In past blogs, we have talked about how important it is to get other websites to link to your site and the benefits associated with this.  When focusing on your linking strategy it is also important not to neglect your internal linking structure.  An internal link is hyperlinked text that points to a different section of the page you are viewing, or more commonly to a different page on your site.  The most common internal links are found in the main navigation of a website and throughout the body text of the pages.

If your page keyword targeting and the anchor text of the links pointing to those pages don’t coincide, now might be a good time to revisit and make the anchor text reflect the page keyword targeting.  When you optimize a page for a certain keyword, the links from your site pointing to that page should reflect the same keyword theme.   The first places to consider a change are in the main and footer navigation.  Use keyword rich text in these areas to give extra weight to the targeted page.  Instead of just using the word “Services” in your navigation, you should use a term that is more keyword targeted such as “Internet Marketing Services” or “Banking Services”.

Another place to use keyword rich anchor text is within the text of your website when you want to direct a user to another page with more information.  Many times we will see that a website uses the hyperlinked text, “click here” or “learn more” to lead a user to a page with more information.  These terms are great if the page you are leading them to is optimized for “click here” or learn more”.  In most cases there is a better phrase to use.  When leading a user to a services page, use the main keyword phrase of the targeted page as the hyperlinked anchor text.  Example: 

 Please see our Internet Marketing Services page for more information.

In this example the page that the hyperlink is pointing to is about “Internet Marketing Services”. 

When using anchor text to point to other pages, it is important to use different versions of the text to point to the page.  This will allow you to target more keywords and not make it so repetitious for the user.  It is important to note that when varying your anchor text, you should use keywords of the same theme.  So for our above example, other beneficial keywords to use for anchor text would be “Online Marketing Services”, or” Web Marketing Services”.  While online press releases might be a product of “Internet Marketing Services” it would not be good anchor text because it does not describe the whole theme of the page but rather one point within the theme.

One of the best ways to generate some buzz for your website is to submit online press releases.  Aside from the obvious benefit of media attention, press releases can also be a way to build links to your website. Online press releases have become very popular and have proved to be good for SEO efforts.  When you create your press release for online distribution, there are a few items you should take into consideration.

Pick something newsworthy to write about. - Releasing a new product, service or new website design can be events worth telling your devoted customers and potential customers about.  The more interesting the item, the more likely it will be linked to by interested parties.

Optimize the release as you would a page on your site. - When writing a release, do keyword research to target keywords people are searching for in relation to the information in your release.  The idea is to have the release support content within your site and have it be displayed for important keywords in news feeds and aggregators.  Once your release is syndicated, journalists can search these news feeds by keywords to find items that they are interested in writing about.  If you can put your release in front of the right people, you can greatly increase exposure and linking opportunities for your website.  Targeting the right keywords can help you achieve this goal.

Utilizing interior links with anchor text. - Press release submission sites may allow you to use anchor text pointing to interior pages of your website.  Building links to your interior pages can help boost their rankings in the SERPS.  You can target 4 or 5 interior pages per release.  Pages to target should include your homepage, main service or products page, featured products pages, an about us page and a contact page.  It is important to use keywords in the anchor text pointing to these pages in the release.  The anchor text can help give these pages more weight in the eyes of the search engines.  By including interior links you also give the reader multiple channels to explore your website, pointing them in the direction you want them to go. 

Choosing the right media channels. - Many press release submission sites give you the opportunity to choose which outlets your release will be submitted to.  It is important to explore all the channels within these press release submission sites.  Choosing the right channels can give your release the proper exposure to the right people in your industry.

Utilize additional features. – Some submission sites allow you to upload files, logos, podcasts and video along with your release.  Adding these files can make your release stand out from the masses.  If releasing a new product, it could prove beneficial to have a video demonstration showing why this product is better than the rest.  When people see this in the release, it could prove to be a great viral marketing tool.

Anyone familiar with search engine optimization (SEO) has likely cautioned others about outbound links.  For those new to the term, the links that come from your website and go to other locations online are called outbound links.  The reason for cautious words is that as they originate from your site, in basic terms of online reputation management they are the most valuable links you have and must be utilized very carefully.

The cautionary tales told in SEO regarding outbound links usually involve mention of linking to a penalized domain (which can be harmful to your rankings), unstable links (which are links that continually change – these are viewed as an indicator for link farms or link networks), being in a “bad link neighborhood” (the result of linking to sites that have been penalized or banned), as well as paid / free reciprocal or free-for-all linking.

It’s perhaps easier to think of it in this way.  When contemplating adding an outbound link to any page on your site, ask yourself, “Is this a site I want my company to be associated with?”  As mentioned earlier, this question can be regarded as part of the important online reputation management dimension of the Internet.

If trusted, recognized, or authoritative websites are believed to be safe, what about useful and relevant websites?  One of the primary points of concern usually voiced with outbound links is that of losing traffic or visitors as they click away from your site.  If the outbound links from your website are useful and relevant, there is a very good chance that your site won’t “leak” traffic.  Let’s take a brief look at social media, in particular a site such as Digg.com.  With their model, the outbound links that are offered as the result of their user base submitting articles results in users returning to the Digg site in order to see what other sites of interest they might find.  The same can be true of your website.  If you offer useful and relevant links, your site visitors are more likely to come back in order to discover more.

Of course, the ancillary benefit to having stable, useful, trusted outbound links is the increased likelihood of those sites linking back to you.  That shouldn’t be the driving force behind adding outbound links, but it can yield positive results.

There is one final note to keep in mind whenever there is an appropriate outbound linking opportunity, and it ties in with usefulness and relevance: there’s more to linking out to another site than simply adding the link.  In order to provide value to the site user (and then pass the value on to you), the outbound link should be placed in an area where it is most useful and relevant.  For example, don’t just have outbound links on your homepage – include outbound links in relevant areas of the site, such as on a top level page at the end of body text on a related subject.  Ultimately, you should always be sure that any outbound link is of value to your business and reflects well on you.