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Linking Policy

Answers to common questions about links to and from NCPC.org and reporting broken links

We receive many inquiries about links. Please see if your question is answered here before contacting us. If you have a question or request that is not addressed here, please contact us.

Creating Links

I have a website and I want to create a link to NCPC.org's home page (http://www.ncpc.org). Is that okay?

Yes! It is our mission to be the nation's leader in helping people keep themselves, their families, and their communities safe from crime. When our website is found by your site's visitors, it helps us spread our messages of crime prevention and safety.

What if I want to link to a specific webpage within NCPC.org (like http://www.ncpc.org/topics/bullying/strategies)?

Yes. This is also fine. Deep-linking means you're putting your visitors in touch with relevant information in fewer clicks. But please note it requires maintenance on your part to prevent link rot. That is, you should periodically check your links to ensure they still work. We have a lot of resources and occasionally reorganize them to improve findability and better serve our site visitors. We try to preserve old URLs, but it's not always possible.

What if I want to link to a particular resource (like a PDF)? Can I just download it and host it myself?

While we cannot prevent you from hosting your own version of our content, we would prefer that you did not do this for many reasons.

  • Several of our publications are revised on an annual cycle and we work to ensure we are hosting the best and most accurate resources we can; if you download a version and host it yourself, chances are that in a short period of time, you'll be hosting outdated content.
  • Also, we work hard to understand our visitors' needs, and part of that effort means reviewing which resources are frequently downloaded. By providing our resources elsewhere, you can potentially skew our analytics.
  • Finally, a given resource is often described or summarized on a "parent" webpage that also points visitors to additional complementary resources. To best serve your site's visitors, please link to our homepage (or that "parent" webpage), and let them see all NCPC has to offer!

If you do host your own version of our content, you must credit us (our resources are copyrighted).

Again, please note that linking to any resource or webpage other than http://www.ncpc.org is subject to possible link rot; please check your links to make sure they don't point to a "404 Page Not Found."

I've decided to link to NCPC.org, but I want to use a graphic instead of just text. Can I use your logo? What about McGruff the Crime Dog® or the "Take A Bite Out Of Crime®" graphic?

It's perfectly acceptable to use our logo. You can hot-link to—or download it from—here. As for McGruff and other art, use of NCPC's registered marks are subject to review by our Trademark Control and Quality Review Committee. Please review the most significant rules for Use of McGruff and, if you have any questions, please contact us.

Will you create a link on NCPC.org to my website?

Chances are, the answer is no. There are a few specific exceptions:

  • If you are an established partner or affiliate, a registered licensee, or a major funder for a particular event, initiative or campaign, we will provide a link (and often additional information about your organization).
  • If our content producers, in researching a particular topic, cite or refer to information and resources on your site, we will follow your site policy and credit you appropriately, which may constitute an in-text link to your site or listing your site under References or More Information at the end of the article/webpage.

Will you exchange or "trade" links?

Link-trading is a combination of the scenarios described above. In most cases, you can provide a link to us (see above); in most cases, our link policy prevents us from providing a reciprocal link (again, see above).

Wasn't there a form I could complete to trade links with NCPC?

Yes, there was...back in 2003. Our policies on link exchanging have changed since then; we apologize for any inconvenience this causes.

Broken Links

I found a link on someone's website that takes me to your "404 Page Not Found." Can you tell me where to find the webpage?

Unfortunately, the best we can offer is the tools we would use to try to find the page: our site-wide search, Google's site-wide search, or simply Google (you can, of course, use any search engine you like). We cannot fix broken links on other people's sites so, if you do find the webpage, please contact the site that linked to us, and let them know they have a bad link and to where it should point.

I found a broken link on NCPC.org. How can I report that?

Please contact our webmaster.

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