The Skinny on Making Links Count the Most

I've noticed that a lot of people on ActiveRain use "linking text" in their blogs to empower their links to the full potential, but I've noticed quite a few that don't. Well here's how to use "linking text" and why you should do it. When writing a blog for your real estate website, don't just put your web address as the link to your site.

Bad Example

Carlsbad Oceanfront Homes Capture the Southern California Lifestyle

Oceanfront homes in Carlsbad embody the legendary surf-and-sun lifestyle of Southern California. Wide stretches of public beach, sport fishing, water sports of all kinds and more than two dozen golf courses draw sun lovers from all over. Local restaurants feed almost any hunger from traditional Mexican food at Norte's to sushi at Mikko Japanese to authentic Italian fare at Caldo Pomodoro. Carlsbad offers beachfront homes for mid-range pocketbooks as well as for the affluent buyer.

Please visit http://www.carlsbadfinehomesandestates.com/ for more information.

Good Example

Carlsbad CA Oceanfront Real Estate Defines the Southern California Lifestyle

Buying an oceanfront home in a Carlsbad planned or gated community is an excellent way to get a newer home with direct beach access. In addition, a number of planned neighborhoods provide docks for boats of all kinds. Whether you want to live a beach life in a condo by the ocean or enjoy a lavish lifestyle in an exclusive beach community, Carlsbad, CA Oceanfront Real Estate has just the oceanfront home for you. Enjoy private community centers with a full range of recreation and outdoor facilities like basketball and tennis courts, barbeque grills and swimming pools.

The linking text in this example is the title of that particular page. It has been optimized for those specific keywords and hundreds of others using a progressive real estate technology. If you're using a site that does not have page titles, or your page title is your personal name, you can still take advantage of good linking text by making it up as it relates to your business and the blog post content.

For example, if your selling real estate in Fullerton, CA, but your website's page title is Sally Joe Realtor in Fullerton, CA, you can use linking text that reads Fullerton CA Real Estate for Sale and this will still provide some advantage over a plain link of your website address.

The search engines are looking for text that relates to and matches the content on a website. So you can take advantage of all of the labor spent on creating content for your site by using linking text that matches the content on the site. Remember, most people are searching for homes to buy not Realtors to sell them a home, and they are more likely to click thru on a link that plainly states what is there, especially if they are looking for real estate in that area. You can switch it up a bit too; it is advisable to do some deep-linking as well as creating links to your index page. If you have sub-pages that offer resources for homebuyers in a specific area, link to that interior page using the same logic as defined earlier.

A page dedicated to the local school district is a good example, if you have content on that page that details the school district, use linking text that is related to it such as "Homes for Sale in Catalina School District." This practice can capture some of the long tail searches that people use to find homes that meet their specific needs. If you are interested in a site that allows all of the MLS listing to be seen by the search engines (not an i-frame IDX), please take a look at my website for a truly new an innovative approach to capture long tail searches.