The Advantages of Deep Links

Deep links are the text links that point to the sub-pages of a website, rather than the homepage. Obtaining deep links often require more effort than links to the homepage as they are not allowed by all sites. However once you have secured several deep links you will see that the benefits are well worth it the effort.

Deep links increase the value of the specific sub-page the link points to, which in turn increases the value of the website as a whole. Many web marketeers focus solely on getting links to the homepage which will of course boost the value of this one page, but this improved value does not always filter down through the rest of the website. By targeting other key pages, for example the site map, the value can be distributed throughout the site.

This helps move these pages up the rankings in the natural search rankings (serps) in their own right. It allows the site to be found using more keywords than the four or five you would typically target on any one page such as the homepage. The keywords can be long tail and so easier to rank for.

Higher search engine placings across a broader range of keywords will result in more visitors. With more visitors, comes more sales. The objective is to deep link to pages that offer a specific service or product rather than just an about us page for example. This highlights to the visitor straight away what your business proposition is all about by taking them to the most important pages of your site.

As with all other text links, the anchor text in the deep links to the sub page must contain relevant keywords, that is they must match the keywords on the page you are trying to promote. For example, your website might offer travel insurance and so your links to the homepage should contain the keywords travel insurance. Where as your sub page may be telling the customer about annual multi trip travel insurance, a specific product in the travel insurance range. So the anchor text in the link to the page should contain the words annual multi trip travel insurance.

Visitors following these links are taken straight to the page containing the product they are looking for. There is no messing around reading the index page and then trying to find a link to the page they want. Nor are they under any illusion about what the page they are visiting is all about. Following the example in the paragraph above, the visitor would be disappointed if they landed on a page that told them about anything other than annual multi trip travel insurance.

Directing customers to a specific page should increase the conversion of visitors to sales. This is an often overlooked metric in website optimisation as many people that it is all about generating web traffic rather than quality web traffic that becomes customers. Conversion improves because customers need to take fewer steps from entering the website to making a purchase. The fewer clicks a visitor has to make before becoming a customer, the better.

Now the advantages of deep linking are clear, the next step is to understand how to obtain deep links.