How to gain the most link value from website widgets

If you’re building website widgets for marketing you’re hopefully getting good traffic because of it. But are you taking advantage of linking from widgets to its full extend? Here’s my take on how to gain the most link value from widget marketing.

The basic methods

• When the widget is a javascript
  Links in the javascript doesn’t get seen by the search engines. Instead you need to put links outside the javascript. Either by putting a link right after the script tag, or by putting a link in a noscript tag after your script tag.
• When the widget is an iframe
  Just as with javascript there isn’t much value in links from an iframed page - it’s really just a subpage on your own site. Instead, just put the links outside the iframe or in a noframe tag.
• Use keywords in the anchor text
  The links should not only have your domain name as anchor text but also one or more relevant keywords. Pick the keywords you’re optimizing your front page for, and implement them in the anchor text.
• Vary the anchor texts
  You should vary the anchor texts to make the links seem more organic in the eyes of a search engine, and thereby improve the value of the links as well as diversifying your optimization. Simply write several different anchor texts with varied keywords. Then randomly output one of the anchor texts when showing the widget html code.

Methods for increased linkage

• Make more than just one link
  If your widget contains links that are static e.g. it’s the same link no matter who sees the widget, then make the links outside the javascript / iframe. These links could be “sign up”, “the users profile” etc. But make sure only to do it on links you won’t change in the future.
• Make a pure html based version
  You can make a simplified version of you widget which only consists of regular html and images (they can be dynamic and created on the fly…). This version isn’t to be offered as an alternative but to be put in the noscript / noframes tag. This way you’re both getting more real links and increasing usability.
• Provide the widget as a plugin too
  If possible don’t just create a javascript or iframe based widget. If you also create it as an plugin that are executed on the server-side you’re able to make all links in the actual html of a page. E.g. for a widget used by bloggers you can create a plugin for wordpress users and thereby get all real links.

Make the links stay in place

• Don’t “steal” the website’s traffic
  Some webmasters will feel that you’re “stealing” their traffic with links, and some of them will remove the link code. To decrease the risk of this happening one step you can take is to make links with target=_blank so a webmaster won’t lose traffic and then is less likely to remove the link.
• Control the widget usage
  If the main purpose of your website widget is to gain link popularity, consider to only allow its use on pages that contain backlinks. With a bit of programming you can control the widget usage automatically. Just log the referrers and regularly check if pages contain the required links. If they don’t then serve them something else which is more aggressively getting people clicking on to your website.