Ok so I want to add some links to other websites

Like say I want a visitor to be able to go another website, are you legally ok to put that site address on your website?

I am not saying that you are making money off of them, but say that you have a mixed site of ecommerce and information, so people can buy things on your site, but you want to link to other sites for informational purposes only?

I want to do this so that it will aid to my visitors instead of me writing like a bunch of pages.

Thanks

Chris

You can legally add a link to any website from your site, however you really don't want to do that.

1) It is not polite to add a link without at least informing the site that you have done so - - I have customers that want me to track down all 'unauthorized' links and get them removed.

2) It will hurt the page rank of your own site to provide one way links to other sites (read the SEO forum to find out how page rank works).

3) Why do you want to run visitors off you site? Instead you should provide content on your own site that will make them want to stay and possibly to bookmark your site and regularly return for additional info (and sales?).

Thanks for the post

I was just thinking that links on your site would give you a better page rank because you are in some way being more open that just limiting visitors to just your iste.

I know it sounds stupid, but now I know

Thanks

Chris

I have customers that want me to track down all 'unauthorized' links and get them removed.

Wow. That doesn't seem to make much sense to me... I mean links are links right? Don't other people linking to your site provide you with higher search engine rankings? And why would they expect the developer to go patroling the internet to get rid of these links. Anyone that wants to link to my website is more than welcome!

Yes it is true you have no legal obligation to tell the site owner however it is polite.

ok I will look into that

See My site is about bad credit abnkruptcy and identity theft. I want to link people to other resources like identity theft, but I don't want to get in trouble

Chris you can link to any site you want. It's the nature of the internet. Unless you're putting up a lot of libelous or slanderous info about a site and then linking to them I really can't see where anyone would even be upset by it.

Linking out to authority and trusted sites can help search engines (Google anyway) see your site as more trusted and give you a little boost in the results pages. It's not about page rank though which is all about incoming links to your site and not outgoing links to other sites.

John I'm not sure why you have clients wanting you to remove 'unauthorized links' to their sites. That seems counter productive to ever marketing the site. And it is ok to link to other sites. Sure some people will leave through those links, but if you provide good resources in those links they'll also come back.

A site's page rank is not why it shows up in search results. So even a linking out does leak page rank (which it doesn't) it still won't affect you negatively in search results.

Thanks Van Gogh I really appreciate your insights

And when you add those links, which are perfectly fine by the way, just have them open in a NEW browser window.
<a href="http://cafeedge.com" target="_blank">Link</a>
Then, when your visitor is all finished looking at "that other stuff" your site will still be right there on his/her desktop. I always use this method when linking to another site.
Just my 2 centimes worth.