Blogging is filled with so many moving parts and sometimes that can feel completely overwhelming. I strive to make blogging understandable. I love being able to break down those different moving parts for you so that you can truly grasp all that blogging has to offer.

Today I want to talk about links with you. I want to cover the differences of links and what certain links can offer to you. This will be a comprehensive guide for you to learn how to use links for your blog and website.

Let’s begin by talking about what a link is. A link is a part of your blog where you will send your reader to a new and relevant blog post. This is really a simplified way to send your readers to material that you believe will be beneficial to them.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LINKS

An internal link is a link that you provide on your blog post or on another page of your website that leads your reader to another page on your site. For example, last week I wrote a blog post about branding your blog. In that blog post, I linked back to a relevant blog post that also talked about branding your blog. And just now, above, I linked back to the post about branding your blog. That is an internal link.

I am sending you to relevant pages on my website. This helps to keep your reader on your site longer as well as give them more information that will help them with what they are trying to learn. You can also link back to the services that you are offering.

An external link means that you are sending your reader to another website. This is also called a backlink. A website that you trust and believe will be of benefit to your reader. So for example, I am going to send you to Neil Patel’s website to learn more ways to get authority links for your new blog. I am not covering that topic today but I know that it will benefit you to learn this.

Your readers trust you to give them the best information for their needs and this is a great way to do that. Plus you are establishing a history between your site and more established sites. This will help to impact SEO.

You can also reach out to those who you are linking to and let them know. They may be willing to share your blog post with their audience because it is relevant to them as well.

When you set up an external link, ensure that you are setting it up so that it opens up in a new screen. You want your reader to come back to your site with little effort.

BENEFITS OF INTERNAL LINKS

1. Instead of your reader having to search through all of your old blog posts, you can link to the posts that are relevant to the ones that they are reading.
2. You are keeping your reader on your site longer. I mentioned this above. This will greatly affect your bounce rate. The lower your bounce rate, the more your readers are staying on your site.
3. It helps tell Google what your site is about. Google indexes your pages. That means that it takes notes on everything that is on your site. Having internal links helps to learn more about what your site offers. This helps to build your SEO.
4. You are sending traffic to older posts. This is a great way to keep those old posts alive by sending your current readers to them. Most of the time, old posts get lost by the new posts. We want readers to continue to read what we have to offer.

BENEFITS OF EXTERNAL LINKS

1. It increases the value of your site. I remember learning in a webinar that I took, that for me to succeed in my business, I only needed to know a bit more than my ideal client. That means that I won’t know everything that there is to know about blogging. And that is okay. My ideal reader and client is a beginner blogger who knows nothing about blogging. If you are a more advanced blogger (like myself), I will be looking for someone else to learn from. By sending you to someone else’s website, I am giving you the best option for success. I know that I can’t know it all but there are people I can send you to for help.
2. It increases the reputation of your website. When you are linking to a website with a higher domain authority than yours because you are offering your readers with valuable references.
3. Great way to make connections. I have said this before. Sometimes blogging can be lonely. We think that there isn’t room for all of us in a specific niche and that just isn’t the case. We all have something unique to offer. By linking to websites that are relevant to your readers, you can create some great connections to other bloggers.

I hope that this breakdown of internal and external links helps you to understand how to use links in your blog posts. Linking truly is a great way to help build your site SEO and your domain authority. It is also a great way in building trust with your readers. You are showing them all that you know as well as showing them that there are many other websites to learn from and that you trust.

If you are ready to start your own blog, Blogology starts on October 4, 2023 and there are still a few spaces available. I would love to help you create the blog of your dreams.