When discussing search engine optimization (SEO), its best practices, and its applications for websites, the phrase ‘external linking’ often gets thrown around a lot. Experts know and swear by it, obviously, but what exactly is external linking? How does it contribute to boosting your website’s statistics, and what are its best practices? In this blog, we’ll be looking at the particulars of external linking and its encouraging effects on the website. Let’s start with the basics of external linking.
External linking: what exactly is it?
External linking is the practice of linking your website to another website, usually not a part of your own set of resources. It is considered an extremely useful tool in complementing the visibility and credibility of your website, especially for use by search engines.
External linking is usually done with websites with higher authority than your website, and it is done for the sole purpose of allowing the search engine to gauge your content better since it has been linked with a high-authority website.
Let’s look at the common practices of external linking and understand how you can start in one of these goldmines of SEO visibility.
Using external linking effectively
Use external linking to ensure your website gets the best possible visibility and seems credible to search engines. Here are some tips to keep in mind when it comes to external linking.
1. Relevant, high-authority websites
For external links, these two should be the main criteria for the website you intend to link to. Google and other search engines rank websites based on many factors, including their external linking and the quality and authority of the websites to which the external links have been connected. For instance, if your website does external linking to a website on some shaky grounds with the search engine, your ranking and visibility will tank. On the other hand, external linking to high-authority websites will result in your website experiencing a boost in both visibility and authority since the content on your website will be viewed as authentic.
2. Anchor text
Anchor text plays an important role in the whole process of external linking. You see when you place a link on your content, you do not leave it all willy-nilly and expose it with the rest of the content. No, it needs to be done properly, and external linking best practices require that you use an anchor text to insert the link in. This anchor text needs to be relevant and descriptive and should give the search engine a good context of the connection between the two websites, as it helps improve the ranking for both your relevant keywords and your website.
3. No-follow links
No-follow links are the high-risk, high-reward part of the external linking strategy that comes with its risks if not done correctly. As the name implies, no-follow links are links that essentially have a tag on them that tells search engines not to follow them or not to give them any weightage in the ranking of the website. This is because while the website that the external link is being forwarded to might not have any weight, it might still have some usable content for the users. So here you have to juggle between ensuring that the content stays accessible for the users since they derive benefit from it, while the search engines do not follow them so that your ranking does not take a hit. It’s, therefore, a high-risk, high-reward strategy that should be used with due care.
4. Not overdoing it
Excess of anything can be detrimental to the original purpose. While external linking is useful for SEO purposes, too many external links can cause the search engine to deem the website as ‘spam’ since this won’t be considered normal or routine for the website. The links themselves and their quality will see a dilution, which will result in your ranking and your website taking a hit and getting a low ranking. Therefore, always look for the perfect balance when external linking, and you can make the most of your website’s SEO strategy.
The benefits of external linkinG
External linking represents the best of what an SEO strategy aimed at providing the most visibility and ranking to a website can do. Let’s look at the benefits that external linking can have for your website in boosting various aspects of it.
Visibility increase
The first and foremost benefit of external linking is the increase in visibility you get. By providing your external links to popular and high-traffic websites that command a lot of traffic, you can piggyback on their internet reach and really ride on their popularity. For instance, when a user accesses that website, your website will automatically be shown if the external linking has been done correctly. This means that your visibility will be increased massively as you link externally.
Credibility increase
In the same vein as having good visibility, good external linking practices will also have an incredible effect on your credibility. The way search engines rank websites is mostly down to their content; if it is authentic, well-written, and has lots of authority, the website will be ranked higher. Similarly, when you rank your website’s content to another one with better content, you can show that your content is equally reliable and authentic, increasing your credibility as far as the search engine is concerned. This strategy can help rank content that might not be excellent but still is good and can do wonders for the website as well.
Referral traffic
Referral traffic is the traffic that you get from another website when users access your website after first accessing the original website in search of more content or information. This referred traffic is not only great for business conversions and lead generation, but further drives home the validity and the utility of the content on your website and helps increase the metrics and boost your website even more.
Enhanced user experience
By external linking to different high-authority websites, you will also be providing your users with an enhanced user experience that not only provides them with good content and linkage between different websites with equally good and relevant information, but if they have a business query, it will be better served with an extensive range of external linking.
The bottom line
External linking, when done right, can increase your website’s ranking and provide you with all of these benefits. However, external linking also comes with its own set of ‘things to avoid’ that should not be used or should be used but in moderation. When you follow the best practices for external linking, your website gets linked with all the other great websites, and your content gets ranked better, gaining a probability for high-profitability business conversions. Therefore, include external linking in your SEO strategy, and your website metrics will thank you.
Purpose Path: SEO done right!
Suppose all of this sounds too technical or time-consuming for you to be distracted from running the business. In that case, you can always outsource your SEO to an established authority that will ensure nothing but an upward trajectory. Enter Purpose Path. The SEO maestros are equipped with the team and the cojones to take your website and optimize it till your competition eat dust. Whether it’s local SEO or ensuring that your website always comes out on top, Purpose Path is ready to take your business to the next level. Are you ready to take your business to the next level?
