Internal and External Links Analysis
The hyperlink rules the World Wide Web. In addition to helping Web users get from one document to another the hyperlink is at the core of the algorithms used by major search engines where it is ranked, analyzed and valued.
This explanation is little bit exaggerated since other factors probably play an increasingly important role in analyzing Web content by the major search engines, but nevertheless the hyperlink is probably the most important element of any Web page.
Frequently asked questions on link management include questions such as how many internal links or external links a Web page should have, how many words, and what words text of a link should have.
Questions aside the data tables below show the hyperlink in numbers from data obtained from two large samples of Web sites, general and Web sites in prominent search engine positions.
| Link Analysis: General Web Sites | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Observed Element | % Found | Average | Min | Max | Median | 80 Percentile Range | ||
| Links Internal Total | 98.72 | 103.10 | 1.00 | 865.00 | 91.17 | 25.45 - 208.02 | ||
| Links Unique Internal | 98.72 | 74.14 | 1.00 | 504.00 | 66.33 | 17.35 - 155.05 | ||
| Links External Total | 91.16 | 35.87 | 1.00 | 1,063.00 | 31.33 | 3.67 - 77.25 | ||
| Links Unique External | 91.16 | 28.74 | 1.00 | 458.00 | 18.50 | 3.17 - 62.42 | ||
| Links Total | 99.85 | 136.90 | 1.00 | 1,122.00 | 122.50 | 38.42 - 275.40 | ||
| Links Total Unique | 99.85 | 101.33 | 1.00 | 573.00 | 97.50 | 27.37 - 203.70 | ||
| Nofollow Links | 1.21 | 6.33 | .00 | 120.00 | 1.50 | 1.00 - 28.00 | ||
| Link Analysis: Web Sites in SE Positions | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Observed Element | % Found | Average | Min | Max | Median | 80 Percentile Range | ||
| Links Internal Total | 98.52 | 66.39 | 1.00 | 824.00 | 88.29 | 10.24 - 156.54 | ||
| Links Unique Internal | 98.52 | 49.78 | 1.00 | 820.00 | 57.29 | 7.50 - 115.81 | ||
| Links External Total | 89.47 | 22.16 | 1.00 | 471.00 | 29.14 | 1.63 - 58.00 | ||
| Links Unique External | 89.47 | 18.05 | 1.00 | 455.00 | 24.14 | 1.36 - 45.86 | ||
| Links Total | 99.74 | 85.58 | 1.00 | 836.00 | 131.00 | 13.49 - 196.01 | ||
| Links Total Unique | 99.74 | 65.46 | 1.00 | 832.00 | 93.00 | 10.36 - 150.83 | ||
| Nofollow Links | .68 | 1.64 | .00 | 8.00 | 1.57 | 1.14 - 2.14 | ||
What the above data shows, and especially the chart, is that general Web sites contain considerably more volume of links than the Web sites in a prominent search engine position. General Web sites contain 64% more unique external (outgoing) links and 55% more total unique links.
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