Some business owners trying to establish a strong brand message through their website tend to target the primary page and top level pages of their site to get the message across about who they are and the services they offer; mission statement, about us page, etc. Because of their focus on upper level pages they tend to frown on deep links. These are links to pages that are “deep” within a site, anywhere other than top level pages.
Some object because they simply don’t like users bypassing those entry pages where they have their primary message, others believe that users may not discover that they’re on another website and may perceive their own deep page to be a page belonging to another site. Of course they make the sale/conversion if there is one, but the branding and recognition is lost.
The truth is, these deep links are great for your site and shouldn’t be shunned. Here are a few benefits gained from deep links.
Improved Rank in the Search Engines
If you’re serious about getting your site optimized like everyone else racing to dominate their markets than you know the power of inbound links and how they can boost your rank. The more links you have from authority sites passing traffic your way the higher your site will appear in the SERPs.
Those ranks can improve even more if you have links coming in to a variety of pages instead of just your primary pages. This occurs because the search engines deduce that your overall content is worthwhile. This also gives the hint that your links are organic, as many paid link building services tend to target only the homepage.
Boosting Site Traffic
If a deep link can boost your position in the search engine result pages (SERPs) then they can certainly bring your site a lot more traffic. The better your rank in the SERPs, the easier it is for people to discover your site and click through to your content.
Keep in mind also that those who find your site through a deep link are likely to return because of the great content – as opposed to dodging generic home pages. Deep links are more targeted and usually give people more of what they’re looking for.
Deep Links Give More Range for Keywords
If you’re only targeting links to your home page or a few primary pages you’re limited in the number of keywords you can target – likely only 2 per page. If you’ve got a range of deep links being established then you can start promoting each of those pages as a landing page. Is pretty clear that the content is good if people are linking to it. Optimize those pages and start promoting.
Keeping Old Content Alive
You can use a blog to link to older blog posts and deep pages to keep that content alive, receiving regular traffic to maintain relevancy. You can also post summaries of the week and month (or quarter) depending on the market your in. New readers may really appreciate the old links.
Improve and Learn About Your Site
Without the deeper links, users may never really go beyond the homepage of your site. That doesn’t really mean you’re lacking good content, it just means people can’t easily get to your deep content. Outside links that point to deeper pages provide a number of bridges that let people quickly access that content.
For any business, but especially those who have websites with a lot of content, deep links can bring in a lot of traffic to the most relevant portions of your site quickly. You’ll see a reduction in bounce rates, an increase in conversions, faster turn around on transactions and clear indication on which pages do well and which pages need work to improve links and conversion.
