Companies and Institutions Linking to Niche Sites

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   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   Would it help if we suggested to companies/institutions/organisations that they link to niche sites? (E.g. WeAreTeachers.com has a large following on Twitter and a resource page linking to lots of educational sites, but I don't see Owlcation on it).

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   1. 66

      OldRosesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Companies/institutions/organizations are extremely careful about which sites they link to because of the liability involved.  Links to outside sites are considered recommendations and if those "recommendations" are wrong or harmful, the site that posted the links can be held responsible.  In my opinion, not all of the articles posted on the niche sites are authoritative.  I am a horticultural professional who publishes on Dengarden.  I see a lot of incorrect information in some of the gardening articles that are posted there.  I think it is safe to say that it is the same on the other niche sites therefore no reputable comany/instituton/organization will like to any of the niche sites as a whole.  They might link to individual articles there that can be considered authoritative.

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   2. 0

      Marisa Writesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      What sort of educational sites do they link to?   Are any of them article-writing sites like HubPages? 
      
      The problem with the niche sites is that they're not "niche" enough.  Owlcation is the education niche site, but it's not a site for education professionals. It also has articles for kids (like "6 Amazing Mind Tricks to Play on Your Friends") and advice for college students. To make matters worse, the navigation isn't very good, so it's not easy for a teacher to ignore all the irrelevant stuff and find what they really want.
      
      HubPages has always relied on people coming direct to an article from Google, and the niche sites were designed with the same focus.  They are just specialised enough to please Google and no more than that.
      
      Also as OldRoses mentions, the quality of information is too variable.  Although niche sites have editors, they are looking at standard of writing, not the accuracy of the content.

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