Links
By
James Harvey Stout (deceased). This material is now in the public
domain. The complete collection of Mr. Stout's writing is now at
http://stout.mybravenet.com/public_html/h/
>
This chapter deals with various types of links:
- Text link. This is a written description of the site, with a
hypertext link to that site.
- Graphical link. This graphic is usually a banner. When
people click on the banner, they are taken to the site which is
described in the banner. (There is another chapter which deals
specifically with banners.)
Jump to the following topics:
- Advantages and
disadvantages.
- Techniques
for requesting reciprocal links.
- Techniques for developing
a link page.
- Resources.
Advantages and
disadvantages.
- Advantages.
- Advantages of links to our site.
- Obviously, links bring customers to our site. Some
businesspeople receive more visitors from links than they do
from search engines.
- Search engines use many criteria for our ranking; one of
the criteria is "popularity." Popularity is determined by
the number of websites which have links to our website.
Therefore, if we have many links to our site, we might have
a higher ranking in the search engines.
- Advantages of links from our site to other people's sites.
- Lists of links make our website a valuable resource.
People will return to our site to refer to the directory of
links.
- Search engines will make note of the keywords in our
outgoing links. Thus, we could gain a higher ranking simply
because one of our keywords is "guitar," and we have links
to "Smalltown Guitar Repair," and "JHS Guitar Shop," etc.
- Links allow us to create bonds, partnerships, and
friendships with other websites. We are helping one another
to achieve success.
- Links are a part of the "sharing" which benefits all of
us on the internet. We are sharing our knowledge and
goodwill and our networking capabilities, and we know that
many other sites are doing the same for us.
- Disadvantages.
- Links are exit-points from our website. We worked hard to
attract people to our site, but now we are suggesting that they
visit other sites.
- Some of the links might direct our visitors to our
competitors. However, many websites do have links to their
competitors, and they justify these links by various reasons:
- Usually, we are offering reciprocal links, so our
competitors have a link to our site. ("Reciprocal
links" are links which are "reciprocated"; i.e., I put a
link from my site to your site, and you put a link from your
site to my site.)
- Many of our visitors know about our competitors anyway.
- Our competitors probably target a slightly different
audience, with slightly different products and services, at
different prices.
- We can display our confidence in our products and
services. Some businesspeople boldly say, "Feel free to
check our competitors' prices."
- We can gain our customers' trust. If we aren't afraid of
comparisons by well-informed consumers, we obviously have
nothing to hide.
Techniques
for requesting reciprocal links.
- We can write to other webmasters.
- We can find appropriate websites.
- A search engine. If we type in our keywords, we will
find websites which offer goods and services which are
similar to ours.
- Links at websites. Those links will take us to other
sites where we can request reciprocal links.
- Our business associates. These people includes our
suppliers, distributors, etc.
- People who write to us via email. For example, if
someone emails a question to us, we can click on the URL in
that person's sig file, to see whether that site would be
suitable for a reciprocal link.
- The visitors to our website. Some visitors will leave
their URL in our guestbook, our discussion board, and our
chat.
- The visitors to our links page. We can ask for
recommendations for sites which can be listed on the links
page.
- Our visitors can submit recommendations via email. We
can display a request: "If you want to recommend a site
for this page, please email me."
- Our visitors can submit recommendations via a form on
our links page.
- Web rings. The members of a web ring offer related goods
and services.
- Newsgroups. In newsgroups, many people have sig files
which give a URL. To view previous messages from a
newsgroup in our topical area, we can visit
Dejanews.
- New-website announcement sites. These new websites might
be eager to get reciprocal links.
- We can send an email to each webmaster. Generally, we do
not need permission to link to someone's site -- but if we want
to have reciprocal links, we will need to write to the
webmaster. Some tips for writing the email:
- Create the link before writing to the webmaster. When
the webmaster sees that the link is already at our site, we
are displaying our sincerity.
- Personalize the email. If we know the webmaster's name,
we should use it. If our email looks like it's part of a
mass-mailing, it could be considered "spam."
- Offer a compliment. The compliment is simply a friendly
thing to do -- and it indicates that we have actually
visited the person's site.
- Be interested in the other person's website. We believe
that that site is worthwhile, so would appreciate the
opportunity to have a link to the site.
- We can explicitly ask for a reciprocal link -- or not.
- Some people simply tell the webmaster that they are
creating a link from their site to the webmaster's site.
The webmaster will generally create a reciprocal
link without being asked to do so.
- Some people say that the webmaster usually will
not create a reciprocal link unless we explicitly
request one. If the webmaster does not create a
reciprocal link, we can create our link anyway. Later, if
our link generates significant traffic for the webmaster,
he or she might be grateful enough to add our link.
- Briefly explain the benefits of a reciprocal link. For
example, "I believe that your visitors would appreciate a
link to my site, because I offer a related product which
would enhance the use of your product." We can also
propose a bonus to the webmaster; for example, we can
say that we will describe the webmaster's product or service
in our mailing list.
