How to handle internal linking on large websites - BrightonSEO UK September 2023

Internal linking is a key element of any SEO strategy, and it's even more important on large scale websites. But how to handle it efficiently when you have tens of thousands of pages? How to make sure you don't miss any opportunity, and that your internal linking is optimized for both users and search engines?

In this talk, Julien shares his methods to efficiently analyse the internal linking of large websites, strategies to design efficient and optimised internal linking strategies, and tips and tricks to implement them at scale.

Transcript

1. How to handle internal linking on large websites Julien Deneuville DATABULLE Speakerdeck.com/diije @diije
2. @diije #BrightonSEO • Young Search Personality @ SMX Paris 2018 • Oncrawl Ambassador • Twitter : @diije • Blog : databulle.com/blog Hello, I’m Julien Deneuville • From Reims, France 🍾 • 12+ years XP • Freelancer since 2017 • Tech SEO / Data / Python
3. @diije #BrightonSEO Internal linking + Large websites
4. @diije #BrightonSEO Large website?
5. @diije #BrightonSEO 100k URLs is usually not enough to affect crawl budget. John Mueller https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1473268153316691975
6. @diije #BrightonSEO
7. @diije #BrightonSEO Make Googlebot’s job faster
8. @diije #BrightonSEO Step 0: fix your links
9. @diije #BrightonSEO Let’s crawl!
10. @diije #BrightonSEO Let’s crawl!
11. @diije #BrightonSEO Avoid redirects Waste of time for everybody Virtually increase the nb of URLs Link directly to the destination!
12. @diije #BrightonSEO Avoid redirects Waste of time for everybody Virtually increase the nb of URLs Link directly to the destination!
13. @diije #BrightonSEO Avoid redirects Waste of time for everybody Virtually increase the nb of URLs àLink directly to the destination!
14. @diije #BrightonSEO Don’t do redirects! Update your internal links acordingly
15. @diije #BrightonSEO Avoid errors Fix broken links Get a strategy for expired content
16. @diije #BrightonSEO No-index pages Waste of time for Googlebot àAvoid links to no-index pages àConsider blocking via robots.txt
17. @diije #BrightonSEO Empty pages
18. @diije #BrightonSEO Step 1: analyze
19. @diije #BrightonSEO PageRank
20. @diije #BrightonSEO PageRank is correlated to traffic
21. @diije #BrightonSEO Calculate PageRank Your crawler probably does • Link Score in Screaming Frog • InRank in Oncrawl • … Otherwise do it yourself • https://dii.je/pagerankmethods
22. @diije #BrightonSEO Best linked pages URL PageRank /jai-une-nouvelle-passion-a-te-raconter/ 0,006949 /les-petits-dessins-les-petites-videos/ 0,006796 /category/creativite/ 0,006548 /category/cyclotourisme-et-cyclosport/ 0,006439 /category/freelancelife/ 0,00634 /category/exposition-2/ 0,006304 /tag/copenhague/ 0,006079 /category/numerique/ 0,005211 /category/culture-graphique-2/ 0,0052 /category/lifestyle/ 0,004798
23. @diije #BrightonSEO
24. @diije #BrightonSEO Compare values
25. @diije #BrightonSEO Data Logs Traffic Sales …
26. @diije #BrightonSEO Split your inventory Top pages Mid-tier Low-tier Garbage
27. @diije #BrightonSEO Step 2: optimize
28. @diije #BrightonSEO 3 directions
29. @diije #BrightonSEO Down
30. @diije #BrightonSEO Your typical menu
31. @diije #BrightonSEO Up
32. @diije #BrightonSEO Breadcrumbs
33. @diije #BrightonSEO On mobile
34. @diije #BrightonSEO On mobile
35. @diije #BrightonSEO Sideways
36. @diije #BrightonSEO Related links
37. @diije #BrightonSEO SEO-specific link blocks
38. @diije #BrightonSEO Which links?
39. @diije #BrightonSEO Algorithms
40. @diije #BrightonSEO
41. @diije #BrightonSEO Slots
42. @diije #BrightonSEO Imagine a block of links
43. @diije #BrightonSEO Mid-tier links
44. @diije #BrightonSEO Top-pages link
45. @diije #BrightonSEO Lower-tier link
46. @diije #BrightonSEO Example: locations
47. @diije #BrightonSEO https://dii.je/zippy
48. @diije #BrightonSEO Step 3: repeat
49. @diije #BrightonSEO Plan ahead
50. @diije #BrightonSEO Anticipate your future needs Seasonality Inventory variations …
51. @diije #BrightonSEO Design adaptable blocks Default rules & substitution Management • Admin interface • File import • Database …
52. @diije #BrightonSEO We improve only what we measure
53. @diije #BrightonSEO Follow up Did the crawl metrics improve? Did the rankings / traffic improve? Did the user experience KPIs improve?
54. @diije #BrightonSEO
55. @diije #BrightonSEO In a nutshell #0 Fix errors #1 Analyze #2 Split your inventory #3 Repeat
56. @diije #BrightonSEO Keep in touch! @diije / databulle.com