Getting The Attention When Linking To Other Blogs
Linking out to other blogs is a great way of building business relationships, share relevant information and support your content. Today’s Quick Blogging TipΒ topic will be getting noticed for linking out to other blogs.
Is Linking Out To Other Blogs A Good Idea?
Before we get into the best ways of getting recognized for your outgoing links, I’ll spend a few seconds on whether it’s even a good idea or not. There will always be a great debate on linking out to other websites with varying degrees of opinion on either side. Many bloggers refuse to link out, afraid they will leak “link juice“, send traffic running to the competition or that it will make them look amateurish. I reject the idea that being stingy with links is “good for business“. That’s goes for the no-follow issue as well but without getting into that debate, I will just leave it with a quote by SEOptimise,
Outgoing links are one of the most underestimated weapons in the arsenal of every SEO and webmaster.
Getting The Recognition
Alright, back on track. So now we believe that we should link out and we understand why, so now what? So you spend a couple of hours researching and writing an awesome blog post and you link out to another fantastic post on someone else’ΒΒs blog that compliments or supports your message. Do you want that blogger to know you linked to them? Sure you do, and there is nothing wrong with that. That doesn’t mean you expect undying gratitude from the other blogger or that you expect a link back in return, you just want that blogger to know you linked to their blog. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Option One – Main Page Link:
Linking to the main index page of the other blog/s is great but not every blogger watches incoming links that closely or has their domain URL and Title setup with Google Alerts.
Option Two – Deep Linking/Trackbacks:
Perhaps a better solution, both for relevancy and getting the blogger’s attention is linking to a particular blog post. As an example, when I linked to SEOptimise above, I could have linked to SEOptimise.com (like that) but I decided to link directly to the blog post that related most with the topic I am writing about. And, if SEOptimise has Trackbacks enabled, and it looks like they do, and if they approve the link, a backlink to this blog post will appear below that blog post (no-follow but so what). More importantly though, SEOptimise will get a trackback notification, just as with any other blog comment, that there is another site linking to that blog post. This doesn’t guarantee that SEOptimise will notice, or approve, or even care but my chance of them noticing the link increased by linking directly to a particular blog post.
Important:Β Click on it. What? Click on the outgoing link yourself; don’t wait for a reader to do it. I read this tip by Joost de Valk (Yoast.com) while researching this blog post. I’ll let Joost de Valk explain why you should click on the outbound link yourself.
Note: Trackback spam is out of control and many bloggers have disabled that feature to eliminate the problem. Please don’t abuse trackbacks and cause yourself to be labeled a low life spammer.
Option Three – Social Media Message:
Another way to get the other blogger’s attention is to send them a message. This doesn’t have to be sent via email, in fact, it’s probably better you don’t email them unless you already know the blogger. Remember? Spam? It is, however, pretty simple to send them a message via a tweet, or tag them in your Facebook or Google+ update when you add that particular link. If the blogger is following you on Twitter you can even send them a direct message but keep in mind that many people ignore Twitter direct messages. Stupid spam again, it’s ruining everything.
Please: When linking out to other websites, do the right thing and use do-follow links with proper anchor text and use the title tag. You really are defeating the purpose of linking out to other blogs when you turn around and tell Google, that other blogger and everyone reading your post that you do not consider that link important enough for it to be followed.
Recap
Link out to other blogs often, don’t ruin it with stingy no-follow tags and do give proper notice that you have credited the blog with a quality link.
Still undecided or unclear on why you should link out to other blogs? This was supposed to be a short post (yeah, right) so I’ll link to an image I posted on our Google+ Page:
Your Turn:
I’d love to hear your take on the matter. Do you link out to other blogs and websites? Do you use the no-follow tag? Why? Any other ideas or suggestions?
About Brian D. Hawkins
While I have linked to other sites/blogs in the past, I don’t do that on a regular basis, which is a weakness on my part. I read several blogs a day, and while I may tweet a post, I don’t usually create a post and link back to any of the blogs.
Each year I try to improve my blog in some way, and maybe next year that will be what I improve – linking to blogs that I enjoy reading.
