Why Link To Other Sites?

Well, I promised an idea that was a little more daring. Maybe a bit controversial.

And I don't want to disappoint you!

OK, so you have fantastic prices and you want to prove this to your potential customers. But checking every price on every item for all major competitors is a nightmare. So how do you show them how brilliant your prices are so that they buy from you.

Simple - you link to your competitor's website! What! (I hear you cry). This means that I'm sending traffic to my competitors and improving their page rank.

Yes, partially. But do you really think that potential customers are so loyal that they aren't going to look at other people's sites? Do you think that if they do they will certainly open a new browser window before looking at another site.

Here's the truth. Visitors will look at other sites. In doing so, they will probably just use the one window, which means they have left your site. Some will forget they saw your prices on your site and buy elsewhere.

Therefore, take control of the situation. Give links from your pages directly to the same item page on your competitor's site. Open the link in a new window and use the rel="nofollow" tag in the link if you want to prevent your site giving your competitor any PR. If you are really bothered, use javascript to open the page without the address bar, but I don't think that's required.

What does this give your site? Well, not only do you show your products, but you also show that you are happy for your prices to be compared. The visitor can quickly compare prices and leave the other sites whilst your site stays open.

Best of all, some will find the experience enjoyable and easier than normal. These people will come back to your site next time they are shopping knowing that it is easy to navigate to the other sites from your site than working it out for themselves.

Not only are these people customers for the initial purchase - but they have become loyal visitors for the future.

Now, does linking to your competitors sound quite so daft?