There’s always a lot of discussion about links when the talk turns to SEO and how you can pump yours up.
While many senior living providers try to find ways to get other sites to link to their site, inbound links aren’t the only ones that have value.
Outbound links play a role in telling your story, too.
But it’s important that you know and follow a few tips regarding outbound links.
From anchor text to spammy links in comments, here’s what senior living marketers should know.
Outbound Links and Senior Living Providers
First, don’t go overboard. A few strategic outbound links is great. A link in every other sentence? Not so great.
Next, be careful who you link to. Follow the birds of a feather rule. You work hard to create a site that is credible and helpful to older adults and families. Make sure any sites you link to are equally legit.
Along those same lines…be wary of linking to hidden referral agency sites. The big referral services, especially A Place for Mom, own loads of sites. Some have really great content. You might accidentally link to one of those and inadvertently drive traffic to them and their network of care advisors.
For example, this site is owned by APFM. See the phone number at the top in the orange circle? If you link to this page, you might just end up paying for a lead you drove to their site.
Another quick tip if you have Comments open on your blog. Scan each comment for links. We actually disabled ours after spending far too much time reviewing/blocking spammy links disguised as comments.
Finally, use good quality anchor text when you are creating outbound links. If the keyword/phrase for your page is “online caregiver support groups,” for example, use that as your anchor text when you link to the Family Caregiver Alliance. Not only is that a highly regarded site to link to, it’s also text that is relevant to the topic of your post.
Make sense? Drop me a line if it doesn’t…
Until next time,
Shelley