Difference between revisions of "LinkingGuide"

Revision as of 18:50, 30 March 2007

Internal Linking Guide

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By nature, Wikis support rich internal linking, also known as Automagical Linking or WikiLinking.

The Related Domains area of each domain page uses this internal linking idea to create a system that allows users to discover related sites. Ideally, each domain page would have somewhere between a few and no more than 30 related links.

If you have a site that is related to a given topic, feel free to add some related links from other site pages to your page. Please don't over do it, however. If you're adding more than 20 such links or you're putting up links on very popular and not directly related sites, then it will look like spam to us. In addition, linking from a high profile site is questionable.

External linking

Linking to a page on another website

For example:

While editing a wiki page, place square brackets around the URL and the description text you wish to become a link, such as [http://www.mozilla.org Mozilla Website]. This will appear as Mozilla Website.

Complex http links seem to behave better if you do not have any space between the opening bracket and http://...

Please note that repeated external linking on pages looks like spam to us.

Misleading Naming

Please do not add links (internal or external) with titles that purport to be something else.

Categories

Instead of mass linking (internal or external), categories are a constructive way to gather and categorize sites that are related. You can help us build categories, but please keep in mind that the purpose of categories is to help users locate useful information and to link wiki pages to related sites. Categories are not designed to be an SEO tool. For example, it is not a category if there are only 1 or 2 webpages linked, or if you are advertising your website. On the other hand, hyper categorization makes information harder to locate, not easier.

For example:

Category:Culture Jamming

InternalLinking

Internal linking connects article pages to relevant terms or other websites found in the AboutUs.org database.

For Example:

While editing a wiki page, place double square brackets around the AboutUs page name and the description text you wish to become a link, and separate them with a vertical bar. This: [[Special:Recentchanges|recent changes]] will appear as recent changes.

Excessive Linking

Currently, each wiki page at AboutUs links to the referenced website twice- the page title at the top is a link, as well as the site thumbnail on the right. If you feel you need to link to the website more, please place a link in the External Links section. If placed elsewhere, it will be subject to reverting.

LinkSpam

When a page is loaded with links to outside pages that have no correlation or still have html tags around them, we view this as link spam, and is subject to deletion.

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 | style="border: 1px solid #fc0; color: #000; background-color:#fff;" valign="top" width="100%"|
 {{QuickNav2}}
-:'''By their nature,'''
-:Wiki support rich internal linking.  This is sometimes also called [[Automagical Linking]] or [[WikiLinking]].
+:By nature, Wikis support rich internal linking, also known as [[Automagical Linking]] or [[WikiLinking]].
-:The '''[[Related Domains]]''' area of each domain page uses this internal linking idea to create a "light rail" system which allows users to discover related sites.  Ideally, each domain page would have somewhere between a few and no more than 30 related links.
+:The '''[[Related Domains]]''' area of each domain page uses this internal linking idea to create a system that allows users to discover related sites.  Ideally, each domain page would have somewhere between a few and no more than 30 related links.
-:If you have a site that is related to a given topic, feel free to add some related links from other site pages to your page.  Please don't over do it, however.  If you're adding more than 20 such links or you're putting up links on very popular and not directly related sites, then you're overdoing it and it will look like spam to us.  Also linking from a high profile site is questionable.
+:If you have a site that is related to a given topic, feel free to add some related links from other site pages to your page.  Please don't over do it, however.  If you're adding more than 20 such links or you're putting up links on very popular and not directly related sites, then it will look like spam to us.  In addition, linking from a high profile site is questionable.
 == External linking ==
-:Repeated external linking on pages appears to look like spam to us.
+:Linking to a page on another website
-:<b>Linking to a page on another website:</b>
+:<b>For example:</b>
-:While editing a wiki page, put square brackets around the URL and the description text you wish to become a link.  Complex http links seem to behave better if you do not have any space between the opening bracket and http://...
+:While editing a wiki page, place square brackets around the URL and the description text you wish to become a link, such as <nowiki>[http://www.mozilla.org Mozilla Website]</nowiki>.  This will appear as [http://www.mozilla.org Mozilla Website].
-:Example:
+:Complex http links seem to behave better if you do not have any space between the opening bracket and http://...
-:'''<nowiki>[http://www.mozilla.org Mozilla Website]</nowiki>'''
+:Please note that repeated external linking on pages looks like spam to us.
-:will create a new link that will function like this:
-:[http://www.mozilla.org Mozilla Website]
 == Misleading Naming ==
-:Also, please don't add links (internal or external) to yourself and then title them with something that purports to be something else.
+:Please do not add links (internal or external) with titles that purport to be something else.
 == Categories ==
-:Instead of mass linking, internal or external, categories are a constructive way to gather and categorize sites that are related. You can help us build the category article.  For example, it is not a category if there is only 1 or 2 webpages linked, or if you are advertising your website. The purpose of categories is to help users locate useful information, and to link wiki pages to related sites. It is '''not''' designed to be a SEO tool. Remember, hyper categorization makes information harder to locate, not easier.
+:Instead of mass linking (internal or external), categories are a constructive way to gather and categorize sites that are related. You can help us build categories, but please keep in mind that the purpose of categories is to help users locate useful information and to link wiki pages to related sites.  Categories are '''not''' designed to be an SEO tool. For example, it is not a category if there are only 1 or 2 webpages linked, or if you are advertising your website. On the other hand, hyper categorization makes information harder to locate, not easier.
-:* example: [[:Category:Culture Jamming]]
+:<b>For example:</b>
+:[[:Category:Culture Jamming]]
 ==InternalLinking==
-:Added links to the text, connecting this article page to relevent terms or other websites found in the [[AboutUs.org]] database.
+:Internal linking connects article pages to relevant terms or other websites found in the [[AboutUs.org]] database.
+:<b>For Example:</b>
+:While editing a wiki page, place double square brackets around the AboutUs page name and the description text you wish to become a link, and separate them with a vertical bar.  This: <nowiki>[[Special:Recentchanges|recent changes]]</nowiki> will appear as [[Special:Recentchanges|recent changes]].
-:'''Example''':
-:*To link to the recent changes page (at http://www.aboutus.org/Special:Recentchanges) you can do an internal instead of an external link.  To do so:
-:*Double brackets, then everything after aboutus.org/ followed by a pipe(|) followed by what you would like the link to look like followed by double brackets: '''<nowiki>[[Special:Recentchanges|recent changes]]</nowiki>''', which will look like this on the page:
-:*[[Special:Recentchanges|recent changes]]
 == Excessive Linking ==
-:Currently each [[wiki]] page here at [[AboutUs]] links to the referenced website twice. By name at the top right and the thumbnail, mid right.  If you really think  you need to link more to the website, place a link in the '''External Link''' section.  Else it is subject to [[revert]]ing.
+:Currently, each [[wiki]] page at [[AboutUs]] links to the referenced website twice- the page title at the top is a link, as well as the site [[thumbnail]]  on the right.  If you feel  you need to link to the website more, please place a link in the '''External Links''' section.  If placed elsewhere, it will be subject to [[revert]]ing.
 ==LinkSpam==
-:when a page is just loaded with links to outside pages that ususaly don't make sense and often still have html tags around them.  this is different than an edit that might be good, those we could tag as [[LinkTest]] or something.
+:When a page is loaded with links to outside pages that have no correlation or still have html tags around them, we view this as link spam, and is subject to deletion.
 |}
 [[Category:AboutUs:Glossary]]