Selection of Link Targets

April 17th, 2024 05:40 pm

For a well-thought-out link marketing strategy, the strategic selection of link targets is one of the most important decisions. Many companies tend to simply opt for linking to their most important products or “sales pages”. This approach not only misses the mark, but also puts you at risk of being penalized by Google. Since the choice of link targets can determine the success or failure of a page, we will thoroughly cover the following aspects in this article:

  • Thoughts on the various types of landing pages
  • Use of relevant KPIs for the selection of link targets
  • Importance of informational link targets

Types of Landing pages

Homepage
The homepage is one of the most important and most natural link targets. When newspapers or press portals write about your company, they usually link to the home page of your website, using the brand name. To achieve a more natural approach to active link building, it is important to always include homepage links. In addition, the homepage is also a good link target for distributing link power on your website. The homepage typically features links to the most crucial categories and products. As the link power is also passed on to other pages of your website through internal linking, you indirectly strengthen these important pages with the links that you place on the homepage.

Categories
Stores often use linking to categories as a popular tactic. The strongest keywords that you would like to rank for are often optimized on this type of page. But you shouldn’t overdo it, especially for online stores, as these transactional landing pages are often very conspicuous. External sites are unlikely to link to this type of landing page. While it may be important for you, it provides minimal value for readers. Even a quick glance from a competitor or Google would reveal that this is an intentional link, which goes against the guidelines set by Google. Therefore, you should not overdo link building with pure “product overviews” and caution should be exercised. High-quality content must be generated beforehand, serving as a solid justification for linking to the respective page.

Hub pages (distributor pages)
These pages have a vital role, especially for bigger websites, as their main objective is to distribute link power strategically within the site through internal linking. Hub pages are created for specific topics, which could be something like “spring fashion”, “summer fashion” or “party outfits,” in the case of a fashion store. Basically, these are subject areas where there is search volume, but which cannot be found in the actual navigation. These pages link internally to important landing pages or products, allowing for efficient distribution of the link power accumulated from external links. If you are looking to strengthen multiple categories or products and your budget is limited, creating a “distributor page” can be an effective link target.

Informational link targets
By informational pages we mean blog, guide or magazine pages – pages with no immediate sales goal in mind. By incorporating these pages into your link building strategy, you will create the most authentic and organic links possible. A link to a guide or a magazine article is a very natural link, as it is easy to understand why this link was placed by the external webmaster, since it offers the reader added value. Therefore, informational link targets are rarely questioned by Google. One downside of having links in the informational area is that you do not especially want to rank with this section as the goal here is not to sell anything. However, with good internal linking, you can direct the link power to wherever you desire. At the end of this article, we will go into more detail about the strategic use of the informational area in link building.

Relevant KPIs for teh selection of the link targets

With a tight budget and a large product range, companies often find it difficult to decide on the right link targets. Here are a few key performance indicators that can help you make the right decision:

  1. Turnover
    When starting link building, the focus should be especially on the areas that have generated the most revenue so far, where the costs can be refinanced most quickly. Therefore, when planning the link marketing strategy, you should first define precisely which areas or products convert best and where the average shopping baskets are highest.
  2. Competition
    Smaller websites in particular often make the mistake of focusing on keywords that are highly competitive. Tools such as the Keyword Planner or Keywordtool.io provide good information about search volumes and competition. When starting your link marketing strategy, don’t just concentrate on the most popular landing pages with high search volumes; also consider linking to more targeted pages where you may have a better chance of ranking on page 1 of Google faster. Example:
    Keyword Search volume Competition (100 = max)
    4k television 135.000 100
    4k television 55 inch 4.440 89

    It is clear that it makes sense for weaker stores that are not yet so strongly positioned to start with more specific keywords.

  1. Threshold keywords
    This term refers to keywords that are on the verge of breaking into the high-traffic zone, specifically reaching the first page on Google. If you want to see immediate results, it’s best to check your current rankings in the Google Search Console or another tracking tool. Search for the following keywords:
      1. Ranking between 11-30
      2. Keyword should be relevant to sales (see point 1)
      3. Keyword should have relevant traffic (see point 2)

You should prioritize these keywords over all others, as you can achieve quicker results here. Select landing pages that are optimized for these keywords or landing pages that already rank for these keywords.

  1. Search volume
    Although search volume, as described in point 2, is not always the most important key figure, it is often highly relevant for established internet portals. When a website has established authority and achieved high rankings, it is important to include strong and highly competitive keywords as link targets. This is because the website is now strong enough to compete for competitive keywords.

Importance of informational link targets

As indicated in the definition of landing page types, the informational area plays a central role in the link building strategy in the long term. If you engage in long-term active link building and always strengthen the same pages, this will result in an unnatural distribution of inbound links. Your website will then have so-called link spikes, which are often referred to as “fingerprints”. Such a link profile is conspicuous and unnatural, and you run the risk of being “on Google’s radar”, which in the worst case can lead to a penalty. To avoid this, yet still be able to strengthen the most important pages, the following procedure is recommended:

  1. Select a transactional landing page that you would like to strengthen further, which already has a lot of links. Further active link building may be critical here.
  2. In line with the topic of the selected landing page, create 3-4 informational guide articles that are interesting for readers and represent a good link target.
  3. In each of these guide articles, build in an internal link that points to your transactional landing page.
  4. If you start implementing link building techniques for the 3-4 guides, the resulting link power will be directed towards the transactional landing page that needs to be strengthened through internal linking.

This offers several advantages:

  1. You can strengthen the transactional side without creating a fingerprint.
  2. You have very natural link targets.
  3. You build authority vis-à-vis Google, as you cover the topic comprehensively through the guide topics.
  4. You now also have suitable link targets for publishers who do not want to link to a transactional page.

Conclusion

In order to carry out sustainable link building without getting on Google’s radar, you should spread your link targets widely. Don’t just link to one or two pages but spread the links across the entire website. Link to different types of pages such as

  • Homepage
  • Categories
  • Hub pages
  • Advisory articles

If you regularly change the link targets and spread them widely, utilizing internal linking to channel link power to specific locations, this strategy will lead you to long-term success!