Linking is an important and effective SEO technique that allows you to explicitly associate keywords with a specific page on your site. By creating links you are directing both your readers, and the search engines, to the pages you deem most relevant to your keywords. Linking is the best way to direct your readers to your conversion objective, and a great way to share what SEO experts call ‘authority’.

The links in your content are very much like your personal social connections; They are a reflection of your site personality and an indication of how well you are connected. ‘Authority’ works much the same way as a popularity contest; when you hang out with the most popular kid in school, some of that popularity rubs off on you. If you play it cool, you can build on that popularity-by-association to create your own independent popularity.

Because links are so important, it is important to know how to create good links. Here are a few tips:

1. Link Volume: The number of links you create in a given blog post is important. If you maintain a ratio of about one link per hundred words you will be at a maximum recommended density. Any more, and you risk being seen as a spammer. Any fewer and you are not taking full advantage of your linking opportunity.

2. Words to Link: Concentrate your linking on keywords and phrases, but don’t link more than once from the same word or phrase within the same post. Don’t be afraid to link from multiple words, but make sure they are a searchable phrase. You don’t want to link from phrases such as ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Click Here For More Info’ because there is no SEO value in these phrases and you are wasting potential authority.

3. Placement: Provide links from the keywords in the most convenient places to better serve your readers. At the top of your article, in the first sentence is a great place to provide a link because it is convenient, and is most likely to be reproduced in excerpts.

4. Tagging: Tagging your links is the process of providing the content that appears when you hover over a link in a blog. This content is important to the search engines and provides an opportunity to clarify your keyword. Always add tags to your links, and juice them up with keyword modifiers such as your geographic location, your business name, or an additional keyword. For example, if you are linking the word ‘guitar’ you might tag it as ‘Fender guitar in Chicago’.

5. Destinations: To impart authority from your links to a specific page, you will of course want to link to that page as often as you can. However it does make some good sense to mix it up a bit and direct links to various places around your site as are relevant. It is also a good idea to link outward to other relevant sites; don’t just link to yourself, link to other sites that can add to the value of your reader’s experience. Link to research, supporting comments, or additional resources that add value and relevancy to your content.

6. Finally, make sure you test your links after you have posted. Dead links will count against you, both with readers and search engines. Simply visit your live article and check through the links you have created. If you find a problem, fix it right away.

Links are a critical foundation to blogging, and an important aspect of your search engine marketing. Make sure you are adding good quality links to your content for optimal organic growth.

If you are a small business, ListPipe can provide SEO marketing tools that take the work out of blog marketing.

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