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Links are the core of the World Wide Web. Without links we would all be content creators and business owners scattered around the globe, stranded on our own separate islands – we know it, the bots that crawl your website know it, and, more importantly, your visitors know it.

Links can be split into two major categories:

1. Outlinks – links that redirect outside your website to external sources
2. Inlinks (or backlinks) – links from outside sources that direct to your website or pages on your website

Initially, these links were mere connections between users and the content they shared. They served as the backbone of the HTTP protocol which was at its infancy. Now they serve another purpose.

With the importance of a good website ranking on the rise, links have grown to be a powerful indicator of the quality of a website as seen by crawling bots. In short, when bots crawl your website, they don’t just read your content; they also check your links.

So when you outlink to an external website, you’re essentially telling bots that you vouch for the content of that website, thus increasing its overall ranking as seen by standard online ranking services like Google or Alexa.

Luckily, this goes both ways, and it’s an unspoken act of cordiality to link to a website if that website has already linked to you. A great way to do that without cluttering your website content is to add those links to your blog posts.

Check your links every 4 months!

When the links you share are found in your blog posts, it would be tiring to check them all every quarter of the year. Plus, on your blog, there are always ways in which your readers can easily let you know that perhaps one of your links doesn’t work anymore and you can address the issue.

But when links from your website lead to unexisting pages, that’s when your visitors don’t write back. Moreover, they are likely to lose confidence in your brand, all because of one link that you don’t even have control over.

Indeed, the sign of a broken link spells disrespect to your visitors and the likelihood rate of converting them to clients drops. Why? Because if you’re not showing any interest in your content, why should the other guy?

Fix your links

1. Check all outlinks you have on your website. Make sure they point to their original sources. If the source is not available anymore, look for another. When you’ve exhausted all options, simply remove the link.
2. Contact links – your email address, your business’ physical address, your phone number. Check to see if they are linking to the correct sources.

Tips:

1. When adding an outlink, make sure it always opens in a different window. This will allow your visitors to check out your link without leaving your website.
2. Make sure you add links to your email address and phone number. This will make the client’s process of contacting you much easier.
3. Track your inlinks: with analytics services at your disposal, take some time to check where your visitors come from. It’s a much better position to be seated in when you understand your audience better.

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