The Power of Links
Kevin Burton’s post about how Google implemented the “nofollow” on all posted links as a baseline behavior on their new Sites implementation. (Briefly, this means, when Google’s or anyone else’s spiders go out and see what’s on a website, they don’t follow links off to other sites to see what those sites are, and index them as well). Now, I’m not a search guy, and so I’m not sure what Google’s reasons are for this. But here’s what this has me thinking about.
Links Signify Intention
This relates to what Steve Gillmor talks about with regards to gestures and attention and the like. If I put a link in a blog post, it suggests that I find value in what lies at the other end of the link. It means that I think YOU should click the link and see what’s going on.
So think about that for a moment. Think about YOUR behavior with links. When you write about Britt Raybould’s Bold Words blog, but you DON’T put links, you’re signifying that you’re not interested in people following the link to discover her work ( link to Britt’s great blog, btw). When you talk about LinkedIN, but you link it back to your own blog post instead of to LinkedIN, you’re signifying that you want to keep traffic on your site. SOMETIMES, this makes sense. If I said, “here’s my other article about LinkedIN,” then that makes sense. But if EVERY link keeps the audience on your site, you’re telling me that you don’t want me wandering around the web sharing attention.
Links Build Networks of Thought
Years ago, when I got the first ever Mac, it came with HyperCard. It was SO amazing to me. I could link up words inside of text, and give you all kinds of nuance and reference and sidebar conversations, all the while keeping the original document in-line. Links are part of that same magic, only better. Because HyperCard, at least when I was starting out with it, was relegated to referencing my own computer and documents, whereas links let me point all over the web.
To that end, you can build amazing and interesting networks of thought. You can build posts that give people an understanding about something by synthesizing data FOR them. Sometimes, you’re not the authority, but you are always in a position to thread up some articles, videos, and other resources to build out something of use to you. Being helpful means finding the right resources for the point you’re hoping to make.
Links Give Credit
If you click the photo included in this blog post, it takes you back to the artist who created it. Though it’s not a “perfect” way to give credit ( Steve Garfield schools me on this all the time), it’s better than just using their picture in my blog post, and better than just writing that “Jared” did this work.
In this world of free, one of the ONLY currencies we still seek and demand are links. If you note, my work is all available to you for free, to repurpose in lots of ways. The only thing you can’t legally do with my work is directly make money from it. (Mind you, if my ideas help you make money because you EXECUTE on them yourselves, you get to keep that with my blessings). But you could repost every single blog post I put up here on your blog, on your dog’s blog, wherever you want, provided you give a link back to me here at [chrisbrogan.com]. That’s not asking a lot in return for all that I put into my work. Right?
So, links are a very important piece of Internet currency. They are the money of attention in that way.
Links ARE the Network
Your phone has plenty of buttons on it, but until you push them in the right order, it’s a lot of capacity and not enough intent. Building web pages like blogs and wikis and the like are YOUR chance to build a network of your own intentions. We do this all the time. FriendFeed is a tool to show you links to all my web presence. So is Lijit. Twitter, blogs, everywhere that we can input html, are ways to thread the needle.
When you add links to a page, you tell a story. You build networks of value. For example, if you build a blog post called “The top 20 Torrent Sites,” you’ve just given someone a resource to improve their web experience.
Go forth. Create networks. Learn how to make nice, beautiful, useful links, give people credit and signal your intentions, and thread a beautiful net for people who can use your help.
The return value is how this all ends up working for us. Doc Searls might call this a way to make because of value from what we’re doing. Do you agree?
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
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