Whether promoting content on your website, blog, email marketing campaigns, or social media channels, one of your goals is for readers to engage with your content. One primary form of engagement is clicking on links; links to fill out a form, links to download a free eBook, links to product specifications, etc.

These links are your calls-to-action, which aren’t just limited to the “big red button.” If you think about it, every link you create is a call-to-action, since there has to be some reason you’ve linked to some internal or external content. And the more internal links users click on, the greater chance they will become a customer or lead, and lower your bounce rate.

So here are eight easy ways to optimize your links within content to get more clicks:

1. Underline all links

This might seem obvious, as underlined text is commonly recognized as linked text. However, many designers prefer a more sophisticated non-underlined look, so it’s important to make sure your links are obviously links by including the underline.

2. Make links a different color

It’s important to make your links stand out so users know to click on the link, so this is the same principle as underlining your links. You don’t need to use neon colors here; just make links a different color than your regular font color using one of the colors in your design scheme.

3. Bold important links

Bolding every link just looks obnoxious, but if you bold important links within your content, it will attract your readers’ eyes and make it clear that whatever content is behind that link is important.

4. Use relevant and descriptive anchor text

Adding a linked “click here” to your content is simply a wasted SEO opportunity. Instead, delete the “click here” and add the description you’d written before or after it into the link itself. That way, you’ll get the added SEO juice if linking internally, and if not you’ll give your readers a better idea about what they’ll be clicking on.

5. Open external links in a new window

If you link to external sites without opening the link in a new window, you’ve lost the user unless they hit the back button. But it’s likely that they will close the tab when browsing a new page, and then you’ve lost them for good. If you add  the target=”_blank” attribute to a link, the external page will open in a new window, and when the user closes the new tab, they’ll be right back on your website. I’m very surprised at how many blogs and websites I see that do not have links set to open in new windows; I often have to go back, right click the link, and click “open link in new tab.”

6. Place important links high on the page

Ideally, your primary calls-to-action will be above the fold. But when writing a long blog post on a blog that has a big header, ads, or additional content above the post, this may not be possible for every link. The farther people have to scroll down your page to see a link, the less likely they will be to see it and click on it. So make sure your links are close to the surface.

7. Make sure image links have associated text links

If your links within content are syndicated via RSS, you can’t guarantee that people receiving your RSS feed via email will see the images, since many email services block images by default. So if you include image links, make sure (1) that your images have descriptive ALT tags and that (2) you include text links either as a caption or within the preceding or following paragraph.

8. Look at your data!!!

Go look at your data right now. Which links generate the most clicks? Take a look at those links and take note of what makes these links different than the rest on your site. Is the call-to-action language more persuasive? Is it bolded? Is it above the fold? And then once you implement the tips above, what sort of difference do you see in your data?Related Posts:

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Obtaining a high page rank isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time, effort, and patience. You may have read advice that tells you to comment on other relevant blogs, build relationships with dofollow bloggers, participate in forums, and guest blog. And while that’s all good advice (great advice, actually), some of us don’t have as much time as others. And these things are very time consuming.

So here are some simple SEO tips you can use without having to leave your own blog. And remember: even though it’s good to put yourself out there and be an active participant in the blogosphere at large, your blog’s content (quality, quantity, and relevancy) truly is the main factor when it comes to getting traffic to your blog.

1. Content is King

I can’t emphasize this enough. The quality and richness of your content make more of an impact on page rank than any of the tips to follow (though they do help move things along). Strive to have unique and frequently updated content on your blog, and it will drive up your ranking.

2. Link Out

Link out to at least one external site in every blog post. Establishing site relevance is a huge factor in your page rank, so link to pages and sites that are relevant to yours.

3. Links Should Have Meaning

Update your anchor text (the text acting as a link) to have better keyword value. Both internal and external links should have meaning, and stay away from using “here,” “click here,” “this,” etc. as links.

• Incorrect:  If you’re looking for Twitter badges for your site, click here.
• Correct: Here are some Twitter badges for your site.

4. Optimize Your Permalinks

Include the post category and post name in your URLs. Use keywords in your URLs, keep them short and sweet, eliminating words like “and” or “the.”

• Incorrect: http://UStandOut.com/?p=123
• Correct: http://ustandout.com/twitter/beginners-guide-twitter

5. Create a Sitemap

Having a sitemap will make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your blog. Read more about creating Google Sitemaps, and if you have a Wordpress blog, install the plugin Google XML Sitemap Generator.

