Re-thinking internal link building!?

[eenzoo]

Straight-forward question: Do you link internally contextual if the page is linked via a menu already?

[connd]

Yes, I believe in-context internal links are important, I normally follow what the top 5 sites in each SERP I am targetting do.

[pokeraussie]

If it makes sense to do so then sure why not.

[gm2891]

Of course. The menu is only a navigational element.

In case you're worried about internal linking then, the worst you can do is link to a page A with two different anchors from the same page.

For example, "blackjack games" and "blackjack casinos", from the same page link to your other page Best Blackjack Casinos.

[universal4]

If it makes sense to do so then sure why not.

I think this is part of the key

Only if it makes sense, but over use will appear spammy.

Rick
Universal4

[Pieter_Visser]

Yes in-content links are still very valuable. In-content links are one of the key things to success in SEO

[jurgen]

Sure. Only the text should be meaningful and give an answer to the user. I think now we need to pay a lot of attention to the interaction of the visitor with the site. If the text is not clear where the link is inserted, will it help the user? Why then should Google count it as quality?

[k-sg]

Internal links are very important for crawlers

[gamingmodern]

Completely agree .. It making sense.

If it makes sense to do so then sure why not.

[mics]

Good question. Google counts only the first link that he can find on the page. Thus, in most cases if there is a link from the navigation menu, the contextual link will not give you any benefits. There is a trick: you can make navigation menu links no <a> tags, but do a JS onlick events for example, or use additional modifiers to the links.

[universal4]

Suggesting to try and "trick" google, immediately after stating how intelligent they are becoming detecting links, in another post is an irony we see very often here at the GPWA.

When considering internal links IMO I don't think google cares one bit whether the link is in the footer, sidebar or in content, internal links can and do help.

Are in-content links better?
It depends, If you are linking a page talking about an rtg casino to a review of rtg software, yea that is better then a page about slots linking to a page about video poker, unless the discussion portion where the link is has leaned the discussion toward video poker. As pokeraussie said:

If it makes sense to do so then sure why not.

If the internal link makes sense to you, and makes sense to the visitor, then it is a good link that helps present more information to the visitor.

Don't try to "trick" google.

Rick
Universal4

[wonderpunter]

i always internal link, I have always assumed not much weight was given to navi as most of the changes i have seen were intenral linking

[chaumi]

i always internal link, I have always assumed not much weight was given to navi as most of the changes i have seen were intenral linking

To me, that's confirmation of what you'd logically expect .....

G (I believe, can't prove it) is clever enough to differentiate menu links from body content links from footer links.

Given the nature of menu links and footer links (where some or even all may not be directly related to the actual content on a specific page), it makes sense to take the view that - on an assumption they know what they're doing - it would be entirely logical that an in-body-content link would/should have more weight with relevance to the subject of that page, both from a user and a SE perspective.


****

It's a guess, but the guess would be that main menu navigation links are ignored for weighting purposes (although clearly are likely noted for crawling and maybe other higher-level structural purposes).

Footer, not entirely sure.