By the end of this post you should know just how important linking is.

A link is a way that you can connect your blog to say ‘hey this is important and relevant’. It’s  a vote of confidence in that post. It’s one important way of creating a conversation. Links also influences the popularity of the blog you are linking to so you want to link in a way that drives links back to you. There are only 2 rules you ABSOLUTELY MUST follow.

1. Use links in every post (a few not hundreds!)

2. Make sure that links are truly relevant because Technorati tracks the number of links and the unique source of links to determine the breadth and readership of any author or site. Technorati monitors the ongoing conversation – who is linking to whom and which bloggers are commanding attention on various topics. You can monitor your ranking on Technorati very easily by just entering your blog URL in the search window.

You need to know about the difference between “inbound links” and “outbound links” Inbound links refer to hyperlinks from other sources citing your blog (these are valuable). Outbound links refer to hyperlinks from your blog to outside sources.

 A successful blog needs links from other quality sites, for several reasons. The first is to direct traffic: people will click from those sites to yours. The second is for better search engine ranking: when the search engines notice that other sites have linked to yours, that increases your site’s importance.

So do whatever you can to get links from other good blogs, particularly those on a related topic. It’s most valuable when you collect new links over weeks or even months. This steady flow of new links is not only easy for you to manage but the search engines will also see it as more natural. Excessive links can lead to penalties from the search engines (such as being de-listed) or can simply cause your blog to look like a flash in the pan that’s unworthy of long-term visibility.