Hi Paul, I actually started a regular series (If it works) that features great posts I read over the week. While several bloggers do these “Round-Up” posts, just linking out to a blog post that triggered an idea, gave inspiration or just helps the readers fill in gaps or go to the next level, well, it’s a win win for everyone. Thanks for taking the time to comment. π
Great Tips, definitely usefull for me as I have just started my blog. I strongly believe there is nothing wrong with linking to a post on another blog, if it is relevant to what you are talking about inyour own post.
Thanks Nefisa, good luck with your new blogger blog, it looks nice. Stick around for a bit, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of helpful information that can help you.
Thanks Brian, I will definitely stick around π
Brian,
I think having good outbound links are a very important part of community building. like you said there are some advantages to be gained in the forms of TrackBacks, but the real value is always the goodwill of those you link to. Surprisingly often they will reciprocate some point in time by linking articles of your own (even without any express link-for-link deal)
I used to do a weekly “roundup” where I would link lots of articles and found that these links were a great way of getting people to come visit and often the beginnings of interactions that led to “friendships”
Thanks Steve, I’ve done the same thing, off and on, with a couple of blogs. They’re not usually the most popular posts but can turn into some great relationship and trust building.
wow very nice ideas brian.keep sharing more tips π
I have a tool on my firefox browser that makes it easy to link out to other sites when I post. It’s an extension called addthis.
I right click on a site, say, this particular article. The addthis extension then opens up a new tab for my blog. All I do is write whatever is in my mind, then hit post. Sweet and easy.
Thanks for the article!
That sounds pretty cool Kevin, I’ll check it out.
Thank you for sharing. That is one aspect that I will work on from today.
wow!! linking out to other blogs looks so interesting and can benefit our blogs amazingly. I use it for my weekily mashup and i’ll use it in my other posts too π
thanks a lot brian for the post.
Thanks Faissal, I love your blog. I’m on your list as well and have been learning a lot about Facebook.
Hey Brian! What an amazing article! I have yet to link out to any blogs but i will definitely give it a try and let you know how it goes.
Could be a great traffic technique π
Hi Joshua, I love your blog, I learn something from every post. Linking out is great but so is that great content. Keep up the good work. π
Wow, I didn’t know about that Yoast tip. Pretty cool!
I had all but given up on trackbacks, myself, but maybe I’ll keep it going for awhile longer.
Thanks Brian, great article.
Hi John, trackbacks are tough, the vast majority are spam. In fact, I just spammed a comment on this post that was promoting and trackbacks submitter in their site info. This program blasts out tens of thousands ‘fake’ trackback pings to build one way links.
too many external links to other blogs will affect seo of our site right?
As far as i know, yes. it can affect your SEO in a bad way especially if your links are going out to non relevant sites.
Let me quote Google from the Google Webmaster Central Blog,
“If you’re linking to content you believe your users will enjoy, then please don’t worry about the site’s perceived PageRank. As a webmaster, the things to be wary of regarding outbound links are listed above, such as losing credibility by linking to spammy sites. Otherwise, consider outbound links as a common sense way to provide more value to your users, not a complicated formula.”
There’s a lot more there, you should check it out at: Linking out: Often it’s just applying common sense.
Brian this post is just good. You have said all the things which are in my mind. outgoing links are great ways to connect with other bloggers and I hate no-follow tag also,
Thanks Mark.
Linking out to other blogs really helps you to create healthy relationship, or you can say that it initiate conversation which many times turns into good relationship.
That’s a great way to look at it Aanchal.
Awesome tip Sir Brian… I will surely take this into consideration π
Hey Brian, must admit, I have not used this technique to its best, but its a great post to give me somethings to consider going forward.
One question though, what are your option on a list-post? The kind that goes around the web a lot? So for example, if I was to write a post titles ’25 Best Posts on Linking Out’. Would this be an overkill? Perhaps doing this often will be…
Hi Neeraj, Truthfully, I’m not sure what would be considered overkill. I just started a Blogging Rounds weekly series where I link out to 5 or 6 blog posts that I enjoyed that week. I do see other roundup posts with a lot more links than that.
In ethics there is a principle of reciprocal altruism that actually means a win-win situation for both. It works in business and blogging as well.
I love a win-win Laur
These are some great ideas Brian. I’ve had very few outbound links on my site so far, but I’ll try them on my website and see if it improves traffic.
