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This week the Official Google Webmaster Blog had a series of posts on links.  If you haven’t subscribed to their blog feed yet, you are missing some great tutorial articles that are valuable for all knowledge levels.  One article each day provided an overview of three different link types and their role in Google’s (and all search engines) indexing and search results.

Internal Links

The key takeaway on internal links is twofold: maintain a shallow link hierarchy so pages can be reached with as few of clicks as possible and use descriptive anchor text.  In addition to to a link architecture that allows pages to be accessed quickly, you also need to make sure your internal links are visible to search engines.  Some sites use javascript or flash for navigation menus which sometimes make the navigation links invisible to search engines (and unaccessible to some visitors).  I recommend small site owners avoid these methods and use CSS hover methods to hide and display menu sections.

External Links

External links are often overlooked by site owners.  They focus on their internal link structure and incoming links instead.  External links are important as proof of a human behind a site.  Humans link to related content which provide background, commentary or opinions on topics they are discussing.  Visitors give more credibility and are more likely to follow sites which have links to back up their opinions or provide background information.  Linking to others in an non-obligation way also encourages others to link to content on your site they enjoy, providing great incoming links.

Incoming Links

The article on inbound links is worthy of a read.  A quick explanation of how inbound links affects ranking is followed by tips on getting inbound links.  The most important thing to remember is you will likely need to cultivate relationships to attract links.  This means writing quality content, being passionate about your site and making your site known in your niche market.  Sometimes this means creating the online industry for your niche as the members of it are not web-savy.  This may mean encouraging members of a community or industry to start their own websites, blog and subscribe to feeds.  Once a small group of people start organizing an online community this way, starting conversations and linking to each other the community will be more discoverable and more likely to grow.

I have a number of items marked in my feed reader to write a post upon. They all relate to Google and good site practice for search engine visibility.

In the post The number of pages Googlebot crawls, the importance of a common, standard URL structure is noted. Googlebot crawls URL’s and therefore sees http://www.example.com/ and http://www.example.com/index.html as two different URL’s even though they may display the same content. While there are methods to redirect visitors or tell Google which page is preferred, it is easier to adopt a standard URL structure and consistently use it. By having only one URL to access any page or content, it is much more likely that sites linking to your content will use the correct URL, therefore not splitting your incoming links between two or more different URL’s. Keep this in mind when informing people to link to your site, and if you do see incoming links using and incorrect URL, politely ask the source to update their link.

In an older post on the Google Webmaster Central blog, a quick tutorial is provided on understanding keywords (or common words) identified on Google’s webmaster tools page for your site. If you have a website and have not signed up for a Google Webmaster tools account, I encourage you to do so. This free service provides valuable information to how Google sees your site, allowing you to correct issues and improve your site standing.

One option for even more statistical information about your visitors can come from Google Analytics, which was recently updated with improved interface and new features. While free, Google Analytics requires your visitors’ data be sent and stored at Google. If this is a problem for you, other alternatives, such as Mint, can be customized to provide whatever statistics you like, is hosted on your own server and is available for a minimal cost.

Another development in search engine technology that will affect website owners soon is universal search. Google talked a little about universal search in this post from May and it was deeply analysed in this post on Search Engine Land. The convergence of media types available to searchers with one search query will affect the return rankings for results and increase the competitiveness for the ever sought higher rankings. Universal search should not change how websites optimize themselves for search engines, however. I still believe that quality, relevant content is they cornerstone for your search foundation followed by appropriate inbound links.