- Include some information.
- Basic information. This information includes a
description of our website, and a description of our
product or service, and the URL (of the main page, and
the page where the link will appear). We can briefly
mention any prestigious awards which we have won.
- Our stats. If we have only 20 visitors/month, we
might not be able to create a reciprocal agreement with a
webmaster who has 20,000 visitors/month. Other important
stats might include the geographical location of our
visitors, etc.
- Be willing to change the text description of the link --
and be willing to remove the link. If we have already
written a description, the webmaster might ask us to rewrite
it, or to remove it.
- Provide the actual link to our site.
- If we are proposing a reciprocal text link, we can
include the html code of the text link in our email, so
that it can be copied-and-pasted. For example: <A
HREF="http://www.james-harvey-stout.com">Rapid-Fire
Internet Marketing</A> .
- If we are proposing reciprocal banners, we
should not send the banner itself as an email attachment;
some people do not like attachments. Instead, we can tell
the webmaster that the banner can be copied from a
particular URL at our site.
- We consider these factors in reciprocal linking.
- The type of link. We can exchange text links or graphic
("banner") links.
- The placement of the link.
- Placement on the website. The links might be on a
special "links page," or on another page of the site.
- Placement on the web page. We might require that the
banners are at the top of a page or the
bottom of a page.
- Deadline. We might decide that the reciprocal links
should be displayed within one week of the agreement.
- Follow-up. We can check the person's website
periodically, to be certain that it still displays a link to
our website.
- The value of an un-reciprocated link. Even if the
webmasters do not want to create a link to our site, we can
still create a link to their site if the link would be
useful to our visitors.
Techniques for developing a
link page.
- Don't put links on the main page. We want our visitors to look
at our goods or services before we send them to another site.
- Use text links instead of graphical links (or banners). If we
have a large number of links, the graphics will cause our page to
load very slowly.
- Describe the content of the linked site. We can save our
visitors some time if we tell them what to expect at the linked
site. Our comment can be a straight description, or our personal
review and opinion.
- Categorize the links. Categorization will help our visitors to
find a specific type of website.
- Decide where to put the links.
- On a separate "links page."
- On the page which corresponds to the subject-matter of the
linked site. For example, this book puts links into the
"resources" section of each chapter.
- Integrated into the text. For example, if we are referring
to newsgroups, we might put a link to
Dejanews into the text
itself.
- Ask the visitors to suggest other sites which can be added to
our list of links. The suggestions can be submitted via an email
link, or via a form.
- Ask the visitors to link to us. We can tell our visitors how
to create a link, and we can provide banners (in case they want to
use a banner instead of a text link). The banners can be offered
in various sizes -- the standard 468x60, and smaller banners.
- Create standards for the links which we would put onto our
site. Even if we have a disclaimer, the links imply our approval
and recommendation, so we don't want to have links to sites which
are useless or offensive.
- Provide links to exotic sites. Our visitors already know the
URL of Yahoo, Netscape, and other popular sites. Our links page
will be exciting if we provide links to sites which are not
well-known.
- Provide links to various types of resources. In addition to
websites, there can be newsgroups, IRC channels, mailing lists,
webrings, etc.
- Consider the practicality of writing out the URL on the
page. For example, we can write out
http://www.dejanews.com, or
we can conceal the link to
Dejanews. Some people will
want to see the URL before clicking, or they might want to
copy-and-paste the URL to visit the site later.
- Check for dead links. Our links page will be more of an
annoyance than a resource if it has many dead links. We can check
for dead links automatically with link-checker software, or html
validators (which are listed in the chapter regarding site
design), or some html editors. The following websites will check
the links at our site:
- Allow people to visit the linked sites without leaving our
site. Usually, when a visitor clicks on a link, the new page opens
in the browser -- and the visitor might not come back to our site.
We can use various techniques to prevent this loss:
- Use the target=new command in html. When a visitor clicks
on a link, another copy of the browser opens to display the
linked site (while the original copy remains open at our site).
- Frame the other site at our site. The site will appear in
our frame; thus, our visitor can see the other site without
leaving ours. However, this technique might be considered a
copyright violation, and it has led to lawsuits in some cases.
- We can use an automated system for our links. With a free CGI
script, we can allow people to put their own links onto our page.
However, this list must be monitored, or it will be cluttered with
links to inappropriate sites.
Resources.
- These websites have lists of websites that want reciprocal
links.
- These are means to discover the sites which have links to
our site.
- Software.
- Adobe SiteMill 2.0 has an "external link checker."
- Websites.
- Search engines.
- HotBot. On the left
side of the page, look for a pull-down menu titled "Search
Options." On that menu, select "links to this URL." In the
"search the web" box, type your URL. HotBot will show a list
of sites that have a link to our site.
- Alta Vista. In
the search box, precede your URL with the word, "link:"; for
example: link:http://www.james-harvey-stout.com .
- Infoseek. In the
search box, precede your URL with the word, "link:"; for
example: link:http://www.james-harvey-stout.com .