I'm thrilled you're back for another challenge! This is day 10 of the 30-day blogging challenge, if you've missed a few days or want to join the email list you still can.

As your blog grows and you get exposure to new readers chances are they haven't read or even seen every single post you've written.  Make it easy for them to find related content by cross-linking it where appropriate. (like I did above on the 30-day blogging challenge)

Let's take a minute to do a deep dive:

• You write a blog post about social media marketing and this post talks about using images effectively on Pinterest
• Within that post you can link to an older post that talks about using images within your blog posts
• Or a more specific post that directly relates to Pinterest and how to set up your account

Do you see how that works?

Let’s look at another example. Let’s say you’re writing a recipe post and you’re sharing a new recipe for an amazing Instant Pot Carnitas Recipe. You could link to an older post where you shared a recipe for quick and easy salsa. Easy, right?

This strategy serves a few different purposes.

1. You’re engaging your readers more with your content. This gives them a chance to get to know you and your log a little better.
2. You’re getting more exposure to your ads and your visitor numbers will start to look better.
3. It also helps you with search engines, believe it or not. They keep track of how long readers stay on your site and if they click around to read more. This is an indication of the quality of your content and your blog.

In other words, if you can get readers to stick around longer, it will help your blog rank higher in the search engines.

Let’s not forget about the positive influence this has on your readers. You’re being helpful by sharing all sorts of great information with them. Not only does this allow your readers to get to know you better, it also builds credibility and trust which is exactly what you want.

Last but not least, the more pages you convince your readers to take a look at, the higher your chances that they’ll comment or share your links on social media.  It is all about growing your readership and fan base while staying honest to who you are.

 

I created a spreadsheet of all the posts on my site so I can easily search and link to existing posts on my site.  I used the plugin Export WordPress data to XML/CSV to create the spreadsheet and then manually add new posts.  I choose to manually add the posts because that way I'll link to at least one existing post in the new post.  That's a system that works for me but there are many different ways to do this so find one that works best for you.

 

Do you cross-link posts on your blog?