What are Link Relationship (XFN)?

XFN is an acronym that stands for XHTML Friends Network.

This is used by websites that want to link to other websites in order to help boost their search engine traffic through SEO.

XFN Link Relationship Example

A XFN link looks like this:

<a href="https://yourfriend.com" rel="friend">My friend!</a>

XFN is primarily used by bloggers to demonstrate that they are friends (or acquaintances) of the person who owns the website they are linking to. This is done with the rel="friend" attribute within the link.

You can even go further than this and markup the attribute to be more detailed, such as this:

<a href="https://yourcrush.com" rel="crush">My crush!</a>

In fact GMPG, the people behind this have come up with a whole fucking list of values you can use that describe pretty much all of the relationships you may have with someone.

Some of these options include:

Friendship Attribute Values

• Acquaintance - someone you have spoken to, but not very much.
• Contact - someone you hold contact information for.
• Friend -  pretty self explanatory

Professional

• Co-worker - someone who works at the same place as you
• Colleague - someone you work with

Geographical

• Co-resident - someone you live with
• Neighbor - someone you live near

Family

• Child - a fork of your DNA
• Kin - extended family
• Parent - person who forked their DNA for you
• Sibling - version control of parental forked DNA
• Spouse - person you fuck but more than a friends with benefits

Romance

• Muse - someone who brings inspiration
• Crush - someone you want to F
• Date - Someone you're dating
• Sweetheart - Someone you're intimate with

You can also add "met" so show you have actually met this person, like so:

<a href="https://domain.com" rel="parent met">Mother</a>

Why would I use this?

• XFN is designed so that search engines and other such services will understand the relationship you have with these friends. They sometimes may chose to display this, which is super cool.
• XFN link relationships are also more semantic, it displays more meaning.

A lot of people new SEO are afraid to link to their friends or even other websites that they own, this is a natural, "whitehat" way to do it that will eliminated any risk you may fear.

Is this some troll you made up?

No, this is real. It's been added to WordPress for a long time. You can see it in the links manager.

Can I use multiple options on the same link?

Yes, if this person is a co-worker you are dating that you are also living near you may use:

<a href="https://itscomplicated.com" rel="co-worker date neighbor">Mistake</a>

Is this the best way to tell someone I have a crush on them?

If you want to show them you have feelings, and you care about semantic HTML. Absolutely.

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Hash BrownInternet ActivistEnglandJoined 02 December, 2018Staff

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