John Mueller of Google recently answered a question about whether internal links in the footer or header are used differently by Google. John Mueller of Google explained the slight difference in how Google handles the main content of a page and highlights how Google handles internal links within a web page.
internal links
Internal links are links from within a website that go to another webpage within the same website.
Examples of internal links are menu links which are usually found in the header and also links to important sections of a site such as the “about us” page and contact page which are frequently found in the footer of a website.
Internal links can also be links to other pages within the site within the site’s content.
John Mueller of Google discusses internal links
Are all internal links equally important?
John Mueller of Google said that internal links are important and that the person asking the question wants to know if there is a difference in how different types of internal links are handled.
the person asked:
“I recently reiterated the importance of internal linking to signal to Google how important specific content on a site is.
I want to know, are the links in certain sections of the site seen differently.
For example, if a page is linked within a header or footer and is therefore included on every page of the site.
Does Google use these links differently than links within the body of the page? “
Internal links are no different
Mueller explained that links are not treated differently because of where the links are located within the web page.
John Mueller replied:
“We don’t really make a difference there.
So, if that’s the case, things get linked in your footer and they’re linked across your entire website, and from our point of view, you have those links from all over your website.
It’s not that we might say, oh, like the links in the footer have less weight or aren’t useful so much that we’re going to ignore them or anything like that.
So from that point of view, when it comes to links, we basically see them as links on the page.”
Text is treated differently based on the location
The following John Mueller explained that text within the main content is handled a little differently.
It is to explain:
“It’s a little different when it comes to the text that’s there, where we’re trying to understand the underlying content of the page.
And when it comes to ranking relative to the other content on your website, we’ll try to focus on the primary content section of the page.
But links from our perspective only help us better understand the structure of the site and whether they’re in the header, footer, sidebar or main content, it doesn’t really change anything for us.”
Internal links are important
John Mueller explained that while content in the main content area is treated a little differently, internal links within the header, footer, or main content are treated the same way.
Mueller also emphasized that internal links in the footer and header are given no less weight than links in the content of a web page.
the quote
Best Internal Link: Header and Footer vs. In-Content Links
Watch John Mueller answer the question at 45:09
