3 Linking Strategies That Will Catapult Your Conversions

By: Craig Spooner

One of the biggest facilitators of conversions for marketing efforts is also one of the most frequently overlooked: your approach to connecting your content through a thoughtful linking strategy. You might be scratching your head right now, wondering why linking is so important to the success of your campaign, but it’s much larger than that.

Leveraging the right linking strategy won’t just benefit your current campaign but your entire marketing and PR strategy. The right linking strategy will bolster your on-page SEO, give prospects valuable insight into the depth of your knowledge, and further your position as a thought leader in the marketplace.

A relevant linking strategy helps search engines not only analyze the popularity of your website and the pages it contains based on the number and popularity of pages linking to them, but also through metrics like trust, spam, and authority. What do we mean by “a relevant linking strategy”? We mean having links, internal or external, that truly match the context of the content and provide a natural next step to prospects on their path to discovery and eventual action.

Growing the link profile of your website is critical to increasing your SEO traction with search engines, as well as organic traffic from searchers. It’s also one of the more heavily weighted aspects of search ranking and traffic success. So, how do you implement the right linking strategy? Below are three linking strategies to help you get more bang for your marketing buck:

1. Text hyperlinks: You might be thinking “Duh, we already do this. On to the next point!” You wouldn’t be wrong, but I would push back and ask, “Are you certain you’re linking to the right content?” The importance of linking to trusted and notable sources can’t be overstated—this also means that you’re not always linking back to one of your own resources. Provide your visitors with easy to find and follow “content pathways” within your site. If a visitor lands on a certain page, they should always have options to learn more.
   
   
   
2. Inline CTAs: Think of these as a fun twist on the traditional text hyperlinks found in most content offers. Creating a simple, eye-catching CTA that breaks apart the content on the page and reinforces the messaging can:
   
   
   • Make your page more design-friendly. (White space = Wise Space)
   • Create a low barrier to entry to a content offer or landing page
   • Showcase your creativity
     
     We’ve provided an example of how an inline CTA functions below: by linking this inline CTA to a landing page, we provide a quick path to additional content. While you’re there, feel free to take the eBook home with you! It might help you with strategy #3! 
     
      
3. Social sharing: The last few years have seen an explosion in the amount of content shared through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. Although search engines treat socially shared links differently than other types of links, they notice them nonetheless. There’s a large debate on how exactly search engines factor social links into their algorithms, but there is no denying the value and rising importance of social sharing.

At the end of the day, how you want to construct your linking strategy is up to you, but it should be based on what gives you the highest return on your effort invested. As a general rule, it's wise to build as vast and varied a link profile as possible, since this brings the best search engine results. And if you’re ever wondering what strategy is getting you the most bang for your buck, activate Google’s on-page analytics and see what click percentage each link option is bringing in!

Thanks for sharing!