Building and optimizing your internal linking structure is crucial for your organic search engine optimization (SEO). The internal linking represents the architecture of your site. It allows users to navigate from one page of your site to another through hyperlinks. This linking will help redirect visitors to the page you desire and keep them on your site. Furthermore, it will influence your PageRank (an important SEO criterion). Finally, you’ll be able to create universes or themes within your site by connecting different pages or articles that cover the same topic. This way, you will strengthen your position on the relevant theme, thus gaining legitimacy.
We can clearly see the necessity of optimizing your internal linking. It is a step that begins long before the creation and publishing of your pages and continues over time. Therefore, it is essential to adopt a solid strategy. This strategy is even more important for an e-commerce site. Indeed, an online store presents numerous products and categories. In order to sell more, it is crucial to guide users to the trending products (the most popular) or to specific items.
A rather effective method for optimizing your internal linking is to use a visualization tool online. Miro is a no-code collaborative tool that allows you to outline your strategy using a “Whiteboard”. You have infinite space to jot down your ideas and create complex (or simple) diagrams. Miro will enable you to connect boards to visually plan the different links between your various pages. Let’s look at a straightforward example of using Miro to optimize the internal linking of an e-commerce site. We will start from an empty board to create the architecture that your e-commerce site should follow.
Step 1: Create Levels
This step will allow us to categorize your different pages based on their depth level (how many clicks does it take to reach this page?). It is highly recommended (almost mandatory) to ensure that all pages of your site are accessible within 3 clicks maximum (3 levels). Otherwise, some pages may become “hidden,” which could adversely affect your SEO.
- Create a new board
- Insert sticky notes of different colors to represent the various levels
Step 2: Fill in the Levels
In level 0, create a block for the homepage of your e-commerce site. Next, in level 1, create blocks for your categories. For level 2, your subcategories. And finally, for level 3, your products. Indeed, the structure of an e-commerce site should follow this schema. You can then customize the blocks according to your store.
- Level 0: Home
- Level 1: Categories
- Level 2: Subcategories
- Level 3: Products
- Level 4: No level 4
Step 3: Build Your Links
You will now construct links between your pages. The homepage, for example, will feature the various categories in its menu for easy access with one click. The same applies between categories and subcategories, and so on. You can now link your blocks together. Be cautious not to exceed level 3.
- Create links according to the hierarchy of levels
You now have a foundation to link different pages seamlessly. If you already have a site, you can create blocks for each of your pages and represent the links among them. This will give you a clearer view of your internal linking structure, allowing you to optimize it effectively. You can now connect your pages and products by category to boost them. For instance, avoid direct links that lead to women's shoes if you are on a men's sneakers product page. By using Miro, you can go further and illustrate the entire linking structure of your site.
If you need assistance to develop your e-commerce site, Digidop can help. Indeed, we can provide you with a high-performing site that adheres to best SEO practices for your online business using Webflow.
