f you have a link you of a link.
directory on a website, how
do you stop link theft by Here's 7 Top Ways Link Thieves
sites that don't link back, or work and how you can avoid being
trick you into thinking they do? their next victim.
Whether link theft is anything to 1. If a website asks you to
get concerned about depends on exchange links, don't link to
how many links your website has, them until they have given you
the quality of those links the URL location of your link in
(Google Page Rank) and how many their link directory. If you link
of those links you lose. Search to them first they may forget to
Engine Ranking is certainly add your link.
something that's becoming more
dependent upon the links to your 2. Visually inspect your link by
website. visiting the website page your
link has been placed on. In your
You might be forgiven for web browser, view the source code
thinking that when a website no of the page. In Internet Explorer
longer links back to you, that it go to View then Source and this
was an accident your link was will open up your default text
removed from the link directory. editor.
Of course accidents happen as I
know from using some link manager Using the text editor search on
software. Just one click in the the page for your website domain
wrong box and a website link and ensure when you find it that
disappears the next time you the link is a standard text link
update your link directory. But of the form:
the real link thieves are those Link Title.
people that use methods to rob
The target="_blank" just launches html" or
a new browser window when the "http://www.theirdomain.com/redir
link is clicked. ect.asp?id=2273" and not
The link should have no "http://www.yourdomain.com"
JavaScript code like: Then your link is on a redirect.
Link Title.
Any form of link that has
Links like this JavaScript one theirdomain and not yourdomain in
can be made to look visually the link URL is only of benefit
identical when viewed in a web to the other site owner and not
page browser, but to a search you. Links like this point to
engine it's as if this link is their domain and not yours which
not there. Whilst a visual gives the other site the link
inspection to catch this form of benefit in the eyes of the search
theft is always the best, you can engines.
catch some, but not all of these
types of links by using Don't link to this site if you
reciprocal link manager checking want some search engine benefit
software. from the link.
If you just want traffic from
3. Check that your link on the visitors clicking on the link,
other web sites page is not being that's the only benefit you'll
put through a redirect. By get.
hovering your mouse over the
link, check what link text 4. If you want to get search
appears in the status bar of your engine link benefit, don't link
web browser. to web sites that have
dynamically generated link pages.
If your link appears as: If your link is on a dynamically
"http://www.theirdomain.com/page. generated link page the URL of
that page could be something like If it says :
: or
"http://www.theirdomain.com/links then all is OK.
/index.php?&lk=5".
If the tag says :
The fact that the URL has a ? or or
& in the URL means that most or
search engines will never read or
that page, so they will never see
the link back to your site. Then this page is not being given
full access to the search
5. Use the Google Toolbar Page engines. Do not link to this sort
Rank Tool to check the PR of the of page.
page your link is on.
If the PR is 0 but the PR of the 6. If the robots meta tag you
home page is much better, this checked is OK but you still
could mean either the link suspect a problem with a low PR
directory is new ( not likely if then you should check the sites
it has a lot of links ) or there robots.txt file. To do this type
could be something about the page the main URL of the site into a
which is preventing Google from web browser but add robots.txt
reaching it. for example:
"http://www.domainyourlinkingto.c
Using your web browser view the om/robots.txt"
page code as in 2 above and check
for the robots meta tag at the The robots.txt file is read by
top of the page between the and the search engines and it tells
tags. it the directory and files it can
access. A simple robots.txt file
might look something like: User-agent: *
Disallow:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin Then that's OK.
Disallow: /forms
Disallow: /contact.html All sounds a bit complicated I
know, but there is no easier way
If the URL of the page you were to explain this sort of thing.
linking to was : Some reciprocal link manager
"http://www.domainyourlinkingto.c checking software will also
om/dir/web-design.html" detect the incorrect use of the
meta robots tag and also check
Then you would want to be sure the robots text file.
that in the robots.txt file you
should NOT see : However some link manager
software I have experienced,
Disallow: /dir incorrectly reported a link page
Disallow: /dir/web-design.html as blocked by the robots text
file because it read "Disallow:"
This is telling the search engine as prohibiting the search engine
robot not to index or follow the when in fact it means allow (see
links in the link directory above). It is "Disallow: /" that
called dir and to ignore the would tell the search engine not
links page web-design.html. to index the site.
And you should not see : 7. Once you've completed your
User-agent: * link exchange and done the checks
Disallow: / to ensure you're not being
cheated you must then check your
If you see : links at regular intervals. Once
you have more than about 50 links the way he has set up his link
you will soon find link checking directory will not provide search
becomes a time consuming process. engine link benefit to anyone
It's far better to build your that links to them.
link directory using some form of
link manager software that will However some link theft is
automatically check your links at intentional, the webmaster knows
intervals you specify. exactly what they are doing and
by following this advice you can
Of course not all link theft is avoid being their next victim.
intentional, sometimes it's just
the webmaster not knowing that
About the Author:
Tony Simpson, has been into Website Design, Promotion & Optimization for 5 years. He provides advice, product reviews & products at http://www.webpageaddons.com/ to Make Automation of Your Web Site Work for You.
A related article is "10 Mistakes to Avoid When Setting Up a Link Directory" at http://www.webpageaddons.com/link-manager-mistakes.htm
Read more articles by:
Tony Simpson
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
