| If you are a webmaster, chances are you have spent | | | | page or a central link directory for a number of sites. |
| time looking for other sites with which to link. Did you | | | | An orphan page is invisible to the search engines while |
| know that many webmasters out there go out of their | | | | a central directory provides a single link out for multiple |
| way to hide your link from the search engines in order | | | | links in and may not even be visible to the SE's at all. |
| to boost their own rankings? If you already know this, | | | | - Can the link pages be found from the home page? |
| then you probably already know about the techniques | | | | Again, unless your link appears on a page that is visible |
| employed to make certain your link to their site gets | | | | to the search engines it is pointless exchanging links. |
| counted with the search engines and yours doesn't. | | | | Webmasters trying to game the reciprocal link system |
| However if this sounds new to you then you really | | | | will set up a link directory but will not actually link to it |
| should read on. | | | | from the main body of the site; in effect preventing the |
| So what are the techniques they use to get an | | | | search engine spiders from 'seeing' it. |
| inbound link without reciprocating or by devaluing the | | | | - Is the link a standard text link or is it wrapped in |
| link so much that it is worthless? | | | | JavaScript or using a php server-side include? |
| - Multiple links into different sites for a single link out | | | | JavaScript wraps are a common way of hiding a link |
| from a central directory | | | | from the search engine spiders whilst giving the |
| - Links into sub domains | | | | appearance of being a normal text link. PHP or other |
| - JavaScript wraps | | | | server-side includes are also sometimes used to |
| - Blocking search engine spiders using Robots.txt | | | | disguise links. |
| - Using META tags to block the search bots | | | | - Does the Robots.txt file exclude the search engines |
| - Orphan link directories | | | | from spidering the link pages? A quick check of the |
| Reciprocal and Inbound Linking | | | | Robots.txt file will soon tell you if the SE's are excluded |
| Despite announcements to the contrary, reciprocal | | | | from the links section. |
| linking is not dead yet. The premise is a simple one: I'll | | | | - Are there META tags in place to prevent the SE |
| link to you if you link to me. What could go wrong with | | | | spiders from following the links? Some webmasters |
| such a simple arrangement? Inbound links. Some | | | | will place the NOFOLLOW or NOINDEX attribute in the |
| webmasters salivate at the thought of a bunch of | | | | META tags on link pages. |
| juicy one-way, inbound links to their site. All the | | | | - The rel="nofollow" attribute applied to "a href= links". |
| sweeter if they have gamed another webmaster into | | | | A way of fighting comment spam in blogs, this attribute |
| giving them one by promising reciprocal linking but hiding | | | | is also being used to prevent SE spiders from following |
| their link from the search engines. | | | | the links. |
| Since a one-way, inbound link is generally given more | | | | Luckily, Firefox has some useful extensions to assist |
| weight by a Search Engine, webmasters do what they | | | | with these tasks. Chris Pederick's Web Developer |
| can to develop inbound links, for example, offering free | | | | toolbar ( and Quirk's Search Status toolbar ( are two |
| web tools or by writing articles like this one. | | | | excellent additions to a webmaster's kit that allow |
| Checking for the Scammers | | | | quick access to the information. |
| Sometimes this is obvious and sometimes a little | | | | A Brief Word About PR (Page Rank) |
| digging is required. I often use to help generate links | | | | Don't assume that because a page is showing zero |
| and will manually check every site I consider | | | | PR (Page Rank) that it is being hidden from the search |
| exchanging links with using the following criteria: | | | | engines. PR updates are irregular and take time to filter |
| - Check the link page is there. It is surprising how often | | | | through to the lower site pages. Although zero PR |
| the link page doesn't actually exist! | | | | may indicate sneaky linking practices, this is not always |
| - Is the site a sub-domain? Personally, I don't like to | | | | the case so it is worth checking just to be sure. |
| reciprocally link to sub-domains because they typically | | | | There are lots of webmasters out there who are |
| use a central site directory. In other words, you will | | | | eagerly seeking links with like-minded individuals who |
| provide multiple links into a site using sub-domains but | | | | run websites with a proper approach to reciprocal |
| only receive a single link back from the central link | | | | linking. By adopting a more rigorous approach to |
| directory. | | | | examining the sites you intend to link with, the bad |
| - Is there a link to the homepage from the link page? If | | | | apples can be avoided and the good sites rewarded, |
| there isn't, the chances are the link page is an orphan | | | | which is as it should be. |