The pros and cons of contextual links have been a topic of discussion in the recent past for various businesses. If used in an appropriate fashion, contextual links can gain huge gains for your business. Haven’t heard about contextual links? Read on. Contextual link is any link to a related site within a body of text. There are three main categories of contextual links:

• External links: These links are present in the content of your site which point towards another website. External links are also called as outgoing links.
• Internal links: These links refer to those links that are inserted in such a way that they point towards another piece of content on your site.
• Reciprocal links: These are the links which are asked by other site owners to link back to your own content.

For a number of reasons, Google prefers to see contextual links. However, it is imperative for a business to comprehend its benefits and the right way to use them. If you are associating to poor websites using contextual linking then it will have the opposite effect.

Advantages of using contextual links:

A number of businesses use contextual links without understanding its advantages. Following are some of the advantages that every type and size of business can experience using contextual links in the right way:

• Contextual links spread the awareness about your website. The readers of your content will surely look through your article on social media or via a search on a search engine.
• With more visibility of your site, writers will surely go through your site and link back to it.
• The company about which you mention on your site may want to reach out to you or may want to include that article on their site. This helps you get a back link.
• Due to increased popularity, you will see a rise in social media shares
• You will get more credibility as you will be linking out to authoritative sources. This proves that you have done detailed research and also look towards others to create a high quality article.
• Increase in your reliability also increases the trust on you. Contextual links are pointers that you care about creating more trust on your site than being a know-it-all.
• Google gives importance to sites that enhance the experience of the readers so that your page rank and rankings increase.
• Due to increasing popularity you will also see your site getting more traffic.
• Once the traffic on your site will increase, you will also see increases in the sales of your product and/or services.
• In the end, you will be offering more content for your readers which should be your primary aim

Simply put, contextual links imply correctly seeking authoritative, relevant websites to link back to the content on your site. This not only helps in establishing connections but also makes Google aware that your site is associated with quality sites. These contextual links, including internal links, offer a perfect way to enhance usability for your readers.

Image Credit: https://tinyurl.com/qlek6la