Planning outside links in Java

Maker Code-39 in Java Planning outside links

The Web wouldn t be the Web without hyperlinks after all, hyperlinks connect your site to the rest of the Web and turn a collection of pages into a cohesive site But overusing or misusing links can detract from your site and even lose you some business

Internal linking is almost a walk in the park compared to external linking after all, when you link to pages on your own site, the pages those links point to are under your control You know what s on them today and what will be on them tomorrow, and even whether they will exist tomorrow When you link to resources on someone else s site, however, all bets are off: You don t maintain those pages You can t modify their content You certainly won t know when they will disappear Neither will your visitors until they slam into a 404 File or directory not found message (the usual sign of a broken link that now goes nowhere) The text in 404 messages varies depending on the server hosting the Web site

Links to other sites are more useful when they re stable and have less chance of breaking We recommend these guidelines: Link to a section of a site, not to a specific page on the site Pages come and go, but the general organization usually stays the same Link to corporate Web sites Corporate sites have more staying power than sites maintained by an individual Don t link directly to media files such as PDFs and images If you want to link to resources on another Web site, link to the Web page that links to the resources instead of the actual media files Sites often update the resources and give them new names The page that links to the resource, however, is almost always certain to be updated to reflect new names Therefore, the page is a safer linking bet Linking to other sites implies your support or endorsement of those sites When visitors follow links from your site to other sites, they assume you approve of that new site That makes a couple of guidelines necessary: If you don t want to be associated with content on another site, don t link to the site The only way to find out whether you approve of a seemingly relevant site is to visit it and check it out before you link Periodically review your links Be sure that The sites owners are the same The content is appropriate When domain names expire, new owners may take them over and post new content that s either Completely irrelevant Damaging to your image, such as with pornography

The text you associate with links is as important as the links you use on your site That text gives users a hint about where the link takes them so they can decide whether to go along for the ride For example, Visit Dummiescom to read more about this book is more helpful than Read more about this book

The first example tells visitors that they re going to leave the current site to visit Dummiescom and read more about a book there The second just tells them they re going to read more about the book and they may be surprised to find themselves flung off one site and onto another Generally, when you create link text, let users know the following: Whether they re leaving your site What kind of information the page they re linking to contains How the linked site relates to the current content or page The goal of your link text should be to inform users and build their trust If your link text doesn t give them solid clues about what to expect from your links, they just won t trust your links and won t follow them Avoid the use of click here in any link you create If your link text is wellcrafted, you don t need the extra words to prompt the user to click a link The link text should speak for itself