Interlinking blogs has had a shaky reputation. On the one had we all know it is beneficial both for blogger and reader, on the other people worry about rumored search engine penalties.
The fact is if you do interlink your blogs in the right way you can escape any of the alleged penalties and reap all the benefits.
What we have to do is escape the fixation with blog rolls.
Yes, I do believe that reciprocal links still work, but I have long been an advocate of not blogrolling. In my opinion an in context link is more effective for all parties, safer and more scalable.
Here are some tips for effective in-content linking:
- Make sure your links beg to be clicked, with color contrast, styling and wording
- Use effective and varied anchor text that is compelling and contains keywords for search juice
- Never never never use underline when your text is not a link, otherwise your reader will be confused and less likely to click your actual links
- Always think after finishing your piece which old posts can you link, on your own and complimentary blogs
- Deep-links are best, find an appropriate post rather than linking a homepage
Inter-link correctly and you will drive traffic, make friends, boost search engine visibility and create more page views per visitor. I can’t think of a good reason not to!
