Website Linking Agreement Sample Template

Overview

Links are essential to the growth of any website, as they direct traffic to a site and can boost SEO. You can create more outside links to your website by partnering with other businesses or influencers as long as you create links back to their websites as well. To do this, you’ll need a website linking agreement. Use our template to make sure your agreement is detailed and comprehensive.

Why Would I Need Permission to Link to Another Website?

Usually, you don’t need permission to link to another website. It’s not considered an infringement on copyright. However, if you’re planning on displaying another company’s trademark, logo, or slogan on your site, that’s when a linking agreement comes into play.

The agreement ensures that you, the “licensee,” are using their trademark legally and protects you in the case of disputes in the future. You’ll also want to draft up a linking agreement for protection if another website wants to use your trademark in the form of a link.

Occasionally, websites will not allow you to link to them at all unless you sign an agreement. If you’re ever unsure, view the website’s “Terms and Conditions.”

What Should a Linking Agreement Include?

Our template includes everything you’ll need for your website linking agreement. This comprehensive template includes the following:

Participating businesses or individuals
Participating website URLs
The link URL(s) to be exchanged
The dates on which linking will take place
The state in which the governing law takes effect
Trademark usage details, such as dimensions and placement of the link
Limitation of liability (states the company is not liable for any consequences of the linking agreement)
Assignment (states the licensee may not sell or transfer any rights)
A statement claiming this is the entire agreement and nothing has been left out

Linking Best Practices

Always make sure your links to other websites open in a new tab. Why? If a visitor on your website clicks an external link and it doesn’t open a new tab, this can increase your page’s bounce rate, which can negatively impact your SEO.

Additionally, remember to correctly code your links in your HTML so Google understands the context of your link. If your link is a part of a paid brand sponsorship, mark it as such:

<a href="https://www.example.com" rel="sponsored">example link</a>

If your link is not a part of a sponsorship, most websites appreciate a “dofollow” link. In short, this means that Google views this link as valuable and passes along an SEO boost to the page you’re linking to. This is the default form of all links, and no additional code is needed.

If you mark a link as “nofollow” in the code, you’re essentially telling Google to ignore the link, and any subsequent value passed to the site is negated. You may want to mark links as nofollow if they lead to direct competitors to whom you wouldn’t want to pass along any SEO benefit. Nofollow links are coded as such:

<a href="https://www.example.com" rel="nofollow">example link</a>

Some sites require dofollow links in their linking agreement or terms and conditions, so be sure to pay attention to the stipulations and make sure you’re coding your links correctly.

Looking for more business contract templates? Our library provides a comprehensive list of everything you might need. Take things a step further and explore our business resource library.