When you write a blog post, it’s good to include links to other blogs or site you think might be of interest to your readers, or that illustrate your point in some way.
But what beginning bloggers often don’t realize is that how you link is as important as what you link to. In other words, the text you make clickable can help you, as well as the site to which you link. This is because search engines consider links important, and the words in the link are considered to be what the link is about. We’re talking computers, automated “bots” and spiders, and algorithims here. They’re fast, but not too smart, yet.
So, if you have a link, and the text that is linked is “click here,” that’s what the search engine “bots” will think the link is about. Not very helpful.
It’s also important to actually have link text and not just type out the URL and make that a link. Just think, would someone use a search engine to look for “www.ctbizblogs.com?” No. Who needs a search engine to find a website whose address they already know? They’d be looking for something such as small business blog in Connecticut, or connecticut lawyer blog.
Now, this obviously helps out the site you’re linking to, because you’ve just created an association between some search terms, or keywords, and a website. This is what search engines live for. But search engines also consider that, because you’ve created a link, that your content is about that, as well.
So, by helping readers find additional information, you’ve given yourself a boost, as well as the site to which you link.
And that’s one small way to help build traffic to your blog.
![email address: ctbizblogs [at] gmail.com](http://www.ctbizblogs.com/wp-images/email.png)
January 22nd, 2006 at 6:54 am
excellent post - you made me think about something I have never really given much though to thanks!
January 22nd, 2006 at 8:14 am
My pleasure, stop by anytime. I like the new look on your blog, by the way!
February 9th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
[…] which lead me to Help build traffic by how you link by our own Sabine’s CT BIZ Blogs […]
February 12th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
Interesting. Anchor text definitely influences rankings of the linked to site, but I haven’t seen evidence that the anchor text of the linker’s site influences the site’s ranking beyond what using the text on the page otherwise would. Do you have any references for this?
February 13th, 2006 at 6:35 am
Hi Ed,
Good question!
Sorry, I don’t have a specific reference; it’s something that I always thought was part of the conventional assumptions about search engines, and Google in particular.
My understanding was that yes, the text on the page is paramount in determining what the page is about, but text in links out are an additional “flag.”
So now I’m on a hunt to track down where that assumption came from. I’ll let you know, and report back.
February 15th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
Thanks, that was helpful. I always use text links, not the url. However, sometimes when I’m
feeling lazy, I will type something like “There also good articles on the subject “here” and
“here” (the here is the link word). Obviously, not too many people are searching for “here”!
Interestingly enough, I’ve seen some of the top blogs do this– but after reading your article,
I think I will always use descriptive words rather than “here”.
May 15th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
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