Hyperlinks connect you from one place to another. Hyperlinks usually direct you to another webpage or place on a webpage. Russ and I discuss various types of hyperlinks, talk about backlinks and how the best backlinks using anchor text can boost your SEO.
This post corresponds to our latest podcast episode of “Russ and Randy” – a podcast on Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing. We hope you like “Using Hyperlinks to Boost SEO.” You can find us on iTunes …and now, ReachMD.com!
Here are some simple definitions of the types of hyperlinks and how they affect SEO.
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are usually colored and underlined. By clicking on a hyperlink, you are directed to another file, image, webpage etc. which may be of interest to you.
While images can also serve as hyperlinks, most hyperlinks involve text or words.
Backlinks
These are hyperlinks FROM an outside website BACK TO your website. These are links from someone else’s website back to yours. Backlinks are referencing your Home page or some other page on your site.
Backlinks are very important for the search engine ranking algorithms. Backlinks serve as powerful endorsements of the value, trust and content of your website. In Google’s eyes, backlinks represent objective endorsement of the receiving website.
Inbound and Outbound Links
Inbound links are another term for backlinks. These are links from another website to yours. Outbound links are links from your website “out” to another site.
Internal and External Linking
Internal links are hyperlinks within the same website. SEO best practices recommend creating internal hyperlinks from one post to another. While not as powerful as backlinks, internal links have SEO value. Internal linking is not as valuable because there is some bias (you, the webmaster are creating these links), but they do give the search engines the ability to monitor traffic to the receiving page – how popular is the receiving page?
External links have least SEO value (to you). You are simply linking to the an outside source and creating a backlink to the receiving page.
Anchor Text
“Click Here” is probably the most common anchor text in the world.
The most valuable type of hyperlink employs anchor text. This is a hyperlink which uses keywords or other descriptive language to describe the target. This can serve as an external backlink to another page outside your site or can be an internal link.
In the example “Click Here,” the words click and here are used by Google to help define the source.
Anchor text hyperlinks improve SEO by utilizing keywords AND can serve as backlinks.
Russ is an ENT specialist. Using the concept of anchor text, Russ Faust is an excellent pediatric ENT specialist. In this example, I hyperlinked to Russ’s “about” page on his clinic site www.boogerdoctor.com.
In the first hyperlink, I used adjectives to describe his about page. This has more SEO value the the second. In the second, I simply created a backlink without using anchor text.
The Best “Quality” Backlinks
Quality backlinks, those that have the best SEO value, have the following attributes:
- Use of anchor text
- Originate from a website in a related field (e.g. healthcare) – this is why “purchasing” backlinks is a bad idea, they are unlikely to be coming from a related website or from a website with authority
- Originate from a website of higher authority
If you have questions about hyperlinks, please leave us a question or comment!
See you next week!
Find “Russ and Randy” on iTunes!
If you have questions or concerns, please leave a comment here.
Please find us on iTunes and subscribe to either the podcast or here to receive our latest episodes. Thanks for listening. See you next week!
Please download us on iTunes and leave a review.
All the best!
Russ…and Randy
Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing
Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social
Leave a Reply