No matter how busy I tend to be, I make it a rule to check out our Articles Gallery at least daily. I browse though new authors’ submissions, invite them to contact me for content ideas or try to explain where they can improve.
No matter how much we say that guest authors should be very modest about their linking (in order to get a better offer and look natural to Google), most people would still put too much emphasis on their links.
OK, you want to link. We respect that and understand that might be your main objective behind guest blogging.
But please, if you want to link, make your links at least natural and good looking.
We are not about non-sense link dropping here. Each link should make sense.
That’s especially true when it comes to in-body (non-byline) link.
What’s “Natural”?
When you look at a guest post and see links in it, that should NOT be obvious which of those links is self-serving.
While how natural the link is may be quite a misleading question, let’s look at some examples:
Examples of UNnatural Links
- When you write about hair loss, and then out of the blue, mention the “London hair implant hospital” (yes, that’s relevant but that’s obviously a SEOed link)
- When you write about identity theft and then link to the “lawyer in Boston” who can help you (that’s also self-promotional)
How to Make Your Link Natural
OK, so you want to link from the body – I can totally understand that. However, unlike byline links which technically belong to the author, in-body links can be attributed to the author. So please spend an additional effort to make them look natural.
Here are a few ways:
- Cite the stats source you obtain from your visitors / clients: “According to,…”. Example: Tips for Dressing Your Age While Maintaining Mystery
- Mention the place an event is taking place in. Example: 6 Largest Social Media Meetups to Visit in 2012.
- List other relevant products, companies or events, even if they are somewhat competing. Example: 5 Charity Ideas for This Summer
Also, link to other sources: many links look MUCH more natural than one self-serving links. Link to trusted sources (.gov sites, official clinic sites, NY Times and CNN, Wikipedia, etc).
If your links look natural, that works for you in the first place because you will never be suspected of buying links or any other manipulation! All we do, we do for you!
*NEXT WEEK: July PUSH at #myblogguest featuring most natural links we can find! More power to MyBlogGuest!*
Joseph
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Mark Robinson
SO Ann, anchor links in Author bio is fine and looks natural right?
JimsGotWeb
Thanks for the detailed information about natural links, very helpful!
Samantha
great post
Donovan
I think that “natural looking links” is a completely subjective notion. A by-line with a link in it, is far more obviously self-serving (and has less SEO value) than a relative link in the body of the article. So I’m not sure why we are restricted in this way, especially when the whole reason for submitting guest posts is to get a natural looking back link.
Ann Smarty
Donovan, here we are not talking about bylines at all: This article is about linking from the body of the article!