Excessive internal linking is narcissistic

One of the problems I see with professionals is the extent to which they navel gaze in the deluded belief they are the fount of all accounting wisdom. It simply isn’t true. There’s always someone smarter than you and they probably work somewhere else. So it was with some sadness that I read Tim O’Reilly’s Is Linking to Yourself the Future of the Web? Pointing to examples from TechCrunch and the New York Times, Tim believes that:

When this trend spreads (and I say “when”, not “if”), this will be a tax on the utility of the web that must be counterbalanced by the utility of the intervening pages. If they are really good, with lots of useful, curated data that you wouldn’t easily find elsewhere, this may be an acceptable tax. In fact, they may even be beneficial, and a real way to increase the value of the site to its readers. If they are purely designed to capture additional clicks, they will be a degradation of the web’s fundamental currency, much like the black hat search engine pages that construct link farms out of search engine results.

He is right. In some cases there is ample justification for internal linking. Among the people I follow regularly, Francine McKenna, Richard Murphy and Vinnie Mirchandani often link to other pieces they’ve written as a way of providing additional proof points for the arguments they make. That fits in with Tim’s view of ‘useful, curated data’ and allows them to continue to develop arguments over time. That’s perfectly reasonable and adds value ot what the reader sees.

I on the other hand have found that much of my inspiration to parse technology issues for professionals comes from elsewhere. A review here, an issue there, a discussion about the way tools are being used in another context. They all demand that I link to those other sources. Readers are grateful for that. I can’t count the number of times that readers have said: “Hey thanks for that link.” It has led me to realize that even though I may at times have a strong position, it has a context that is not always defined by myself. And neither should it be. It also means that one of the main functions of this blog remains that of acting as a ‘connector’ to other things of value. That’s why I add bookmarks.That’s why the content widget to the top right exists in lieu of crappy banner ads. The people who take the time to write blog posts for their audiences add value here as well. It’s part of the essential attention economy in which we all participate and without which we’d all be a lot poorer.

I probably would have kept quiet on this topics if it wasn’t for the fact I’ve been reading a lot of CIO.com material in recent times. It’s fine, it’s good stuff but they only seem to link internally even though I know there is other corroborating information that would add value to the content they produce.

If we want to be good citizens in a society that values the achievements of others rather than continue to be seen as elitists then linking out to quality content is an absolute must. Anything else is narcissistic.

Tagged as: New York Times, Tax and Ethics, TechCrunch, Tim O'Reilly