The Batman Guide to Internal Linking

THE BATMAN GUIDE TO
INTERNAL LINKING
EXPERT TIPS FOR CONTENT AUTHORITY,
VISIBILITY, AND SEO SUCCESS

THE BATMAN GUIDE TO
INTERNAL LINKING
“HOLY LINKS BATMAN!”

• Fractional Director of SEO (2 agencies)
• SEO Consultant
grantsimmons.com
• InLinks US Ambassador
• Busy chap!
GRANT SIMMONS
X: @simmonet
LinkedIn: /in/simmonet/

• Fractional Director of SEO (2 agencies)
• SEO Consultant
grantsimmons.com
• InLinks US Ambassador
• Busy chap!
• Some brands I’ve helped
GRANT SIMMONS
X: @simmonet

YES. I HAVE A FUNNY ACCENT. I’M FROM LONDON ENGLAND

• Tweet (X) this session! @simmonet
HOUSEKEEPING
X: @simmonet

HOUSEKEEPING
X: @simmonet
#SEOBatman

• Fill out the speaker survey (expo app)
HOUSEKEEPING
X: @simmonet

LOTS OF KNOWLEDGE BOMBS. TAKE NOTES. FIND ME LATER.

Batman:
“Link Intelligence”
Robin:
“Anchor Intelligence”
(AI) J
“DYNAMIC DUO”
@simmonet

Bat Computer
Internal
Knowledge
Graph

KNOWLEDGE GRAPH
X: @simmonet

WHAT WAS ADAM WEST’S
SALARY IN BATMAN: THE
MOVIE (1966)?
X: @simmonet

WHAT WAS ADAM WEST’S
SALARY IN BATMAN: THE
MOVIE (1966)?
$100,000
X: @simmonet

LINK INTELLIGENCE
X: @simmonet
#SEOBatman

• What is internal linking?
LINK INTELLIGENCE

• What is internal linking? “Links
between pages in your site.”
LINK INTELLIGENCE

LINK INTELLIGENCE
Doh!

• How does it help my site?
LINK INTELLIGENCE

• How does it help my site? “Links are
for users: To simplify information
discovery & guide them to a point of
complete satisfaction.”
LINK INTELLIGENCE

“Search engines also use internal
links to discover pages, understand
topic hierarchies, and the relative
importance of pages.”
LINK INTELLIGENCE

“Search engines also use internal
links to discover pages, understand
topic hierarchies, and the relative
importance of pages.”
LINK INTELLIGENCE
“With regards to internal linking, I do
think this is one of the most important
elements of a website. Because it’s a
great way for you to tell us what you
would consider important of your pages”
~ John Mueller - Google

Patent: …a reasonable surfer model that
indicates that when a surfer accesses a
document with a set of links, the surfer
will follow some of the links with higher
probability than others.
GOOGLE’S REASONABLE SURFER MODEL
X: @simmonet

Patent: …a reasonable surfer model that
indicates that when a surfer accesses a
document with a set of links, the surfer
will follow some of the links with higher
probability than others.
GOOGLE’S REASONABLE SURFER MODEL
All links are not equal
X: @simmonet

Attributes of internal links that may
determine additional value in passing
link “equity” or “importance”
• Font size / weight / style / color
• List attributes / position in list
• Type of link i.e. image / text
• Relevance of link in content
• Position in page
ALL LINKS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL
X: @simmonet

Links in the footer
Navigation links
See where to go
Links in body copy
Provide:
connection &
context
No one ever finds or clicks
J

difference between bat man
WHY IS CONTEXT IMPORTANT?
X: @simmonet

difference between bat man and batman
X: @simmonet

difference between bat man and batman
Adding a link to (or from) a page about “baseball”
X: @simmonet

LINK JUICE
A SIMPLE WAY OF EXPLAINING
A COMPLEX CONCEPT
X: @simmonet

Links into
Web Page
“JUICE” INTO PAGE

Links into
Web Page
“JUICE” OF PAGE
“JUICE” INTO PAGE

Links into
Web Page
Links out from
“JUICE” OF PAGE
“JUICE” INTO PAGE “JUICE” OUT OF PAGE

Links into
Web Page
Links out from
“JUICE” OF PAGE
CAN BE INBOUND
LINKS TOO!

