Clustered vs Contextual Linking
Posted on October 29th, 2008 by admin
A contextual link is like the one below:
"Hi, my name is Mike and I have an internet marketing software website
with lots of great applications."
It’s "contextual" because the link is contained in the content itself.
Here’s an example of "clustered" links:
link 1
link 2
link 3
-OR-
link 1 | link 2 | link 3
See how clustered links are all "alone"?
You’ll usually see these links all by themselves over in a side-bar, navigation table, or at the top and bottom of web pages.
Contextual links probably give a lot more value than clustered links. When using your network, use contextual links as much as possible.
If you pay for links, INSIST on contextual links…
-Charles
At http://www.linkxl.com we have understood for a while that not only are footer and side bar links (clustered) dangerous, they do not help advertisers as much as contextual HTML links. Both click throughs and link juice passed are higher with relevant links in the flow of real content.
Also, clustered links will not pass a human review by a search engine or your competitor. Definately, if you buy links get natural contextual links.
-John