Why is Linking to Other Blogs Important?

1 - It helps your readers to find valuable information and resources (and if you do this consistently they’ll likely remember you as a reliable source).

2 - It helps other bloggers by sending targeted traffic and by giving them a link (which may help with their search engine rankings and Technorati authority).

3 - It can help you to get noticed by other bloggers (as mentioned already).

4 - Your trackback may show up in the comments of the other blogs, which could bring some click-through traffic to your site.

5 - Outbound links can give you some content for a post when you don’t have time to write. Many bloggers, including me, use posts of outbound links on the weekends when posting is less frequent.

Here’s another take:

Why You Want To Link To Other Blogs

Just about anyone who’s blogging knows that they need to link to other blogs in their blog posts. You know it, right?

But how many look at linking as a strategy? I’m not talking about a strategy just to increase traffic or exchange links for Technorati rankings - though that certainly is a strategy. Rather, I’m talking about a strategy for reaching your overall blogging goals.

My main reason for blogging is to create conversations which have the potential to develop into mutually beneficial relationships. Sometimes those relationships are with people who become clients or whom I form business partnerships with. Other other times the relationship are more casual and friendships develop. All-in-all, my strategy is to use my blog to reach people.

That’s why I link…to reach people.

Basically, the commonly accepted practice of linking to others, especially when some bloggers take their ideas for posts from the “competition,” creates a blogosphere. Without it there is nothing and certainly no conversation or discussion.