How to Use Blog Links to Increase Your Website’s Search Engine Rank

by Susan U. Neal RN, MBA, MHS @SusanNealYoga

A website’s PageRank tells Google and other search engines that the page is valuable or has important information on it. Pages with a higher rank usually appear on the first few pages of a search engine result page (SERP). Numerous factors help a page or website rank well. One of those factors is links to and from the website.

 

What Is PageRank and How Is it Affected by Links?

When a high-ranked website includes a Dofollow link to a lower ranked site, the link boosts the low-ranked website’s value by search engines. The lower ranked site gets more PageRank points from the high-quality Dofollow link. Therefore, a Dofollow link is better than a Nofollow link when you are building links back to your website.

What Are Dofollow and Nofollow Links?

For the web user, Nofollow and Dofollow links are indistinguishable. The reader can click on a Nofollow link in a blog, but the link does not have any search engine optimization (SEO) weight. But when another website links to yours with a Dofollow link, it can positively affect your website’s search engine ranking. If you are writing guest blogs, you want the links in your bio to be Dofollow links. Most bloggers post their guests’ author information with Dofollow links.

Dofollow links have greater value than Nofollow links. A Dofollow link gives PageRank indicators to search engines and a Nofollow link doesn't. The distinction lies in how the Google algorithm treats each link. A Nofollow link lets search engine bots or crawlers know that the link shouldn't affect the PageRank score. 

Search engines such as Google determine the quality and quantity of inbound links to your website as a measure of the value. Since 2005, Google has been using a weighted point system to determine how valuable a page is and whether it should show up in a search results page. Search engines consider the value of links pointing to a page or website. 

Nofollow links do still have value even if they don't improve a website’s PageRank. Most sites gain Nofollow links naturally over time. A site that doesn’t have any Nofollow links, could be a red flag to bots that the website is spammy. As bloggers, we should use Nofollow links to spammy websites to avoid association with them.

Why should you Write Guest Blogs?

To improve your website’s rank on Google, write guest blogs for high-authority websites. Domain authority is a scoring system to determine how high your website ranks on search engines. The higher the domain authority, the more likely it will improve your website’s rank if you write a blog for the site. If you would like more information, read the article, Improve Your Website’s Domain Authority. 

How can you tell if a website has a high domain authority? Go to https://moz.com/domain-analysis - index and enter the website’s domain name and click analyze. A domain authority between 40 and 50 is considered average and between 50 to 60 is good. I would not write a guest blog for a site with a domain authority below 15, as that can lower your website’s rank on Google. But writing for a site with a domain authority above yours will improve your website’s rank on Google. 

My websites, SusanUNeal.com and ChristianPublishers.net, ranked 50 and 53 respectively because I hired a search engine optimization (SEO) analyst. You can check out his services at Magnum Marketing. Both are high domain authority sites. I accept guest bloggers for both. If you would like to write a guest blog for either site, request the blog guidelines at CIPA@ChristianPublishers.net. Check out the gorgeous Pinterest Pins created for each blog on both websites. Anyone who clicks on one of the pins, goes to the corresponding blog and finds out about the author and their book. 

Unfortunately, blogging on low-ranked websites can decrease your website’s Google rank. It may appear as if your content is not valuable. Make a strategic plan to submit a guest blog to high-ranking sites monthly. Links to your website will improve your site’s rank on search engines.

What Type of Links Should you Post on your Blogs? 

When you create a new link on your website, such as in a new blog post, it will usually be a Dofollow link. By default, all links are Dofollow unless the person posting it changes the link to Nofollow. So how do you change a link from Dofollow to Nofollow?

When uploading a blog post on a WordPress website, click on a link and a drop-down menu will appear. Click on edit and link options. At this point, a box appears, and you can click on open link in a new tab and add Nofollow. You want some of your links to be Nofollow links, so Google bots think your site is legitimate and not spamming Dofollow links.

For example, advertising, sponsored blog posts, and ads that result from paid relationships should use the Nofollow attribute. That helps make it clear to Google that you’re not trying to game the system with a link scheme.

Remember that Dofollow links will help you build PageRank. The more links from high-authority websites on the world wide web going to your website, the better. And a mixture of Dofollow and Nofollow links on your blog is best. Invest some time in making your website rank higher through implementing these blogging strategies.

For more blogging tips, please see last month’s article, Blogging Tips to Increase Website Traffic, and take my blogging course, Drive Traffic to Your Website through Blogging, at CIPA.Podia.com.

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Susan U. Neal, RN, MBA, MHS: Susan’s mission is to improve the health of the body of Christ. She has her RN and MBA degrees, as well as a master’s in health science. She is a CERTIFIED HEALTH AND WELLNESS COACHwith the American Association of Christian Counselors. She published five books, the Selah award winner 7 STEPS TO GET OFF SUGAR AND CARBOHYDRATES, CHRISTIAN STUDY GUIDE FOR 7 STEPS TO GET OFF SUGAR AND CARBOHYDRATES, HEALTHY LIVING JOURNAL, SCRIPTURE YOGAa #1 Amazon best-selling yoga book, and YOGA FOR BEGINNERSwhich ranked #3. She published two sets of Christian Yoga Card Decks and two Christian Yoga DVDs that are available at CHRISTINAYOGA.COM. Her digital product HOW TO PREVENT, IMPROVE, AND REVERSE ALZHEIMER’S AND DEMENTIAis a great resource. To learn more about Susan visit her website SUSANUNEAL.COM You can also connect with Susan on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, and INSTAGRAM.