Category: Webrings

webring One of the more interesting ways to add some targeted traffic to your site is to join some webrings. A webring is an interesting idea in that it allows people to surf through sites which are related in one way or another. For example, you could have a "Playstation Gaming" webring which is comprised of a dozen sites all about the Playstation. If you surfed this webring you would go from site to site through the ring. This is a much more tailored experience than random surfing through search engines. You have some choices when it comes to webrings:
  • Bomis
  • Bravenet
  • Looplink
  • RingLink
  • Ring Surf
  • The rail
  • Yahoo! Webring
Each webring is created and maintained by a person known as a ringmaster. This person (who can also grant those same rights to others, something that is absolutely necessary in very large webrings) accepts site submissions, validates that the site meets the topic of the webring and that the site has installed the webring code properly. The ringmaster is the sole arbitrator of whether or not a site belongs in a webring - after all, it is his webring. If you maintain a site, than it is a good idea to investigate webrings. In fact, my recommendation is to join as many webrings as possible. Search through the webrings looking for any rings which seem to fit your site. You are virtually sure to find at least one, and probably many more. I tend to only apply to webrings that have more than a dozen members, but occasionally apply to those with less because they seem very targeted to what I want. The cool thing about well run webrings is that they tend to deliver highly targeted visitors to your site. If you have a Playstation site, you can be sure that you will get visitors from the Playstation webring which are actually interested in your site. Generally, I've found that these webrings do not deliver anywhere near the traffic of the major search engines, but they are massively better than FFAs and other similar advertising methods. Another great thing about webrings is that they continue to deliver targeted traffic day after day. Once they are set up they tend to stay set up with little further maintenance. Each webring has something called a "webring fragment" associated with it. This fragment is some HTML code which allows people to proceed from site to site through the webring. It usually has a graphic or two as part of the fragment. Okay, so once you find a webring that you want to join, you proceed to their "join" page and enter your site information. You should enter the URL where the webring fragment is to reside - I tend to put the fragments right at the bottom of the pages to which they apply. The idea is that a surfer can surf right through your site without having to look around very hard for the webring fragment. Once you've submitted your application you will get an email with the fragment code. Copy this code to your web page and download the graphics locally to your server (this is very important as you don't want to steal bandwidth - that's bad form) and modify the ring code to include those local graphics. Once you are finished and you are sure it's correct, upload the new page to your server. Now send an email to the ringmaster letting him know you have completed this step. Generally you can just reply to the email that you got when you signed up to the ring. The ringmaster will examine your page and let you know of any changes that need to be made to the fragment. He will also judge your site as to whether it is suitable for the ring. If your site is acceptable you will get an email back from the ringmaster informing you of your addition. Generally you should not expect to hear back at all if your site doesn't meet the grade. And that's about all there is to it. You can expect an occasional email from the ringmaster (I've found these to be very rare) with data pertinent to the ring. It's usually wise to occasionally make sure that the "next" and "prev" still work (if they don't remember to email the ringmaster). Other than that, it's a self-maintaining traffic machine.

Search Engines Vs Usability

Sometimes people seem to make a choice between making their site pretty for search engines or making it useful for people. I am always fascinated when I hear this discussion. In fact, it is interesting to hear someone say "I'm removing my Webring because Google will get annoyed" or "I'm deleting my links page because god, uh, Google, won't like it", or "search engines don't use meta tags, so I took them all out". These comments all ignore the basic datum about the internet. It's about PEOPLE! The internet is not about some silly, stupid little robots, or some faceless idiotic rules enforced by their creators. The internet is about communication.

Yes, search engines are a part of that communication, as it is one (and only ONE) want of getting people to your site. But there are an infinite number of other ways to get people to your site, from viral marketing to Webrings to link exchanges to contests to newsgroups to whatever else you can think of.

But if your site does not cater to PEOPLE, it will fail. Period.

Yes, it's a good idea to make sure your site is known to the engines and known well. But that is NOT the purpose of the site. The purpose of the site is to communicate. Pure and simple.

Google's customers are advertisers; the searchers are the commodity that's being sold to the advertisers. The search engine is the bait used to get the commodity to view the advertisements. SEO types tend to reduce the value of the bait, which in turn lowers the value of the commodity, which in turn makes the advertisers (the customers) more likely to look elsewhere.