Ryan Block from Engadget has a small rant about keyword popup advertising, which he says pollutes the content and confuses readers. Couldn’t agree more. And while we’re at it Ryan, what’s with the current trend of multiple links to internal content in the main body of a post? That to my mind is just as confusing and annoying. But, hey what do I know?
Treat your readers with a modicum of respect. These kinds ads are absolutely abhorrent, and just because you can run them doesn’t mean you should. The scary thing is keyword popovers are only getting more popular. I thought that after, what, a year since these ads started showing up, site owners would have started to realize that keyword popovers are possibly the most obnoxious and obtrusive form of web advertising around (no, spam isn’t web advertising, it’s email advertising).
We believe in the quality of our content, so when it makes sense we refer back to that content to help fill out the story. Somtimes it’s a tag or search term, usually it’s specifically referring to a previous, related story. So if you want to know more about X or Y, hit the link — that way we don’t have to repeat the same stuff over and over and fill up posts. The sucky thing is when sites aren’t clear about how they use links. We are very clear in our structure: you will always find our source material (when applicable) at the read link, and any links in the body are to stories that we think might help flesh out peoples’ knowledge of the topics at hand.
I hear what you’re saying Ryan, but to be honest I find it really annoying. Deep linking to old content pages is one thing, but now we’ve got a slew of smaller websites following your lead and linking to every blooming word.
When I click on a link saying Toyota I really want something that adds value to my reading externally, rather than just a list of stuff from the past. We’ve got tags and categories and archives and all sorts of other ways to point readers to historical content, don’t we?
Or am I being fussy here?
Red:
You are far from alone. That interior linking drives me batty.
Well I wish more people would speak up Doug, otherwise the virus is going to spread, and it sucks! :-)