Links tell the search engines where you want them to go, and where to apply ‘authority’, or the page’s popularity. Think of your next blog post as ‘the most popular kid in school’, and your links as that person’s ‘favorite friends list’. The ‘friends’ gain a little bit of credibility for being on the list. You get the picture.

Links also help your visitors know where to go for next steps and more information. Your links are literally a calling card for where to go next from the page. As such, make sure your links are made from the most relevant keywords on the page, and make sure those keywords are relevant to their destination. The more relevant the link, the more ‘authority’ the link provides to its destination.

In a good sized article of about 300 words or so, you can afford to place about 2-3 links without appearing to be an abuser. Too many links on a page and the search engines will we wary of your intentions; better to err to the minimum. One or two extremely well placed links will concentrate the page’s authority on the destination pages. Too many and you risk diluting your effort.

As a general rule, only link to an outside page from the same keyword once. No need diluting your authority on multiple links to the same page. There is an exception that has the ability to help; linking to the same destination is not a problem if you are linking from several different keywords. However, make sure the keywords are highly relevant to each other, otherwise you will be diluting your authority yet again and wasting valuable linkage.

Providing alternate tags is another important element. An alternate tag is the text you see when you hover over a link for a second and a little note appears to explain the link. Search engines eat these up, providing you with a second opportunity to clarify your intentions for the link. This is a good opportunity to incorporate localization. For instance, if your keyword is ‘haircut’, a good alternate tag would be ‘Miami haircut’ if you happen to be a salon in South Florida. This alternate tagging strategy will help the search engines associate you with localized searches, which are ever more important with all these iPhones and Blackberries floating around (search engines know where you are, and deliver relevant search results based on your location).

Don’t have a blog to post all these links to? No problem; you can gain authority by creating links in your comments on other relevant blog sites. Most blogs that accept comments will also allow you to tag your comment with a link back to your page. Sort of a repayment for adding a good comment. Make sure you post genuine comments, and only comment on sites that are relevant to your own site. If you are selling haircuts on your site, you won’t get much authority from a site that sells ice cream.

Finally, remember that ‘Content is King‘, and that links are an important element of content. Links help establish your post as more than just a ‘dead end’, and the search engines hate dead ends.

I talked about linking in this week’s tech call with Paul Jensen. Here’s an excerpt. It’s about five minutes; let me know what you think.