External links: the 8 stages of linking-out denial
Do you have a link problem? You can handle linking. It's just one post/article/page without a link. You can link whenever you want to. Or can you?
Where are you on this scale ...?
1 Don't link to anyone
Link to other sites? But people will leave my site. They won't click on my ads. They won't read other pages. I'll leak page rank. No way.
2 Add URLs but don't make them hyperlinks
OK, that's a bit ridiculous. If I'm talking about other organisations, I can't pretend they don't have a website. I know, I'll put web addresses in. But i won't make them hyperlinks. Brilliant, yes?
3 Add an 'external links' box
Even I'm finding that no hyperlink thing annoying when I go back to an old page and have to copy and paste the damn things.
I suppose I should have some links on my page. I'll put them in a box. Over there (down a bit ...). I'm going to use some sort of internal redirect or annoying javascript, though, to make sure I don't pass any page rank. Mwah, hah hah.
4 Put some links in the copy
I don't seem to be getting many inbound links. I guess I'm not playing fair. I know, I'll sort out my workflow so that it's possible to add links easily inside the actual copy. But I'm still not passing any pagerank. I'm going to put "rel=nofollow" on every link.
5 Give my users some google juice
Commenters seem thin on the ground. Maybe I'll let them link to their own sites. I'll use some annoying javascript to hide the links from google though. Most of my commenters are probably spammers, and I can't trust them to police their own community, after all.
6 Link when I have to. And remove nofollow and any other annoying tricks
That seemed to make everyone happier. There are a few proper links on my pages. And people seem to want to link to me now that I'm playing fair with my links.
7 Acknowledge my sources
Oops. Spoke to soon. Been outed as pinching someone else's idea and not attributing it. From now on, I'm going to make sure I always link to everyone I should.
8 Enlightenment: Make linking part & parcel of what I do
Internet. Inter as in inter-connected. Net as in network.
I get it now. I'm going to become a trusted source for information and advice, AND of what else people should read elsewhere on the internet. Blimey, more and more people are visiting my site and linking to it.
More reading
- All the news that's fit to link
- Why won't news sites link?
- Why we need the link manifesto more than ever
- How good is the mainstream media at linking out?
- Newspapers & the link economy
- How newspapers can increase their google juice
- Content is an organic linking process
- BASIC Principles of Online Journalism: C is for Community & Conversation
- Newspapers order you not to link to them
Got any more?
You might also like
- Nofollow and internal redirects: sites that accept links – but don’t link out fairly
- Sites that ban you from linking to them. Still. In 2010
- BBC hoodwinks bloggers with promises of links
- Trinity Mirror stops selling followed links – Christian Science Monitor starts…
- BBC follows through on promise of dofollowed links to bloggers
Maybe 1.5, only link off auto-generated keywords to pages on my own website, providing no real value to readers
Ha ha! I see you also nofollow the links on your 'Thanks to site advertisers' post. A long road to enlightenment for you ...!
That is true, but more because of the warnings search engines have about paid links, if I didn't need to do it I wouldn't.
Those same advertisers also appear in the top right hand corner of the site, across 3,000 pages, so they are still getting in front of a few eyeballs.
And some of these people will feature in regular blog round-up pieces if they write something interesting that will appeal to readers.
Fair points.
This is a unique way of addressing an age-old problem. You must be careful, your sense of humor is starting to show. I really enjoyed this article, thanks,
[...] Where are you on this scale …? (Originally posted here.) [...]
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Well as a link builder, you pretty much laid all my frustrations out on the table! Google uses link connectivity as a key criterion of it's algo; Sites stop linking...or give fake links...now links are Gold...but you can't buy them because Google will penalize you...Webmasters stop answering link request emails...User Generated Content sites that give DoFollow are few and far between (and if they are they're usually not the highest quality)
Lets hope for enlightenment!
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