This article aims to demystify the use of transparent GIF graphics for cross-linking web pages, a technique that can significantly boost your website's customer conversion rate. We will delve into the specifics of when, how, and why to use this method, and provide examples for better understanding.
The content on your website is only a piece of the puzzle when it comes to achieving a high search engine ranking. Modern search engines use various "off-page" criteria, such as "link popularity," "link density," and "link relevancy." These terms refer to the analysis, assessment, and evaluation of the links leading to and from your website, which are then ranked to determine your site's position in search results.
One major search engine company, which also owns two other large engines, has a habit of frequently adding and removing pages from its indexes. This can be problematic, as one month you may have 100 pages indexed, and the next month only three or four remain. However, if you employ the cross-linking technique, every single page will have links to all your other pages. This means that even if only one page remains in the index, when the search engine's spider comes to update, all your other pages will be found again, automatically.
Cross-linking, therefore, is a crucial strategy to outsmart the linking criteria of many search engines and prevent the frequent addition and removal of your pages. It involves linking all your sites and pages together using visible text links or invisible pixel links.
A typical website might have 10 links to 10 internal pages and a "links" page that leads to other sites. But what if you have, say, 10 other websites and over 100 doorway or hook pages that you want to link to? This would create a confusing mess of visible links. This is where the invisible pixel technique comes in handy.
An invisible pixel is a transparent GIF graphic, one square pixel in size. Depending on your monitor's dpi, this could be 1/72, 1/80, or even 1/96 of an inch. You could have links to 70 pages, and it would occupy an area on your monitor screen less than 1 inch wide by 1/72 of an inch high. If you place this string of pixels at the bottom of your web page, after a couple of carriage returns, it is unlikely to be discovered or clicked on by anyone. However, search engines will find it, and many of them have spiders or crawlers that will follow the links.
You can place as many GIFs on your pages as you need. I have provided a sample invisible pixel for your own use, which you can find here. This graphic, called follow.gif, is stored in a directory, so you can save the image to your hard drive. Note that if you click on it, your browser will display nothing because it's invisible. I also made this sample 10 pixels wide so it's a little easier to grab and work with. You may want to reduce its width once you paste it into your HTML page.
You can copy and paste the graphic as many times as you need, each time making the GIF link to a different web page. Some of my customers create a standard footer that goes on the bottom of every single web page they create. This footer contains contact info, a navigation panel, copyright info, and hundreds of invisible pixel links. You can take a look at one such page here.
The HTML code that goes into making an invisible pixel consists of two parts. The first part is the URL or destination of the link that search engines follow. The second part is what people see on the web page as the familiar blue underlined text.
To make the graphic invisible, you need to use image editing software to make the GIF transparent. This means it takes on the same color as the background color of the web page, making it appear invisible. I've already done this part for you with the sample you can download. The second part is to ensure the BORDER="0" in the HTML code, which will prevent a blue border or box from being drawn around your invisible pixels.
Cross-linking using invisible pixels is a powerful and effective technique, despite being underutilized. By cross-linking all of your home pages, internal pages, and hook pages to each other, you increase the chances of your pages being cataloged and remaining in the index. Some search engines even prefer this method of "finding" your pages rather than having you announce them to their submission areas. Hopefully, this article has shed light on the mystery surrounding cross-linking and the use of invisible pixels.
