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There are two problems associated with
entering links to other sites on your own web site. The first is that you
need to monitor them to ensure they work and the other is that they do
need to compliment your own offerings.
How many times have you seen a link on a
site that when followed produces a poor web site that really offers very
little to your surfing experience. Not only are you disappointed but
in a subtle way you also feel a little let down by the site that sent you
there. It is thus important that you only link to sites that add
value to your own site.
Another aspect of linking is so often sites
just put in the name of the site with no other information. As a site
visitor you might choose to link or not but as you have put in the link
you presumably feel it does add value to your own offering. My
suggestion is that when adding links, and especially when added on a links
page, that you add a line or two describing the link so your visitors are
in a better position to decide on whether to follow the link.
You can also turn links into content for
your own site. Instead of just entering a link why not link that to
a page on your own site. There you can present a summary of the
information to be found on that site and then provide a link from there to
the site. This has the additional advantage of providing some
information right away and that in itself might be sufficient for your
site visitor. In addition, if you found the site to contain valuable
information, but hard to find, you could use your intervening page to give
tips on how to find the information and perhaps even a small list of
specific links to parts of the site. This adds a lot of value to
your site but still provides the target site with good visitor counts.
One other thought is to invite the site to
provide you with a summary of what their site has to offer and that can
also be posted on your site. If you also ask them to provide a small
article to be included that would add good content for your site as well.
I would certainly encourage all web site
owners to communicate with the target site to ask permission to link to
them. That is just good manners.
So use your links to other sites as a
positive part of your site which adds not just links but valuable content
as well.
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