Using hyperlinks as a search engine optimization tool.

Hyperlinks in text paragraphs: are they distracting or SEO-enhancing?

By Pandia Guest Writer Jennifer Dennis

(September 16 2004) You want to get the top spots on the best search engines. Unfortunately, space is limited.

As more and more companies catch on to the profit-possibility of search engine optimization (SEO) marketing for their ecommerce sites, keywords, copy and interior linking are becoming increasingly important factors.

People are catching on to the game of SEO. With its tricks, tips and techniques (spammy or not), those few elusive top spots on Google, MSN, Yahoo! and others seem to be farther and farther away. It's you vs. your industry competitors, fighting to the death over the profitable top spots on search engines.

What else can you do to get the edge on your competitors?

Have you hyperlinked your site yet?

Hyperlinks can be a wonderful bridge between search engines and pages.

Placing keywords in your hyperlink is wonderful food for those searching spiders. The keywords included within a hyperlink are weighed more heavily than the same keyword hanging out in your copy text. For example, these sentences within your text can provide excellent opportunities for hyperlinking:

• As a Link at the end of the Paragraph: Click here to find small fishing worms for bait!
• As a Sentence within a Text Paragraph: "Are you searching for fishing worms for bait? We can help!"

The keyword fishing worms for bait is weighed more heavily in the copy because it goes to a link. This extra weight lets the spider know that this keyword is especially important to your site.

Now here's the trick. The hyperlinked keyword or keyword phrase significantly assists the page that it refers to. While the keyword will help the page that it is located on, the link importance is transferred to the page it is linking to.

In this way, you are getting the most out of every keyword you choose for your site.

For example. On Page A, you write an appropriate text of copy with correct keyword density. At the bottom of your text, you use the hyperlink: Click here to find small fishing worms for bait!

Although the keyword is on Page A, it refers to Page B that sells the fishing worms for bait. Thus, the importance of that keyword is transferred to Page B, giving Page B extra relevance and weight for the spider.

Page A, however, will still receive the significance of having the keyword fishing worms for bait on its page as a relevant and important phrase. In essence, by hyperlinking this keyword, you are adding significance to both Page A and Page B simultaneously.

If Page B is one of your pages, your overall site gains the importance of having that particular keyword in your hyperlink. In this way, you can maximize your copy potential on the overall site.

By using your keyword in the link, those tireless spiders will see that this phrase has significant importance for the referenced page. Use this to your advantage.

Hyperlinks and intuitive usability

You don't want to irritate or frustrate your users when they finally find your pages. If you've worked hard on your SEO, the last thing you want to happen is see your users arrive at your site -- and quickly run away!

The ultimate hope of every SEO campaign is satisfied, returning customers and a site that achieves its goal -- whether that goal is bringing a specific number of new users a month, increasing its bottom line, optimizing its return-on-investment (ROI) or more.

Usability plays an influential factor in customer satisfaction. And hyperlinks can affect your prospective customers' usability experience.

Have seen those sites with copy that is littered with hyperlinks? Over and over, the same words are linked, highlighted in blue and strewn throughout the text. Not only it is distracting to read this text, it proves fruitless to the site.

While the internal linking is beneficial to the page and the placement on the search engines is obviously a wonderful boon, if it annoys your users and they leave your site, it does you no good!

Having too many hyperlinks on a page is similar to a flash presentation -- the idea is to help the user, but in the end, it just diminishes the site's importance from an SEO perspective.

Maximum hyperlinks per copy

It is recommended that the maximum number of hyperlinks within your copy is 2 to 5. And please don't repeat your hyperlinks throughout the page. A little bit goes a long way when it comes to hyperlinks. You want the links to jump out at your customers.

Here is an example of what not to do:

"Polly wants to go fishing. She bought a boat and a brand-new fishing pole. Now Polly needs fishing worms for bait. Where can she get the best fishing worms for bait in town? Online at IWannaGoFishing.com! Join Polly and browse our selection of fishing worms for bait for the best prices today."

If your copy uses every instance of the keyword as a hyperlink, it annoys your reader -- and doesn't add any extra significance from an SEO perspective. One hyperlinked word is enough!

While the keyword jumps out, if the user is not searching for fishing worms for bait, it distracts their reading and can irritate them enough that he or she will leave the page.

Imagine how distracting it would be if you had 3-5 keywords on a page and you turned every instance of the keyword into a hyperlink. You would be giving relevance to alternate pages, but you would lose your users due to usability frustrations. And nobody wants a site that looks pretty, ranks high but doesn't satisfy its users?

You won't make any money off a pretty site. You make money by balancing friendly usability techniques with SEO strategies on your site.

Balancing the hyperlinks

The use of hyperlinks in your copy is a great optimization technique, but don't spam or stuff hyperlinks into your text in a hope to "help" your users. You'll be doing the opposite and your site will ultimately suffer in the end.

The goal of hyperlinks is to gain relevance on the words and to help push your users to alternate pages. Hyperlinks should encourage further surfing from your users. Take advantage of the benefits of internal linking on your site.

In addition, use a hyperlink in the entire text of copy once or twice only. If every part of your copy stands out from hyperlinks, how will the user know what's most important?

Sprinkle hyperlinks. The effects will be most beneficial to your SEO overall campaign.

Have you hyperlinked your site (effectively) today?

Jennifer Dennis has roughly ten years of professional writing experience, with various essays in national, regional and local publications. A graduate of Davidson College, Jennifer earned her Masters in Professional and Technical Writing at Georgia State University last year. Jennifer is a specialized SEO copywriter for KeywordRanking (a subsidiary of WebSourced, Inc.) writing customized copy for numerous clients every month. Jennifer is also scheduled to speak at www.SEMLive.com on October 26th 2004 in Raleigh, NC. Jennifer can be reached at jdennis@websourced.com.

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