Are We Overdoing the Links?

Funny thing I notice in some websites, particularly "newbie" websites: too many links. But how can you have too many links? Isn't that the whole point of the Web? Well, yes it is, in a way, but anything can be overdone.

The idea of a website is that it is interactive, meaning you're reading something and then you see that you can click on a link to get more information about something. And, from there, you can get more information about something else. And on and on... Until you've gone off on such a tangent that you can't remember what the original page/site was that you were looking at.

You really don't want people leaving your site before they've read what you've got to say. So, be careful with having too many links, especially to external sites. Even internal links should, for the most part, be placed so that there is a natural flow for the reader — i.e., they've read most or all of a page (or a news snippet) and then at the end see a "more" type of link to continue to the next logical page (or rest of the news article).

Remember, you're writing and designing your site so that your visitors will read through and stay on your site — and then take a step of action towards contacting your or giving you business. It's easy to lose 'em by pointing them elsewhere. You've got to do their best to guide them within your site, not to someone else's.