Even the best content will fail if the internal link structure of your site is not user centric. With the Searchmetrics Link Optimization tool, you can analyze your entire internal link structure and receive targeted recommendations to optimally link your pages. View the deminar on demand to answer the following: Are my pages readily accessible to users and search engines? How can I improve the flow of "link juice" through my site? How can I use internal links to improve the topic authority of my pages? http://www.searchmetrics.com/news-and-events/deminarlink-optimization-using-searchmetrics-suite/

1. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
Link Optimization
Improving the Accessibility of Your Content

2. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
Introduction
Works with our enterprise-level clients,
specializing in technical optimization
Supports large-scale initiatives, such as
website migrations and international site
optimization
Kirby Burke, Jr.
Professional Services Manager
k.burke@searchmetrics.com
www.linkedin.com/in/kirbyburkejr
@KirbyBurkeJr

3. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
What’s a Deminar?
combinationof2wordsatplay=Word-Play
Demo+Webinar=Deminar!

4. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
About Searchmetrics
• We are an SEO & Content Optimization platform with our own data
(Research Cloud)
• A data and knowledge repository that contains over 250 billion data
elements that are continuously updated like keywords, search topics,
social and PPC data—reaching back to 2009.
• Variety of customers (F500, enterprise, e-commerce)
• Established in 2005

5. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
Whyis LinkOptimization
Important?• Internal Links are one of the most
important Ranking Factors
• Improves UX by making content more
accessible to users
• Makes pages more accessible to search
engines
• Helps users and search engines
understand the content of pages

6. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
HowInternalLinking
Works• Links are references from one page to
another
• Links accumulate and pass link juice to
other pages on the site
• Optimized Internal Linking structure
reduces the distance between pages
and maximizes the amount of link juice
passed between them

7. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
Howto Measure Internal
Linking
SPS CheiRank

8. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
Howto Measure Internal
Linking
SPS
• Searchmetrics Page Strength (SPS)
• Measures the amount of link juice on
a URL
• SPS is passed through internal links
from other pages
• Similar to Google’s PageRank

9. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
Howto Measure Internal
Linking
CheiRank
• Measurement of how effectively a
page can pass link juice to others
• Based on the number of outgoing
links from a page
• Pages with high CheiRank are called
Hub Pages

10. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
LinkBalance
CheiRankSPS
How well am I linking to
my page?
How well am I linking
from my page?

11. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
Number of
Internal Links
• On average, mobile pages have
about 40% less internal links than
desktop pages
• Most mobile sites have much
simpler navigation options

12. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
Number of
External Links
• Both mobile and desktop pages have
significantly less external links
• External links are valuable if they
provide relevance to the user
• Too many external links reduce the
amount of link juice on the site

13. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
Link Optimization
Benefits
• Identify pages with most and least value
• Discover “hub pages” that can push SPS from high to low-value pages
• Discover where link juice is being wasted
• Identify anchor texts in links that are not focused on relevant terms
• Compare to previous results to monitor performance

14. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
• Same setup as standard SSO Crawl
• Check the “Analyze internal linking”
option
• Internal Linking Analyses add an
additional cost of one Page credit
per URL (two credits total)
Setting Up Link
Optimization

15. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
• Scatter plot of SPS compared to
other key metrics to answer:
- Can pages with traffic potential be
better linked?
- Are my hub pages adequately linked?
- Are my high-traffic pages well linked?
- Are my important pages sufficiently
linked?
URLs by Performance

16. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
• Page Level = How many clicks pages
are from the homepage
• Page Level should be 3 or less
• Includes average of incoming &
outgoing links at each Page Level
• Increase outgoing links from lower
level pages to higher level pages
Pages and Links
per Level

17. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
• Broken Links
• Redirected Links
• Nofollow Links
• Poorly Linked Pages
• Pages Wasting Link Juice
• Unfocused Anchor Texts
Linking Issues

18. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
• Page-level analyses of how pages
are linked
- SPS
- CheiRank
- Inbound & Outbound Links
- Traffic Index
- Link Flow
- Anchor Texts
URL Details

19. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
• Any updates to Internal Linking can
impact site performance
• Use Events to annotate changes in
the Project setup
• Events will be displayed on other
reporting
Project Events

20. Takeaways

21. © Searchmetrics. All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.
Takeaways
• Internal Linking Analysis provides insights about how accessible content is to
users and search engines
• Leverage pages with high SPS and CheiRank to push link juice to important
pages on the site
• Use Link Balance to optimize number of incoming, outgoing and external links
• Ensure significant content is in Page Level 3 or less
• Resolve issues with specific links (broken links, redirects, etc.)
• Optimize anchor text in links to maximize the authority passed to target pages

22. Thanks for joining!
Questions?
k.burke@searchmetrics.com
www.linkedin.com/in/kirbyburkejr
@KirbyBurkeJr