This post is an excerpt from the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook
Today I’m presenting you with a task that is perhaps a little less involved than some of the days so far. I wanted to give you something that would both help improve your blog but that wouldn’t take too long to either learn or implement (although it is something that you could dedicate a lot of time to if you have time on your hands).
Your task today is to spend 10 minutes interlinking previously written posts in your archives.
Why is Interlinking Posts Powerful?
There are three main reasons why I regularly dedicate time to go back over old posts on my blog and find ways to update those posts with links to other posts on my blog.
1. Usefulness to Readers – my primary motivation for interlinking posts is to provide a better experience for those people who are reading those posts and to make my blog more useful. If a reader comes to my blog and finds a post that not only answers a question that they have but that also provides further reading and suggestions on where they can explore related topics – they’re more likely to go away from my site satisfied. A satisfied reader is what I’m aiming for – they are more likely to return (it makes your blog ‘sticky‘) and tell their network about their experience.
2. SEO – another great reason to interlink the posts on your blog is that search engines look at the links within a blog to both find content to index but also to work out how to index and rank content. Links from other blogs to your blog are the ultimate way to start ranking highly in Google – but internal links also count.
3. Increase Page Views – inserting links into old posts increases the chances of a visitor to your blog viewing more than just the one page. This has a couple of benefits – the first being that it can help you earn more from that visitor if you’re running some kind of CPM (cost per impression) advertising. The second reason is that you’re creating a bigger impression upon the person visiting your blog. I find that when someone views more than a single page on your blog that they’re more likely to remember it, subscribe to it, comment upon it and become a regular and loyal reader.
While these three benefits all seem fairly small when you think about the benefits that a single link might bring – if you start building the interlinking of posts into your daily blogging experience the accumulative impact that it can have on your blog will be significant.
How to Add Links to Old Posts
There are a variety of methods of interlinking posts from your archives. Here are three main ones that I use:
1. In post links – I find that this is the most natural way to add links to an old post. All it involves is making a keyword (or words) in your post into a link that points to another post on the topic of that keyword.
2. Updates – sometimes post in your archives become ‘dated’ and are in need of an update. There are a variety of ways to update an old post but one simple one is to write a new post on the same topic and then leave a link in your old one to the new post.
For example: One popular post here at ProBlogger is How to Market Your Blog in 2007. While the post still contains useful information on marketing a blog it was obviously written over two years ago. As a result I’ve added a link at this top of this post to a page on How to Find Readers for Your Blog that points people to a variety of resources on that topic.
3. Further Reading – many blogs have a ‘further reading’ section that appears at the bottom of each post. In most cases this is a list of ‘related’ posts that are automatically generated using a plugin. While this can sometimes provide readers with relevant results I find that adding manually chosen links for further reading can produce a more relevant experience. You can add these suggested links both at the end of the post and throughout the post itself.
Quick Tip: When linking between posts always try to make the words that you use in the link relevant keywords to the article you’re linking to. This will maximize the SEO benefits of the link and help you rank higher for those words in Google.
Make Interlinking Posts a Regular Task
While I’m suggesting that you set aside some time today to interlink some of your old posts – I’d also highly recommend that you build this practice into your blogging on a regular basis. I personally spend 10-15 minutes a week hunting for opportunities to do this but also find myself doing it in my daily blogging rhythm as I’m writing new posts.
As you write a new post train yourself to be thinking about what you’re written previously that relates to your new post. As you identify related content start to interlink your posts (you can add links in your new post to old content and/or add links in your old ones to your new content). If you force yourself to do this you’ll start to find that it becomes a more natural part of your daily posting.
Go Do It!
Take 10 minutes now to start identifying old posts that relate to one another and get going on adding a few links between them.
