inemaSEO 2 — Content: pages only you can write|INEMA.CLUB-PRO

Lesson 6 · 15 min

Internal links and the link ladder

To a search engine, a page with no links is a page that barely exists. Every new page needs a path to it, in the HTML the server delivers, and links going out of it to the pillar page and its sibling pages. The link ladder is the habit that guarantees this: when you publish, edit two or three older pages to point to the new one.

Start the lesson
Wooden staircase of an old house seen from the side, with open doors to the rooms on each floor.

In this lesson you will

  1. 1The fixed link rule: home, pillar page, page
  2. 2The link ladder at every publish
  3. 3Descriptive anchor text instead of "click here"
  4. 4The case of the catalog that lost its links

Goal: link each new page to the pillar page and its siblings, and edit 2–3 older pages to point to it, in the same commit.

01Who links to whom

Click each step.

Click each block in the diagram to see what it does.

The links that count are the ones in the HTML delivered by the server, without depending on JavaScript.

02For every new page

Tap each step.

1. Outgoing links

In the body, 2 to 4 links with descriptive anchors. At the end, a "Read also" block with the pillar page and the siblings.

All links return 200 (the X-ray from course 1 checks this).

03Link map, ladder block, and the check

Write down the map before you publish.

Link map for a new page
New page: <url>
Pillar page (parent): <url>
Siblings (2–4): <url> · <url>
Catalog (2): <url> · <url>
Ladder (2–3 old pages that will now link to the new one):
- <old url 1>: sentence "<anchor text>"
- <old url 2>: sentence "<anchor text>"
- pillar page: entry in the topic list
Collapsed index for a catalog with search
<details>
  <summary>All catalog items</summary>
  <ul>
    <li><a href="/cursos/levain-do-zero/">Levain from scratch</a></li>
    <li><a href="/cursos/forno-domestico/">Home oven</a></li>
  </ul>
</details>
Check with the X-ray
tools/auditoria.sh https://www.seusite.com /pagina-nova/ /antiga-1/ /antiga-2/
# "links internos no HTML" line for each page
# and, on the old one, look for the address of the new one:
curl -s https://www.seusite.com/antiga-1/ | grep -c 'href="/pagina-nova/"'
Example from the repository
$ tools/auditoria.sh https://www.inema.club / /cursos/
-- /  [200]
   links internos no HTML: 27
-- /cursos/  [200]
   title:     Cursos de inteligência artificial, agentes e automação | INEMA.club
   links internos no HTML: 335

With the collapsed index, the courses page delivers the links in the server's HTML, even though it's a search in the browser.

04Practice: link your page

Use the question page from lesson 4.

E1 · Link map

20 min

Fill in the link map for your new page: pillar page, siblings, catalog, and the 2 or 3 old pages for the ladder.

Done when: the map has a pillar page, at least 2 siblings, and 2 chosen old pages, each with the anchor sentence written out.

E2 · Ladder published

30 min

Publish the new page and the ladder edits in the same commit. Run the X-ray and the grep on the old pages.

Done when: the grep finds the new page's address in each old page of the ladder, and the X-ray shows internal links in the HTML of the new page.

05Test what you learned

The explanation shows up after your answer.

Question 1 of 4

What is the link ladder?skill

06Takeaways

Fixed ruleHome → pillar pages; pillar page → questions; page → pillar page, siblings, catalog.
Ladder2 or 3 older pages point to the new one, in the same commit.
In the HTMLCheck it in the X-ray: a link that only exists in JavaScript may not count.

Going further

Google: crawlable links and anchors (English)auditoria.sh (inemaSEO, MIT)
Previous lessonNext lesson