Internal links in blog posts?

[bronxpad]

What's the best strategy for internal links in a blog post? Example, if I write a blog should I always place a link to the main site at the bottom when I place my signature and contact info? Should I just put links in the content? Or should I do both?

[BenFox]

If it's on your own blog then link to any content that is relevant within the body of the article but you don't always have to link back to the main site.

You're probably going to be linking to the main body of your site in the top nav anyway aren't you?

[NiallSmith]

I wouldn't recommend adding it in the signature section.

And, if you're referring to adding links back to the home page as hyperlinks within the content, I would not recommend that either.

I'm sorry if it sounds redundant, but you want to rank to link to sites that appear at the top of the search results for the keyword your trying to rank for or sites that link back to you.

Have you considered adding it in the navigation menu, pending your site has one or perhaps some sort of slider with a link back to the home page.

I'm not positively sure what you're asking, but tried to give you some clarification (and cover all my bases). If you can be a little more specific, I'd be more than willing to help you more.

[bronxpad]

Thanks for your input. I do have a navbar. So instead of adding an extra link to the main site in the address, I should probably be adding links to other pages on my site that are relevent correct?

[bronxpad]

Yes, I have a navbar, so I'm guessing that I should put a link in the main content to any other page in my site that is relevent, correct? Thanks for your input.

[theBREWROOM]

You should embed the links within the content of your page. Do it as NATURALLY as you can. You don't want to make the blog post unreadable by adding a lot of keywords that link to the other pages on your site. Link to the relevant and natural pages that relate to your blog post. Google rewards those who try to make things as natural for the user as possible.

[ThompsonPaul]

As far as SEO is concerned, the reason for linking to other pages is to help pass the "Google juice" or ranking influence of each page along to other related pages on your website. Using keyword-appropriate anchor text in those links helps the search engines understand what those other pages are valuable for. So don't repeatedly link with "click here".

But don't always link to a page with the same anchor text either. As the latest Penguin update has shown, anchor text that is always the same is unlikely to have occurred naturally and will look spammy.

The reason you don't need to link to the homepage in the body of a post is simple math - your homepage likely already has the most incoming links anyway - it's the other pages that need all the help they can get. (Plus as others have mentioned and you confirmed, you already have a link to that home page in your page's navigation.)

But here's the real kicker - the reason for putting links in the body of your posts should be to provide value to the reader, first and foremost. If you keep this in mind, you'll probably take care of the SEO needs automatically - and naturally! As theBrewRoom says, link to things that would help the reader of the current post better understand what you're talking about, and use anchor text that will let the reader know what to expect when he gets there.

Last thing to think about - ideally you want a page to have as few links as will get the job done effectively. The more links on a page, the less ranking influence each one can pass along. So don't flood your pages with links thinking that will help even more other pages rank better.

And there again - what's best for the user is also good SEO - a page jammed with links will just confuse a user and look cluttered, while not helping your SEO. Think "user first" and you'll almost never go wrong.

Good luck & have fun figuring out what good pages to link to!

Paul