Question about content links...

[jessiesc]

I'm not sure if this is where to ask this question or not so here goes:

I have seen many web sites where within the content there are alot of links. Is this something that helps rankings overall? To me it looks cluttered, but then again I'm not an SEO guy.

Example:

Whether you are Buying or Selling we can help you.

Thanks in advance.

[dcsmith]

I've been told it helps and it certainly seems to be helping our site. If you don't like the cluttered look you can change your anchor tags so they don't look any different that the rest of the text, but then no one would know to click on them. I'm sure there will be more experienced replies.

Dave

[KSA]

Jessie,

Links like the ones you describe help in two ways. First, they're part of your internal linking structure, which does help the search engines find your most important pages. And the anchor text used for the link tells them a bit more about the pages' content.

The second benefit is to your visitors. Since Internet visitors like to scan rather than read, those links give them a quick idea of the resources available on your site. Leaving them in a different color, etc. helps the visitor scan down the page and find something of interest.

My experience has been that until you can get a visitor's attention on the home page, for example, they're not going to spend a lot of time studying your menu to figure out which pages are of interest.

And, they're helpful on internal pages, too. Let's say a visitor is on your Buying page, and you say something like "Be sure to read my article about the 10 things you can do to simplify your next home purchase." If you don't have something in that sentence linked to the page containing that article, you've left a challenge for the visitor. Now, if they're interested, they have to mess about with the menu until they find the right page. With the link, you've made your site navigation much more intuitive.

So, maybe it looks messy, but I think it's worth it.

Hope this helps.

Kathleen

[jessiesc]

Thanks to both of you (Kathleen and Dave),

What you say makes sense. I've started setting up the internal links.

I believe it's very difficult when you own something or create it to step back and analyze it objectively.

thanks again, on to the linking

[webmaster]

Jessie - I am "the" SEO Guy - and the best SEO advice I will ever give you or anyone else, is that you should never do anything just because you think it will help your search engine rankings.

Here is the secret to good SEO

When you are contemplating adding/ doing something to your site ask yourself, will this help my visitors? Do it help them navigate to your most helpful information, does it channel them into your best converting pages, does it showcase what it is you have to offer on your website?

If you create your content with your users in mind, search engines will always reward you.

Now I am not saying that there arent best practices when creating "user friendly" content, but before you learn those techniques, understanding this is fundimental