What Are the Best Practices for Improving Internal Linking to Encourage Crawling and Indexing of "Discovered - Currently Not Indexed" Pages?
Summary
Improving internal link architecture can aid search engines in discovering and indexing web pages that are currently not indexed. This primarily involves creating comprehensive link structures, placing links appropriately, organizing site hierarchy, and maintaining link health. Recommended practices are enriched with authoritative citations for further study.
Strategizing Internal Link Structure
Methodical Link Placement
Place internal links methodically within the content to guide both users and search engines towards deeper pages. Ensure your anchor text is conversational and context-specific, aiding in providing clues to the linked content [Moz's Guide to Internal Links, 2021].
Rich Navigation Menus
Create a rich and systematic navigation structure such as bread crumbs or footer links which act as additional internal linking points. This enhances user experience and helps search engines traverse your website [Why Breadcrumbs are Important for SEO, 2022].
Organizing Site Hierarchy
Logical Hierarchy and Theming
Shape your site into logical themes with a clear hierarchy. This structure supports search engines in comprehending your site's organization and helps them discover unindexed pages [Google's SEO Starter Guide, 2020].
Maintaining Link Health
Improve Link Health
Regularly audit and fix broken or redirected links to uphold link health. A free tool like Google Search Console can help track and repair disrupted links [Google Search Console, 2021].
Using Sitemaps
Sitemaps Submission
Create and submit an updated XML sitemap to search engines. This acts as an index for your site, helping search engines to discover and crawl all the pages [Building and Submitting Sitemap, 2022].
Conclusion
Efficient planning of internal linking can improve webpage discovery and indexing. A systematic link structure, logical site hierarchy, maintained link health, and effective sitemap usage are all crucial components in this process.
References
- [Moz's Guide to Internal Links, 2021] Moz. (2021). "The Ultimate Guide to SEO: Internal Links."
- [Why Breadcrumbs are Important for SEO, 2022] Yoast. (2022). "Why Breadcrumbs are important for SEO."
- [Google's SEO Starter Guide, 2020] Google. (2020). "SEO Starter Guide." Google Search for Developers.
- [Google Search Console, 2021] Google. (2021). "Google Search Console."
- [Building and Submitting Sitemap, 2022] Google. (2022). "Building and submitting a sitemap." Google Search for Developers.