Cross-Linking and Search Engine Optimization

Web site designers and developers should know how to create search-engine friendly design templates. However, most Web developers seem to think that if they create a text-link site navigation scheme, then a Web site is automatically search-engine friendly. In some situations, adding text links to a Web site might make it a search-engine friendly site. Realistically, though, a site needs more than a single set of text links to make it search-engine friendly. In addition to a spider-friendly navigation scheme, all Web developers should know how to cross-link Web pages with related content. Cross-linking and calls-to-action One way to cross-link related pages is to consider each page's primary and secondary calls-to-action. Balancing primary and secondary calls-to-action can be tricky. If site visitors feel forced into taking a desired call-to-action too quickly, then they will most likely exit the site. People will not "Add to cart" or "Subscribe" without understanding the clear benefits of taking the call-to action. On the flip side, if site visitors are not encouraged to take a desired call-to-action on key pages throughout a site, then Web site owners might also lose sales and conversions. What is a Web site owner supposed to do? Multiple calls-to-action Whenever I create a Conclusion Cross-linking serves two functions. First, cross-linking communicates to both search engines and site visitors that you (the Web site owner) consider content to be important. On an ecommerce site, for example, cross-linking with alternative and upsell links communicates that you consider all of your product-page content to be important. page design templates, make sure you make relevant cross-linking a part of the template. Shari Thurow is Marketing Director at Grantastic Designs, Inc., a full-service search engine marketing, web and graphic design firm. This article is excerpted from her book, Search Engine Visibility (http://www.searchenginesbook.com) published in January 2003 by New Riders Publishing Co. Shari can be reached at shari@grantasticdesigns.com.