Oooooooh today we have a very juicy topic in our hands.
For this edition of MabsArts Marketing 101 we will be discussing not how to work harder on the internet, but how the internet can do the work for you. Today we will be discussing 2 types of links and how the affect your website. Let’s dive right in.
Metadata:
Before we start talking about links and how to best use them to your advantage. We need to understand a little bit about how the internet works, and what better place to than at the very core of a website. It’s Metadata.
Alright so what is Metadata?
The simplest way to understand this is with a simile. If you go to the library, there is a system of organizing books based on author, themes, or volumes. Metadata is like this but beefier.
The way search engines organize your website is using the metadata of your website in order to place you on the right search pages and the right listing. Here is a list of some of the variables that a search engine uses to rank and organize your website.
- Categories
- Tags
- Inbound Links
- Outbound Links
- Reviews
- Titles
- Relevant Content Keywords
Today we will be discussing only two of these aspects. Inbound Links and Outbound links.
Inbound Links:
An inbound link is by definition “A hyperlink back to your site from another Web site.” Examples of this are social media links, guest posts links, affiliate links, etc.
So how do Inbound links help you grow your website?
Imagine that a link is like a little message in a bottle. You put a link up from your ship (website) and it goes into the vast sea of the internet. The chances that someone stumbles upon your message are very low in such a vast ocean of messages.
In order to improve your odds, you start adding more links, and more posts, and more content, and whilst this does help you, the reality is, that if you’re in the same shape, on the same current, with the same weather, your bottled message will only be able to travel so far before just spinning in circles and not reaching anyone.
You do the next best thing, you talk to your ship captain buddies, and ask them to throw some bottles out int he sea for you, and in return you will do the same. Now your message is running across different currents, with different crews, and is reaching more potential readers.
This is the same for a link, the more websites that link to yours, the better your chances for someone to come across your blog, not only in the obvious (more places, more readers)but the internet actually has an algorithm that prioritizes websites with a lot of Inbound links.
Outbound Links:
An Outbound links, works in a similar way and some might even consider it the second face of the Inbound/Outbound coin.
The Outbound link, is a link on your site that links to another site. That can be citations, resources, other relevant posts, or affiliate links. The purpose of this is not essentially to drive traffic to your site, but to create a system in which you can share in the readers or viewers of other websites and blogs. By linking outside of your website you are encouraging the metadata sharing of your content. Which can strengthen the algorithmic link of your website, bumping you up in the search engine page food chain.
What can I do with this newly found knowledge?
This knowledge helps you in writing content and forming partnerships with other blog owners, so that not only you grow, but you become part of a community of web owners that want to grow and help others grow. This type of environment is incredibly conductive of growth.
Wait no longer, start writing your blog-posts, and be sure to add those in-out links.
If you’re interested in collaborating on a blog post, writing a guest article or sharing some growth, message us. We’d love to hear you out.
Keep writing, keep learning, keep growing.
See you next time for another edition of MabsArts Marketing 101 where we will be discussing stickers, shirts, and promotional merchandise.
MabsArts 