SEO Writing
You Need to Know About These 3 Links to Improve SEO
Internal link, Outbound link, and Inbound link.
Writing blog posts for websites takes more than ensuring good grammar and seamless word flow to keep readers engaged.
I know a few super niched websites value good writing more than search engine optimization (SEO).
But many are looking for writers who aren't limited to keyword research only to improve a site's SEO. This includes understanding and adding 'good' links.
In fact, Google's page ranking algorithm considers links as one of the two leading factors! So in this post, I'm hoping to ease your understanding of each link you need to know.
But before we get there, you need to be familiar with these two terms first.
Hyperlink & Anchor Text
Hyperlink, also known as a link or weblink, is a text, graphic, or icon that transfers you to another web page or file when you click on it.
A hyperlink text is often in a different color than regular texts. And some of them are customized to change color once you click on them to indicate that you've visited that page.
But you probably noticed by now that hyperlinks on Medium are not colored and are underlined instead. Like the ones throughout this post!
Next is, Anchor text — the words you highlight in your draft to turn into hyperlinks.
When I first learned how to add hyperlinks on Microsoft Word and Google Docs, I simply highlighted any texts that seemed… relevant?
I was just excited to turn words into clickable texts!
Little did I know that search engines use anchor text to determine the value and relevance of a link.
And Google identifies anchor text with the page that the link is on and connects it with the page the link points to.
The types of anchor text you need to know are:
- Generic — Click here, Read more, Download now, etc.
- Branded — Medium, Grammarly, According to Forbes, etc.
- Exact match — An exact phrase or keyword from the page you're linking to.
- Partial match — Adding other words to the keyword from the page you're linking to.
- Related — Words or phrases related to the keyword on the page you're linking to. For example, the text Etsy digital campaign links to a page about Etsy Marketing Strategies.
- Brand + keyword — Grammarly for spellcheck, keyword research with Keyword Surfer, etc.
- Image anchor — A clickable image in which alt text is the anchor text.
- Long-tail — Similar to partial match but is more descriptive. For example, why keyword research is vital to boost SEO. Or, check out more free tools by Surfer.
- Random — Common words that are not the target keyword from the page you're linking to. Like, according to this article.
- Naked — An entire URL, like, https://medium.com/@jerikhojordan. But according to Ubersuggest founder Neil Patel, Naked anchor text aren't as impactful to SEO. Besides, the URL form would decrease the readability.
So now that you understand what hyperlinks and anchor text are, let's learn about the three essential links.
Internal Link
Internal links are hyperlinks to other pages or posts within the same domain. They help search engines find, index and understand a website's content.
Internal linking is essential to improve user experience and navigation by connecting the web pages. This encourages visitors to spend more time from one page to another.
Now, this is important because time on page can only be calculated when a visitor moves to another page. And acquiring that data provides insights into how relevant and readable your content is to your target audience.
External Link
External links are hyperlinks from one domain to another. SEO experts claimed that external links are one of the three most valuable aspects of SEO.
Since high-quality pages are typically linked, getting external links from high authority sites like Forbes or the BBC is vital to improve ranking.
The main criteria of a good external link are:
- Relevant to your content. Don't simply add any links that aren't related. Lord Algorithm won't be pleased!
- Link to authoritative sites.
- Descriptive keywords or targeted keywords (from the linked page) as anchor text.
- Links that are beneficial to your readers.
- Set external links to open on different tabs.
I'm sure you can make sense of what high authority sites are. But in case you need some extra help, these tools will come in handy!
There are two types of external links:
1. Outbound Link
Outbound links are hyperlinks on your website linking to another domain. Like the one in the previous sentence.
Outbound links are essential to:
- Add context to Google.
- Add supporting sources to your content.
- As references to the original sources.
- Give a better understanding to readers of your content.
- Improve SEO. According to a study by Reboot Online, the algorithms recognize outbound links to high authority sites, which positively impact rankings.
2. Inbound link/Backlink
Inbound links, also known as backlinks, are hyperlinks from other domains linking to your website.
Backlink plays a significant role in improving SEO, especially from high authority sites. That's because Google views backlinks as popularity votes for a website or a web page.
So the more backlinks from high-authority domains, the better you'll rank on the search engine results page (SERP).
Besides that, backlinks are also crucial to:
- Help Google navigate.
- Boost credibility.
- Send referral traffic to your page.
Some of the most common ways to earn backlinks are:
- Guest Post — When you post on an authoritative website and add a backlink to your domain. To gain guest blogging backlinks, you'd need to pitch to websites within your niche(s).
- Editorial — When a high authority site links to your domain's content.
- Relationship-based — Similar to Editorial. What differs is the website owners know you from networking.
- Comment — Include a link to your comment on blog posts.
- Social Media — When you include a content link in your post.
- Forums — Become an expert in forums of your niche.
- Badge — A good example is the HubSpot certification badges you can embed on your web page, which is a backlink to the HubSpot website.
- Press release — Publish on online media outlets to gain backlinks.
Guest post is the most common method among freelance writers with websites to build backlinks. But the best one is, of course, Editorial backlinks, as you earn them naturally.
Besides that, though the links you added to comments and social media posts are considered backlinks, the quality is very low.
To Recap
- Hyperlinks are clickable texts or images that transfer you to another page.
- Anchor text is the words you turn into hyperlinks.
- Anchor text boosts visibility on search engines by giving context about a link to Google.
- Internal links are within the same domain.
- Internal links improve the user experience and navigation of a website.
- External links are between different domains.
- Good external links are from high-quality sites.
- The two types of external links are Inbound links (Backlinks) and Outbound links.
- Outbound links are links on your site to a different domain.
- Inbound links are hyperlinks on other sites linking to your domain.
- You need to pitch to your niche websites to gain Guest Post backlinks.
- The best type of backlink is Editorial, as it is earned naturally.
- Backlinks from comments and social media posts are low quality.
Do you keep in mind any of these links when writing online content? Also, how do you gain inbound links/backlinks?
Want more content about SEO? Check out my beginner-friendly post about Keyword Research! ⬇
Do you know that image optimization could improve SEO? I talk all about it in this post ⬇.
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