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Do blogs which include links to other blogs or outside sources help or hurt?
Full question: Do blogs which include links to other blogs or outside sources help or hurt? How is it practical to keep personal separate from business?
This question was just asked in the Focus Interactive Summit: Social Media Strategies - Where Are We? live chat session with social media Expert, Mark Schaefer.
Mark replied, "When you link to another blog or article, the author will probably know about it. That is a nice compliment to them and a good way to get on their radar screen. That link also helps their SEO and other blog rankings. Likewise, a link to you will help you too! I think it is perfectly OK to include a little personality in your business blog. Keep it human. If you have a business audience and a personal audience, perhaps you do need two blogs. In fact, many companies are going to multiple blogs for their different audiences."
Do you think including links to outside blogs or sources is helpful, or can it be damaging? Do you agree with Mark's response? Why or why not?
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4 Answers
I think that only when absolutely necessary it's ok to include maybe one or two links to other highly relevant blogs, into your own blog. Having said that, if that becomes the norm, you run the risk of amplifying the attention deficit issue that we all have nowadays with so much information we have around us... (you are introducing more opportunities for distraction for the reader).
If the other blog practices the same approach and the user clicks on more links from there, good luck bringing them back to your blog to continue where they left off. Not to mention the fact that if your blog is chuck full of links to other blogs you are basically saying to the reader...."I have a few random ideas but not enough to present a cohesive stream of information for you.....so I am just going to bolt on some other pieces from writers who actually DO have original thoughts!"
It depends on the post itself.
Sometimes it's crucial to link out, especially if you've gotten an idea/information from somewhere else.
It's also great for blogger relations. I cannot tell you how many relationships with bloggers I've established by linking to their blog posts.
For brands doing blogger outreach, that's a key step.
However, not everyone can benefit from blogger-to-blogger relationships.
Do I think it's damaging? Unlikely; I don't hinge sales on blog content, though. If you are attempting to elicit a particular action from a reader - don't distract them with links. However, if you're creating content for search engine optimization or for reference, linking is good. In fact, linking is very important for SEO purposes.
(Of course, if you ever do link out, never link to content farms like ezine articles or to spammy sites.)
I say while it does depend on the post if i'm reading something specific about a product or company and I have to take the time and effort to highlight the drop the keyword into Google and then click through the site to try and find the relevant page it's just annoying.
If you are talking about something specific please include a link to it so your readers can check out more details about it, leave the decision upto them if they want to click on the link and don't stress so much about it.
It's also great for everyone when you link out but don't link to crap just for the sake of throwing in some links, if it's not relevant to your post or a great source I wouldn't link.
It all depends on the value of the link. Some of my free Marketing Tips are lenghty, so I'll include a link if the reader desires to continue reading it.
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