The Importance of Linking
July 11th, 2008
Link Long and Prosper!
Of course our good friend Mr. Spock would have said “Live Long and Prosper” but it adapts rather nicely to this topic don’t you think.
In the past I’ve written that making comments on other blogs is a great way to promote your blog. But linking to posts that inspire you to write works just as well.
The blog tip that I’m going to tell you still rings as loud and true as the old spiritual adage — you reap what you sow and it is just as important to give as it is to receive.
Why? Because the blogosphere is supposed to be a conversation – not a sermon from the mount. It is a community that relies on hyperlinks to keep us connected and the conversation alive.
Otherwise the blogosphere would be no different than the old-school websites of yesteryear, taking up webspace as monuments to themselves like silent, ancient statues collecting dust and eroding over time.
The blogosphere is a living, breathing organism that relies on all of its parts to make it work. Bloggers who play by the rules will benefit. But those who don’t are a cancer making the blogosphere dysfunctional. (You can read more about disfunctional bloggers at What does Original Content and Plagiarism mean for Bloggers?)
By giving a link boost to your fellow blogger you help yourself because they will find that backlink (otherwise known as ego-searching) and probably visit your blog out of curiosity. Who knows — they might even bookmark you, or even better link back to you and become a regular reader.
It’s the blogosphere’s equivalent of saying “HELLO”.
The blogosphere is no different than the community where you reside in your real-world home. You only get out of it what you put into it.
Still not convinced? Read Pageranking and Link Love Go Hand-in-Hand.
According to Google:
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”
You can read more of the technical details @ Wikipedia.
Some go to extremes and will tell you to only link to sites of high quality or relevancy. It’s about being self-serving and the ego. But where does that leave 99% of the blogs out there?
As in life we need to find a balance, so I say don’t forget about the majority of disenfranchised bloggers out there and don’t be stingy with your links.
After all they don’t call it “Link Love” for nothing. It’s like giving someone a hug and it costs just about the same.
Still don’t believe me? Then read this…
* This post has been recently updated.
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excellent blog and thanks for the info.
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Right on Bloke!
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So thats why the most popular blogs always have a ton of links in thier posts? Link love is more then just adding a site to your sidebar? I’m gonna start doing some loven!
BTW- I’m probably the last to switch over but I got the new feed finaly. I’m slow at all this computer stuff but your site helps! I’m off to try the *do follow* thingy.
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Thanks Megan. It’s good to hear from you.
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Thanks for the information and your blog. I was already commenting a lot because I love reading blogs, but never thought about mentioning blogs in my posts. Cool idea:)
Brenda’s last blog post..The Check Book is Broken
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Thanks Brenda
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Blog Bloke reply on July 11th, 2008 1:30 pm:
Well, I gave YOU some loving a couple of posts back, and in my most recent posts I gave more loving to others…so I guess you could call me a lover girl. I don’t know if you noticed, but I finally have Proud to Be a Blokester shining on my sidebar in RED.
Kuanyin’s last blog post..Chillin’ and Surfing Blogs
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Why thank you sweetems. Much kisses and hugs XXXX0000
I absolutely love the new design, especially the loading time. There’s no excuse for me to not visit more often now.
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Blog Bloke reply on July 11th, 2008 7:45 pm:
Yep, whenever possible, I try to link to others and to my older posts. When I find that certain blogs direct a few clicks my way, I will reciprocate. It is all about trying to help promote each other, especially the blogs with a smaller readership like mine.
asithis last blog post…Women’s Hormonal Phases - Your Late 20s Through Your Early 40s
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That’s the spirit
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Blog Bloke reply on July 13th, 2008 12:12 am:
Great article on linking. As with anything your get back if you give.
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Or a slightly updated version might be “what goes around comes around”
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Blog Bloke reply on July 13th, 2008 6:31 pm:
Linking to other great posts is always good and I think blog readers appreciate the fact that you are willing to share great articles with them and tend to stick around.
Nishadhas last blog post…Get Three awesome softwares for free
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but what about Nofollow theory. linking can reduse the google pagerank
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I haven’t seen any hard evidence to support that theory. I am keeping an eye on it though.
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Blog Bloke reply on July 17th, 2008 4:29 pm:
Great article, I wish more people could get this message out. It’s all about sharing the conversation. Great blog, bookmarked.
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Thanks my friend. The problem is the Pro Sploggers out there are telling everyone its all about me, myself and I, and driving traffic to ourselves. But that’s only part of the equation.
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Blog Bloke reply on July 18th, 2008 3:01 pm:
Whatever happened to our good friend spock… I hope he is still “living long and linking”… err I mean prospering.
The net is build on links, that what makes it a “net” (instead of a pile of “strings”. Kinda weird analogy, but you know what I mean.
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I know exactly what you mean and a very good analogy. I think too many see it as just pulling strings to receive, but it’s also about giving.
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Blog Bloke reply on August 18th, 2008 12:21 pm:
Being on top of Search Engine is really hard but by doing good linking thru offsite and onsite optimization.. It will be easier.. Just dropping by from Google Search..
Well I don’t know how your comment system works but My first comment was tag as spam. You might be using yoast plugin
Happy Blogging
Last blog post…SEO Tip : Know Where Google is Leading You
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Hi there. I don’t know about your other message but no, I don’t use yoast. I generally don’t allow just keywords in the name field so that might be the problem. Thanks for dropping by but do please leave a name next time so I know who I’m talking to. Thanks!
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Soryy not to put my name a while a ago.. It’s me Dexter from techathand dot net
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Dexter | Tech At Hand Dot Net reply on August 19th, 2008 7:49 am:
Blog Bloke reply on August 19th, 2008 12:20 am:
I totally agree with everything here. It’s all about Karma.
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It’s a great article, but there’s more to SEO and ranking now than simple linking. Other factors come into play I think.
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Jul 11th, 2008 at 8:21 am
[…] is a cool post by Blog Bloke on the importance of Link Love, I do like some of the blokes posts but find he rants and complains way too much about other […]