Update – Share your thoughts and progress with others over at the forum: Day 8 – Interlink Posts
Want More?This task is a sample of one of the tasks in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook – a downloadable resource designed to reinvigorate and revitalize blogs. Join over 14,000 other bloggers and Get your Copy Today. |
This is such a great idea! I’ve seen it on other sites (usually as a plug-in), but I like the idea of personally picking out relevant posts. This is definitely going to be a part of each post!
I started doing this about a week before the 31 day challenge began, and I can tell everyone reading this that interlinking your old posts is one of the BEST things you can do to increase page views. I saw a huge jump in page views the same day I started doing this, and the average time spent on my site has increased substantially as well.
Another great tip Darren!
We should make sure to do target blank in order to make the post open in new window :)
Great tip Darren,
I also made this a part of my side bar – “your favorites” “my favorites” “on topic” etc.
Thanks,
Karenne
Ketih, saw your comment about using mobile phones on plane. Great topic. In the next day or two I’m going to write a post about your post, and hopefully give you some link love!
Sam
http://trendycellular.com/blog
twitter: sambuzin AND trendycellular
This is a great tip, it is part of my regular blogging regimen. I also use the Ninja Affiliate plug in to do some of that internal linking automatically.
My stats for last week are final:
last week: 648!
previous week:67
week 13: 138
week 12: 138
Well, to me this is amazing! What a jump from the previous four weeks. I hope everyone else is having this much success. I know to some 648 visits in a small drop in the bucket but to me it is HUGE!
I so look forward to staying in and completing this 31 day challenge.
yeah. interlinking is one of the powerful technique that you should try =)
I was thrilled to see this post this morning. Having a new blog I took the opportunity to link all but one of my posts to other posts currently up and running.
Because I could not work the link into each post, I entered a “further reading” at the end of each post and linked each relevant post before it.
I will be certain to practice this with every possible opportunity.
Hey Darren,
Everything has been very interesting and learnful so far.
I had the interlinking on my mind since I noticed it on someone’s site yesterday evening!! but it’s a good idea to think about it while you are writing, thanks man!
i personally as a net surfer likes it when i have something else to read that a related to the topic of the original post. and i think if you do it manually, it will become a lot more relevant to the subject.
you know sometimes ‘related’ plugins shows you random posts.
after reading this, i head on to my latest post today and add in 3 more interlinks to older post that are related and guess what, it does look more ‘professional’ and comprenhesive. heres what i mean in my post :
Coming Back From The First Date. Whats Your Next Step?
http://www.tipsgoda.com/2009/04/coming-back-from-first-datewhats-your.html
Interesting! This is something I rarely do. I’m looking forward to this task.
I interlink regularly, and use this time to update older posts if necessary. Great tip!
I’ve just started doing this in recent posts, but only sometimes. I’ve gone back and added a few more, this time thinking more proactively about it. I also found from this that some of my past articles are not of top quality. It’s too be expected since their from awhile back, but I believe I just found another great benefit of interlinking posts.
Done. I was wondering, though: is there a minimum length for posts where you want to do this?
Darren, I just happened to interlink in today’s post. I do it whenever I can think of a related post. But I did not think of going back to the older post and add the newer ones, as they are being created… Thank you!
Great tips today Darren, I’ve been doing this through my blogs, it helps my readers look through other topics easily. Thanks for sharing this!
Yes, I did this a few weeks ago after I had noticed Darren’s practice of this on ProBlogger. I’m glad to better understand the rhyme and reason to it now.
I write a parent education blog. New tagline: raising better parents and happier kids. The series that I interlinked was on preparing your house for a child — some call it baby-proofing.
You can find the series here.
I think no. 1 is the best way of interlinking older post.. it should come natural in the eyes of the reader so they’ll be encourage to click on that link.
I forget to interlink because I don’t remember what I’ve written in the past, especially if it’s been over a year. Do you search your own site to find the relevant posts to interlink to?
This challenge I liked – easy peasy! I started doing this a while back to try and keep people reading on my blog, rather than just leaving after reading one post. I’d no conception that it might help with SEO/ranking. Double benefit!
