Internal linking passes: connect what you publish to what books.
A post about the road in helps a guest. The same post linked from the big-rig page and linking back to it helps the guest and tells Google the big-rig page matters.
IN ONE PARAGRAPH
An internal linking pass is a routine check that every page links to its neighbors and to the pages that book, with link text that says what the destination is. New content gets linked from the relevant guest page and links back to it. Old posts get linked to newer ones. Money pages, sites, cabins, monthly, rates, collect links from everything related. It costs nothing, it takes minutes per page, and it is the most skipped step because nobody owns it. Once a quarter across the site and once per new page is the rhythm.
The pass, step by step
- For each new post or page: link to it from the guest page it belongs to, in the body text. Link from it back to that page and to the booking page. Use link text that names the destination.
- Quarterly: list every page. For each, note which pages link to it in the body. Pages with none or only the footer get links added from related pages.
- Find posts on the same topic and link them to each other.
- Check that every article and area page ends at a book button or the phone number.
- Replace "click here" and "learn more" with text that says where the link goes.
What a pass looks like
The quarterly pass on a park site with 24 pages, as a checklist:
- New winter page: linked from the homepage seasonal spot, from the sites page ("winter sites with heated water"), and from the monthly page. It links to the monthly page and the book button. Done.
- Cabins page: was linked only from the menu and footer. Added a sentence and link on the homepage, the family page, and the area page. Done.
- Three posts about the road in, propane, and the derby: cross-linked to each other and each ends at the sites page. Done.
- Seven "click here" links found and rewritten to say the destination. Done.
- Search Console internal links report: cabins page moved from 3 internal links to 9.
About an hour. It is the cheapest hour in this guide.
Why link text matters
Google reads the words in a link as a description of the page it points to. Fifty links reading "see the pull-through sites" tell Google the sites page is about pull-through sites. Fifty links reading "click here" tell it nothing. The same page, the same links, and one version ranks for the term.
What it looks like when it is missing
Thirty blog posts, none linking to the sites page. A cabins page reachable only from the footer. A winter page from last year that no current page mentions, so Google has half forgotten it. New posts published and never linked from anywhere, so they sit unindexed for weeks.
What it costs a park
The ranking that structure would have given the money pages, and the readers of every post who reached the end with no path to book. It is the cheapest fix in this guide and it is undone every time a page is added without the pass.
How to check your own
- Open your three newest posts. Count the links in each to your sites, cabins, or rates pages. If it is zero, the pass has not happened.
- In Search Console, Links, look at internal links per page. The money pages should be near the top.
What we do about it
Every page we publish gets linked in and out as part of publishing it, and every site we maintain gets a quarterly pass. The structure itself is on its own page.
Questions about this.
What is an internal linking pass?
A routine check that every page links to related pages and to the pages that book, with descriptive link text, done when each new page is published and across the whole site quarterly.
Should blog posts link to the booking page?
Yes. Every post and area page should end at the page that books or the phone number, and link to the guest page it relates to.
What should link text say?
What the destination is: "see the pull-through sites" rather than "click here." Google reads link text as a description of the page linked.
How often should I review internal links?
On every new page as it is published, and across the whole site once a quarter, because structure drifts as pages are added.
Want this done for your park?
This is the ongoing work in the Marketing band. Tell us about your park and we will say what we would build first. SEO for parks starts at $250 a month.
Part of the RV park SEO guide, section: What grows a park site. Previous: Business Profile posts and photos: an active profile beats a stale one. Next: Content refreshes: fix the pages you have before writing more.