Bad Web Design: Webrings Do's And Don'ts

Webrings (not to be confused with webring.org) are a great way to connect sites with similar topics together in an organized fashion. What is a webring? Well, it is a method of navigating from site to site. You sign up your site and receive a small HTML fragment to add to one of your pages. This fragment allows your visitors to surf to other sites in the ring. Other sites in the ring have links (which are automatically kept up to date) to your site.

The idea is you will get a small, steady amount of targeted traffic delivered directly to your website without too much work and no expense. There are several different ring systems to choose from, and well over a hundred thousand different web rings. If that's not enough for you, then you can go ahead and create your own rings anytime you want.

The person who creates or maintains a ring is known as a ringmaster. Some of the most common errors that a ringmaster can make are listed below.

Allow off-topic sites to join the ring - Most rings have some kind of topics. The best maintained rings are practically works of art, with every single site carefully considered and only added if they are on-topic with the ring theme. Off-topic sites in a ring detract from the entire ring, as surfers will typically stop navigating a ring when they reach such a site.

Don't use automatic ring checking - Most of the ring systems will perform automatic ring checking. Please DO take advantage of this to keep your ring intact. There is little more frustrating than a poorly maintained ring. Please DON'T allow your ring to deteriorate into a bunch of missing sites and 404 errors.

Does not use substitution properly - Many ringmasters (especially new ones) don't really understand how to set up ring fragments. Most ring systems allow you to place variables such as "--ID--" into the fragment which are automatically replaced with a value. Using these variables makes it much easier on ring members.

Allow bandwidth stealing - Some ringmasters are unaware or uncaring of the concept of bandwidth stealing. This means you host the graphics for a ring on your own site and allow others to link directly to them. Note that this is perfectly fine if you are paying for your web space (in that case, it's your money that's paying for the bandwidth after all), but is a definite no-no if you are using a free hosting service.

Using Yahoo webrings - If you want to get some traffic or have a high-quality ring, then you should choose Ringsurf (http://www.ringsurf.com), Ringlink (http://www.ringlink.org/) or Bravenet (http://www.bravenet.com). The Yahoo webring system is great for generating traffic to Yahoo, not so great for anything else (just my humble opinion).

Never promote their ring - You must promote your webring aggressively in order to get other sites to join. How is anyone going to join if they don't know that the ring exists?

And now for the DO's and DON'Ts for people adding webrings to their sites.

Adding ring fragment to a different page than the one you signed up with - Please, please, please, DO put the webring fragment on the same page that your signed up for in the webring. A major purpose of a webring is to be able to surf from site to site, and it can be very frustrating to have to hunt all over yours just to find the ring fragment.

Adding the ring fragment on a framed page - Please DON'T put the webring fragment in a page within a frame. If you are going to put webrings on your site, then you should create non-framed versions of the pages (you should do that anyway, but that's a different article). The major reason is that the automatic ring checking robots cannot check your fragment if it's within a framed page.

Adding ring fragments to your home page - Generally, please DON'T please your webring fragments on your home page. Instead, DO place them all through your site. Webrings fragments are not very attractive as a rule, and they almost never fit in with your color or design scheme. We tend to use webring welcome pages, each of which is for a single webring fragment.

Never adding the ring fragment - Quite often a ring member will join a webring but never add the fragment anywhere in his site. You've got to add the fragment to keep the ring intact.

Never telling the ringmaster you added the fragment - You've got to tell the ringmaster you've added the fragment - if you don't, he may never add you to the ring.

Moving or removing the fragment without notifying or leaving the ring - If you move the fragment or decide to leave the ring you should let the ringmaster know. Otherwise, your site becomes a big hole which causes surfers to get frustrated.

DO join as many webrings as you can find the time for and as fit within the topic of your site. There is no reason not to join dozens or even hundreds of webrings. Join one a day (or one a week) and you will see your traffic slowly edge upwards. The more sites that join a webring, the more traffic is generated to each individual site.

Additional reading

Webrings are a wonderful way to get qualified surfers to your site http://www.ring-master.net/

Bomis.Com ring system http://www.webspiner.com/advertising/rings_bomis.asp

Bravenet.Com ring system http://www.webspiner.com/advertising/rings_bravenet.asp

RingLink http://www.webspiner.com/advertising/rings_ringlink.asp

Ring Surf http://www.webspiner.com/advertising/ringsurf.asp

Yahoo! Webring http://www.webspiner.com/advertising/yahoo.asp

Tutorial for Ringlink style webrings http://www.ring-master.net/webring_ringlink001.asp

Tutorial for Ringsurf style webrings http://www.ring-master.net/webring_ringsurf001.asp

Tutorial for Yahoo! style webrings http://www.ring-master.net/webring_yahoo001.asp

So you want to be a ringmaster? http://www.ring-master.net/webring000.asp

Black Tuesday http://www.webspiner.com/advertising/Webrings_blacktuesday.asp

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