I can’t seem to get list posts out of my head, so here’s my post for today’s challenge, another list:
Observing Nature Through a Window
I followed another blogger from the comments here yesterday and found she’d written about teaching kids to be green, which is what my whole blog relates to, so I went over today and left a comment and a link to today’s post.
So far my favorite thing of the challenge is the relationships I’m growing with other bloggers :-)
I do interlink my posts on a regularly basis. It became part of my writing and I think it improves the on-blog-experience of my readers. So far I do only have one problem: Only new posts link back to old posts.
When I lately was surfing through my own blog I farely often realized: “Hi, I wrote about that lately”, but there was no link, because the current post was older than the one that was dedicatet to the I-wrote-about-it topic.
Any tips or hints? Darre, how do you handle that?
Cheers
Jacky ;)
great task, and timely. I”ve been trying, to no avail, to figure out to do the link and have it appear as a keyword,not the whole http:// …. address, like Alison Kerr, post right above this, has done. I can’t figure it out and haven’t figured out to post the right question to WordPress to get help.
Maybe someone here can help me?
This is excellent advice! I’ve only just begun to go back into old posts and do this and already I’ve increased pageviews, increased Adsense earnings, and by adding Amazon affiliate links into old posts I’ve increased referral earnings as well.
Thanks for offering this program Darren it’s truly fantastic!
I do this quite a lot all the time and it certainly does show in the statistics.
What a great idea! I had not thought to do that before. I went in and found one of my original posts on fun things to do with grandkids, added a link to a later post about outside games to play with grandkids, and voila – http://www.sandwichink.com/grandparenting-fun . While I was there, I tidied up the links a bit so you can directly link and made one other correction. A very fruitful 10 minutes. Thank you so much, Darren, for all these great tips! :)
Great post! I have done a bit of this off and on mostly referring to previous projects. And had been using linkwithin for a while but it slowed down the page load too much – now I need to do it manually. I’ve also been thinking about a best of for my sidebar. . .
I had a huge idea over the weekend, I’m hosting a Bloggers Quilt Festival beginning this Friday. I have sponsors to giveaway prizes and I’m really excited about the traffic it will generate :)
This challenge has made me so happy. I have actually kept up with each day’s task. Most challenges, I get started and fall off the wagon at some point. This is the first time that I’ve been a part of a blog-growth challenge and already see benefits to my posts, blog and energy within the blog. It feels great to know that the effort given to this challenge is showing up in the results already. Yay!
I love to link back to older posts. Like @Sparky said, you can always use this opportunity to fix, elaborate or change your previous message. So great.
I have been trying to do this for a while, and as Darren suggests, I think it really pays off.
Last week I wrote about acupuncture and allergies, and highlighted some acupressure point, that I have previously written on, which are good for allergies. Those pages jumped to my most visited by the end of the week.
Here’s the post, http://albanacupuncture.com/blog/?p=351.
And thanks for all your work Darren, falling behind but loving the 31BBB.
My blog is quite new and there’s not a lot of cross reference to, but I will bear this in mind when I have a few more postings up.
Also, catching up on other tasks and some of the tips in the recommended blogs were excellent, a true motherlode of 24 carat wisdom. Again, many than ks for sharing Darren.
http://kevincumbria.wordpress.com
I try to do this as often as I can. Since I write about politics, especially as they impact mothers and women, there are often evergreen types of topics I write about and link back and update! But this is also a good tip for me to remember when I’m having a dry idea day!
Thanks for the tip Darren. On my triathlon blog I’m trying to apply this method already. Hope it’s going to work.
I’ve started my blog for about one month ago. At the moment I ask myself how long it’s really going to take before I get some traffic on it. Don’t really understand how people are going to find it anyway… if I search for it in Google, I can’t find it myself ;)
Time will tell…
I’m behind everybody, but I wrote my elevator speech for Electra’s Rough Draft today. Later today, I will post to a few of my blogs, including Electra’s Rough Draft, reccommending the 31 days to a better blog. Looking forward to the next 30!
