External Links
External links, also called hyperlinks, are websites that link to yours. Similarly, if you link to another website, this is also external linking. This is an important factor in SEO and Digital Marketing.
Include descriptive words in anchor text that is relevant to the keyword in the target page. Ensure to use various anchor texts in order to enhance context.
Why should you use external links?
According to top SEOs, external links are the most important ranking source. They provide users with extra information that users can use to access more in-depth content on relevant topics, which enhances their understanding.
External links help search engines understand the content of the webpage and how relevant it is, which helps in indexing and ranking. By analysing websites that link your site, it helps search engines know how your site’s authority and trustworthiness.
When search engines see highly reputable sites linking to yours, they view this as a sign of quality and relevance. External links drive traffic to your site from users who are interested in the content you have to offer, which can result in an increase in conversions and engagement.
Metrics search engines use to determine value of external links:
-
- Credibility of linking domain
-
- Popularity of linking page
-
- How relevant the content of target page and source page are
-
- Number of links going to the same page
-
- Number of root domains that link to target page
How to enhance your external links?
Study has shown external links are the single most crucial factor for attaining rankings. This is because external links are difficult to manipulate and is the best way to determine how popular the web page is. Google views these links as “vote of confidence” and the pages that are the most popular and relevant would appear first in Google’s results pages.
-
- Descriptive link text
This lets users know where the link will take them and what they can find in the target page. For example instead of “click here” or “to know more”, opt for more description that reflects the target page. This makes content more valuable and improves user experience.
-
- Optimize anchor text
Anchor text is a clickable hyperlink. It should be relevant and descriptive to the target page. This helps users as well as search engines to understand the content and context of the link. You could also use the nofollow tag for external links that you do not want to link to.