SEO - Incoming Link Text Matters

Incoming Link Text Matters Big Time

Incoming Link Text Matters Big Time

Search engines consider the text of a hyperlink to a page to be important when deciding what the destination page is about. A hyperlink usually consists of a short, descriptive, and often keyword-rich summary of what topics are covered on the destination page.

If the hyperlink is coming from another web site, then the description is also theoretically objective - meaning that the owner of that site is offering their own opinion rather than just echoing whatever opinion you have of what the page is about.

A search engine considers both inbound links and internal links as important, so it's good to focus on improving the keywords in both areas to get the maximum benefit from keywords in your hyperlinks.

Internal Linking Strategy

You have the most control over hyperlinks within your web site, so getting keywords in your internal links is a fairly simple task. Below are some of the most common areas where the opportunity to use keywords in hyperlinks are overlooked.

Click here... Common Internal Linking Mistakes

It is a fairly common convention to use the words "click here" for a hyperlink, as in the following example:

For more information about our web design services, click here.

There are a couple good reasons to avoid using this technique. For one, usability studies have shown that non-descriptive hyperlinks are less helpful and more confusing to visitors. More importantly, there are no keywords in the hyperlink, meaning it doesn't tell the search engines anything about the page.

In the example above, the keywords related to the resolving page really consists of the phrase "web design services", so that's what we want hyperlinked. Take a look at the following:

For more information, visit our web design services page.

Using this technique often requires you be creative with the way you chose to rephrase a sentence, but it's more than worth the effort.

Read More… Another Internal Linking Problem

Another common way web developers mistakenly miss out on keyword-rich hyperlinks is using the phrase "read more" to lead people from a short description of an article - or other content bit - to the full text.

Using hyperlinks with the text "read more" is a common convention. If you decide it's important to continue to employ for usability purposes, then at the very least add another link to the same page, which uses the title of the destination page.

Inbound Links Are Critical

Inbound Links Are Critical

You will always have limited control over the text of inbound links, which is the way it should be. Unfortunately, the majority of web sites on the web are designed by individuals that either don't know about the importance of keywords in hyperlinks, or don't think it's that important.

While this will continue to be the case, there are a few things you can do to improve the chances of an inbound link containing important keywords.

1. Give your web site a keyword-rich name

Most links coming to your web site will refer to the site by name. If the name of your site contains the keywords you are targeting, so will the hyperlinks.

2. Use keyword-rich titles when submitting sites to directories

Since you often have control over the text that is used for hyperlinks in directories, it's important to take advantage of the opportunity and use some keyword-rich text.

3. Offer code for hyperlinks on commonly linked to pages

Offer HTML code on key pages for an inbound link, complete with keyword rich text. This code achieves 2 things: 1) You have a bit more control over what inbound links look like and 2) It makes it easier for people to links from their site to yours, hopefully over time increasing the number of inbound links to your pages.

Lesson Summary - Internal and Inbound Links

Lesson Summary - Internal and Inbound Links

In this short lesson, we covered some simple techniques you can use to improve the relevance of hyperlinks both within and to your web site. Standardizing the creation of internal links using the guidelines above will help the search engines determine what your pages are about, and what keywords the content applies to.