Deep Linking – How Does It Work?
Search engine optimization misinformation exists all over the Internet. Ask a number of different SEOs what deep linking is and how to achieve it and you will get a wide range of different answers. What exactly does deep linking mean? And, how do you achieve it?
Google deep linking and Wikipedia’s deep linking webpage will show up near the top of the SERPs. Yet, their definition of deep linking is totally erroneous. This is rather ironic since Wikipedia pioneered the concept of deep linking. Except that Wikipedians prefer to say Wikify rather than deep link.
Deep Linking
In SEO, deep linking loosely refers to the idea that the total pagerank of a website should be evenly distributed over all of its webpages rather than being concentrated just on its home page and on a few of its other webpages. While the notion of being able to carve up and shape the flow of your pagerank is a little bit ludicrous, the concept of deep linking nevertheless still exists and is still important because Google is a map maker. But, what this pagerank definition of deep linking is really saying is that the number of inbound links to each of your webpages should be more evenly distributed.
With deep linking you are basically trying to obtain links to all of your internal webpages. And, especially to all of your lower level webpages which tend to be totally ignored by other websites.
The basic position of this blog is that SEO is about stuff that you have control over. So, if you want links to all of your webpages, and you do, then it is entirely up to you to manually make those links yourself.
Deep Linking is Achieved by Cross-Linking
Most website operators are totally confused about cross-linking. They setup a navigation system that makes their entire website crawlable. They design a hierarchy of directories. And, if you start crawling their site from its home page, then you will be able to reach everyone of their webpages. Therefore, their work is done. Wrong!
Deep linking does not happen by magic. It is not achieved by the use of gimmicks. It takes work and you have to manually make it happen yourself. Deep linking means the same thing as cross-linking. And, is a major part of how anyone ends up wikifying their website. There is only one way to deep link. And, that is by cross-linking each of your webpages to each other within the body of text that is located on each page.
