If improving your online marketing is your goal, then this article is for you. We’re going to not only talk about what deep linking is (and why it’s so valuable), but also how to do it using WordPress, the easiest online editing tool around.

What is Deep Linking?

First of all, let’s establish what deep linking is so that there is no mystery to it. You’ll see why it’s such a vital step in both online marketing and search engine optimization.

Deep linking, while it sounds complicated, is simply the process of linking from one page on your website to another page throughout the text. For example, in this article I’ve mentioned the phrase search engine optimization and since I know that some readers won’t know what search engine optimization is, I’ve linked those words to another article that focuses on search engine optimization. That’s all deep linking is – helping your visitors to move from one page to another to find related content.

Why is Deep Linking Valuable?

Linking content from one page to another is valuable for two key reasons:

1. It helps search engines find content on your website and, as a result, index those pages;
2. It helps readers find content on your website and therefore read more of what you post.

Both of those are tremendously important for online marketing. Using deep linking, you’re not only helping your visitors, but also helping search engines to better understand your content.

How to Deep Link in WordPress

The first step to deep linking in WordPress is to remember that it’s all about helping people find similar content. Scan through your post and find a keyword or phrase that you feel a reader might want more information about.

Next, save the post as a Draft copy (located in the Publish box of your post editor).

To make editing easier, open a new browser window and navigate to Posts > All Posts in WordPress.

Using the Search Posts field at the top right-hand of your posts list, search for  articles that feature the keyword or phrase you’d like to link to and call up a list of related posts by clicking Search Posts.

You can grab the URL of the post you’d like to link to by right clicking the View option while hovering over the article name, or click the View link to open the post into a new window.

Now that you have the URL of your target article copied to your clipboard, let’s go back to the original article and insert it as a link.

1. Select the words that you would like to be hyperlinked;
2. Click the small link icon located in the editor toolbar for WordPress ();
3. Paste the link into the available URL field and add a title to your link.

Once you click Add Link you have successfully created a link between the new article and the older article, stored deep in your website.

Quick Tips for Deep Linking

1. Only link to content that is relevant and helpful;
2. Limit the number of links in an article to a reasonable amount, based on content;
3. Avoid linking entire paragraphs or large sentences;
4. Avoid hyperlinking words such as “Click here” or “Read More”, instead link phrases.