If I write about another article, where should I link to the original source?

Video Question

A lot of bloggers and writers would like to know if link location affects SEO rankings. The following question was submit to Google webmaster:

“I have a blog and I post original articles but I also like to link to the original website. So I link the website in a word in the first paragraph. Is this the right way or should I give a link separately at the bottom?”

Video Highlights:

Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Web Spam team provided this response:

• Matt Cutts, mentioned that either way can also work in terms of adding links of the original website and including them in the original article that you have written for your blog.
• These two would work well in terms of Google’s rankings since it still flows to PageRank well. This means that the credit will still be given or linked to the website that you have included in your article.
• On a more personal note, Matt Cutts prefers to find links that are located close to the article to ensure that readers would know the writer’s sources. People appreciate the idea of not having to conduct more searches just to find what the original source of the article is.
• There are blogs that provide a really small, difficult to see links at the bottom of a really long article and by that time, readers would be too tired to check the sources anymore.
• It would also help if a writer or blogger mentions a source on a story or article’ he or she would make sure that link is provided for readers to be able to check for more information and for accuracy as well. Let people go and check the actual sources for themselves.

In order to get higher SEO rankings, you should:

• Offer quality content that is relevant and easy to understand. It does not matter whether you are maintaining a personal blog or you write articles for your actual website, it is a must for you to provide informative information related to what your website is all about.
• Keep your contents organized and your website as user friendly as possible. This will give your visitors a good reading experience and stay longer on your website.
• Make your website mobile friendly as some of the visitors may be surfing your website on mobile devices.
• If you create an external link to another website, always remember to open the new link in a new window. This ensure that your visitors still stay in your website.