Help Your Friends Rank Better
One of the quickest ways to make me smile is to link to my blog. I love the traffic — whether it’s 1 click-through or 100 — and I love the little bit of Google juice you’re passing my way. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the quickest ways to make me cringe because most people just don’t do it right.
Take the following example:
Click here to visit my friend Jem!
This is great if I want to rank for the term “click here”. With 1,320,000,000 results on Google as I write this, I’m not even going to try hoping because it’s not going to work, not to mention the fact that “click here” is totally irrelevant to both me and my website. However, look at this:
Visit Jem’s website?
OK, I whacked it out in 10 seconds so isn’t very creative, but it does include something important: a keyword. A word that I want to rank for, that is relevant to my website and as an added bonus removes the “idiot” instruction click here
. (“Click here” not only assumes the user doesn’t know how to follow a link, but is also irrelevant to a keyboard-jockey that tabs through pages. However, there is divided opinion on whether or not this “call to action” is beneficial in terms of usability. Personally, I hate it.)
Even better:
Visit Jem’s website for free PHP scripts!
Now you’re inviting the user to view the website and offering them an incentive too. Not only that, you’re giving Google (etc) multiple keywords and a deeper link for better penetration (SEO and kinky all in one post?!) This increases the chances of a link making sense out of context and can only benefit your mates.
So think before you write your next link, be it to a friend or an internal link on your own site, and ask yourself if you’re giving it full keyword potential. Word your links a little more keyword friendly and you’ll help yourself, and your friends rank better.
Jamie said:
On 01 Apr at 6:47 pm
Good information to know and I usually link a person with their name, but I don’t link people to help them increase their ranks.
Rachael said:
On 01 Apr at 6:49 pm
I think this is how I came to rank so highly in google for “Rachael”. It’s only mentioned in my footer, but when you look at how many places I’m linked (comments, blogrolls, etc. etc.) it all adds up. Yay e-friends! :)
Vera said:
On 01 Apr at 7:10 pm
… or I could just type JEM RULES THE WORLD and link to you =P. Of course since you don’t publicly admit this on your website it’s yet again, not very relevant. =P
Melissa said:
On 01 Apr at 7:20 pm
Think before you link! Woot. I don’t like using “click here” either.
Jem said:
On 01 Apr at 7:21 pm
I like that! We should start a “think before you link” campaign.
Melissa said:
On 01 Apr at 7:25 pm
Ooh…with badges!
Aisling said:
On 01 Apr at 7:49 pm
Ha ha, Jem said “penetration.” *immature giggles* But, yes, good point. :) I’m going to pretend that I’m not still giggling over the word “penetration,” but I think we all know that I am.
Jenny said:
On 01 Apr at 8:39 pm
I try and avoid making a link with “click here” all the time…since I read Gemma’s article on it. It made sense. ;p (helical-library!) But sometimes it slips in when I can’t substitute the word with anything else in fear of making it not make sense. “think before you link” is awesome. :3
Belinda said:
On 02 Apr at 12:12 am
Thanks for the tip, Jem!
Chantelle said:
On 02 Apr at 5:19 am
I’ll remember this when I link things. :) “Think before you link” sounds cute; it has a certain ring to it and it’s not too corny.
Amber said:
On 02 Apr at 7:07 am
Is this just a shameless ploy for promotion? ;) I think I link everything absolutely terribly. I read the same article Jenny was talking about but somehow I always seem to forget before putting it into practise.
Chrissy said:
On 02 Apr at 8:35 am
I’ve got too much in life to worry about to add “thinking before I link” to the pile.
Rhys said:
On 02 Apr at 8:37 am
I’m part of the “click here” crew. It is a cause to action, plus I’m beginning to hate the “keyword comment spam” gang who stuff keywords they want to link to in my comments :(
Lil said:
On 02 Apr at 2:04 pm
I linked you with a rather odd name in my April Fool’s entry… ;) Otherwise I link people by names.
Christine said:
On 02 Apr at 2:14 pm
I’ve never really thought about this before tbh. I instinctively don’t really like the whole “click here” thingie, but I think I have a bad habit of making links really long. Like.. instead of making one or 2 words the link, I’ll make the whole relative sentence the link. Is that a big no no too? So many things to keep on top of ~.~ Thanks for all the tips Jem!
Jabed said:
On 02 Apr at 4:54 pm
That does sound catchy indeed
Teesee said:
On 02 Apr at 7:56 pm
Comments are currently turned on. Haha. Sorry. I find that so dirty. /unrelated Almost as funny as those “Humped zebra crossing” signs I see everywhere.
Stephanie said:
On 02 Apr at 8:22 pm
Jem, you know SEO turns us webgeeks on like no other. Click-throughs = hot monkey love ;)
Sarah said:
On 02 Apr at 8:37 pm
Nice advice. I am guilty of using “click here”, ah well.
Beth said:
On 03 Apr at 5:01 am
Though I’m sure this is a very good post for most, once reading: …I couldn’t help but laugh to myself, and wonder what new keywords you’ll find, related to people visiting your site…hehe. But yes, very good tip to remember! I’d like to see a simple page here for ‘intrawebz dummies’…would be very useful for someone like me!
Brigitte said:
On 03 Apr at 12:20 pm
It’s always nice to be reminded, since somehow even I’ve forgotten this. Dur!
Christina said:
On 03 Apr at 5:21 pm
I used to be guilty of linking people with “click here.” Now I just link people with their name.
Joshua Goodwin said:
On 03 Apr at 6:36 pm
Using the phrase “click here” is, I believe, bad for accessibility too. So by doing as you instruct we’ll be killing two birds with one stone — only without the animal welfare issues, of course.
Regina said:
On 06 Apr at 5:20 pm
I sometimes do the ‘click here’ way until recently when I found out why those MySpace sites were crazy about links that said “default myspace layouts” “girly myspace layouts
etc. Hahaha. XD Very informative article Jem!
Keith D Mains said:
On 25 Oct at 9:35 pm
Nice read yet again Jemma – any chance of an interview on my forum please?
“Click here” lol I just thought of something I could do with that that would be quite amusing to find out if could work or not.
I agree though click here is no use for link backs
Nile said:
On 11 Nov at 2:42 am
That is a great suggestion. Sorry, been on a bit of a hiatus in the tech world, so I am just updating too. Since reading this, I will go through my link page (on my LONG to do list) and do this. I do have your link on my blogroll, but I think having it in the links would be a great thing, especially with your “keyword” suggestion.
It makes since, like in English when your professor says, “Hey, can you explain what ‘stuff’ or ‘it’ means?
Nile said:
On 11 Nov at 3:00 am
oops…. “sense” not since. I have not been feeling well and I am typing while my eyes are watering and my nose is about to drip. *sighs*