Linking in Blog Posts

by 15 replies
17
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!
#search engine optimization #blog #linking #posts
  • Anybody have ideas?
  • 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).
  • 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.
    • [1] reply
    • 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 ?

      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?
  • Just let it be natural. The reader can tell when you are trying to get them to go elsewhere on your site.
    • [1] reply
    • 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.
  • 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
  • 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.
    • [1] reply
    • 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.
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    2 links per post targeting one to the home page and other to another relevant post is the best strategy to internal linking.
    • [2] replies
    • Thank you.
    • 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.
      • [1] reply
  • 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
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed

  • 17

    Linking in Blog Posts

    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?