These days it’s rare to come across an article or blog post that doesn’t have at least one hyperlink: most have far more. It’s safe to say that hyperlinks in blogs are commonplace, but why are so many people using them?
The purpose of a hyperlink is to connect a word or phrase to another place – either on the same website or another website – where the reader can get similar or relevant information to the linked text. It’s all about providing value to the reader and allowing them to engage with more information if they wish to.
If you’re trying to increase reader engagement or earn money from your blog posts through ads, sales or service bookings, then this process of connecting pages and websites together becomes very important.
Understanding how to use hyperlinks in blogs effectively can give the writer an edge over their competitors, as many people know that hyperlinks are of value but do not fully understand how to use them to their advantage.
The Three Types of Hyperlink for Blog Posts
For blog content writing, there are three important hyperlink varieties that you need to know about: internal, outbound and inbound. Each link has a different purpose and a unique role to play in improving your content. Including some of these in your writing will increase your chances of success, but including all will give you the best opportunity to engage your audience.
The three link types are sometimes referred to under different names, but their main principles remain the same:
- Internal Links
Internal links are links to other pages on your own website. These links are used for connecting blog posts with services/products, contact information, your homepage, or other blog posts or content that provides more information on the topic you’re covering. They keep visitors on your own website and give you the opportunity to show what you have to offer.
- Outbound Links
Outbound links, or external links, are links to other websites or specific content on other websites. You can use outbound links to give the reader more information about a topic or to verify a source. It might seem counterproductive to provide links to other websites but you can use this to your advantage. Providing links to information that complements your site, rather than links to your competitors, will give your brand credibility and build trust with your audience.
- Inbound Links
Also known as backlinks, inbound links are hyperlinks on other websites that link to your content. Inbound links can improve SEO, but it can be difficult to obtain them: in an analysis of 757,000 articles by Moz and BuzzSumo, there were no inbound links in half of the articles. Having a blog or website that is well written, accurate and engaging is more likely to have inbound links created which in turn will drive more traffic to your website.
The Importance of Hyperlinks in Your Blog Posts
There are great benefits to having all three types of link in your blog copywriting. Here are four of the biggest reasons to focus on links:
- Hyperlinks Increase Content Credibility
Linking to sources is a fast and easy way to increase the credibility of your blog posts. This is a very common practice that helps to streamline the body of content whilst still ensuring that credit is given where due. It’s rare that anyone would want to read a really long blog and so it’s usually better to not include all the details that you could.
Linking to external sources gives the reader the control over whether they want to delve deeper into the knowledge or are happy to take it at face value from your blog.
Adding links makes it easy for readers to learn more about the topic of your post or the sources you’ve used. Hyperlinks also show readers that you’ve put in the time to research your content properly.
- Hyperlinks Improve SEO
Perhaps the most important reason to include outbound links and try to obtain inbound links is the potential SEO boost they can deliver. The SEO reward from outbound links is greater search engine understanding. Search engines like Google will use your links to learn more about the relevancy of your content, ultimately improving trust.
Link building – where you acquire inbound hyperlinks – is another highly popular SEO practice. When a search engine determines where your content should be ranked on a SERP, part of the process includes examining the quality and content of the piece, how many inbound links it has and the quality of the source of those links.
Essentially, the better your linking strategy and the more inbound links you have from credible sources, the better search engines can understand and rank you. If you do not have in-house expertise on this then hiring SEO services might be the best option.
- Hyperlinks Boost Conversion Rates
A blog post’s call to action is one of the most common places to find a hyperlink. These are typically internal links attached to text like ‘buy now’, ‘learn more’ or ‘contact us’. When people are browsing websites or reading blogs, they are will be more likely to engage with the action you want them to engage with if it is made as simple and quick as possible.
Call-to-action links are an effective technique used by blog copywriters to increase conversions. The link makes it faster and easier for readers to perform a desired action, such as subscribing or purchasing a product. If you don’t have these links and you rely on readers navigating your website, your conversion rates will be lower than you want them to be.
- Hyperlinks Keep Visitors on Your Site
Once a visitor arrives on your website, you want them to stay for as long as possible. This endeavour is simplified by adding good internal links. If you are selling products or services then using internal links to allow visitors to find related products or services will keep them on your site.
By linking products, you can demonstrate that you have everything the visitor needs and prevent them from clicking away from your site and onto a competitor’s site.
If you’re covering a topic you’ve touched on before or you have another blog post with relevant information, then linking to it is a great way to keep visitors on your site. This doesn’t have to be done by accident.
By having a blogging strategy you can ensure that the topics you cover in your blogs are related and are published on a regular basis. This means that you will carefully consider what topics will link well and ensure that internal links are implemented in the most effective way possible.
When you keep your audience engaged with relevant information, dwell time will increase, which will improve your SERP rankings.
The longer someone stays on your website, the more likely they are to engage in the call to action you have. Not only that but they are also more likely to recommend your website to friends or family as one that can be trusted.
Hyperlinks are a crucial aspect of blog post writing that we never overlook at Anglo Content. When you buy blog posts from our experts, you can expect quality, inbound-link-worthy content and effective linking practices.
