What is an Internal Linking Structure?

Internal linking structure refers to how the internal pages of a website are linked. When a website has a well-built and coded linking structure, search engines can navigate the site with great ease. When search engines can crawl smoothly, users can locate your website easily.

 The general impression is that links from other websites matter the most. True, but not completely true. For proper SEO, internal linking is also very significant. When you launch your website, you need to ensure that your internal linking is functioning properly. This will enable you to have complete control over your website. Properly used internal links can be your launching pad or first step towards proper SEO. A well linked internal structure can help in the following ways:

 It ensures that your website is properly spidered. This means all pages are found by the search engines

 If the linking is not done properly, pages can be hidden from search engines because of incomplete or no indexing. When the search engine is able to index all the pages of your website, it increases the number of pages that a search engine credits your site with, and also promotes the keywords that your website has the potential to rank for. Internal linking structure helps to build the relevancy of a page to a keyword phrase.

 Building the Relevancy of a Page to a Keyword Phrase

 Most websites use their homepage to target competitive phrase.  The less competitive phrases are tucked in the internal pages. To make the page more relevant use the keyword phrase in the anchor text of the links to that page. This will make the page more search engine friendly.

 Increasing Internal Pages PageRank

 The closer a page is from your homepage, the higher will be the value of the page. Do not commit the mistake of linking all of your pages from your homepage. This will diffuse the weight of each individual link. Choose the best pages to target keyword phrases.

 Other methods you can employ to improve your internal linking structure are by text link navigation, footers and inline text links.

 When all of these are properly taken care of, your website is ready to be called search engine friendly.

How websites are affected by black hat SEO techniques?

SEO experts need to follow a set of search engine mandated guidelines to get their websites ranked on the Net. Search engines look out for relevant websites on the basis of these guidelines. However, trying to achieve ranks following the prescribed guidelines can be pretty difficult and time consuming. Many experts try to attain ranks by misleading the search engines. They flout the guidelines, which the search engine is unable to detect immediately, and easily find their way to the top. The methods employed to dupe the search engine is known as black hat techniques. Though these methods are highly effective, it is illegal and unethical to follow them. You cannot fool the search engine forever by pursuing such methods, and once caught; your site will be banned forever.

Black hat SEO experts employ a wide variety of strategies. The most popular and well known method is known as site cloaking. In this method your site is made to appear different to the search engine and to your visitors. When is this method employed? Some sites have more of flash and images than content. However, the search engine can neither see flash nor images. The only content they can recognize is the written content. So, some of these websites hit upon the plan to cloak, so that their site appears to have more content than it really does. In this way they find a short cut to achieve a higher rank.

Another black hat method is to stuff the website content with keywords. As search engines distinguish and pick up pages on the basis of keywords, many experts believe that overloading pages with keywords is a good way of currying favour with search engines. However, when the search engines scan the pages, and find it crammed with keywords, it interprets it as an attempt to win it over. Sniffing out the ploy, they will ignore the page altogether.

There is no end to black hat SEO tactics. However search engines become aware of these tactics sooner than later. So it is just not easy to get away. Those focussed on internet marketing must know better than others that slow and steady wins the race. The climb to the top may be stiff and slippery, but success attained thus is longstanding.

Ranking success through black hat methods is ephemeral!

Internet Marketing Requires Patience and Persistence

Online marketing is a very detailed task. It entails a lot of web based applications, which keep fluctuating now and then. Getting the right balance of factors required for promoting your website takes time. Moreover, climbing up in search result ranking is not only arduous but also difficult to sustain. You may be on the top today, but may not be able to hold it for long. To retain the top slot you need to feed your website constantly. So, marketing your company online requires patience and persistence.

Websites require plenty of time and dedication to become successful ventures. One important aspect of web promotion is getting strong external links. External links are links from other sites of the same domain to your site. Since they come from other sites to your site they are also known as ‘incoming links’. The incoming links are interpreted by the search engine as votes for your site. The higher the number of votes you have, the further ahead you are in the race. But getting links is never an easy task. Why would another site provide you a link? You have to barter links for links or at times even money in order to have many incoming links. This is in itself a very time consuming task. Sending offers to other sites may or may not be entertained. Again, the quality of links matter a lot. If you get links in bulk from poor quality sites it may not be of much value. A quality link is worth several cheap links. Getting a quality link can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. To get good links you need to send out plenty of lucrative offers to other sites. This entire process can eat up lot of time.

Another reason why patience is required comes from the fact that most successful blogs or websites follow an exponential growth line. In other words, the longer time your website remains in existence the more the numbers of readers it accumulates.

Some of the most successful marketers had no sale for months, but they did not give up. They were confident about their online marketing strategy and did not get disheartened. Instead, they became more focused. Once the strategy clicked they never had to look back.

Your internet marketing is like a long term plan. For any long term plan you need to have tons of patience, persistence and the insight to tweak your plan along the way.

White Hat SEO

SEO methodology that complies with the guidelines set by search engines are known as white hat methods. In other words, white hat SEO is the anti-thesis of black hat SEO. Following these methods will prevent you from being exposed to risks which may lead to the banning of your website.

White hat SEO is about building and maintaining a quality site. How to know whether the site is quality or not? If other sites would want to link to your site naturally, it means you are maintaining a quality site. White hat SEO is also about employing a back link campaign that will encourage other sites to link back to your site. It involves no dubious methods like cloaking or stuffing content with keywords.
Some White hat SEO techniques are mentioned below:
Press Releases – This is a very good and genuine way of encouraging a buzz about your site thereby prompting other sites to link to you. Press release involves writing something newsworthy about your site, and getting it distributed via the many online seo services. Anything sensational has instant news value and is picked up by agencies for circulation.
Viral Content – This method of white hat SEO involves creating unique, easy to understand, must-share ideas presented in the form of content, cartoons, videos, and audio to attract the masses. Once your content or video manages to go 'viral' there will be a beeline of sites to link to your site.
Article Marketing - Article marketing is another genuine and widely accepted way to procure back links. With the help of this way, you can drive enormous traffic to your site. Valuable information to the reader can help you get good back links.
Guest Posts On Blogs – Hunt for an authority blog in your niche. Such blogs have huge followings. You can develop a relationship with the owner. It is easy to develop one if you can provide some value to the blog through your site. Seek the permission of the owner to write a piece on their blog and at the end leave a back link.
The basic principle of white hat SEO is to optimize a site naturally in a way that is both ethical and assiduous.