For a number of reasons, webmasters are scared of linking out to other blogs from their own blog, these reasons include;
- Negative effect on search engine positioning.
- Reducing their page rank.
- Giving Readers point to leave off quickly.
- Tarnishing their online reputation.
In my opinion, they have no ground for this concern; I feel they miss the point in linking out.
They thinkt it would do more good to themselves if they keep all the link juice within, and not sharing it with other blogs outside because they want to rank higher on search engines.
Here is one thing you should consider about linking out to other blogs: You write an article on, let’s say for an example, you write about “best affiliate marketing program.” Then you find this good resource on www.mywebsite.com on best affiliate programs too, you link to it from within your article body. It’s like you’re tapping on the shoulder of that blogger that, hey! I’ve just written another version of your post on affiliate marketing. Check it out.
You don’t need to email that blogger, because they would see it as a trackback on their own blog post. You might as well get a link back from his blog in later post, if he likes your work.
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Think about the most visited web pages on the internet today; Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. They all make it as part of their content strategy to provide exit links for users to leave off quickly to external pages outside their websites.
But we still have reasons to always come back to these websites dozen or even hundreds of times a day. If your site provides useful quality information, readers will always come back again and again to read what you have to the very last word.
Below are some positive reasons you should consider linking to external blog within your article body.
#1.Your Blog Becomes a Resource Portal.
Think about this, what makes Google relevant?
They collect every web page on the internet and present users with the most relevant according to user search term. Is that simple?
You too can achieve that on your blog and make your blog a resource center. Your readers will like it when you can always present them with even more quality content than yours. You’re helping them by providing more additional resources that could help further solve their problems.
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Don’t think you’re sending your readers away, no, far from it. If your content is relevant, useful for the readers, entertaining, educating and engaging, readers will always come back to read through to the very last word.
Think about the popular blogs with lots of readers and followers, these blogs are co-authored by different contributors. The readers, even after following each guest contributor down his blog, they frequent the host blogger’s blog more often than in the past cause they know they will always find more experts on different topics.
If you’re concerned about your page being closed when user clicks on an external links, then consider using the “target=”_blank” html tag. This way, a new tab will always open when they click on the link.
And if you’re on Word Press, you really don’t need to bother about this tag, just check the small box beside the dialog box that pops up when inserting your external link.
#2. For Building Relationship.
When you start linking out to other bloggers, they take notice of you and keep a tab on you whenever you post. It’s like re-tweeting someone twitter update.
It gets you noticed and establishes a good relationship between the blogger and you.
#3. Adding Credibility to Your Content.
There are lots of infographics or illustrations you might want to include in your article that belong to someone else. These infographics gives your work more credibility and value.
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When you use these images in your post, best to give credit (link out to them) to the owners of these works as a way of saying, thank you.
#4. For Creating Back Links Opportunity.
This one is simple and a no brainer.
If you want people to link to you, then consider linking to others first and hopefully they will someday, return the favor.
“Do unto others as you want them to do unto you”.
#5. For Building Trackable Traffic.
When you link out to external blog, it appears as a track back on the other blogger’s comments section (if the blogger approves it). This way, other people leaving comments on that particular post will have the opportunity of seeing it, and if they like it, they click-through to your blog.
The good part is that, these links stay on for as long as that post remains on that blogger’s blog, bringing you more traffic in the future.
In addition to all the above mentioned points, linking out is a known and good practice in the blogosphere; don’t abuse it by spamming bloggers with irrelevant links.
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It will hurt you more than you think, link only when it’s necessary and when relevant to the article. A useful lesson is not to always link to a particular blog too often. It makes you appear spammy and the blogger will always send your links to trash.
Be strategical in the way you blog, and try do things the natural ways.
Now your turn to lets we know how and why you link out or not linking out to external blogs.