Thread: Rewording all Internal Text Links?

When i first created my site, my main concern was having all of my internal link URL's listed.

So I literally listed all links in this format:
Biology-Nation Home Page | Welcome to Biology-Nation | Introduction to Biology Topics | List of Biology Topics | Biology Lists | Biology Social Peer Network | Biology by Course | Biology Colleges and Universities | Biology and Medical Terminology | Healh Science and Medicine Topics | Biology and Society | www.biology-nation.com

Now most of my links have been listed already, so now I am wondering if these ugly needs need to be cleaned up?

I have been hearing so much about anchor text, does have your own internal links use anchor text actually beneficial. Or is only external links anchor text matter.

I have started already cleaning up all of my internal links for example:
Biology-Nation Home would be the anchor text, instead of the actual http:// link.

Am I doing the right thing, is this worth it? Not only does it look better, but will me doing this? actually clean up my HTML code and decrease my overall file sizes, effectively increasing my site speed?

All good questions, who can answer them for me? Thanks

Hi,

Internal links helps spiders find pages on your site. Take a look at wikipedia for an extreme example.

External links anchor text helps with SEO

:flower:

Sami

Great thanks for the clarification, would you recommend me setting up internal links within my article text?

Since alot of keyword a similarly repeated all over my site, due to my specific niche and its sub-disciplines being related. Like the keyword Biology for example? Should I make every word "Biology" a link?

Originally Posted by BiologyWebmaster

Should I make every word "Biology" a link?

If the same words show up too often on the same page it waters down the power of those words. Since you're a new webmaster, you might want to Google about 'keyword density' to learn more about it.

Originally Posted by vectro

If the same words show up too often on the same page it waters down the power of those words. Since you're a new webmaster, you might want to Google about 'keyword density' to learn more about it.

Yea, I am still using the meta keywords that I first listed when I first made my site one year ago. I chose these keywords myself for that is what I wanted to show up under in search results.

Just checked my keywords in Google webmasters tools right now, and only 2 or 3 of the keywords I personally thought my site are, google tells me other unexpected keywords I did not anticipate.

This is good though because this is telling me that google is scaning my internal pages, so now I am pondering on changing my meta keywords to match the keyword that google is finding on my site.

Is this a good idea? Will it help?

Thanks

Originally Posted by BiologyWebmaster

I am pondering on changing my meta keywords to match the keyword that google is finding on my site.

Is this a good idea? Will it help?

Google does not use meta tags to determine site ranking and SERPs, etc. However, it will sometimes extract information from the meta description and display it as a summary in the search results.

Originally Posted by vectro

Google does not use meta tags to determine site ranking and SERPs, etc. However, it will sometimes extract information from the meta description and display it as a summary in the search results.

Oh I know that, I am not worried about google. I am only using webmaster tools for their diagnostics and crawl errors.

So essentially to reclarify the question. Should my keywords be changed to reflect the ones that google if finding on my site.

This would be done for everything else on the web, such as directories, other search engines and anything else that may list my keywords from my meta tags.

For example, whois info list meta tag keywords, also alexa list keywords. my endeavors are way larger than google can provide.

Originally Posted by BiologyWebmaster

Oh I know that, I am not worried about google. I am only using webmaster tools for their diagnostics and crawl errors.

So essentially to reclarify the question. Should my keywords be changed to reflect the ones that google if finding on my site.

Google does not use meta keywords as far as I know, only meta description in a small way. Matching keywords & keyphrases works better for minor/miniscule search engines that actually use meta tags as a ranking factor.

Originally Posted by BiologyWebmaster

This would be done for everything else on the web, such as directories, other search engines and anything else that may list my keywords from my meta tags.

For example, whois info list meta tag keywords, also alexa list keywords. my endeavors are way larger than google can provide.

I usually keep mine consistent. Sometimes I vary things slightly here and there at some directories for diversity.

Originally Posted by vectro

Google does not use meta keywords as far as I know, only meta description in a small way. Matching keywords & keyphrases works better for minor/miniscule search engines that actually use meta tags as a ranking factor.



I usually keep mine consistent. Sometimes I vary things slightly here and there at some directories for diversity.

I can see how diversity in your Internal Links Keywords does provide some added value.

I guess that is what I will have to do. Sit down, using the keyword data that I already have about my site and extrapulate what I can from it.

Thus, in doing so I can then create a new optimize list of keywords for my meta tags that will actually benefit me, and not just be a list of words that I want to rank for, but highlight and use the keywords that match my site and the content that I already have.

Thanks

Originally Posted by BiologyWebmaster

Thus, in doing so I can then create a new optimize list of keywords for my meta tags that will actually benefit me, and not just be a list of words that I want to rank for, but highlight and use the keywords that match my site and the content that I already have.

Yes, but remember to make a distinction between meta keywords and keywords on your page body. Also remember that each page has a different topic. Pick a few keywords to optimize for on each page. Focus your header text at the top of the page and <title> tag on that topic. The first thing Google looks at is the head text since Googlebot reads pages from the top down. Don't forget about keyphrases (a string of keywords). Google also seems to like related words. For example, Google knows the info is focused when it sees your page has the word 'biology' a few times and also the word 'genetics' a couple of times.

All of those guidelines for words apply to your internal and external links. They also apply to the anchor text of incoming links from other pages.

Originally Posted by vectro

Yes, but remember to make a distinction between meta keywords and keywords on your page body. Also remember that each page has a different topic. Pick a few keywords to optimize for on each page. Focus your header text at the top of the page and <title> tag on that topic. The first thing Google looks at is the head text since Googlebot reads pages from the top down. Don't forget about keyphrases (a string of keywords). Google also seems to like related words. For example, Google knows the info is focused when it sees your page has the word 'biology' a few times and also the word 'genetics' a couple of times.

All of those guidelines for words apply to your internal and external links. They also apply to the anchor text of incoming links from other pages.

Thanks Vectro, you just gave me a good idea, and you are correct. Right now I just have one set of keywords for my entire site.

I do need to revamp the general keywords, but then I also have to come up with a list of page specific keywords for each different page, as you mentioned each page is different, so it makes sense to have different keywords for each page