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:

  1. Text link. This is a written description of the site, with a hypertext link to that site.
  2. 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:

  1. Advantages and disadvantages.
  2. Techniques for requesting reciprocal links. 
  3. Techniques for developing a link page.
  4. Resources.   

Advantages and disadvantages.  

  1. 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.
  2. 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.  

  1. 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Categorize the links. Categorization will help our visitors to find a specific type of website.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. Provide links to various types of resources. In addition to websites, there can be newsgroups, IRC channels, mailing lists, webrings, etc.
  11. 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.
  12. 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:
  13. 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.
  14. 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.  

  1. These websites have lists of websites that want reciprocal links.
  2. 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 .

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