Adding Internal and External Links that Enrich User Experience

Contrary to popular belief, internal and external links serve a greater purpose than merely referencing another resource in your blog post.  

If you want to become an expert in SEO strategy in Fort Lauderdale, you need to understand the inner workings of internal and external links.

Including them in your blog content helps drive traffic, boost your site’s authority, and generate income via affiliate marketing.  

Of course, naturally incorporated links also help the user by guiding them to the next relevant piece of content about your products and services.

This allows them to gather the information they need as they go through their customer journey. As a result, you get to improve your site’s user experience and drive better conversions!

Unfortunately, some people don’t use links effectively. They just add them for the purpose of having them, neglecting the fact that forcing links into their content without considering quality or relevance can affect their blog’s performance and visibility.  

Coming up with the ideas and content for your blog is already hard enough. Don’t jeopardize your hard work by adding links to your content as an afterthought.  

In this article, we are going to share tips on how to properly use internal and external links in your content.  

How to Add Links

If you want to add links that are helpful to your audience and contribute to their overall experience with your brand, you need to put yourself in the shoes of your readers.  

Think about which stage of the buyer’s journey your content is intended for and where a link might help. This will guide which pieces or types of content you should link out to.

Depending on which stage they’re at in the buyer’s journey and the kind of information they are looking for, your links can lead them to products, services, or other information they need.  

For example, if your blog post is intended for the awareness stage, then linking to your other pieces that provide supplemental information your audience needs about their problem and how to solve it is going to help move them closer to making a purchase decision.  

Another example is, if your case study is intended for the consideration stage, you can use your call to action to link out to a specific landing page and drive conversions.  

The goal of thoughtfully adding links throughout your blog post is to point your prospects in the right direction and keep them advancing through every stage of the buyer’s journey.

When to Add Links

You need to add links within your content whenever there’s a certain idea or term that raises a question or needs to be discussed in further detail. Every time you feel like your readers will be curious to know more about something, make sure to add a link.

Here are some examples of situations that merit a link:

• You’re using terms your audience has never heard of before, which need to be elaborated on in their own article.
• You’re citing a source for a fact or statistic.
• You’re talking about one of your products and want to direct readers towards the product page.

Where to Add Links

Typically, writers use anchor text to link out to another source. But you can attach links to your images or buttons too. Strategically placing links in prominent areas of your content is a great way to draw the attention of users and convince them to click.

You can also use a heat map UX tool to identify how your website visitors are engaging with your content. This includes which links are getting clicked, and which aren’t.  

Gaining insight into how your audience moves through your content can help you determine the most effective places to put a link.  

When using anchor text, there are a few things you need to remember:

• Avoid linking to keyword-based anchor texts multiple times. You can do it once, but using the same keyword-based anchor text multiple times can make them appear spammy.
• Don’t over-optimize your anchor text. For example, instead of attaching a link to “digital marketing agency” in every blog post, try to use other variations like “digital marketing services provider” or “internet marketing company”.  

• Make sure your anchor text is relevant to the content you’re linking out to. Using irrelevant anchor text can negatively affect your search ranking.  
• You can use branded and website name anchors because Google allows it.  

Using the right anchor text helps you establish a connection between the pages on your website, establishing relevance and helping Google’s search crawlers better understand you.

Link Building Best Practices That Enrich User Experience

Now that you know the basics of internal and external linking, let’s move on to best practices.  

1.  Always Open in a New Tab

When linking to content from another website, you want to make sure that it opens in a new tab. This way, there’s less chances for viewers to leave your website. When users are done looking at the other content, all they have to do is close that tab and get back to reading your article.  

Internal links, on the other hand, don’t need to open in a window. This is standard practice, and many users have come to expect it.

2. Audit Your Links Regularly

Links play an important role in good user experience. If users click on a link and end up getting redirected to an irrelevant website or a page that cannot be found, they will get the impression that your site is outdated or that you’re not reputable at all.

They’ll end up getting disappointed and you’ll most likely have a harder time winning them over.  

This is why it’s important to audit your links at least once a year so you know what the condition of your link profile is. Through careful inspection, you can identify and get rid of any links that are spammy or low quality.

You can also discover your most valuable links, which allows you to incorporate them into your link building strategy. This improves your link profile.  

During a link audit, you want to check for:

• Broken links

• Low-quality links

Then, you’ll need to replace them with links that are from relevant authority sites. This is an important part of our SEO strategy in Fort Lauderdale. It’s one of the many techniques we use to improve our clients’ rankings.

3. Link with Your Audience in Mind

You need to be thoughtful about how you incorporate links into your content. This means avoiding the urge to stuff your content with as many keywords and links as possible.  

Use links to boost your SEO strategically. Incorporate them as naturally and as subtly as possible.

Remember that the main purpose of your content is to delight your audience first. SEO optimization should be a by-product of your attempts to create a great user-experience.

4. Link to Trusted Sources Only

When linking out to content from other websites, always be mindful of quality. You don’t want to disappoint your readers and hurt your rankings by linking to unreliable sources.  

Keep in mind that once Google associates your site with non-credible sources, that association is hard to undo. When choosing links, always go for authoritative and trustworthy sites.  

Here are some good sources for external links:

• Government websites  
• Journalistic websites
• News websites
• Well-established sources in your industry. For example, if you’re in the marketing industry, some reputable websites include Hubspot, Neil Patel, and Search Engine Journal.  

5. Don’t Link to Your Competitors

It’s never a good idea to link to competing websites. Not only is it detrimental for your SEO strategy in Fort Lauderdale, but you’re leading your prospects to your competitors.  

Aside from your competitors, you also shouldn’t link to websites that already rank no.1 for the keyword you’re targeting.  

For example, if you’re targeting the keyword “Best bags for spring,” don’t link to a site that is already ranking no.1 for this keyword.  

Instead, look for websites or content that provide supplemental information. Using the “Best bags for spring” example, you can link to a blog post about how to style the bags you’re promoting. Of course, you want to make sure not to link to competitors!

Do You Need Help Planning for a Winning Link Building Strategy?

Now that you know how to properly incorporate links into your content in a way that enriches the user experiences, you can start applying these best practices and improve your overall link building strategy!

Digital Resource is your go-to SEO services provider in Fort Lauderdale. If you don’t feel confident about your linking strategy, we can help.

Our team of SEO experts and digital marketing specialists can craft a custom link building plan that will put you ahead of your competitors, helping you achieve both your marketing and business goals.

Contact us today to start building the right links that will propel your business forward!

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