Let us know how it goes Prepper.
hi..nice share of ideas…i guess most blogger are afraid of linking mainly because of fear of losing link juice..but u have given some good points to consider linking to other blogs..use of social media as we know is the next big thing…facebook puts us directly in front of 750 m users…. so ur thoughts of using social media is grt….
Regards
Aniket
Thanks Aniket, that link juice debate has been going on for years and before anyone can get a clear grasp on the real truth, Google changes things up.
I’ve read somewhere that linking to autorithy blogs actually helps. I know of people that only link no-follow and people that don’t link at all, but the problem with that is it’s not normal behaviour. Google looks for patterns of what a normal blogger would do. And when you stop linking, or simply add no-follow to your article links, that just sound fishy. You’re begging for authority, almost always over value of content.
As Google stands, i’d say it’s a risk we shouldn’t take. Just link normaly.
That is exactly right Marian and it’s hard to understand why more people don’t see that. It’s common sense and exactly what Google has said time and times again for years. Linking out for a stingy one-sided benefit might seem like smart SEO because we’ve heard it for so many years but that certainly isn’t what we hear from “real” experts. The truth is, things are changing at such a fast pace right now that even inbound links for authority seem to be trending out the front door. SEO and especially PageRank are moving to the back of the bus.
Google likes it when you link to other sites too. I think it’s because most “SEO’d” blogs do not link out, so when they find a blog that links out they know it is not one of those cookie cutter made-for-money sites.
But I find I definitely rank higher if I have some useful outbound links in my text
Thanks Rose, I agree. There are many very popular blogs that only link out using the no-follow attribute but that doesn’t mean it had anything to do with their success, just they’re big enough to get away with it.
Linking out to other blogs is the best way to expand your blogging connection. When it comes to blogging, it is also important to invest time not only to the commentators of your blog, but also with your relationship with other bloggers. But I think the only concern of some bloggers is to lose their readers because the latter find a particular blog more interesting than the other blog that they know.
lol, I don’t worry too much about that Christina. There are well over 2.1 Billion internet users (31% of the population) and over a hundred million active blogs today. There’s plenty of readers and traffic to go around. π
Nice attitude! Not really all bloggers are as open as you are when it comes to linking out to other blogs especially if they know that these blogs could get their site visitors. If only bloggers are after on giving the best to their readers, this wouldn’t be a big deal to them.
I totally agree. I owe the amount of traffic my personal blog is getting right now to the fact that I always make sure that I link to relevant websites and blogs as much as possible. I’ve never considered using a no-follow tag.
Since I am still fairly new at all of this, I have just started linking out to other blogs. I’ve never thought of it before when I have left comments but I think it is a good idea to let others know what you do while you are adding value to others posts. Thanks for the article.
I have this design blog I started in March and it’s like a Tumblr blog (mostly images). I usually link back to the original designer through the image caption and not necessarily the blog where I found it (link juice). I’ll try and link back to the original blog poster and see what happens. Thanks for the tip.
Hi there. Thanks for the information. What exactly are no follow tags? Can you please explain. Also, ive been using blogs with outgoing links for the last year and a half and had great success with getting blogs on page one. In the last month that has changed. Not getting the same effect in a few areas. (my market is real estate agents.) We could rank easily on page one with not much effort. Now a major real estate portal in Australia has taken up to 4 or 5 spots on google for every suburb in australia. So that leaves 4 or 5 spots for everyone else. http://Www.Realestate.com.au. In your opinion, did google change or did they? Thanks. :).
Linking out is good if done correctly. I have several sites and have noticed trackback spam, I do not even know if they leave my link on their site or not, so I seldom approve trackbacks.
From my own experience I can say that when I link to other blogs, which are related to the topic of my blog, the owners of these blogs often do the same and provide a link back to my blog. So, I get more links and targeted traffic for my site in the end, So, it is undoubtedly a highly effective link building technique.
Hello
totally agree. I owe the amount of traffic my personal blog is getting right now to the fact that I always make sure that I link to relevant websites and blogs as much as possible. .thanks for sharing. .
I agree. Linking is one of the best ways. We all can put more of this strategy into our writing.
Google probably likes this and who knows if they will reward you for it π
It’s really a cool way to Get noticed.We have started this in Our community but It’s just limited to use.We will Expand soon.