Often authors set up several social media sites to promote their books. The objective of these promotional efforts is to get readers of your posts heading to another site where they can purchase your books. Achieving this requires that you practice interlinking.

Interlinking is a link on a post pointing to an external website. For example, you might tweet something about your book but include a link that takes anyone clicking it to your website or to a landing page where they could buy your book:

What makes a person a ‘writer’? http://bit.ly/YMyrOt

The link heads to my blog. Once there, the visitor can find unobtrusive links to my editing service and books.

Pushing a book sale or interest in your business are just a couple of reasons to interlink. You also might do so to drive up your search engine rankings.

Generally, links on social media posts should send visitors to an article on your blog. Interlinks at your blog article then can take readers to you authors/business website and landing pages that sell your books. You can include links to your authors/business website and book sales pages on your social media posts, but they should be interspersed amid a heavy dose of posts with links to your blog articles so you don’t appear spammy.

The most common social media platforms to make posts with interlinks include YouTube, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Depending on the kind of book you’ve written and on your readership, some platforms will attract more followers and views than others; consider trying all of them one by one and see where you get the most traction.

Your own blog and website can contain interlinks to a landing page where consumers can purchase your book, services or products. Always make sure the interlink appears natural, however, for forced or random links actually can hurt your page ranking and turn off readers. Achieve this by pretending to be a reader visiting your blog or website and asking if the links appear helpful or answer a question you have. If the answer is “no,” then the link probably will be received as unnatural.

Lastly, ensure that each social media network you’re on includes direct links to your business website other networks, if it is allowed. These links would be included on your profile. On your website, include social media widgets that show your latest posts along with follow/subscribe buttons.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.