Different Approaches of Website Linking

Website linking is simply a connection between two different Web sites. A hyperlink within a Web page includes the URL for another Web site which is triggered with the click of a mouse. In most cases, almost all links take the visitor to the other Web site's home page. It is also likely to bring the users to secondary pages within the Web site. This practice is known as "deep linking."

The hyperlink text itself can take many forms. It can be the name of the linked to Web site or a detail of what is to be found at that Web site and it can vary from a revealing image such as a company logo or photos.

To help you more in optimizing your website to search engines, here are the different methods of website linking.

1. RECIPROCAL LINK

A reciprocal link is a text and/or banner link to a site that, somewhere in its pages, carries a similar text/banner link to your own site. Reciprocal links are also known as "link swaps", "link exchanges" and "link partners", which are often submitted to reciprocal link exchange directories. Google uses link popularity algorithms to rate website for relevant contents and usually costs nothing.

There are three types associated with reciprocal linking:

Relevant Linking - a site linked to another site containing only compatible content and relevant to the linked site.
Three Way Linking – this is a special type of linking. In general, it can be viewed as site1-> site2 -> site3 -> site1. This is usually done between two domains.
Two Way Linking – popularly known in exchange link forum. This happens when members advertise the sites that they want to get links and will successively suggest reciprocal or three way links back to the sites that link to them.

2. ONE-WAY LINKING

It is a hyperlink that points to a website without any reciprocal link; as a result, the link goes "one-way" in direction. One-way links are trickier to get hold of than traditional reciprocal links, but it pays off in assuring solid long-term search engine ranking results.

3. MULTI-WAY LINKING

This is a strategy used in website promotion. Evolved from reciprocal linking, it may generate similar one-way links that engages 3 or more partner sites.

4. LINK CAMPAIGN

This is a form of marketing campaign and SEO combined. It may involve mutual links back and forth between related sites.

5. INCESTUOUS LINKING

This is an SEO technique used by webmasters to endorse a set of their own web sites, or those of close friends.

6. OVERLINKING

It is characterized by another hyperlinked text in the form of a large proportion of the words in each sentence, links that have inadequate information content (linking on specific years like 2005), or any single term that is excessively repeated in the same article, all of this are being rendered as links.

7. UNDERLINKING

The opposite of overlinking. It is also known as “dead-end page”, meaning a page with no links at all. When users encounter this in a page, they usually search and go deeper into the term they have just come across.

8. LINK DOPING

It is the practice and effects of embedding a large number of unjustified hyperlinks on a website, in exchange for reciprocal links.

9. FREE FOR ALL LINKING

Known as FFA, it is a web page arrangement supposedly done to improve the search engine position of a specific web site.

10. LINK POPULARITY

It is the quantity and quality of other web sites that link to a certain site on the World Wide Web.

11. LINK BAIT

Viral in nature and is expected to be a powerful of internet marketing. It is defined by one of the famous SEO expert as anything that is interesting enough to catch people's attention like: informational hooks, news hooks, humor hooks, evil hooks, tool hooks, or widget hooks.