We know from experience and based on common sense that links organically integrated in context and containing keywords work much better (in terms of transferring anchor text to the linked page) than links placed isolates (or in a list) in other (sitewide) parts of the template (i.e. sidebar or footer).
It makes sense because in-text links look much more natural (surrounded by text on the same topic) and much less spammy (so they will secure you from any potential “over-optimization” penalty).
This basically means that while I am writing a post and when occasionally using the word combination “seo blog” I need to link it to the home page (and thus show Google once again which words I want my site to be ranked for). The only doubt I have is whether these links are actually “user-friendly”.
Here are my points:
- Links are supposed to invite a person to learn more on the mentioned term or bring the user to the page with additional information or to the source of the quoted text or to the official reference, etc (but: home page is usually a place for the summarized information on the overall site topic with categories, subcategories and pages offering more detailed approach to each subtopic mentioned on the home page);
- Links take the user’s precious time: the visitor either clicks them or hovers over to see where they are going to bring them;
- People with disabilities often tab from one hyperlink to the next one; so each link should make sense and be an important part of the page navigation (links to home page are expected to be in the heading and clearly state “Home”).
Am I missing anything? What value do these in-text keyword-rich links offer to the user?
