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Linking in Blog Posts

by webladder
15 replies
  • SEO
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I'm a little confused, so maybe you all can help me out. When writing a blog post, what's the best strategy to consider to rank a certain internal page?

For example, let's say I have a site that sells chocolate, in particular a fat free chocolate cupcake. If I wanted to rank for the keyword "fat free chocolate cupcake", I would write a blog post using that keyword in the URL, title, H1, a few times within the copy and maybe as an ALT tag on a post image. If I wanted my homepage to rank for that keyword and it was optimized and relevant, would I link internally from my blog post to my homepage using my keyword as anchor text?

If so, how many links should I have in my blog post? 1 link per 100 words? Is there any penalty I should be worried about if I link to my homepage, internally, from a blog post using anchor text that is my keyword, but also diversifying the anchor text? So, I'd have a link to my homepage via anchor text that is my keyword, than another link that is anchored differently (like "delicious chocolate cup cake").

Am I right in my thinking or there is a better approach to improving page rankings via blog posting? Thanks!
#blog #linking #posts
  • Profile picture of the author webladder
    Anybody have ideas?
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  • Profile picture of the author Ldimilo
    You are overthinking things. If you're site is about "chocolate" and you have a page that is about fat free chocolate cupcakes, then you would build a headline with your keywords in it and then use the keyword whenever it makes sense to use it in the copy.

    If the website is about "fat free chocolate cupcakes", then the home page would be the page you would want to rank for it. And if that is the case, then every page you create would naturally link back to the home page (1st link priority) so any anchor text you built in the copy that pointed back to the home page wouldn't mean anything as far as search is concerned.

    Now, if it is a page, that is entirely something different. In that case, you could add an exact match anchor on different pages that point back to your page....

    BUT...

    Google is getting smarter in as far as recognizing intentions so you don't necessarily have to do an exact anchor match.

    Don't use plugins like smart links. Exact Anchor text matches are now penalized (not sure if that is the correct wording but it doesn't work anymore like it worked a year ago).
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  • Profile picture of the author bermuda
    If you are going to have your homepage get better ranks and it has been properly optimized for your main keywords, perhaps a better idea would be creating a text-based navigation system and use the terms as links. You can also add a header graphic to the top of your blog, with a link pointing to your index file, and use Alt attribute that will also help your website. When writing articles and posting them in your blog, there is no need to link to your homepage if the navigation is already active.

    Just write contents, fresh and unique ones, covering the main keywords and write in a natural way to be liked by net audience. If some other inner pages of your site contain relevant pieces of information, you may consider linking to them from body of your blog post but there is no need to just link to your homepage again and again. If you take a look at some blogs, especially the ones active in your niche, you will figure out how to use a proper navigation system with the main keywords.
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    • Profile picture of the author webladder
      Originally Posted by Ldimilo View Post

      You are overthinking things. If you're site is about "chocolate" and you have a page that is about fat free chocolate cupcakes, then you would build a headline with your keywords in it and then use the keyword whenever it makes sense to use it in the copy.

      If the website is about "fat free chocolate cupcakes", then the home page would be the page you would want to rank for it. And if that is the case, then every page you create would naturally link back to the home page (1st link priority) so any anchor text you built in the copy that pointed back to the home page wouldn't mean anything as far as search is concerned.

      Now, if it is a page, that is entirely something different. In that case, you could add an exact match anchor on different pages that point back to your page....

      BUT...

      Google is getting smarter in as far as recognizing intentions so you don't necessarily have to do an exact anchor match.

      Don't use plugins like smart links. Exact Anchor text matches are now penalized (not sure if that is the correct wording but it doesn't work anymore like it worked a year ago).
      Let's say I want to rank a page, and I'm using a blog post I published on my site with anchor text back to that page. Will this help that PAGE rank from the internal link coming from my blog pointing to that page, or is it more complicated than that ?

      Originally Posted by bermuda View Post

      If you are going to have your homepage get better ranks and it has been properly optimized for your main keywords, perhaps a better idea would be creating a text-based navigation system and use the terms as links. You can also add a header graphic to the top of your blog, with a link pointing to your index file, and use Alt attribute that will also help your website. When writing articles and posting them in your blog, there is no need to link to your homepage if the navigation is already active.

      Just write contents, fresh and unique ones, covering the main keywords and write in a natural way to be liked by net audience. If some other inner pages of your site contain relevant pieces of information, you may consider linking to them from body of your blog post but there is no need to just link to your homepage again and again. If you take a look at some blogs, especially the ones active in your niche, you will figure out how to use a proper navigation system with the main keywords.
      Could you elaborate on what you mean by "text based" navigation? Wouldn't this be considered Spammy by Google? If I'm using a text based navigation that is clearly keywords I'm trying to rank for, isn't that a hint that I'm clearly trying to rank?
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  • Profile picture of the author Wade32
    Just let it be natural. The reader can tell when you are trying to get them to go elsewhere on your site.
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    • Profile picture of the author webladder
      Originally Posted by Wade32 View Post

      Just let it be natural. The reader can tell when you are trying to get them to go elsewhere on your site.
      They generally are. For example, for a kayaking tour client I have, I just published an article about adding a kayaking trip to your next summer vacation. Within the article I link back to his "tour" page with this: "There are many locations nationwide that offer kayaking tours, but one of the best around is Sarasota, Florida."

