vs absolute links. You can change directories as well with relative links. Plenty of info if you do a G search.

I thought of mentioning that but I decided it would add more confusion. :) I still find that I struggle with the relative links when they are not in the parent or a subdirectory of the current directory (like linking from a file in /articles/2011/April/ to an image stored in /images/ ). You professionals may be able to do it easily but I often give up and resort to an absolute link which I can see is correct.

[vangogh]

David you could try using root relative links. It sounds more complicated than it is. Instead of


http://www.domain.com/folder/page.html

you write


/folder/page.html

Starting with a / is the same as saying start at the root directory of the domain.

I actually tend to use absolute links though. My blog posts are often copied moments after being published and republished by others without permission. I always have links in posts to other posts. If the links were relative then those links would end up pointing to non-existent pages on the the site that stole my content. With absolute links the links point back to their true source. It makes it pretty clear to search engines which content is the original and it builds a few links in the process back to the original page.

[Business Attorney]

I actually tend to use absolute links though. My blog posts are often copied moments after being published and republished by others without permission. I always have links in posts to other posts. If the links were relative then those links would end up pointing to non-existent pages on the the site that stole my content. With absolute links the links point back to their true source. It makes it pretty clear to search engines which content is the original and it builds a few links in the process back to the original page.

That is an excellent point in favor of sticking with absolute links.

[vangogh]

It's the seo in me that decided for absolute URLs. The advantage of relative URLs is being able to move the site to a new domain without having to rewrite the URLs, but realistically how often do you do that. If you rearrange folders in side the same domain you often end up having to rewrite the URLs anyway.

[billbenson]

If your site is php you can use the code below. That way if you ever changed domains the absolute links will still work. It will give you an absolute link independent of the domain name. Just to further confuse things :)


<?php echo '<a href="http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . '/directory if needed/pagename.php">link name</a>'; ?>

[jamesray50]

All this talk about different types of codes confuses me. I'll just leave that to the experts and stick to what I know, bookkeeping.

[websonalized]

If you are using a content management system, I would go to their extensions page and look for an extension or plugin that does internet linking. I would search for "link plugin" or "linking" or "link" and see what comes up. That way, you may be able to do your internal linking automated by specifying the keywords to do the link and the url to link to. Sounds a bit complex, but I promise it is a time saver

[Anthony]

linked to other pages is very important in SEO this is also known as the inter linking of the website in which web designer links all pages of the website with each other. For that there are some tips which need to be remember while linking pages to other pages.

1. You can use footer sitemap which can help a lot.
2. Use key-phrases or keywords while linking to other page, like if you have section of internet marketing then use "Anchor Text" as Internet Marketing or Internet Marketing Boston if you are targeting certain area.
3. Use Do follow while linking your own pages.