6. Use Header Tags

Use header tags <h></h> instead of bolding your headlines/subheadlines. Since header tags aren’t the prettiest in terms of formatting, use CSS to override the default look. For example: H1 { color: red; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px }.

7. Use Title Tags

Title tags (<title></title>) determine what that page will be called in the search results. Be sure to use rich keywords in your title tags. For those of us who use Wordpress or another blogging tool, this will be automatic, so be sure you’re using those keywords in your blog titles.

8. Use Description Tags

The description tag (<meta name=”description” content=”Description tag here.”>) determines the text that goes below your page’s title in the search results. These should be no longer than 160 characters in order to show up completely and correctly on Google.

9. Use Alt Tags on Images

Every image on your site should have an alt tag, especially if the image is relevant to the content of the page. And don’t simply give it the tag “screenshot” or “image.” Make the tag keyword rich. For example: “The Tweetdeck Application for Twitter.”

10. Don’t Try to Fool Google

You’d think this was a no-brainer, but I see it all the time. Do not try to fool Google. Do not stuff keywords in invisible text, do not purchase links, do not partake in “link swapping,” and do not take any of advice from those blogs encouraging you to cheat the system. Your site will be flagged, and your page rank will be lowered. Bloggers that actually do have good content often hurt their page ranking because they’ve attempted these tricks. Just don’t do it.

What SEO tips can you add to the list?Related Posts:

How to Improve Your Website’s SEO Using LinkedIn
8 Ways to Optimize Links To Get More Clicks
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If you’re planning to use LinkedIn to find job opportunities, optimizing your profile will help you stand out. But did you know that you can also use LinkedIn to improve the SEO of your website or blog?

Here’s how it works: if high ranking websites link to your website, it will improve your website’s page rank, so you’ll appear higher in organic Google searches. LinkedIn profiles have a fairly high Google Page Rank, so if have good profile SEO and link your website to it, your website’s SEO will also improve. I’m not claiming that your page rank will shoot through the roof (you need many, many backlinks for that to happen), but it will help a bit, and if more people click on your LinkedIn profile, they may also click on your website.

These are four simple ways to optimize your profile and your website at once.

1. Create your own permalink

View your profile, and change the custom URL. Change it to your full name, your company name, or targeted keywords if they are still available. You might only want to use the company name if you own the company or know you’re there for the long-haul.

You can gear your LinkedIn permalink toward your website or blog. For example, if dianafreedman had already been taken, I might have chosen dianasocialmedia, dianafreedmanweb20, or dianaustandout. Something that incorporates name + keywords or name + company.

2. Link to your websites using anchor text

Linking to your websites will not only give Linkedin users more insight about you, but you’ll also be improving your websites’ SEO. Anchor text links that contains relevant keywords is something Google looks for when ranking your website. So by using your name, site title, and/or relevant keywords will actually improve your site’s SEO since LinkedIn is already ranked so high.

Instead of listing websites as “My Company” or “My Blog,” choose “Other” so you can choose the name of the link. Make sure that your website links appear on your public profile.

Before:

After:

3. Modify your headline

Your headline is the tagline that appears right under your name in LinkedIn searches and on your profile. Instead of just writing your position, include more information about what you do, using keyword-rich descriptions. If you work for a company, put that name in the headline.

My headline before: Product Associate

My headline now: Product Associate, Social Media at TripAdvisor & Web 2.0 Blogger

4. Use keywords throughout your profile

There are several other places you can use keywords: summary, job descriptions, and interests. Make your descriptions are concise and keyword-rich (without overdoing it). Also put keywords in your job title; instead of just including the title, include the department or team. For example, my job title is Product Associate, and I’m on the social media team, so my job title on Linkedin is “Product Associate, Social Media.” At my last internship, I was a Design Assistant on the motion graphics team. Before, I just wrote “Design Assistant,” but after revamping my profile for SEO, it now says “Design Assistant, Motion Graphics.”

Guy Kawasaki has a great article: Ten Ways To Use LinkedIn, in which he also discusses improving LinkedIn SEO.

Making your profile search engine friendly is easier than you thought, right? You can view my LinkedIn profile here to see how I’ve used keywords throughout my profile

More on LinkedIn:

• Before Networking on LinkedIn, Makeover Your Profile
• Building Your LinkedIn Network
• How to Network Beyond the 2nd Degree on LinkedIn

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