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.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 8:45 pm and is filed in SEO.

24 Comments on “Help Your Friends Rank Better”

  1. Jamie says:

    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.

    Response posted: April 1st, 2008 at 7:47 pm
  2. Rachael says:

    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! :)

    Response posted: April 1st, 2008 at 7:49 pm
  3. Vera says:

    … 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

    Response posted: April 1st, 2008 at 8:10 pm
  4. Melissa says:

    Think before you link! Woot. I don’t like using “click here” either.

    Response posted: April 1st, 2008 at 8:20 pm
  5. Jem says:

    [quote] Think before you link![/quote] I like that! We should start a “think before you link” campaign.

    Response posted: April 1st, 2008 at 8:21 pm
  6. Melissa says:

    [quote]I like that! We should start a “think before you link” campaign.[/quote] Ooh…with badges!

    Response posted: April 1st, 2008 at 8:25 pm
  7. Aisling says:

    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.

    Response posted: April 1st, 2008 at 8:49 pm
  8. Jenny says:

    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

    Response posted: April 1st, 2008 at 9:39 pm
  9. Belinda says:

    Thanks for the tip, Jem!

    Response posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 1:12 am
  10. Chantelle says:

    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.

    Response posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 6:19 am
  11. Amber says:

    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.

    Response posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 8:07 am
  12. Chrissy says:

    I’ve got too much in life to worry about to add “thinking before I link” to the pile.

    Response posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 9:35 am
  13. Rhys says:

    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 :(

    Response posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 9:37 am
  14. Lil says:

    I linked you with a rather odd name in my April Fool’s entry… ;) Otherwise I link people by names.

    Response posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
  15. Christine says:

    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!

    Response posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
  16. Jabed says:

    [quote]think before you link.[/quote] That does sound catchy indeed

    Response posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
  17. Teesee says:

    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.

    Response posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 8:56 pm
  18. Stephanie says:

    Jem, you know SEO turns us webgeeks on like no other. Click-throughs = hot monkey love ;)

    Response posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 9:22 pm
  19. Sarah says:

    Nice advice. I am guilty of using “click here”, ah well.

    Response posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
  20. Beth says:

    Though I’m sure this is a very good post for most, once reading: [quote]giving Google (etc) multiple keywords and a deeper link for better penetration[/quote] …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!

    Response posted: April 3rd, 2008 at 6:01 am
  21. Brigitte says:

    It’s always nice to be reminded, since somehow even I’ve forgotten this. Dur!

    Response posted: April 3rd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
  22. Christina says:

    I used to be guilty of linking people with “click here.” Now I just link people with their name.

    Response posted: April 3rd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
  23. Joshua Goodwin says:

    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.

    Response posted: April 3rd, 2008 at 7:36 pm
  24. Regina says:

    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!

    Response posted: April 6th, 2008 at 6:20 pm

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