Let’s talk about how you should link. Or, better, yet, where on your web page you should put your links. We all know that on your web page you will have several outgoing links. (In fact, it’s better to have more incoming links than outgoing links on a web page, but let’s save that for another SEO tip for now.) Those outgoing links can be outgoing to another web site or outgoing to your own internal web page (another page on your site).

If you want links to “count more” in a search engine’s eyes, then you need to make sure that those links appear within the middle of a sentence somewhere, not buried at the bottom of a web page or even on a sidebar somewhere. Although someone may be reading something on your web page and it might make more sense to add a link at the end of your web page (after someone has read it), most likely you’re going to get better search engine optimisation results if you put your links within the context of a sentence or paragraph.

Let’s look at an example of the search engine optimisation benefits of inserting links within the context of a web page. Wikipedia first comes to mind.

As you read through Wikipedia, you will notice that internal links are sprinkled throughout each Wikipedia entry. You’ll see on any page that internal links are in the middle of a sentence: they’re not somewhere else on the web page. This is one reason why Wikipedia seems to rank so well for so many phrases (besides the fact that so many other web sites link to them). For example, they link the word ‘web site’ to their web page about web sites.

Search engines are looking to evolve, and they’re always looking for things that are not as easy to “manipulate”. Giving more weight to links that are within the middle of a sentence make sense. So, take a look around your web site and see if you have content on your site where you can link internally to other web pages (within the middle of a sentence). Add some internal links to your content and you soon be seeing the search engine optimisation benefits.

Bonus Tip: Ensure all external links open up a new page on your browser. Internal links should open in the same window.

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