Free High-Quality Text Links!

One of my favorite posts on linking comes from every SEO’s favorite Googler, Matt Cutts. It tells you how to use Google Webmaster Tools (WMT) to identify 404 pages with incoming links. A link to a page that doesn’t exist is just wasted link juice, and Webmaster Tools is a great way to find broken pages and redirect them to the right page. It’ a great way to do more with what you already have.

Today’s linking tip also comes to us thanks to Google WMT. When you have a page or post on your site which manages to attract some quality links, that’s going to help that page rank well for whatever you’ve written about (and what the folks who have linked to you said). The next step is to revisit whatever you’ve written, take a closer look at what links are on the page and make sure you’re sending link love to the pages where it makes the most sense.

Click on Links and then on Pages With External Links

 

I find it easiest to download all external links into Excel (or the spreadsheet program of your choice).
 
 
 

Subtotal the links (at each change in page, count) Sort the list by external links in descending order.
 

 

Skip your homepage (that’s another discussion) and work your way down the list and take a closer look at those pages with many incoming links. When there’s a chance to help the user by linking to another relevant page on your site – preferably a high value page that you want to rank well organically – drop in another link.

 

Doing more with the links you already have is one of the easiest linking strategies you’ll ever find. This is one very handy tactic to help improve the link structure of your website.