Link building from social media sites can be confusing. They all allow or disallow different things . . . some make links do-follow, some no-follow and others use redirects. Use of any of these can and will impact how valuable the link is. However, the #1 rule of link building always applies: Make sure you link to your site with good, search-optimized anchor text. Don’t link the word “click here”. Don’t link your URL. Link your target keywords to your website any and every time you can.

Link Building from LinkedIn

So, how do you get search-friendly links from your LinkedIn profile? It’s simple! When you’re logged into LinkedIn, hover over “Profile” and choose “Edit Profile”.

When you edit your profile, LinkedIn offers you a location to post links to your website, your blog, etc. If you choose the obvious selections they offer (My Website, My Blog, My Company) LinkedIn uses those words as the anchor text and doesn’t give you the option of writing search-friendly anchor text. The solution? Choose “Other”.

When you choose “Other”, LinkedIn adds a new field that lets you make the anchor text anything you want. Yay! Now, choose your most important keyphrase and type it in the box by the target URL. Note how I used all three links they give me to link to my SEO blog, my SEO website and my Yellow Lab‘s website with search-friendly keyphrases.  Oh, and I just did it again there. Sorry, I can’t help myself. As I said, NEVER pass up a chance to link to your website with your targeted keyphrase as the anchor text.

Value of a Search-Friendly from LinkedIn

The value of a search-friendly link from LinkedIn can definitely be debated. LinkedIn adds the previously mentioned “nofollow” tag to the link. See below (the strike through is from a Firefox SEO plugin I use that shows a nofollow tag has been placed on the link).

Some people say this makes the link worthless, while others say that it still increases the relevancy of the target page even if it doesn’t pass any PageRank. I say, regardless of whether it passes any “Google Juice” today, it might tomorrow. So you can never go wrong by following a policy of always using search-friendly anchor text.

Happy linking!

Name: Brian

Web Site: http://www.realzi.com

Bio: Brian Rutledge is Managing Partner at Real Estate Search Marketing Company Realzi, which he co-founded in 2006. Realzi specializes in lead generating Search Engine Optimized Real Estate Websites. Based in Austin, Texas, Realzi helps Real Estate Brokers and Agents worldwide with internet marketing campaigns focused on lead generation and home sales.