Did you know that every link on your site can influence your search engine ranking? But not all links are created equal. Between anchors, attributes like nofollow, and more advanced strategies like obfuscation, it’s easy to get lost. Don’t panic: in this article, I explain everything you need to know to use links like an SEO pro.
What is a hypertext link?
A hypertext link, or simply link, is one of the fundamental elements structuring the web. It’s a connection between two online resources, usually web pages, enabling you to navigate from one piece of information to another with a single click. These links weave a web of interconnections, giving rise to the architecture of the World Wide Web as we know it.
The 4 pillars of a hypertext link
The blue links you usually see can be broken down into four parts:
<a href="https://assistouest.fr" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Computer troubleshooting in Nantes</a>- Target URL: https:
//assistouest.fr - Link anchor:
Computer troubleshooting in Nantes - The target attribute:
target="_blank"(opens the link in a new tab) - The rel attribute:
rel="nofollow"(tells search engines not to transmit authority).
There are many link configuration options, let’s focus on the most important ones for SEO 👇
The web address included in the targetlink or URL
When you click on a link, it takes you to another page, the target URL.
For example, the link: Dépannage informatique à Nantes leads to the URL https://assistouest.fr
https://assistouest.fr is the URL contained in this link.
Link anchor
Let’s take the same link and analyze the link anchor.
The link anchor is the text that replaces the target URL.
In this example, the link anchor is Dépannage informatique à Nantes.
In search engine optimization, the link anchor is very important, both in terms of internal linking (link to another page on your site) and external linking (link to another site).
Indexing robots use it to understand the context between pages, so it’s in your interest to find the context.
Although the link anchor alone doesn’t determine Google ranking, it can drastically improve it.
Link attributes: what are they for?
The link attribute is a way of telling crawlers how to interpret the link, because not all links are created equal.
There are several attributes:
rel="follow": the most common, this tells search engines to consider the link in its entirety.rel="nofollow": tells search engines not to follow this link and that you are not responsible for it.rel="ugc": this is a special case that you won’t see very often. It tells search engines that it’s a link created by a user external to the site (such as on forums or in article comments).rel="sponsored": this attribute indicates advertising or affiliate content, for example Amazon affiliate links or sponsored articles.
The important thing to know here is that web pages have a certain power (authority). For example, if Google links to my website, it will immediately rank highly for the keyword in question.
If Google makes a link from Google.fr to my site with the link anchor SEO Consultant in Nantes, then I’ll most likely be in the top 3 on this query.
The nofollow attribute means that the authority of a page is not passed on. This type of link can be found on many high-authority websites such as Wikipedia and many others.
You can add several attributes to a single link. For example, on my site, Amazon affiliate links are rel="sponsored nofollow". This indicates to search engines that the content is sponsored and should not pass on the page’s authority.
Your rel="sponsored nofollow" links can still be crawled by search engines.
Search engines still crawl link content for security and curiosity purposes.
Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines can’t recommend a site that leads to another malicious site, for example.
In most cases, the target URL is ignored. You can be penalized or even delisted by Google if the link leads to a malicious URL, even if your link is in nofollow attribute.
The target attribute: open your links any way you like
The HTML target attribute lets you determine where and how a hyperlink opens. It has little or no impact on SEO, but it is important to consider in terms of user experience.
- target=”_blank”: opens the link in a new tab.
- target=”_self”: opens the link in the same tab.
Users don’t like links that open new tabs, so it’s best not to use this attribute. It can be frustrating if overused, as the user ends up with several open tabs.
Link obfuscation: a double-edged sword
Link obfuscation involves hiding or modifying the structure of a link so that it is not immediately recognizable, either by visitors or search engines. For example, instead of a clear link to an affiliate product, the URL may be coded, redirected via a script or presented in a shortened form.
Was this article helpful to you?
