Gay Webmaster .com

Proper linking is like eating a fancy 5 course meal. There are rules that must be followed and social fopahs to avoid. Also there are some tricks to make sure your the most popular guest. Now do you want to be the person linking like a pig with broken link crumbs all over your face? Or the snazzy webmaster relaxing at the top of Goggles search result list? It’s up to you as the web master to put a little class into your linking practices.

Links can be broken down into two groups internal or cross links and External or outbound links. Only with a combination of both of these kinds of links can you hope to sit at the top of those search result lists.

Internal/Cross Linking:

It is in good practice that you have some form of universal navigation on every single page. t is important to the similar feel of your entire website. In this main navigation I suggest having “alt” tags on all image links to widen your audience and accommodate any user with a disability or a slow Internet connection.

Tip: Use your site logo as a link that points back to your homepage. it’s simple and effective on any type of web page.

Another good strategy to add more internal links is to have plain text links at the bottom of every page as secondary navigation. This is especially good when you have a lot of content so users don’t have to scroll back to the top.

Use cross links embedded in paragraphs of information to involve the user. This will gives the user instant access to more information on a single topic. Suppose your site is information based. It is in good practice to put a bit of that information on your page and then cross link to the entire article with a “more…” link.

Remember: Search engines rate you higher when you have more cross links.

External/Outbound Linking:

There is nothing that will help get you higher on search engine ranking than co-external linking. The term means when your site externally links to another site and they reciprocate an external link back to your site. Web masters have been using this technique for years with much success.

When linking to another site it is important to keep your site up in the browser window. The “target” attribute in a link tag will open up the external link in a new browser tab. This simple trick can keep your website open in the browser window.

example:
<a href=”AExternalSite.com” target=”_blank”>AExternalSite.com</a>

With this technique there is no need to worry about putting external links throughout your page. This technique when used effectively can add to the believability of your web page. Lets say you have a Christmas ornament site and you have an external link to the manufacturers of the top Christmas ornaments. This would then add to the legitimacy of your site.

Final tips:

• Always use “alt” tags on all image links and “title” tags on all text links. This adds to the usability of your site for disabled users and adds to the readability of your site to search spider bots.

• Link to your site map on every page. Spiders bots love this and it makes your site that much easier to navigate, especially if your site is big and extensive.

• Do not have any broken links! It is a big social fopah and will depreciate the value, credibility and legitamacy of your site. This can be a simple test or a big job depending on your sites size but before your site goes live make sure all your links are functional. Nothing frustrates me more than to want to know more and not being able too.