1. summary so far
In this lecture we have:
- described how links work to activate parts of your pages and turn them into hypertext links to other points in cyberspace
- briefly considered how to code and style links - you should read the online teaching materials after the lecture for more details here
- discussed what makes for good and bad presentation of links
- discussed how links can give your site structure, and how you need to think about this structure in order to best present your information.
In conclusion, links are one of those things that are easy to do, but also easy to do badly. Too many links can be as bad as none at all. This is a particular problem with some "links pages" which present literally hundreds of links without discriminating: the visitor might as well have used Google. If it's an old page the chances are that half of them are dead anyway.
My advice is to make sure, even for a simple site, that you've planned the structure before you start. Then concentrate on the links you need - whether internal or external - and spend time making them as clear as you can. Do ensure that all your links work; broken links are a great frustration when browsing the web (as I'm sure you know). Once you've got the necessary links firmly in place then you can start thinking about others. And always remember that links are the WWW and they deserve extra attention.
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