I have pretty good internal linking in my site. I added the smartlinks plug-in a few weeks ago, but it is not that efficient. I still have to do 90% of my links manually.
Since I have allotted some time for workng on the challenge today, I will go back through my pages and see if I’ve missed any good opportunites. It will also give me some time to check out some more of the sites on here ;)
Darren,
Great tip (who am I kidding, they all are!) I have been doing this sporadically since I started blogging and can attest to the power of interlinking. You just reminded me that I need to go back and see where other opportunities lie in doing more of the same.
Thanks so much,
Heidi Richards Mooney
My last post had a linkback. :) But, I don’t think I have enough total posts for this task yet. I see the importance and will keep it in mind.
I did this last week during one of the other challenges for a couple of posts on my blog. I will go back today, after writing the link post for yesterday, and finish interlinking my posts. I shall return!
It definitely takes time, but it’s a worthy task to add to publishing posts. Interlinking and have a related posts section really does aid in page views :)
I had actually already done this in my post for today so am happy that this task is already a done deal. I like to self-link because it introduces readers to other portions of our blog that hopefully will retain their interest and encourage further exploration. Our blog covers a variety of interests so I like to introduce people to related yet very different topics in the same post that they might not otherwise have gone looking for.
That is a good piece of information. What I have done in my blog is to create a category (eg. Music) and am trying to give that link to readers who may be interested in further reading from archives as that section will have all the posts i did under that topic. I will also try to directly interlink some of my older posts, as you suggest. Thanks for your suggestion.
Destination Infinity
Thanks for the reminder, I guess I needed to spend more time on this. I didnt know that this would help in SEO ranking. That was really helpful for me.
One of the tools we use is a “word press related link” plug in.
http://fairyfish.net/2007/09/12/wordpress-23-related-posts-plugin/
It automatically generates a list of related posts based on the tags I use. Since installing it last fall, i have seen a nice increase in the number of page views.
But the list is at the bottom of the the post titled: More on this Topic I am going to go back and look for ways to do that in the text.
Is one technique more effective then the other?
Hi Teacher Darren,
I’m now your student for 8 days and will be more days to go.
Well, congratulation to me too for understanding more about all tips realted to blogging.
Your teaching is really helpful to me as i’m now a newbie with blogging.
Even my English is still poor, but I’ll still try my best to read your lessons more on your 31DBBB…
Honestly, from bottom of my heart, thank you Teacher Darren!
My post today, The Right Speed of Parenting combined the last two assignments (linking out and in). I’m looking forward to those big hit numbers!!!
I link back and forth a good bit, just kind of “ad hoc” stuff. May have to try explicitly making a list of links (combining a list post and interlinking).
I do have good luck with an automatic “related links” box I’ve got.
One other issue… I use the “pingback” module in Drupal to ping other blogs and if I link to my own posts, I wind up with pingbacks to myself, which is a bit annoying.
Bruce
A few days I did a post with a new photograph and said this was a new one in my “series.” This is now the perfect opportunity to go through my photos and link some of these “series” together! I had already thought about doing this and now it has been confirmed that is is a good idea.
Thank you.
I interlink regularly and find it has a tremendous impact on the stickiness of my blog. It is not unusual for my readers to click through 15-20 pages and articles before leaving. It is also tremendously powerful for SEO, and can be especially useful to young blogs with a lot of quality content.
I am new to blogging and found this exercise very helpful. I did the assignment and used a few posts that were related to the current post for today.
http://eves-journey.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-your-own-raw-food-experience.html
Thanks for the great tips!
I have a wordpress blog (not sure if this matters), but when I interlink my posts, then I get pingbacks. Do I approve them or delete them? Will they serve a purpose, or just clutter up my comments section?
And Done!
If you go to mine and see the latest painting you will see the links below.
Is this a good way to do it?