Hive SEO Guide #4 — The Best Internal & External Linking Practices On Hive
Dear Hivers,
This is the fourth part of the Hive SEO Guide. I think you will enjoy this as it is really easy to understand — and implement.
Before we dive into the details, let us take a step back and recap everything:
- First, we saw the power of a good SEO title & URL
- Then we also explored unique keyword research process.
- And last week, we covered several image optimisation practices.
All these were really fun to write as well.
This week, we will take on the internal and external linking strategies.
As you can see, there is a reason why we have a spider in the image. Let’s call it a Google Spider — a bot from Google — which crawls through webpages on the Internet.
That is how content is found.
And in this article, we will be looking at ways to please the Google spider using various linking strategies. First, we will look into the basics — and then explore the exercises.
I am also writing this guide to appeal to new Hive users who wish to learn more about SEO. Scan through the article. Think about it, and then implement what you can. With this thought, let us explore together:
Most SEO experts refer to Google Spider as simply spider.
And our spider is always on the move — hunting for fresh content. One day it decides to visit Hive. As it does, it begins to see a number of pages. It sees your profile — your articles — or any other page.
Now it starts "crawling" these pages. Meaning it uses an algorithm to evaluate these pages. Like a teacher evaluating papers.
Remember this: It gives each page a score. No one knows what this score is.
This is our goal on Hive: to make sure our score is good. That is why we are optimizing everything. From titles to content to images. And now, we also optimize the links.
Let's start with internal linking. It is our part one.
Internal linking simply means you link one of your page to another page. In our case, let's say I am linking one Hive post to another Hive post.
The above image should make it clear. But that’s not all. You can also link to other Hive pages. Or articles written by another Hiver.
Very simple, right? Internal linking on Hive is also possible:
- By using tags
- By using @ (for example, by using @sidwrites)
- By reblogging an article
If you noticed, the first part of this article had several internal links. Here is an example:
As you can see, all the links are pointing back to the articles I published earlier. Do note how "natural" they look. This is very important.
Internal linking is simple and doesn't require further explanation. It only requires practice.
Let's move onto the next part called external linking.
Let's say you are writing an article and then you want to link something outside of Hive. Say Facebook and CoinTelegraph. Then this type of linking is external linking.
To repeat, the link goes out pointing to an external website. As you can see from the image below, link points from Hive to Facebook and CoinTelegraph.
External linking is important because it helps the reader gain more information. It also helps the bot to know the links pointing out are important and relevant to the topic.
External linking example: You can check out my Hive Newsletter #6 to see outgoing links. These links point to Twitter:
What if websites link to Hive? This is called backlinks. Rather than us linking — they link to us. We will explore backlinks in a moment.
Say YES to linking. Anytime an opportunity presents itself, you should link. Just in case if you are new, and not familiar, the button to link is here:
Alternately, you can use markdown syntax to link.
Remember the score we discussed? It is the authority score and you don’t have to think about it too much. Basically: every website on the Internet consists of internal and external links. As we have seen, the spider considers them both.
Why? Because, in short, the spider is looking for:
- How relevant the page is
- The relationship between the pages
- The real value of pages
The fact is: Linking fulfils everything the spider is looking for. Plus, linking also helps users. For example:
- Hivers will spend more time browsing
- Hivers will click more links (good CTR helps SEO)
- Hivers will learn more…
I have simplified linking.The fact is, over a period of time, linking also gets complicated. Say the spider starts crawling Hive pages and then it finds Facebook and CoinTelegraph. Then it craws Twitter. And through Twitter it finds Hive.
Basically, you have a cluster of links. Plus, as we have thousands of articles written every week, we can't optimize every single link. Luckily, we don’t have to worry about this.
In short: We don’t “completely” control Hive. But what we can control is our own ability to link. Therefore say YES to linking.
Just remember this:
- Linking more is good
- Linking regularly is good
It is, once again, a collective effort. You can internally link to your best article (so it ranks on Google) or you can reblog. You can also link outside. The choice is always yours.
Backlinks, as I explained above, occurs when other websites are linking to us. It could be Twitter, Facebook, or blogs and media websites.
Note: A website with a good authority score linking to Hive is important.
So if CoinTelegraph, CoinDesk, or Reddit links to Hive then it is adding power to Hive. As an example, you can see the arrow (Facebook and CoinTelegraph) pointing to Hive:
In the exercises below, we will see how to create a simple backlink. A backlink that adds value to Hive.
As a summary, we looked into the spider and saw why it plays an extremely important role. It enters to scan Hive and then leaves with a secret score. It also comes back every day. Sometimes every minute too.
After this, we also saw how to impress the spider by linking. You either link internally — or link externally. In fact, we naturally do both. And then, we also saw why everyone should say YES to linking…
Then we touched upon backlinks as well. With all these knowledge gained, let us explore some simple exercises. Most of us are probably already doing it. Here it is:
Exercise on internal linking:
- Continue writing your next article.
- As you are doing that, add a link to your previous best article.
- Link it naturally (as I have done in the intro)
- You can also link to someone else’s article on Hive.
Bonus: You can also reblog someone else's article.
Exercise on external linking:
- Continue writing your next article.
- As you are doing that, link outside.
- You can also point the link to your own profile (example: Twitter)
Exercise on backlink:
- Pick any social media website. Say Twitter.
- Change the bio and add your Hive blog link.
Example: I changed my Twitter bio to add my Hive profile. I believe this is something everyone can do. Pick any social medi website.
Wow! That’s it for now.
As always, I hope and wish this article was useful. Much of it was basic yet very important to discuss. I believe the internal linking and backlinking parts are important.
In fact, you may want to try them out soon. That is why I created the exercises above. Just to reinforce its importance. Perhaps pick one or two exercises and apply them soon.
Also, do let me know your thoughts in the comment section. I would love to hear from you. As always, let us enjoy our time and continue building our fantastic community! 🔥
Cheers, Sid
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