Linking to sites which offer similar content or can add value to your words is one of the most important things you can do when establishing yourself on the internet. Understanding when to link and when not to link is one thing, but when you have a page *full* of useful content and no links, Google may think you are just some crazy guy with a bunch of opinions! Would you go to a college that had only one professor? Well, Google is likely to under-value your web page without appropriate links to like content.

While you may think that linking to sites which are not your own may be counter-productive. I was always of the opinion that I never wanted people leaving my site no matter what information they were looking for! I found out that, while this may be true, you can link to external sites without losing your visitors. I have found that using a link that opens a new browser window to any site which is not yours works best.

Opening a new browser window allows people browse the other site while not losing the attachment they have to yours (because yours is just a browser closing away!) So, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, giving your customers the ability to read about the topic on your website actually builds credibility and helps to better inform your customers.

Tags: adding value to visitor experience, benefits of linking to other sites

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Accessibility, Customer Service, Search Engine Optimization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.