Why linking off your site is not always a bad thing
Photo by Clairity
Web traffic is precious and we have to make every effort to convert every visitor to a customer or client. I don’t disagree with this idea. In fact, I’ve probably said something similar to clients many times. The question is, how do we convert traffic to sales?
The conventional wisdom in Web design has always been to never allow visitors to navigate away from your site. Makes sense. We obviously don’t want to promote someone else’s products or services above our own. And if we direct visitors to other sites, isn’t that what we are doing?
Not necessarily.
At this point in the continued evolution of Web 2.0, most of us have heard the mantra “content is king.” Your visitors are on your site for a reason – they are looking for some value for themselves or their company. More likely a solution to some issue or problem.
Now, I know there are some sites out there that offer vast amounts of information on their particular product or service. Hundreds, even thousands of pages covering a wide range of topics.
My question is, does any one of those sites provide all the answers to all their visitors? With reasonable certainty I can answer no.
So going by the “content is king” mantra, why not direct your visitors to a site that can provide the value they are searching for? Why not become a resource rather than a dead end?
I would much rather link to a site that provides useful information to my visitors than force them back to their initial Google search. This is about becoming a resource and providing content (yes links to others’ content is still content) that provides value to your site visitors.
That having been said, there are good ways to provide links, and bad ways to provide links. Here are 5 tips to providing links as content on your site that won’t drive your competitors’ sales.
1.) Create a separate page for links
Links to other sites should be posted exclusively on a separate page. The idea is to provide the links to those that cannot find the content anywhere on your site. Not preempt someone from finding content on your site by directing them to another site.
Create a separate page with a title like “Links and Resources,” that has links listed by content type. You can even provide a one to two sentence description of the type of information the visitor can expect to find on the linked to site.
2.) Keep your Links page one or two levels down in your site architecture
Don’t get me wrong, we don’t want visitors leaving your site before they’ve had a chance to take a look at your content. The idea is to first direct them through your information. If they find the solution they are looking for, they should easily be able to contact you or purchase your product.
But if they don’t find the information on your site, the next step is to help them find useful information through your links.
This obviously means we don’t want to list links on your home or landing pages. In fact, links should ideally be located a couple of rungs down in your site architecture.
For example, if you provide interim executive level finance and accounting talent, you should make sure your visitors find your services or solutions page before they see your links page. If your visitor reads through your services and sees that you don’t place mid-level accounting staff, they should then be directed to your links page.
Linking to the Links page from a child page (one or two levels into your site architecture) will help ensure that visitors read through your content before moving on.
3.) Provide links to complimentary businesses or resources
While links to complimentary services, products or information reflect positively on your site, make sure you are not linking to sites that either offer a similar product or service or provide links to a competitor’s product or service.
An HR consultant might want to link to marketing or PR firms, accounting services, consulting services that fill gaps in their service offerings and HR industry associations.
It goes without saying, but links such as these are not likely to take business away from the originating site. But they can provide value to a Web visitor that might not need their HR services today – but might in the future.
Make a positive contribution to both your visitors experience and your brand image in the mind of a possible future client.
4.) Have links open in a new browser window when clicked
Your webmaster will be able to take care of this with no problem. Or you can simply add the following code to your links – target=”_blank”. Your links should then look like the below.
<a href=”www.sampleURL.com” target=”_blank”>
This code will open your links in a new browser window and keep your site up in its own window. When linking to outside sites you do not want the site to open in your site’s browser window.
5.) Ask for inbound links to your site from the sites you are linking to
Inbound links can be a great way to increase your search rankings. If you plan to link to other sites, contact the site owner and ask about a reciprocal linking agreement. Many businesses and site owners will be happy to reciprocate if you extend the offer.
Another benefit of linking relationships is that they create a network of preferred service providers that can be specific to a certain space or represent various industries. These referral networks allow you to leverage linking partner’s personal networks and vice versa.
But it’s not only the businesses in the network that benefit. Site visitors benefit from a network of reliable service providers as well.
A link to an outside site can be a powerful endorsement of the business. But make sure that you are only linking to sites that you trust to provide services or products that live up to your personal and professional standards. Directing a visitor to a site with sub-par performance can reflect poorly on you and your company.
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Outbound links were once taboo in the world of Web design. But as the Web becomes more about finding information quickly and efficiently, links can provide access to content that no one site can.
Content is about sharing information that one party has or knows about, and the other party needs. So instead of being a dead-end for your site traffic that is looking for something that you don’t directly provide, why not share your expertise and help someone locate the site that does have the content?
When done the right way, linking off your site is not always a bad thing. And besides, we could all use a little more Web Karma.
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SEO, Web Design
linking, linking strategy, links, site architecture, web content, Web Design
