[thelist] opinions please: links & are they a good thing?

Ben Henick persist1 at io.com
Thu Jan 16 08:15:08 CST 2003


On Thu, 16 Jan 2003, kristina wrote:

>   My boss' reply to the latter was that he didn't
>   think that was logical, as it didn't make sense
>   to have outbound links....
>
>   He doesn't think that having outbound links will
>   help in the search engines.
>
>   Am I going mad, did I make this up, is it true or
>   not true?

Someone more skilled than I with search engine optimization ought to put
their imprimatur on the rightness or wrongness of that bit about links to
external sites, though I can't say I've ever heard of such a thing.

For all intents and purposes, linkage is about providing access to
information.

Basically:  does the risk of ending a user session right then and there
outweigh the likely benefit from providing a link to information the
visitor will value (thus establishing your site as an information source
to one degree or another)?

If I can link to another site in the expectation that they will
reciprocate (presumably because my traffic has value to them, and theirs
to me)  that pretty much settles the argument.

If worst comes to worst, the risk mentioned above can be reduced by
providing a TARGET and writing a link-not-endorsement disclaimer not
unlike those on some news sites.


--
Ben Henick                     "In the long run, men hit only what they aim
Web Author At-Large             at.  Therefore, though they should fail
http://www.io.com/persist1/     immediately, they had better aim high."
persist1 at io.com                 -- Henry David Thoreau




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