Believe it or not, there are times you want to directly link to something from your Web site but you cannot. Despite this, there are ways you can still promote what it is you want to link to.
What Possibly Are You Talking About?
The following are a few scenarios where you cannot directly link to something on the Web.
- The publication’s Web site does not post its articles online
- The publication’s Web site requires registration or payment to view the article
- The article is no longer on the publication’s Web site
There are all real-life scenarios and have happened to clients as well as myself.
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Whenever you are referencing content belonging to someone else on the Web, it is always a good idea to get their permission. In some cases you may not be able to mention specifics, such as a company or publication name or even the title of the work or article, but you’ll want to find out as much as you can about what you can mention.
Here’s a real example, and names have been changed to protect the innocent. A client of mine wants to link to articles she writes for a cooking magazine on her Web site, and in some cases she even wants to republish full or partial copy from the article. The published does not post articles online, and does not want her to post any of the articles on her own site. However, she can mention the name of the magazine, issue date and number, article title and page number. She can even show a thumbnail of the magazine cover. In this case, we posted all of this information, plus the photo, with a link to the magazine’s Web site.
If, for example, the article is available online but only to online subscribers, we can still link to it, and below the link we can mention this is behind a login which requires signup and payment. This brief disclaimer will show goodwill to the magazine, all the while promoting the fact the client wrote in it.
Striving for the Win-Win
In-bound links to a Web site are always desired and welcomed by a site owner. Depending on your business relationship with a Web site may dictate how you can present a link to promote yourself with their name. If the situation arises, seek out the method where you can present the most you can, and as a result creating a win-win situation.
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That’s also a problem with flash-based sites. Some of them only have—basically—one URL for the entire site. I know when I was building my own site for Visible Logic (http://www.visiblelogic.com) I wanted to make sure I could link directly with individual pages / projects in my portfolio.
I’ve seen a lot of designer’s sites that have one big intro page with just pop-ups to the individual samples. This can be a nice feature when looking through quickly. But I frequently send potential clients specific links to projects on my site, and I need to be able to do that.
Comment by
Emily Brackett
on 08/06/10 at 10:05 PM
In the case of major newspapers whose content is behind a registration wall, you can try linking to a search result for the article. Essentially, many newspapers (but none of Rupert Murdoch’s) use Google’s First-Click-Free service. This lets Google in behind the paywall to index the content on the condition that if user comes in through Google, they get the first article for free.
So if the publication is using FCF, you can refer your readers to the search results (where the article is the first results), and they’ll be able to click through to the original content.
Comment by
CT Moore
on 08/09/10 at 10:14 AM
@Emily - Excellent point on Flash. Even some non-Flash sites use pop-ups off of 1 URL, which presents the same problem.
@CT - I am not familiar with FCF… off to look into it, thanks!
Comment by
Mike Maddaloni
on 08/09/10 at 10:20 AM
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