Links into
”Value”
Web Page
Links out from
“JUICE” OF PAGE
ALL VILLAINS ARE
NOT CREATED EQUAL

Links into
Web Page
Links out from
“Value”
“JUICE” OF PAGE
ALL VILLAINS ARE
NOT CREATED EQUAL
JUICE ‘OUT’ of PAGE DEPENDS
ON JUICE IN (LINK ‘VALUE’)

IT’S NOT JUST THE NUMBER
OF LINKS TO A PAGE

IT’S NOT JUST THE NUMBER
OF LINKS TO A PAGE
BUT ALSO THEIR ‘VALUE’

• Helps define the most important pages
• Helps define *relative* importance of pages
• It’s not about the number of links to a page**
• Links attributes provide signals of importance
• Provide context (based on location in page)
• Connection to relevant & related pages
• ”Link Juice” is a concept, not a Google thing
LINK INTELLIGENCE RECAP
@simmonet
* Copyright Grant Simmons 2020 J
** All links are not created equal J

TO WHICH 2 CARTOON
SERIES DID ADAM WEST
PROVIDE VOICEOVERS?

TO WHICH 2 CARTOON
PROVIDE VOICEOVERS?
The Simpsons

TO WHICH 2 CARTOON
PROVIDE VOICEOVERS?
The Simpsons
Sponge Bob Square Pants

What is anchor text?
ANCHOR INTELLIGENCE

• Text of a link
ANCHOR INTELLIGENCE
Doh!

• Text of a link
• Informs what to expect
• Provides context
ANCHOR INTELLIGENCE

AND SOMETIMES YOU NEED CONTEXT

• The better your anchor text is, the
easier it is for users to navigate and
for Google to understand what the
page you're linking to is about.
• The anchor text you use for a link
should provide at least a basic idea
of what the page linked to is about.
ANCHOR INTELLIGENCE

• The better your anchor text is, the
easier it is for users to navigate and
for Google to understand what the
page you're linking to is about.
• The anchor text you use for a link
should provide at least a basic idea
of what the page linked to is about.
ANCHOR INTELLIGENCE
Subtle Google. Very subtle.
developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide

Anchor text consisting of a
succinct, well-defined concept
(we’ll talk about that later)

• Generic anchor text like "page",
"article", or "click here".
• Complex anchor text strings
(long sentences)
• Using off-topic text that has no
relation to target page
• Linking in the first sentence
AVOID

When SEOs tell me
their killer strategy is
link back to the
homepage with
anchor text of their
primary keyword(s)

Day one of my job at Homes.com
• Removed footer link to homepage
“homes for sale”
• Looked for natural ‘homes for sale’
anchor text in corpus of blogs
• Added from many of those blogs to
our ‘homes for sale’ landing page
• Net traffic wins = “boy wonder” J
WHAT I DID

Day one of my job at Homes.com
• Removed footer link to homepage
“homes for sale”*
• Looked for natural ‘homes for sale’
anchor text in corpus of blogs
• Added from many of those blogs to
our ‘homes for sale’ landing page
• Net traffic wins = “boy wonder” J
WHAT I DID
*~110,000,000 links

These links are obviously not for users

Format links so they're easy to spot
Make it easy for users to distinguish
between regular text and the anchor
text of your links. Your content
becomes less helpful if users miss
links or accidentally click them.
Avoid:
Using CSS or text styling that make
links look just like regular text.
OBVIOUS LINKING

Keep anchor text:
• Short
• Target-focused
• Informative
• Logically included
• User-first
• Obvious
ANCHOR TEXT INTELLIGENCE RECAP

WHAT WAS 1960 BATMAN’S
UTILITY BELT MADE OF?

