If you ask any SEO expert, they will tell you that hyperlinks are extremely important for SEO. After all, without hyperlinks, your content would just be resting on a lonely page with no one to ever see it. So how do you know the difference between what aspects of hyperlinks are important for SEO and which ones aren’t?
In this guide, we review What Aspects Of Hyperlinks Are Not Important For Seo, What should you avoid when creating a link, What are characteristics of bad links, and What are the most important links for SEO?
What Aspects Of Hyperlinks Are Not Important For Seo
Sometimes, the best way to learn about SEO is to hear from other people who are doing it. In this article, we’ll look at what aspects of hyperlinks are important for SEO and which ones aren’t. We’ll also explore some common misconceptions about SEO and link building that have been around for years but have never been true.
The actual text of the link is not important for SEO.
The actual text of the link is not important for SEO.
The search engines look at the anchor text, not your link text. The anchor text is what you click on to get to another page. It’s usually different from your link text and should be clearly visible to people visiting your site.
Only incoming links to your site are important for SEO.
Search engines use links as a way to help determine the quality of a website. A high-quality site will have more incoming relevant links than low-quality sites, and this is why it’s important for you to focus on getting other sites to link back to yours.
However, search engines also look at the authority of the page that is linking to you (the page with your link). For example, if an authoritative source like Wikipedia or CNN mentions your website in an article about something related to your business, then this will be considered by search engines as a very strong signal that your site is trustworthy and relevant in its field.
Links that have nofollow tags on them can still be useful for SEO, although they don’t count as inbound links.
In addition to the links that get you inbound traffic and a boost in search engine rankings, there are other types of links that can be useful for SEO. Links with nofollow tags on them can still be beneficial because they’re essentially an endorsement from a reputable site. In other words, if someone is going to give your site a link, they will likely want to make sure it’s not just any old page on their website but rather one that’s relevant to the topic at hand. This means that even though these links don’t count as inbound ones (and therefore won’t contribute directly toward ranking), they are still important because they show Google which pages are more valuable than others when it comes down to deciding how their search results should look.
What should you avoid when creating a link
UX designers often need to direct users to other web pages or documents. One way to achieve this is to use a “click here” or “read more” hyperlink. But is this really the best approach?
The short answer is no. Using “click here” or “read more” links is often problematic for your users. In this article, we discuss three key reasons why you should avoid using them in your content. You’ll also find three easy steps to follow if you want to create helpful hyperlinks.
Three reasons to avoid “click here” and “learn more” hyperlinks
It slows users down
Most of us like to skim through the text on a website – our busy lifestyles mean we don’t have time to read and digest every single word. Over the past 23 years, studies by Nielsen Norman Group have consistently found that people tend to read just 20-28% of words on a web page. It’s not much, so bear in mind that users are probably looking for keywords or phrases to help them find the information they need. Descriptive headings and specific links are the best way to help users scan the page and navigate it more quickly.
It leads to uncertainty
Generic terms like “click here” for a hyperlink can be unnerving for your users. And if they’re not sure where they’re going to end up after clicking the link, they probably won’t bother opening it. After all, they won’t want to be redirected to a dodgy site, waste their time waiting for a page they don’t need to load or waste their data allowance on content they aren’t interested in.
Your users might not be “clicking” at all
Many users will access your website using a mobile device or tablet. Smartphones can be used for pretty much everything nowadays, whether you’re booking a taxi, ordering a takeaway or buying tickets to a gig. That means most users won’t be clicking a mouse at all. In some cases, they’ll be using voice commands or tapping the screen. As a general rule, it’s best to avoid talking about mechanics in your hyperlinks.
Three steps to helpful hyperlinks
Make them unique
Don’t be tempted to use the same hyperlink text more than once. Using a “read more” hyperlink at the end of every paragraph is too vague. It could even lead to users thinking that all of the links will take them to the same endpoint.
Most of your users will skim over the whole page before they begin visiting the hyperlinks, so if they’re all the same, it will take them much longer to work out which ones to open. Using unique text for each hyperlink helps tell your users exactly where each link will take them.
Make them meaningful
A clear, descriptive hyperlink will help users to quickly decide which links they want to visit. Remember, they might not follow the links as they read the webpage. Most people will scan the page, decide which parts they are most interested in and then go on to visit the appropriate links.
Make sure they include keywords
Most of us read web pages in an F pattern – that means our eyes move from left to right, then down the left hand side of the page. We tend to read more words at the top of the page, but this naturally reduces as we scroll further down.
Putting the most important words at the beginning of your hyperlinks helps users to pick out the information that’s most relevant to them when they are scanning the page. Not only does this benefit users, but it helps in situations where you have limited space. Best of all, it’s helpful for your SEO.