What are good links?

A good web site has no session time limit and is accessible to people with disabilities. An assistive technology, user friendly web site.

Before we can explain what good links are, we must first define the term LINK. The foundation of the World Wide Web or WWW and hypertext transfer protocol, or the http that you see in front of the url in your web browser's address window, is the ability to navigate from one web page to another by pressing (or clicking on) a hyper-link. Links are what the web is all about.

Wikipedia - link - hyperlink

A hyperlink (often referred to as simply a link), is a reference or navigation element in a document to another section of the same document, another document, or a specified section of another document, that automatically brings the referred information to the user when the navigation element is selected by the user. As such it is similar to a citation in literature, but with the distinction of automatic instant access. Combined with a data network and suitable access protocol, a computer can be instructed to fetch the resource referenced.

Hyperlinks are the foundation of the World Wide Web created by Tim Berners-Lee, but are not limited to HTML or the web. Hyperlinks may be used in almost any electronic media.

There are several methods used to create links

Each method of creating links has a relative value to search engines and visitors, based on usability. Regardless of how the link is presented, they all contain the hypertext anchor - <a> term and href to make the link functional. Examples of link types and their value include:

Image links have the lowest value, since they can't be read by a computer. Using alt text helps users understand what the image means and could describe the link destination.
Links in image maps would be included in this type of link.
Link buttons are links created from pictures and are impossible for search engines to understand.
Embedded links are text links in the body copy of a web page and are the second most valuable type of link.
Links in headings are the most valuable, if the word or phrase is also relevant to the link target.
Links in JavaScript are practically worthless, because search engines can't use or follow them.
Flash links are the most worthless type of link. They offer severe restrictions to both search engines and users with disabilities. Not user friendly links.

[Content]

What are important links to your business web site?

Good links are the ones that are the most relevant to your site's information topic. Inbound links are the links from other web sites, that allow visitors to come to your site via a simple mouse click or key-press. The reverse happens with the outbound links on your site. Becoming a valuable information resource includes good links to other important web sites.

Including good outbound links on a business web site seems to be frightening to most business web site owners. The worst advice that we have ever seen on a so-called professional business web designer's site was, don't put any outgoing links on your site, unless you want your customers to leave! Not only is this an irrational fear, it's actually counter productive. Search engines value good links even more than they value good information content. Without good outbound links, your site is seen as just another a visitor trap, that has no real value to the web. Links to high quality information are very important.

Buying links is not a good investment

There are many valid links to good information on every good web site. Buying links from sites that have no relevance to your site is not only a waste of money, it can damage your search results ranking.

Most search engines rank web sites with lots of links higher than those with only a few. Unethical seo practices use link farms to create sites with thousands of worthless links, which are sold to unsuspecting site owners in the hope of increasing their search engine ranking results. Many of these link farms send spam emails which offer to get your site thousands of links for only a few dollars a month. This may sound like a bargin, until you understand that all the major search engines already know about these link farm sites and will de-index a lot of the sites they link to! Avoid buying into a link farm for any reason. The links are useless and your site page ranking will be penalized by search engines, rather than improved.

Broken links are common on business web sites. Too many broken links can get a site de-indexed from a search engine. We use the FREE W3C link checker to verify that our links are still good.

[ Content ]

Hypertext links are valuable links

HTML was developed for the World Wide Web and continues to be the basis of all links. Although XHTML became the standard in 2000 and revised in 2002, it simply remains the best form of expressing link text. The link text used in a hypertext link can dramatically improve the SERP of specific pages on your site. As an example, the main site menu on the top each web page contains simple hypertext links to our site's main topic pages. The link text phrase in each menu item is also a phrase in the target page title. This helps search engines and visitors to know what information the link goes to. Usable web sites use text links. Please read: A good site map design before you leave this site.

What is the problem with dynamic links?

Many web sites use dynamic links, or DHTML which is also known as JavaScript. JavaScript links are usually menus written in a proprietary markup language that is not W3C valid web page markup. Search engines don't recognize links that are written in JavaScript and so can't follow the links to other pages or other sites. It is also fairly common to use Flash menus on modern web sites. Flash is owned by Macromedia and as another proprietary markup language, is also not W3C valid. Flash links are not html so search engines can't understand or follow them. Search engines rank websites higher, if they have links a search engine spider can follow.

Menus are simply a collection of links

We use and recommend simple xhtml link menus on all business information sites. HTML links are user friendly, accessible and allow every search engine to follow the links to all the pages on your site. If you expect search engines to give your site a high ranking position, always use good html text links.

A function of good SEO, is getting good links. Link building is an ongoing activity of every good business web site. Good links are any hypertext links from good websites that are relative to your business. Your suppliers, manufacturers, industry publications and even some of your clients.

Why are links important to your site

The web is comprised of billions of web pages linked to billions of web pages. The links allow users to find good information sites from anywhere on the web. To become a valued member of the online community, every business web site needs to be linked to many other important sites. Search engines give increased ranking results to sites with lots of good outgoing links to high ranking sites, although they are only worth about half the value of good incoming links. The more links you can have, the more valuable your site becomes. Good page titles help to attract good links. Good websites are where you find good answers to good questions.

Please read: What is a website?, before you make any business web design decisions.

Link exchanges, reciprocal links and back link requests to our site

We already have hundreds of outbound links to information resources that are relevant to our site's information and valuable to our visitors. We will consider adding links to other sites, based on the following criteria:

the linked site provides relevant information to our site
the linked site is written in valid markup
the linked site does not contain objectionable content
the linked site hasn't been de-indexed by a search engine

We often get link requests from sites whose only reason for requesting a link exchange is for search engine ranking. Understanding the real value of links will help any business site to build good links and avoid link farms.

Links of interest to our visitors

There are many sources of good information about good web site design and SEO. We provide 100's of links to sites that we feel provide specific, detailed information that our clients might be interested in. Some of the most important links are:

W3C - The World Wide Web Consortium
Wikipedia - The free Encyclopedia
Family Online Safety Institute
Mystery meat navigation
Good link tips from W3C
The <link> element
A good menu is simply a group of good links
W3C members list

If you find our links information valuable and wish to link to this web page, simply copy and paste the following link text onto any of your site's pages:

<a href="http://www.asite.seowebsitesdesigners.com/good-links.html">What are good links?</a>

[Content]

Internet search for more important links information

Please note: Google does not permit direct link searches from non-exclusive business sites and so they are not included on the search engine list. Please search Google directly at www.google.com

Search multiple search engines: yahoo . yahoo.ca . msn . msn.ca . alta vista . ask by pressing each search engine name.