Under only very rare circumstances should the web be self referencing.
Self Referencing Links
For example, here are some bad examples:
- Click here to see my website.
- visit this link to go to my website.
- visit dan's portfolio website here: http://www.dan-lev.com.
- Dan Leveille's Photography and Design Portfolio.
- visit Dan Leveille's Photography and Design Portfolio.
- visit Dan's Portfolio.
Why? If someone has gotten to your website, they obviously know how to use links. You don't need to tell them that it's a link or that you need to click it.
Links should never need to specified that they're clickable. Use standardized styles - different colored or underlined words/phrases are links.
Who cares? Google does, for one. Google reads what the links say, and then classifies those terms with your link. For example, "Please visit Dan Leveille's Photography and Design Portfolio." When Google sees that link, it remember the terms "Dan, Leveille, Photography, Design, Portfolio" that are in reference to www.dan-lev.com. Now when someone searches "Photography potfolio," Google will display www.dan-lev.com a tiny bit higher in the search results. A few links will obviously not make a difference, but keep doing it and you'll see a difference.
This is why searching "failure" on google used to return the White House's biography of George W. Bush as the first result. It's called a Google bomb, because so many people linked the site using the verbiage "failure."
Self Referencing Pages
- Welcome to my website!
- This page outlines the uses of this product.
- Below is a list of links to other blog websites:
- Dan Leveille's Photography and Design Portfolio
- Product uses:
- Other blogs:
People know they're on a website, or on the "product uses" page.
Never use "Welcome to". People don't need a welcome. Who cares? Google does. The terms in headings are very important in search engine optimization. No one needs a welcoming. What if they go from the contact page to the home page, they get welcomed again. That's uneeded.
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806 CommentsAfter watching a presentation at my college, Rochester Institute of Technology, by Lawrence Lessig, founder of the Creative Commons, I've decided to license all my artwork under a Creative Commons license.
I've licensed all my artwork (in my gallery) under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
I think that everyone should do this to at least some of their work. It helps people avoid copyright problems and helps promote the sharing of information.
I just discovered the most amazing technology that I guarantee you all will be a search engine standard within a year or two. I was thinking "how can search engines get any better?" Well, since it's been difficult to properly index audio and video files, maybe speech recognition software could index actual content of media files. Interestingly enough, a site called podzinger.com has already developed a technology to index video and audio files, including YouTube videos and podcasts.
This amazing new website allows users to search for text that is actually said in video and audio files. I guarantee Google's been working on something similar for years, in some underground lab, perfecting it for release.
www.podzinger.com
Go check it out. It's crazy.
After 3 month of designing, programming, researching, advertising and dealing with legal issues, I finally finished my newest project, RITBook. It's a textbook trading site exclusively for Rochester Institute of Technology students. From the day it was released, it's been a great success, and I'm really excited about how it's doing. There is now over hundreds of books on the website, and I'm getting lots of positive feedback about the website. Alot of people are really interested in the site, and they're helping me promote it. Hopefully it's going to take off!
I've decided to compile a few tips to starting a website. Hopefully it'll either help people out or just be interesting to read.
The Idea & Brainstorming
- Develop an idea that is unique. If your idea has already been created by other people, is your ability level higher than the competition? Do you have better ideas then the competition?
- Decide on a solid purpose of your site.
The Design
- A beautiful site will attract people. Though functionality is more important, who wants to use a poorly designed site?
- Inspiration. Search for design inspiration. I strongly suggest the following links for inspiration:
- Choose a beautiful color scheme. I strongly suggest the following links for color inspiration:
- Stay Simple. You don't want to overwhelm your users.
- Consider your audience.
The Development
- The way I sometimes program is think "Here's my idea, now how do I make it work?" Then you research.
- Bring users around your site. Don't just rely on your menu, add things like "Looking for this? Click here."
The Release
- BETA TESTERS ARE KEY. Before releasing your site, have people beta test it. Have "angry" beta testers try to do everything to "screw up" your site.
- Advertise! Put advertisements everywhere.
- Track where your visitors are coming from. This will show you the best advertising medium.
Well, I've been really researching and playing with search engine optimization (SEO) and dan-lev.com's statistics. The website is doing much better (visitor-wise) than it was doing before the site went down in September.
Unfortunately I haven't had much time for photography since I've been busy with school.
I have a new website that I'm really excited about. I bought the domain name, designed it, and programmed the majority of it. Before I finish, I just realized a legal/policy-type problem that I may have with running site. So I'm going to clear up everything in that department and then I should have it released. Unfortunately, this site is going to be only for a particular audience. Before I get too close to giving it away, I'm going to stop.
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