BBC News linking policy

[Shaddows]

[bbc.co.uk...]

Linking has always been an important part of what the BBC News website does. We've included links on the right-hand side of stories since the site's earliest days.

Much has changed since then, and the value and importance of links has grown with the diversity and richness of the web.

The BBC Strategy Review recently unveiled by director general Mark Thompson set as one of its goals a major increase in outbound links from the BBC website - a doubling of the number of "click-throughs" to external sites from 10 million to 20 million a month by 2013.

Interesting. And not to be abused in any way. No no no no no.

[Shaddows]

Incidentally, I'm just playing a game reading the comments, called "spot the SEO"

[Rosalind]

Interesting that they're talking about including more deep links. That could be a linkrot headache for them.

[piatkow]

Interesting that they're talking about including more deep links. That could be a linkrot headache for them.

When a story is fresh it is very common to find that the linked site has hidden the relevant content away somewhere with no obvious links from the home page. I can see the problems when a story is referenced a year or two down the line but personally I could live with that in return for greater convenience when the story is still news.