
Today we will show you how to link your website to improve your site rank, credibility, and ease of website navigation.
So why is linking correctly so important? A link here a link there, it’s all good, right?
No.
You need to link strategically if you want to get your site’s posts on page one of search engines like Google.
So, let’s started developing some good linking habits.
How To Link Your Website – Correctly:
You want to link your site correctly with every post you create.
What do I mean?
By linking your site with internal links from posts that you create, you’re letting search engines know that this post is an authority to a specific topic.
By adding one to two external links per post out to relative authoritative post and you’ll start to see your website rank better.
So linking you website is important, especially when starting out. Keep reading to access the exact linking methods we use on this site for optimal rankings.
How You Navigate Links: Here’s My 2 Cents
If you want to give your website user the option to read something later, you can link so the new page opens up in a different window.
If you want to set your links to open in a new window (Using WordPress), just click the box as shown in the photo below.
In general I think most internet users just hit the back button if they want to go back and read your content after linking them to a new post or page.
So I have my links open in the same window 90% of the time.
You can also use this type of linking strategy with call to action statements, so you are purposely driving that reader to a specific page.
For example:
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To get better results with site engagement. Try a CALL to ACTION statement to the link at the end of you post.
So say I’m promoting the awesome keyword research tool called Jaaxy, I could say something like…
“Find keywords to get your site ranking immediately, check out the awesome power of Jaaxy’s Keyword Research Tool.”
Then when the reader clicks on the “Jaaxy Keyword Research Tool” phrase that I linked, they would go directly to that page.
I would want them to only go to my review of Jaaxy or directly to the Jaaxy website where they could try out the product.
We do this to keep the focus on the product or page we’re promoting.
Internal and External Links:
There are two types of links, internally links and external links.
- Internal links are used to link within your own content.
For example, linking a page or post from your site that is relevant to the current page or post you are publishing.
- External links are used to link away from your website to another website.
External links are used to link resources that are relevant to your content or advertisements.
Why Linking Your Site Is Important:
Linking really comes down to user experience.
Links provide portals to your content throughout your website. This makes it easily for your audience to navigate from one topic to the next.
So linking provides your users with a better experience to zip through your quality content and find what they are looking for with ease.
Linking is also another way to build credibility to your content and site.
By using internal links within your website to your own posts or pages, you are demonstrating to search engines that your site is credible resource.
That your site is an authority and resource in your chosen niche or online business.
So internal linking helps optimize your website for better search engine rankings.
Something every website owner wants, so internally link often as long as your links are relative within your content.
SEO NOTE: When internally linking, try to use related keywords (as the anchor text) to the post your are linking to.
For example: The post keywords are: Terapeak Review. I would mention this product and then link something like.. Check out our Terapeak Review. Adding the keywords will give you extra SEO juice to the post you are internally linking to.
External Linking Considerations:
In general, you don’t want a lot of external links on your posts. From my experience and education, you want 1-3 external links in each post.
But you want them to link to authoritative websites. Sites like Wikipedia.org, for example, or places of credibility and authority.
Use external linking when providing facts, numbers, etc.
In general, you don’t want to externally link people away from your site.
A major goal of your website should be to have people come to your site and interact with your site and read your content.
Not just read a few lines and then off to someone else’s site.
The last thing that links provide is a way to refer people to a product or service that you recommend or promote.
This is done with affiliate marketing. This too, needs to be done tactfully and naturally.
And again, not to frequently.
So, Internal Links are good to use if they occur naturally in your content and should be used often.
External Links should be used sparingly.
Websites that have affiliate links throughout the site will actually decrease their site’s rankings (Clikc Here To Check Your Keyword/Post Rankings).
To a search engine, a site with multiple affiliate links throughout their content looks like a spam website.
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How To Get Back Links?
I see a lot of people online selling back links to build rankings and credibility to their sites.
I would advise against this because with every Google update, they eventually punish sites that are trying to cheat the rankings system.
You want to get natural back links.
7 Strategies to increase your back links include…
- Get out their and comment on other sites in your niche.
- Guest blogging on another site in exchange for a back link to your site.
- Put your site link on every social profile you have.
- Have guest bloggers for your site. They’ll have a back link to their site, but will send a link to their post they wrote on your site. This also provides potential new users to visit your site.
- List your site with free blog directories.
- Interview other blog sites.
- Participate and post helpful information in forums related to your niche with a link to your site
Read our latest post, How to Build Backlinks for Free for more in depth information about getting organic back links.
Link On My Friend…
So hopefully you’ve got a better understanding of how to link your website, the next move is going through your site and adding relevant links.
Make sure that you frequently internally link, limit your external links (1-2 per post), and open your links (in most cases) into the same window.
If you have any other linking strategies, please feel free to share them below in the comments section.
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Hello, Todd
This was a very interesting article and I picked up some awesome points from you when it comes to website linking 🙂 However when it comes to SEO practices, I’ve heard that Google doesn’t really take back links into consideration anymore when determining website rankings. Is this true?
I look forward to your answer 🙂
Neil
Hi Neil,
From everything I’ve studied and read, the quantity and especially the quality of backlinks remains important. I think time and time again, quality content is the king. It’s the number one factor that Google uses to rank sites. There are hundreds of factors the improve SEO rankings. These are just a few.
This is a bit of an outdated source from May of 2014, but in this interview with Google’s former web search quality controller, Matt Cutts, he discusses your point on backlink relevance.
He states in the video that although backlinks, over time, will become less important in SEO. They still will hold weight in the Google Ranking Algorithm for years to come.
He also goes on to state the the most important factor that Google is striving for, is to match up websites with what the user is searching for.
Which leads me to believe that you want to have a site that is producing quality content that matches your SERP, Title and keywords. Are you users expectation met when they click your site to see whatever topic you are discussing?
That’s my take on it and excellent question. If you have any other resources you’d like to share? Please do so. And if anyone else would like to ad helpful, relevant information, please do.
Thanks again Neil, take care.
Todd https://learntogrowwealthonline.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php#comments-form
I come across so many programs out there that basically want people to link their sites anywhere. It’s great to read an article that teaches people how to correctly link their sites the proper way. So many sites end up lost or cremated as I like to say by search engines because they like to take short cuts and not really do the work that they should be doing. Thanks for putting this out there. 🙂
Hi Evelyn,
Thanks for your feedback on my how to link your website article. I think you make an excellent point about taking short cuts. Google rewards authentic hard work and real back linking strategies.
I had a friend that made a $1,000 per day on his affiliate website until Google changed their algorithm. He went from making incredible money to nothing. It seems to me that Google and the other search engines are constantly striving to provide their users with the best search results that come from real quality information. Information that sites provide their users is what seems to be the key.
There really aren’t too many shortcuts, just sound ethical strategies and real work.
Thanks again for your feedback and have a great day,
Todd