SEO for bloggers: the power of links

Hey guys, Jamie back here again with another post on SEO for bloggers.

Today I’m going to be talking about the most fundamental aspect of the force behind search engines: links. And before you ask, yes I am listening to this song whilst writing this blog post.

Linking within your own content

You may have seen the recent blog post on what makes great content by all round content superstar Elly, but what my colleague didn’t mention is that the links you use within your posts can be as important as the posts themselves.

Linking within your own content has 3 main purposes:

1. To improve your site’s internal linking structure with anchor text links for SEO purposes

When Google crawls (a technical way of saying ‘reads’) your blog, the easiest thing it finds to index (a technical way of saying ‘remember’) are text links. You’ll notice a placed a link on ‘SEO for bloggers’ and pointed it towards all of our blog posts tagged with ‘SEO’. This is exactly what I want Google to remember that section of the site for. So when people search ‘SEO for bloggers’ that section is more likely to appear and therefore get more traffic.

Try not to link with terms like “click here” or “this post” as they don’t adequately describe what you’re linking to. The more descriptive, and keyword rich, your anchor text is, the more likely Google will remember it for that keyword.

The curious amongst you who went and searched “SEO for bloggers” will have noticed we don’t currently appear high up: that’s because this process takes time which is why your links should also:

2. Provide as much information for your reader and/or giving them a rich experience beyond text

There seems to be a bit of a misconception amongst some bloggers that linking out to other sites is a bad thing. It isn’t. Linking out to inform or amuse your readers will make them remember your content and want to come back for more. You’ll notice I seemingly contradicted myself by using the anchor text ‘this song’ in the second link but to be honest, I couldn’t care less about Youtube’s SEO. All I wanted to do was get you to click it. Hopefully you did and it made you smile and now I’ve explained why I did it so hopefully it also informed.

Now when I say I don’t care about Youtube’s SEO I don’t mean to say I don’t care about anyone’s but my own. If I’m linking out to a friend’s blog or a brand who have sent me product/interesting PR I will place a keyword rich anchor link (or at the very least, their brand name) as I think it’s my part of the mutually beneficial bargain.

So now to third reason to place links in your posts:

3. To direct your readers to more content on your blog

Internal linking is a great way to get people to read more blog posts on your site. Try to link to other posts with keyword rich, but relevant and informative, anchor texts. I tend to make these links a little longer than others, which helps to encourage people to click through.

Now let me set you a challenge. In your next blog post include 3 links; 2 to your own content and 1 linking out. Before placing each link think about why you’re doing it using the advice above. Once you have, direct us to the post in the comments box below and we’ll take a look and give some feedback!

+Jamie McHale