by Alyssa Ast
Increase Your Traffic with Outbound Links
Last week, we discussed search engine marketing and the importance of understanding the basics of hyperlinking in order to increase online traffic and profit capabilities. This included the types of links used. Now that you have an understanding for the basics of hyperlinking you can begin utilizing those skills. SEM consists of inbound and outbound links, which are basically a two way street for traffic. Inbound links draw traffic to your content; thus, outbound links draw traffic to third party content. However, you can use outbound links to increase your online presence, which is the topic of this week's SEM tips.
SEM Tips for Outbound Links
Outbound links often take the form of anchor links and are very helpful for increasing your content's credibility. Plus, you can often use outbound links to link your content to one another, increasing both contents' traffic. This excerpt from The Fundamentals of SEO for the Average Joe will help you understand outbound links further:
"Outbound links are essential for supporting web content with third party websites to provide relevance to your content. They also allow search engines to index your content. Content is considered more reliable if outbound links are included."
Utilizing Outbound Links
There are a number of ways you can utilize outbound links that will increase your online traffic. First, you can link one piece of content to another piece of content that you have authored, but make sure they are both relevant to one another. This will increase your traffic to both pieces of content.
When utilizing outbound links, only link to sites that are relevant to the original content. This will increase the content's credibility. When linking to content, only link to authorative site--sites that are not user generated. Authorative sites generally have a URL consisting of .edu, .gov, or .org.
When linking to third party sites, it is best to use anchor links. Make sure the links are anchored to a word or phrase that accurately describe the link the content will open too. The word or phrase should somewhat describe where the link is directing the reader.
Make sure your outbound links open to a new window. This is absolutly essential because it will keep your content from becoming lost when the reader is directed to another page. If you have your content open to a new window, the reader is more likely to go back to your content; whereas, if the link doesn't open to a new window, you content will disappear and be more difficult to find again.
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