Thursday, March 13, 2008

Link Your Blog - Increase Visibility

Susan Ward, director of marketing and communications at Carlin & Ward, wrote a great article on linking blogs for the New Jersey Law Journal. The article, Top Blogs Hit All the Right Links, is posted on Law.com.

Some bullet points from the article:

  • While it takes time to build a cache of relevant posts, blog placement can be achieved through relevant content, and inbound and outbound links to other sites.
  • Blog reputation, reach and value are derived from linking in and linking out to other sources that are relevant to your topic -- whether they are mainstream press, nonprofit public interest sites, or other law blogs, even those of your competitors.
  • Blogs always quote other blogs. The connection to the source drives traffic to those sites, enhancing their value. So when you use another writer's content, provide a link. The link should always go to the permalink page of the source blog post, not the front page of the source blog.
  • Blog links include those within the post and blogrolls that are listed in sidebars. Typically, a blogroll is comprised of fellow bloggers whose site content is relevant to your niche or your industry. Industry-related links are valuable because they can enhance your credibility and increase your visibility through branding.
  • Anchor text is comprised of the words that provide the clickable hyperlink. According to Wayne Hulbert at Blog Business World, it is better to use a keyword as the basis for the hyperlink than "click here" or "read more." Keywords as links provide search engines with recognizable themes, says Hulbert.
  • There are tools designed to quickly assess the relative visibility of a page or site, the potential strength and ability of a page to rank in the search engines and data on popularity, links and mentions of a page across the Web. To test your page strength, go to www.seomoz.org.

For more information on the bullet points listed above, check out the article here: Top Blogs Hit All the Right Links.

You might also visit Ms. Ward's own weblog effort on behalf of her firm, New Jersey Eminent Domain Law Blog

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