Link Your Way to More Readers and Maximise Your Reach

The power of interlinking articles using a link tree

This is a technique that not enough writers use, in my opinion. As a result, you could miss out on many reads by not taking advantage of linking your writing. 

Let me ask if you have ever read an article and then saved three links from that article. You then go on and read those articles and amass another handful of articles you want to read. Before you know it, you have spent an hour reading work from one writer. 

That is the power of a link tree; you send your reader down a rabbit hole of your articles. 

Two types of link trees

You can build two main types of trees; one is what I like to call the in-article version. This takes much more time than the second method, but when done well is more productive and creates more reads. 

The second method, the CTA method, is effective but does not always result in the same click-through. It is up to you which of these methods you adopt. It would mainly depend on your time and the traffic you aim for. 

So let's look at the two methods of building these trees. 

Construct a CTA link tree

Let me start by explaining the easier method. Many writers on various platforms will link to other posts they have written. This is a good technique for exposure and improving your SEO score. A link tree will help you get the maximum benefit from this. 

You can have a huge link tree with a hundred branches or one with three or four. I will show you how to set up a primary three-branch chain. If you want to increase this, the theory is no different as it grows.

Look through your posts and find seven articles that are your best; I would ensure they are all on the same theme. You can have one link chain for writing tips and a second for parenting articles. 

Once you have these seven, identify the most popular, this is your trunk if you like.

Then select the following two most popular; we will call these the branches.

At the bottom of your most popular article (your trunk), put a link to your two next popular articles (the branches.)

Then go to each of these and put two from your last group. Now all you have to do is add the link to your popular post to all your other posts, and readers will follow the path.

The theory is that the readers go from your most popular article, along the chain, to another six articles.

If you are a visual learner, it looks like this. 

In Article Link Tree

The principle for this link tree is the same as the one above, except you put the links into the body of the article. This means that you are not so concerned with your most popular articles but those that fit together. 

For example, I could write an article about Jack the Ripper, and in that article, I could mention some of the suspects that were connected as possibly being him. 

If I mentioned two suspects, HH Holmes and James Maybrick, I could hyperlink to articles on them. HH Holmes was a serial killer in his own right, and James Maybrick died in mysterious circumstances, possibly at the hands of his wife. 

Within the James Maybrick article, I talk about his famous brother Michael Maybrick, the composer, linking to an article on him I wrote for my history publication. The HH Holmes article could discuss Chicago and the World Fair it hosted when Holmes lived there. The World Fair could be another article. 

On and on, from here, we can travel, linking more and more articles.

Easiest Way to Start

You might be sitting there now thinking, this is all well and good, but how long will it take, and is it worth it? Personally, I have seen a significant increase in readers using this method; you would have to see for yourself. 

What I would suggest though, rather than putting the extra time in, is to start now. Start on the article you are writing now. Could you add a couple of lines linking that article to one you wrote previously? 

Have you mentioned in that article something you may consider writing about in the future? Then, make a note and link to it when you complete your next piece of work. 

Take a few minutes to build a link tree; it will increase your reads. Then, send your readers down a rabbit hole of your work.