Pros and Cons of using LinkWithin - latest tech tips

Ad Spot

Place your Ads here!

Post Top Ad

Pros and Cons of using LinkWithin

Share This
Every coin has 2 sides one good and one bad. LinkWithin is a very cool and useful but the sword also has two sides and I want you to be aware of both side so that you can decide to keep it or leave it.

The reason why I want to put the facts in front of you is of course to spread the awareness about this free and handy widget called LinkWithin.


Advantages of using LinkWithin

1. Related Articles:
You do not need to worry about giving people related article links manually as LinkWithin auto generates that for you based on its own algorithm.


2. Easy Installation

It took me few minutes to configure LinkWithin to my blogger blog. Yes it's that easy. You must make sure you configure it correctly the first time i.e. chosses the right number of articles you want to display under  each post.


3. More Options:
Your readers get more choices to choose from and they spend more and more time on your blog. You know there is a saying that it is easier to serve an existing customer than getting a new one. Well your readers are your potential customers and you can do this little things to make sure the stay back.


4. Old Articles Exposed:
Many times the algorithm of LinkWithin searches for related articles and some of your valuable old articles which were earlier in the dept of archived darkness and hidden from the world are suddenly exposed and they get the treatment which they are actually worth.

5. SEO friendly:
I tested this widget with Fetch as Google Bot feature in Google's Webmaster tools and found that its SEO friendly. That a great thing to have.



Disadvantages of using LinkWithin

1. Performance
I experienced a slight degradation of my blog performance since I used this widget. The reason for that is the widget searches entire archive of your blog and loads relevent 4 - 5 articles which are related to the current post.

2. Difficult to configure
I am using it with blogger and no matter where i placed the widget it automatically comes under each article. so even if I have used the jump start it still shows those related articles under each displayed article. So if you have 5 articles on main page it would display related articles for each article making 5 articles look like 25 (depends how many articles you chose).

3. Tags
If user click a tag and the tag has 15 articles then the widget would generate 15 X 4 = 60 related articles, which can annoy your readers. Again it depends on number of articles you chose while installation.

I will keep on updating the list as and when I get more updates..

18 comments:

  1. AM happy to find ur blog!
    For one thing , it seems real and there is active interaction with the author , u:-)
    Have been looking forever for a blog like this :-)
    Before i began blogging , i didn even know what html n pluggins were and the internet is the best place to get some know how and the little i know have learnt is thru tweaking all the codes and playing around with my codes , a trial and error journey.

    U have some wonderful topics and would totally look forward to topics , that maybe ur readers suggest:-)

    That would be great , ur instructions are clear and very easy to understand, for even a total know nothing about software like me!

    I excitedly jus discovered pluggins and am still learning so ur topics will be totally useful:-)

    I am looking forward now to add numbering and make my font bigger at my comment system , as also decrease the breath of the wall paper:-))

    will be happy if u write on these topics, oh i have lods more i would want and love but am gng to leave some for later:-)))

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the greatest compliment for the work I am doing..it surely will boost my spirit..and you can definitely contact me for any help in the enhancements you want in your blog..It would be my pleasure to be of any kind of help to you..

    ReplyDelete
  3. If you are actually concerned about the LinkWithin related post appearing in the homepage under each available article, then you can easily solve it by using the <b:if> conditional tag to direct the codes to be executed only when it is the individual content page and not in the excerpt within the homepage. This is the best way as it will not hamper the page load time while accessing the site and will only load the LinkWithin widget under every individual post rather than the post summary in the main homepage itself.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes that is exactly my concern..I am glad you gave such a comprehensive solution..I would definitely search for the solution in the direction given by you..My website load time as per Google Webmaster has taken a huge beating but the plugin is very useful hence I am continuing to keep it..Thanks for stopping by..

    ReplyDelete
  5. Glad that my suggestions were helpful to you. If you want some direct instructions to perform the task, then you may consider the following approach.

    1. Go to Edit HTML and backup your template.
    2. Now, find </body> within the template.
    3. Right after the </body>, place the following code as applicable.
    <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
    Paste your LinkedWithin Code here.
    </b:if>
    4. You can get your LinkedWithin code from page elements where the widget is added. Just copy them and delete the widget so that it doesn't overlap. Then paste the code in the space as mentioned in step 3. Copy the entire final code that you got from step 3 and paste it below </body> tag in your template. Finally, save the template.

    Using the above method, you can have the widget to appear only below the individual post page and not below every homepage article. In order to remain safe, consider to backup the template before modifying so that if anything goes wrong, you can restore the original one.

    Also note, if you get some XML parsing error then it might be because the symbol ( ' ) surrounding the item element may be escaped or curved. So, if you copy-paste the solution from this comment, then make sure to verify it and if anything goes wrong then you may manually type the ( ' ) symbol within the conditional statements.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow thanks for the suggestion...Its almost like a mini post in the comment...I really appreciate your feedback..Keep visiting with your suggestions..I am surely going to try your trick..today and will keep you posted..I am really wanting to make sure it does not appear in the home page..Thanks again

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks a ton..TTZ..Your trick worked like a charm..It solved a major issue ..Only problem is I hate modifying template code ..It makes me nervous when I have to migrate to anew template I have to do the same changes in the new template..anyways..I am Happy for now..Thanks again..

    ReplyDelete
  8. Congrats buddy.. your site is loading pretty fast now and also looking more disciplined after you have removed those related post widget from the homepage. The various posts in your site are really very informative. So, thanks for sharing.

    Would love to invite you to visit my site too and join my Facebook fan club if you liked it.

    Regards,
    Sekav,
    Editor-in-Chief, TTZ.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks @Sekav I am really happy with the speed now it was a huge worry for me from thee day I had added the plugin..Thanks again I have already joined the Facebook fan club.. Cheers...

    ReplyDelete
  10. This view is really true.....the cons of linkwithin. sometimes it becomes annoying.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Mohini you can easily hide the linkwithin for the home page o a blog by following steps by one my readers in the cmments. I dd the same and I a really happy with link within now..

    ReplyDelete
  12. Why is it that my Linkwithin don't show any new image, it seems stuck with just about 10 images. While my new post are increasing each day.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Linkwithin tries to find related posts in your blog for a particular blog..Please read the FAQ's here for more details.. http://www.linkwithin.com/faq

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wait a sec! How is this plugin seo friendly when it redirects through their site? I would love to know how exactly you found in WMT that it is seo friendly! Thanks in advance!:)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anita I had checked my webpage preview in Google Webmaster Central and found that it was showing the linkwithin suggestions. Its is an indicator of what contents Google is able to crawl. If it can see the suggestions the Google bot can also be redirected to your blogs web pages.

    ReplyDelete
  16. thanks alot Harshad Sonaje .its working for my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  17. thanks a lot...really helped me...

    ReplyDelete
  18. @Adiba and @Chetan Glad you guys found the info useful..keep coming back..

    ReplyDelete

Spam comments will be deleted. Only comments which add value to the blog and its readers will be published.

Post Bottom Ad

Pages