The Importance of Linking

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.

They don’t call it “Link Love” for nothing. It’s like giving someone a hug and it costs just about the same. So don’t be a stinker linker and stingy with your links (or your hugs :).

Filed under: *Best Articles, Blog SEO, Blog Tips, Blogging Tips for Beginners, Favorite Blog Tips, Featured Articles blog commenting, blog tip, Blogger Tips, blogging tips, pagerank, plagiarism

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