How to Use Links to Improve Your Business Blog

Published on August 4, 2014

It's no mystery that blogging is a great way to get fresh eyes on your company's website - we talked about it many times before. But did you know that placing links within your blog can bring you even more benefits?

Adding effective links to your blog can optimize your readers' experience. When done correctly, the links you place within your blog will keep them curiously clicking through your site and consuming more of your offering.

How do you keep readers clicking? Here are some great tips from Steamfeed on utilizing links within your blog to produce some pretty great results.

Internal links vs. External links - What are they, and which do you use?

Before you start throwing links into your blogs, know that not all links are created equal. We divide links into 2 larger categories - internal links and external links.

Internal links take the reader to another page directly within your site (like a link to one of your other blog posts, or a link to your "Contact Us!" page).

External links take the reader to a page outside of your own site (like a link to someone else's blog, a page which provides a definition, or a bibliographical link).

Choose "anchor text" and keyword-driven links

The text which you will be using for a link can be defined as "anchor text".

A link will give your text automatic emphasis because a link is generally in another color and often underlined. It is important that you are emphasizing text that is eye-catching and specific to what it is that the link contains, like it is the end of SEO as we know it, as opposed to the ever vague "Click here" or "visit this page".

If you wanted to draw attention to your blog on search engine optimization or iOS7 privacy, link those words or phrases.

TIP: Remember to keep your links varied (both in the text that you're using for a link and the links themselve) for visual appeal and SEO purposes.

Provide some interesting title text

When a user hovers over a link with their cursor, users will typically see a URL of your link pop up at the bottom of their browser screen. But did you now it can also pop up some text?

We call this "title text" and it provides a quick overview of what the link entails. We recommend you keep your title text to 1-2 concise sentences that can be processed with a mere 5 second glance.

TIP: Most web-editing software will have a way for you to enter your link, provide a title, and various other functions (like allowing the link to open in a new window instead of your current one).

5 important guidelines for adding links to your business blog

  1. Mix up internal and external links. While internal links clearly have an immediate benefit, providing an external link here and there helps to reinforce that you are connected to a community of other expert writers, and that you have no problem giving credit where credit is due.
  2. Don't go overboard. Too many links can be a turn-off to many readers, as it can begin to clutter the text and make your post look a little suspicious to search engines. Limit yourself to about 6 valuable internal links per post.
  3. Put your links where they will be seen. Links at the beginning of your post will get a good amount of attention and links at the end of your post to related material can be of interest to readers who have just finished the article. Space them out accordingly to make them more visible.
  4. Keep an eye on the links themselves. Broken links are exceptionally frustrating for readers, and can cause them to turn away from your work in a heartbeat. Review your older posts for posterity over time and ensure your links are still working as they should.
  5. Only underline your hyperlinks. Underlines on webpages are typically associated with hyperlinks in the public eye. Underlining other text for emphasis, in fact, only de-emphasizes your links! Stick to using bold or italic font for your body of text, and leave underlines for your hyperlinks alone.

Need some help getting started? Have questions? Don't hesitate to send us an email or give us a call! We'll be happy to help.