We all know that a link from another blog is a great link building step. If I’m to explain why I don’t add a link to my favorite blogs/sites at the sidebar where you usually see “Blogroll”, I’ll have to bring three main reasons: ranking loss, prominence, and due introduction.
KaCey97007
I don’t do this and don’t recommend you to do it either. To explain in more details what I exactly mean by these three reasons, I’m going to attend to them one by one.
1) My Blog Will Lose Lots of Ranking with Sidebar Blogroll
Imagine I’ve posted a link to my favorite blog at the sidebar under blogroll. What happens is that such link will appear at all the pages of my blog. In other words, I’ve added a link to my favorite site/blog from all of my pages and decided to share the ranking of each individual page with my favorite site! Is this what we exactly want to do for each and every favorite site we link to?
I don’t think it would realistically be the intention of any blog owner to sacrifice his/her blog’s search engine ranking in favor of another site. Of course, the decision is yours, but it doesn’t seem rational to me to do so. Link building could be done in a way that both sides receive reasonable benefits.
2) A Link at Sidebar Blogroll Is of No Prominence
Look at the sidebar of your blog and the items placed there. Blog readers don’t look for the most important elements in that sidebar. I personally look for other features of the same blog at its sidebar. If I want to check the blog tag cloud, categories, subscription possibilities, etc, I will choose to explore the sidebar.
Now, I ask myself, “Should I add a link to my favorite blogs inside such a space? Don’t they deserve a better place?” I certainly prefer to allocate a separate page to my favorite blogs. This has got several benefits. When my blog readers are looking for other important topics or sections of my blog, they go to the other pages of my site. Among the pages, they will find the links to my favorite blogs/sites. This page is specially created for them. I have very few pages at my blog. One of them is entirely allocated to such sites/blogs. Doesn’t it show how much I care for them?
3) I Will Introduce My Favorite Blogs/Sites Duly
I don’t think a single link, spiritless and abandoned at the sidebar could duly introduce the valuable blogs/sites I want to introduce to my blog readers. Do I care about those sites as much as I care about the link to the number of spam comments blocked or the calendar dates? Certainly not. My favorite blogs are my FAVORITE blogs. I’d rather them be introduced in a way that they deserve.
What I mean by saying so is that my favorite valuable blogs/sites should be introduced in a separate page with at least a few sentences that sufficiently explains what those blogs are and how they can be useful for my readers. I would write a few encouraging sentences to bring reasons why they’re my favorite blogs and could be my readers’ favorite blogs/site too. This, to me, is the due introduction of other blogs or sites. The receiving party will also get due benefit from such link building method.
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This post has really given me something to think about that I had never before considered! I will now have a re-look at my own blog and try some of your suggestions.
Thanks
Vanessa,
Thanks for following the SEO tips on my blog. While writing this post, I knew that it could have seemingly negative effect on my own backlinks, but it’s not a self-destructive post for me!
I will be more than happy if my readers find something of value in my posts to build up strong search engine ranking for their sites/blogs even if it causes me to lose some backlinks. I’m sure it makes stronger friendship between my readers and me. It’s more important than having more links to my blog.
I hope applying this tip to your blog boosts your ranking.
Not to worry Rahman – just because I’ve disabled the sidebar blogroll does not mean that this awsome site wont get listed in my seperate page…! (another of your good suggestions)
Thank you Vanessa for your kind interest in my blog’s content.
I hope with your feedback I can keep it going on well as a platform for site/blog owners’ interaction to boost their web business.
As I don’t use wordpress or blogger, my site is on Joomla.
In my sidebar if I put a link to another external site, it is as a ‘no follow’. So, I don’t leak my ranking out that way. As you say, things in the sidebar are on EVERY page…
I do however have a links section, so I put them in there and they are ‘follow’. So, its good for the site I am linking to.
Also in my articles naturally as well… Is that the right way to go about it? Having a ‘links’ section – in defined categories and only with a few QUALITY sites – not a big link farm
(which reminds me, have to put yours in there too!)
Yes Martin, you’re doing it in the right way.
I don’t like a big list of links to other sites at my “links” page either. For each of those links, I’d rather have some introduction or explanation. Without it. a mere list of 100s of links to other sites would become a link farm as you’ve mentioned it.