      And I used "kayaking tours" as the link back to his page. To me, that's a natural progressions and very relevant to the site and the content of the post itself.

      I'm just wondering if doing so, helps a page increase rank within my website.
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  • Profile picture of the author supertintin1
    Originally Posted by webladder View Post

    I'm a little confused, so maybe you all can help me out. When writing a blog post, what's the best strategy to consider to rank a certain internal page?

    For example, let's say I have a site that sells chocolate, in particular a fat free chocolate cupcake. If I wanted to rank for the keyword "fat free chocolate cupcake", I would write a blog post using that keyword in the URL, title, H1, a few times within the copy and maybe as an ALT tag on a post image. If I wanted my homepage to rank for that keyword and it was optimized and relevant, would I link internally from my blog post to my homepage using my keyword as anchor text?

    If so, how many links should I have in my blog post? 1 link per 100 words? Is there any penalty I should be worried about if I link to my homepage, internally, from a blog post using anchor text that is my keyword, but also diversifying the anchor text? So, I'd have a link to my homepage via anchor text that is my keyword, than another link that is anchored differently (like "delicious chocolate cup cake").

    Am I right in my thinking or there is a better approach to improving page rankings via blog posting? Thanks!
    you never know that how many links do you need to rank a certain keyword. It depends on what of competition is there. You can not tell that how many back links will need to rank a keyword.
    It depends on other websites back links and traffic on that keyword.
    Try to make natural links and try to as much as natural linking.

    Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Ldimilo
    No offense, webladder...but considering that you have a SEO consulting business, shouldn't you know these things? They are very elementary as far as SEO goes.
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    • Profile picture of the author webladder
      Originally Posted by Ldimilo View Post

      No offense, webladder...but considering that you have a SEO consulting business, shouldn't you know these things? They are very elementary as far as SEO goes.
      I'm just trying to make sure that post-penguin, the internal linking strategy I wish to implement is acceptable. I do a lot of "research" work for companies, meaning their keyword research, comp. analysis, etc. and then they usually implement their own SEO strategies, so I'm not really involved in the process after that.

      Now, I'm getting client's that require a heavy link building strategy due to competition and I want to make sure that I have all of my ducks in a row before I approach them. Make sense ? No offense taken, but please stick to the topic.
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      • Profile picture of the author Ldimilo
        Originally Posted by webladder View Post

        I'm just trying to make sure that post-penguin, the internal linking strategy I wish to implement is acceptable. I do a lot of "research" work for companies, meaning their keyword research, comp. analysis, etc. and then they usually implement their own SEO strategies, so I'm not really involved in the process after that.
        On page elements should just be natural especially if the website is targeted to a market (and not general, in which case, you would need a siloed infrastructure) Don't go crazy with Exact anchor matches though. Google bots will figure out what your page is about.

        Originally Posted by webladder View Post

        Now, I'm getting client's that require a heavy link building strategy due to competition and I want to make sure that I have all of my ducks in a row before I approach them. Make sense ? No offense taken, but please stick to the topic.
        Heavy link building? You want to do SMART link building instead. Link volume these days is a hard thing to do and if you are planning on using link networks, it will only be a matter of time before your client's ranking tank. Infographics (although Matt Cutts has briefly spoken about dismissing them), local based links such as tv and newspapers, community based websites that focus on ratings (if you are in a niche that allows for such), PR based link bait articles that focus on the left of center topics surrounding your niche. The list could go on and on.
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  • Profile picture of the author marketwarrior06
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    2 links per post targeting one to the home page and other to another relevant post is the best strategy to internal linking.
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    • Profile picture of the author webladder
      Originally Posted by marketwarrior06 View Post

      2 links per post targeting one to the home page and other to another relevant post is the best strategy to internal linking.
      Thank you.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ldimilo
      Originally Posted by marketwarrior06 View Post

      2 links per post targeting one to the home page and other to another relevant post is the best strategy to internal linking.
      Just out of curiousity, what about 1st link priority? The home page is usually going to be in the navigation which means it takes 1st link priority and any links pointing to that page are generally discounted. So, there is absolutely no reason why there should be a concerted effort to link to the home page in text unless it improves the user experience.
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      • Profile picture of the author webladder
        Originally Posted by Ldimilo View Post

        Just out of curiousity, what about 1st link priority? The home page is usually going to be in the navigation which means it takes 1st link priority and any links pointing to that page are generally discounted. So, there is absolutely no reason why there should be a concerted effort to link to the home page in text unless it improves the user experience.
        That does makes sense. Seems like you should be linking to relevant pages you want to rank and not necessarily the homepage.
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  • Profile picture of the author Theeban
    I don't think such inter-linking is really important to get rank on Google for your target keyword (for either your home page or blog post). Properly optimise the page which you need to target for the given keyword and work on backlink. That is it
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