WHAT WAS 1960 BATMAN’S
UTILITY BELT MADE OF?
Kitchen Sponges
https://www.metv.com/stories/batmans-original-utility-belt-was-made-out-of-sponges

• Also called:
“silos” & “parent-child” structure
• Parent pages link to child pages
& vice versa
Easy when planning a site
• Define “Target pages” and “donor pages”
“HUB & SPOKE” SITE ARCHITECTURE

• Target pages = main topics of site
“most important” for users and ranking
We want target pages to rank well
• Donor pages relate to target pages
• Donor pages give ‘juice’
• Target pages are recipients of ‘juice’
TARGET & DONOR PAGES

Image: SEOClarity
SIMPLE EXAMPLE

60’s Batman Homepage
TV Series Cast Characters
Heros Villains
History Episodes
Movie
About Crew
Main Cameos
Post Post Post Post Post Post Post Post Post Post
A. West
B. Ward
J. Lewis
B. Lee
Batgirl
Commish
Gordon
Joker
Catwoman
Dozer
Martinson
Season1
Season 2
Origin
Comics
More Granular
Target Pages
(+ donor pages)
Hub / Target
<
Target Pages
(+ donor pages)
<
Donor pages
themed around
target topics
<
<
60’S BATMAN SITE EXAMPLE

60’s Batman Site Example
Heros Villains
History Episodes
Movie
About Crew
Main Cameos
A. West
B. Ward
J. Lewis
B. Lee
Batgirl
Commish
Gordon
Joker
Catwoman
Dozer
Martinson
Season1
Season 2
Origin
Comics
More Granular
Target Pages
(+ donor pages)
Hub / Target
<
Target Pages
(+ donor pages)
<
Donor pages
themed around
target topics
<
<
TIP: Avoid going overboard with slicing
and dicing your content (so that it takes
20 clicks to reach from the homepage)
~ Google

Heros Villains
History Episodes
Movie
About Crew
Main Cameos
A. West
B. Ward
J. Lewis
B. Lee
Batgirl
Commish
Gordon
Joker
Catwoman
Dozer
Martinson
Season1
Season 2
Origin
Comics
More Granular
Target Pages
(+ donor pages)
Hub / Target
<
Target Pages
(+ donor pages)
<
Donor pages
themed around
target topics
<
<
TIP: Avoid going overboard with slicing
and dicing your content (so that it takes
20 clicks to reach from the homepage)
~ Google
Means: The more important you
believe your page is, the fewer clicks
it should be from the homepage
~ Grant

Heros Villains
History Episodes
Movie
About Crew
Main Cameos
A. West
B. Ward
J. Lewis
B. Lee
Batgirl
Commish
Gordon
Joker
Catwoman
Dozer
Martinson
Season1
Season 2
Origin
Comics
More Granular
Target Pages
(+ donor pages)
Hub / Target
<
Target Pages
(+ donor pages)
<
Donor pages
themed around
target topics
<
<
TIP: Don’t create complex webs of
navigation links, for example, linking
every page on your site to every other
page. ~ Google

Heros Villains
History Episodes
Movie
About Crew
Main Cameos
A. West
B. Ward
J. Lewis
B. Lee
Batgirl
Commish
Gordon
Joker
Catwoman
Dozer
Martinson
Season1
Season 2
Origin
Comics
More Granular
Target Pages
(+ donor pages)
Hub / Target
<
Target Pages
(+ donor pages)
<
Donor pages
themed around
target topics
<
<
TIP: Don’t create complex webs of
navigation links, for example, linking
every page on your site to every other
page. ~ Google
Means: Be selective in the pages you
link to, making sure they’re related &
relevant. ~ Grant

• Also called:
“silos” & “parent-child” structure
• Parent pages link to child pages
& vice versa
Easy when planning a site
• Define “Target pages” and “donor pages”
MORE DIFFICULT with an existing site
“HUB & SPOKE” SITE ARCHITECTURE

‘REARCHITECTING’
SITE ARCHITECTURE

Catalog – assign pages as target and/or donor
Identify gaps (more donor pages needed)?
Align target pages with topics / entities
Create map
RESTRUCTURING THE STRUCTURE

MAPPING EXAMPLE
MANUAL PROCESS – BUT GOOGLE SHEETS IS YOUR FRIEND

THIS SHEETS FORMULA IS YOUR FRIEND
ASK ME TO SEND YOU A TEMPLATE J
=IF(REGEXMATCH(B2, $B$1), "TOPIC NAME","")
B2 = cell value (copy down)
$B$1= topic1.1|topic1.2|topic1.3
e.g. $B$1= batman|bat man|barman

