7 Top Ways to Avoid Link Theft

1. If a website asks you to exchange links, don't link to them until they have given you URL location of your link in their link directory. If you link to them first they may forget to add your link.

2. Visually inspect your link by visiting website page your link has been placed on. In your web browser, view source code of page. In Internet Explorer go to View then Source and this will open up your default text editor.

   Using text editor search on page for your website domain and ensure when you find it that link is a standard text link of form : <a href="http://www.yourdomain.com/" target="_blank">Link Title</a>.

   The target="_blank" just launches a new browser window when link is clicked. The link should have no JavaScript code like : <onclick="javascript:newWindow('http://www.yourdomain.com')">Link Title.

   Links like this JavaScript one can be made to look visually identical when viewed in a web page browser, but to a search engine it's as if this link is not there. Whilst a visual inspection to catch this form of theft is always best, you can catch some, but not all of these types of links by using reciprocal link manager checking software.

3. Check that your link on other web sites page is not being put through a redirect. By hovering your mouse over link, check what link text appears in status bar of your web browser.

   If your link appears as : "http://www.theirdomain.com/page.html" or "http://www.theirdomain.com/redirect.asp?id=2273" and not "http://www.yourdomain.com" Then your link is on a redirect.

   Any form of link that has theirdomain and not yourdomain in link URL is only of benefit to other site owner and not you. Links like this point to their domain and not yours which gives other site link benefit in eyes of search engines.

   Don't link to this site if you want some search engine benefit from link. If you just want traffic from visitors clicking on link, that's only benefit you'll get.

4. If you want to get search engine link benefit, don't link to web sites that have dynamically generated link pages. If your link is on a dynamically generated link page URL of that page could be something like :

   "http://www.theirdomain.com/links/index.php?&lk=5".

   The fact that URL has a ? or & in URL means that most search engines will never read that page, so they will never see link back to your site.

5. Use Google Toolbar Page Rank Tool to check PR of page your link is on. If PR is 0 but PR of home page is much better, this could mean either link directory is new ( not likely if it has a lot of links ) or there could be something about page which is preventing Google from reaching it.
   
   

Do's and Don'ts in Web Design - part 1

Do use a consistent look and feel Your site should stand out as a whole. Use same look and feel for all pages at your site. This way your visitors have a sense of recognition when they visit various pages. Using stylesheets makes it much easier to maintain look and feel of numerous pages.

Do use recurring visual elements Repeat visual elements (images, colors, fonts etc.) on several pages. This will add to a consistent look and feel.

Don't use dark backgrounds Dark backgrounds tend to make text less readable. So avoid dark colors or dark backgroundimages. If you do need them, use a nonserif font for text (like Arial, Universe, Helvetica) and be sure to not to use a small fontsize.

Don't cram your pages A page with text pushed aside against border of a table - or an image - looks awful. Don't cram your pages, use colspan and borderspan for tables and vspan and hspan for applets and images.

Don't push your table out of screen Tables are very flexible. They're able to get almost anything more or less visible on a screen. But by putting large elements in a table cell you might force cells to become too large. Thus making horizontal scrolling necessary. So limit number and size of pictures, long words (e.g. long links), predefined text etc.