I am consistently surprised to see professional websites failing to use links in content. This is an important part of the content strategy for several reasons. Links in content are probably the best way to help search engine spiders understand the structure of your site, understand which pages are important and deserve to be ranked higher for specific topics. As discussed in my post Improve Bounce Rate, links within content represent one of the most important factors of usability and conversion architecture – another way to say this is that used correctly, links in content help visitors to your website find what they’re looking for, and that makes them more likely to convert into customers.
Search engines no longer consider only the anchor text of the links. They now take into consideration the context in which the link is placed.
Humans follow links in content using descriptive anchor text like scent trails leading them to their object of interest. One of the reasons that links in content are so good for this is that the content is where the users eyes are looking. Without putting the links in content you expect them to look up, review the navigation to determine the brilliant information architecture of the website, and then navigate to the page where you’re going to make your sales pitch.
The fact that this practice is good for organic SEO while simultaneously improving the usability of your website makes it a rock solid best practice.
There are great examples of using links in content throughout the website for The Community Foundation of Atlanta especially on their Atlanta Charitable Giving page.
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