Links for SEO Explained - Which Ones Matter, And Why
There's no denying it: links are perhaps the most crucial element of any SEO campaign. What many web publishers fail to realize is how to make the best use of their linking campagins. The two forms of links are internal -links from your site to other pages in your site- and external - where other sites link to your website.
Internal Links
This is a powerful yet often overlooked method of SEO. It is also a method that you have total control over (in that you can change your link structure at any time). Studies have shown that humans prefer a simple design, where the top bar contains links for navigating the whole site and the bar on the left provides links to specific content pages.
Whether you design your site this way is up to you; the important thing is to use text in your links rather than images. Search engines cannot read images and will therefore pass over any pages linking to it. For SEO purposes, the chance to include keyword rich text is an opportunity you should take.
In addition to links on your navigation bars, try to incorporate links in your content as well. For example, you can cite related articles like this "As seen in our study of California court cases, the defendant wins 77% of the time." Not only does this improve your linking structure, it provides humans a chance to learn more about the topic.
External Links
Unlike internal links, external links require a third party website. Either you receive links from them (inbound), or you link to them (outbound). From an SEO perspective, inbound counts for a lot more, though you should occassionally link to high ranking (PR7 or above) sites when applicable.
So how to receive a large number of quality inbound links? There are a wide variety of options: you can submit articles to article directories with a link back to your site, conduct interviews on other sites, submit press releases, create a contest on your site, etc. Regardless of your approach, the key is provide quality content. It's really that simple.
Both internal and external links are important to your SEO efforts, and should not be taken lightly. Include link building campaigns into your overall marketing plan and continue to work on it.
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