Linking 101
Posted Nov 16th 2009 at 4:00PM
by Kristi Anderson (subscribe to Kristi Anderson's posts)
Filed Under: SEO and Promotion
Kristi Anderson is Managing Editor of the AOL Living sites, including ParentDish.com, Lemondrop.com, StyleList.com, and PawNation.com.The beauty of creating online content is that it's all connected – a literal and virtual 'web' of information. And, a web is intended to be navigated, or searched.
Linking and Link Frequency
You connect your content to other online content through linking. A link is simply a clickable navigation element on a web page. Clicking on a link takes you to another web page. It's as simple as that.
Links are usually shown as blue, with underlined text. My link in the first paragraph of this article is an example. Links are an important way for users to discover and browse new websites.At AOL, linking is an important part of our content creation. Whether we're writing newsy, breaking articles or more evergreen content, it's important for us to present it in a way that offers readers multiple resources for finding out more information.
Link Lesson #1:
There are such phenomena as over-linking and under-linking, but the takeaway from this lesson is to rely on your common sense and put yourself in the reader's place when determining link frequency. If each of your paragraphs contains three links, that's overkill and gives the impression of decreasing the journalistic integrity of your article. You're much better off including just a few well-placed, informative links that lend your article more depth and breadth. Your readers will thank you.
Link Word Selection
It's not just enough to link, but it's important to take into account the words you actually create the link from, also known as "anchor text". Your goal is twofold; tell your audience where this link will take them by describing the resulting page and make it easy for users to believe you'll answer their question in your article by using the words they're plugging into a search engine to find that same content. We'll discuss this more in our article on keyword/keyphrase selection.
So, if there are suitable keywords and keyphrases for linking, it stands to reason that there is such a thing as unsuitable link text. This is best described as text that becomes meaningless when read on its own.
Classic examples of this include "More" and "Click Here". These terms have no meaning when read alone as the resulting page isn't about "more" or "click here". To call out this importance, imagine a web page selling fine chocolates, with the link text "More" next to the image of each type of chocolate. Each link leads to additional information on the specific type of chocolate. If a user of an assistive technology wishes to read only the links on the page, the result would be meaningless: "More More More More."
But, when appropriate link text is used, the result is meaningful: "Belgian chocolate", "Dark chocolate", "Swiss chocolate...." etc.
Link Lesson #2:
Be descriptive with your links. Avoid using words like "More," "Click Here," "For More Info," etc. Imagine if the links were the only readable text in your article. Would they make sense? Let that criteria be your guide.
Next: Backlinks and PageRanks
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Reader Comments
(page 1 of 2)Your posts are concise and very useful. After I submitted my first article (which you folks bought-thank you) I then read your posts and tips. If I would have read them beforehand I would have had even a better article. The Academy is a great collection of posts by all your writers and I am reading them all asap. You all cover a great deal of ground and the information is easy to understand. Thanks!
Thanks, Paul. Glad you find the information useful!
Some of us actually do not know how to do an embedded link. many of your articles ask for them. I was hoping for an easily understood tutorial on it. I have read info and had it explained, but am still not getting it. I know a lot of other writers who are having this problem.
Hi Donna: May article description tells me to link to AOL properties. Can you answer two questions: #1. The exact method of linking a word like "organic" to a web page? #2. What are the AOL properties that I should link to? How do I find them? The article is about organic gardening. Thanks, jim
I'm a new member who just signed up today. Hope it's okay to jump in.
To embed a link, you use simple HTML coding like this:
Text to use as the link
I hope this shows up. Some forums don't allow HTML code to be typed in.
Ugh! My newbieness is showing in blazing hot colors today. I should have caught that it didn't show properly before I confirmed the comment. Sorry.
Here it is again, modified:
("http://www.siteyourlinking2.com")Text you want to use as the link(/a)
Replace the ( with < and the ) with > and you will be all set.
Hope this helps.
I still don't know how to do the embedded linking. I can't seem to find an answer.
Hello,
Thanks for the helpful article, Kristi. I'm trying to figure out whether or not we are required to create the links. Are we? I don't mind, but I don't see how it benefits Seed.com for the writer to send the reader off to another site that may or may not profit Seed.com. Confusing. Also, you'll probably need to include a brief tutorial on how to include links.
Love "The Academny" pieces, but agree a tutorial on creating anchor text and associated links within a document is needed.
I have no idea how to imbed links without pasting the whole ulr and should they be imbedded at the time you are speaking about the subject ,or at the end of the article? So sorry, newbie. I learned on a typewriter if you can believe that!
Hi, all! Here are instructions to add a text link to your article in Seed:
1. When you're composing your article, highlight a word or words you want to be linked (if appropriate).
2. Click the Insert/Edit Link button, which is five (5) buttons in from the left (in the row of buttons that are located just above where you're typing your article). It looks like a globe with a chain link.
3. A pop-up box will appear, and you will see where you can insert the URL you want to link to your text. Enter the URL and click OK. This will turn that text into a link.
4. To remove the link, simply highlight the text again and click the Remove Link button (six buttons from left), which looks like a globe with a broken chain link.
Please include your links in the body of your text versus at the end of the article.
Hope this helps, and have a great weekend!
Is there a list of AOL websites to give us some ideas for linking to "AOL Properties"?
Thanks!
Here you go, Trudy!
List of AOL Properties
Well, that's embarrassing ... why didn't the link work? Oh well, Trudy there is a link at the top of the page called "AOL Properties" - that will show you what other sites belong to AOL.
How do you put images INTO your article. An assignment I'm working on requires photos/screenshots, and I think it would be better to have the pictures in the actual article, rather than linked to them. Is there a way to do this. They are my own pictures, and I've uploaded them to "Mediafire", but I can't seem to get them INTO the article. Any help is greatly appreciated!
I'm brand new to Seed.com. Are we required to create links in ALL articles we write, or only those that have instructions specifically stating we should do so? Thanks
Ditto.
When linking to another web site, are we to get approval from the site before we can link? I have submitted one artical with 3 links and did not think about this until after I submitted it.
I'm confused as to how pictures work. I can only get one of them into my article at a time. Also, how do we put in video? Does the writing screen process basic html?
I have no idea, but I was happy to find you guys. I'm very new, have written one article (it was turned down). I don't know if I can embed a link. Why? Because I am stuck with dial up. Yes, you heard right. Dial-up! We have a rural home (it's nice, but the expense for high-speed is still prohibitive). I hit the link button about ten minutes ago and it is still loading (not kidding). Could someone please explain the html method of linking? Will it work on this site?