Great writing is essential to successful blogging. Using links when we blog helps us better serve our readers and aids in search engine optimization (SEO), which lets more readers find our work.
This blogging tip has three considerations:
Link to past relevant posts: Within a post, link key words or key phrases back to other relevant posts or tags, (as I did with “blogging tip”). This makes it easy for readers to read more about the subject, discover background, or explore related posts.
A variation of this is to include “related posts” at the end of each post. As a bonus, once setup, this happens automatically, so it requires no extra work or thought. The results are usually quite good, provided we have a sufficient number of posts in our blog.
Link past posts to the current one: This SEO strategy increases the SEO standing of a new post because existing pages link to it. As a bonus, when someone discovers those older posts, they will see a link to the new one.
Include a link when commenting: Another SEO strategy is to go to other blogs of interest or that our audience might read. Make relevant comments on those posts.
For most blogs, the commenters’ name automatically links to their site (assuming they provided that information when they posted their comment). This link should be to our home page or main blog page.
Sometimes it’s acceptable to include a link to a specific post when we comment. We must do this with extreme care. Make sure the link is relevant and adds to the discussion. Shameless self-promotion will result in disaster.
When commenting, don’t leave a generic comment (such as “great post” or “I agree”) and never ever leave a nonsensical one. The comment should advance the discussion or share relevant information. There should be no doubt we read the post and considered our response. (I hope you will take a moment and comment on this post!)
I do a good job at the first and last suggestions, but usually forget the middle one.
Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.
7 replies on “Blogs and Links: The Art of Helping Readers and Improving SEO”
I like that you said “…yet!” I appreciate your “can-do” attitude.
Let me see if I’ve got this. It’s ok to discuss things if they were to pertain to my latest post – — but shameless to say BUY MY BOOK at I hadn’t thought of linking back to previous posts in my blog. I’m going to start doing that!!
I’ve struggled with putting links that look like your links in my post. I’ve done it successfully a few times, but then I can’t figure out the next time. Sometimes, I just post the web address in my post. Clunky.
Yes, I understand.
For any new skill (or technical process) we need to perform it several times before we learn it. But when we keep at it, eventually it becomes so familiar that we don’t even need to think about it.
I hope that adding links will soon become a second nature for you!
Sally, your comment is hilarious!
What we all need is for someone else to plug our books for us, as in:
My friend Sally has a great book out that I encourage you to check out. It’s called “Smiling Again” and you can buy from Amazon at
[BTW, Sally’s comment was flagged as spam and I had to approve it before it posted. I guess that’s another reason to be careful about putting links in comments!]
Good stuff, Peter: I really haven’t gotten into SEO like I should, but one of my fellow Word Weavers members said that was the very thing that brought unique visitors to her site. Thanks for the reminder to begin using key words and also the great suggestions on linking to other posts.
Anna, isn’t it great how we can all share with each other what we know and help one another as writers?
Thanks for being part of the journey!