FOR EACH HUB
• Remove all internal links from the "target" page
• Add links to all the "spoke" pages from the "target" page
(article title for anchor text okay - or naturally in content)
• Remove all internal links from the "spoke" pages
• Add one link from the "spoke" page to the "target" page with the
defined anchor text
• Add a CTA from hub and spoke pages to the service page add link to
"offer" somewhere within the "target" page copy as a secondary CTA
• The "offer" link can also be added to *some* of the "spoke" pages
(no more than 3)

FOR EACH HUB
• Remove all internal links from the "target" page
• Add links to all the "spoke" pages from the "target" page
(article title for anchor text okay - or naturally in content)
• Remove all internal links from the "spoke" pages
• Add one link from the "spoke" page to the "target" page with the
defined anchor text
• Add a CTA from hub and spoke pages to the service page add link to
"offer" somewhere within the "target" page copy as a secondary CTA
• The "offer" link can also be added to *some* of the "spoke" pages
(no more than 3)
THERE WILL NOT BE A TEST J

Bat Computer
Internal
Link
Graph
REMEMBER THIS?

REMEMBER THIS?
Anchor text consisting of a
succinct, well-defined concept
(we’ll talk about that now)

KEEP THE HUBS “TIGHT” & FOCUSED ON TOPIC
REMEMBER THIS?
NO. I HAVEN’T SHOW YOU THIS SLIDE YET

HOLY
ENTITIES!
PAGE FOCUS (FINDING ENTITIES)
Entities are focused topics
“unique and cataloged”
Used as focused page targets
• Wikipedia
• InLinks (incl. Google NLP)
• ChatGPT

HOLY
ENTITIES!
Internal link ideas (hub / spoke)
ENTITIES (WIKIPEDIA)

• Google says “reasonable number” –
maybe a few thousand is okay
• Links are for users
• Wikipedia Batman page almost 5,000
links of which almost 4,000 are internal
• Wikipedia has an almost perfect link
graph connecting entities to related
entities
TOO MANY BODY COPY LINKS?

• Google says “reasonable number” –
maybe a few thousand is okay
• Links are for users
• Wikipedia Batman page almost 5,000
links of which almost 4,000 are internal
• Wikipedia has an almost perfect link
graph connecting entities to related
entities
TOO MANY BODY COPY LINKS?
YOU ARE NOT WIKIPEDIA!

(THOUGH FEW OF MY SITES BEAT WIKIPEDIA!) J

HOLY
ENTITIES!
SERP Analysis (hub page ideas)
ENTITIES (INLINKS)

HOLY
ENTITIES!
Targets Based on Google NLP
ENTITIES (INLINKS)

HOLY
ENTITIES!
Copy & Paste Content
ENTITIES (CHATGPT)

BARRY ALLEN: WHAT ARE YOUR
SUPERPOWERS AGAIN?

BARRY ALLEN: WHAT ARE YOUR
SUPERPOWERS AGAIN?
BATMAN: I’M RICH

THE RIGHT TOOLS
Crawlers / Audit Tools
Small / Medium
Screaming Frog (Batman’s Robin)
Sitebulb (Batman’s Alfred)

VISUALIZATION OF INTERNAL LINK STRUCTURE
Source: Sitebulb

PAGE DETAILS / INTERNAL LINKING / EQUITY SCORE
Source: Sitebulb

FIND ENTITIES (TARGETS) AND GAPS (OPPORTUNITIES)
Source: InLinks

DEFINE TARGET PAGES: AUTO-CREATE INTERNAL LINKS
Source: InLinks

• Link intelligence
Find link purpose & ideal placement
• Anchor text intelligence
Simple, user-first info discovery
• Hub & Spoke Site Architecture
Guide users (incl. Google) to satisfaction
• Scale, Automate, Research, Crawl Better!
Tools help SEOs do internal links better!
INTERNAL LINKING KNOWLEDGE BOMBS

HOPE YOU ENJOYED YOUR KNOWLEDGE BOMBS

LINKEDIN/IN/SIMMONET X@ SIMMONET

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/
1Dp9E5jzt_6lbWymUeUdTAqXYTaodWZQk-
EX1WZdmcwI/edit?usp=sharing

The Batman Guide to Internal Linking

The Batman Guide to Internal Linking

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The Batman Guide to Internal Linking