Using hyperlinks in a blog can boost rankings for organic search results. But, there are many factors to consider when linking text and images to other websites. This blog can also help with the other pages on a website.

Offering Links to Other Sites

Most of us know that the highlighted text in an article or blog is a hyperlink to an internal or external website. Have you clicked on a hyperlink to learn more about the topic your reading? We see it all the time, and, for the most part, these links are really helpful. dead end sign 400 squareSometimes they aren’t that great because they lead to dead pages (404 Error!) or misinformation that is out of context for the article or blog. Google can see bad links and considers it as something that affects the user’s experience, therefore the page gets a lower ranking in search results.

Better Link Building

Embedding links in website content works as a supporting role for search engine optimization. It’s not a major player, but it doesn’t get the credit it deserves (the biggest reason being already stated above). Yet, as a minor player, I think it’s important because I find a lot of articles from the top of a results page have a lot of bad links in them. There are ways to avoid this happening to you, and here’s 8 easy tips on how to do it.

  1. Have a Goal in Mind

What are you trying to accomplish with your content, whether it be a blog or article? Blogs and articles put your knowledge of a subject on display, either through experience or examples of your work. You want people to view you as an authority, but Google doesn’t recognize you as an expert. Knowing this should guide how you add hyperlinks. To grow your authority on a particular subject use hyperlinks to reputable websites to give you more credibility. The hyperlink is a supporting source of your knowledge. This proves to Google that you’re trying to provide subject matter that is beneficial to their users.

  1. Anchor Text

The “text” you choose to “anchor” the link embedded in your article is very important. There are many types of anchor text (the page in this hyperlink does a great job explaining them). Choose keywords in your text that match the subject and keywords in the article or page you are linking to. Try not to use links with statistics, numbers or symbols in them, unless they’re relevant. There’s more thought that needs to go into your anchor text than you may realize, so take the time and make your hyperlinks count.

  1. Generic Phrase

The use of a generic phrase, such as “Click here” or “This article,” do little to give your page any authority and should be avoided in the article. But, as a call-to-action, they can be very helpful to direct people to another page on your website. Try to use, “Contact us” or “Our services” instead of a generic phrase for a call-to-action.

  1. High Relevance

Best way to explain this is through an example. Let’s say your article is on inventory management, and the following sentence appears: “Employee theft of inventory accounted for 35% of inventory shrink.” The best keywords to use in this sentence are inventory shrink, a common component of inventory management. When you choose to link a page to your website, make sure it’s relevant to the anchor text, but also helps the reader understand your content better. This is especially true for technical articles with complex concepts. Don’t just link to a popular website, make sure it matters to the reader.

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  1. Link Risks

Linking with bad sites, spam sites, or broken sites can affect your page’s ranking on a search engine results page (SERP). Think of linking as being associated with reputable people and companies. Your reputation depends upon it. And pay attention to linking accidentally to your competition. Chances are that your competition is writing about the same things as you are, so be careful who you promote with a backlink.

  1. Images

The anchor text for an image is located in the alt attribute, therefore use the same logic when using anchor links in your text. Focus on keywords relevant to the picture and the subject. The more abstract you are, the less relevant you’ll be. For example, your alt attribute is “Happiness” and the picture is of flowers. Both are way to vague and flowers may only give you joy, but not others.

  1. Internal Links

All of the same aspects of using anchor text and relevance applies to using an internal link in your blog. Things you should never do is try to link to different internal pages using the same keywords that appear multiple times in the text. Use one page for one keyword phrase.

  1. Link Density

Too many hyperlinks can dilute your content and the quality of your links. This one is tricky and might be contentious with the SEO experts out there. So, I’ll try to make this claim reasonable. Google gives equal ranking to all hyperlinks in the text. If there are 4 links, then each one will be 25% of the total grade. If there are 10 links, then each link is only worth 10%, therefore reducing the desired effect of a very reputable source. This should not be an issue if you pay attention to what you are linking to.

Hyperlinks Lead to Backlinks

Creativity is important, but it’s not the entire package when writing for the internet. Knowing the ins-and-outs will help your company gain better rankings on SERPs. The way to strike a good balance is through relevance and authenticity. If your content is relevant, then the hyperlinks should confirm your authenticity and authority.