4 ms·

Startups, Fix Your Blog Links

56 points by jazzychad 14y ago

rcknight 14y ago
Definitely agree that this is an issue, it often bugs me ... but the site linked presents the same problem, why can't i click my way to jazzychad.net? Jazzychad - Fix Your Blog Links ;)
- jazzychad 14y ago
  This is true, there's not a direct link from my blog to my homepage... however I think that personal blogs fit it a different category. I'm not trying to sell my readers anything (except opinionated advice!), but the argument could be made that I am selling myself as the product. At least you can click your way there through the "About" link in the header, albeit that is two clicks. Edit: Ok, after lots of people calling me out on this, I've added a link to my homepage in the nav section :)
  - rcknight 14y ago
    I did notice that after my reply ... still, the main page tells me at least as much about you as your about page, and I often want to find out more about the author of an article I enjoyed, you are indeed the product!
  - rmATinnovafy 14y ago
    You should link them. People will find them either way.
- rmATinnovafy 14y ago
  From article: "I'm not just picking on Flattr, they are just the last in a long line of blogs that have done this." i++;
borski 14y ago
Rather than linking to the homepage, we chose to make sure we linked to our relevant About page. http://blog.tinfoilsecurity.com http://blog.tinfoilsecurity.com
- jazzychad 14y ago
  That's great, but I would also argue that linking the big "Tinfoil Security" logo to the blog homepage is even more annoying. I feel like I've been tricked since I expected that to go to the homepage.
  - borski 14y ago
    Hm, that's a fair point. Would it be better to point that logo to our homepage and have a separate Blog link?
    - jazzychad 14y ago
      Yeah, you could add a "Blog" link before the "Pricing" link and aim the logo at your homepage.
    - borski 14y ago
      Changed as per the feedback; logo now goes to our homepage, and Blog link now goes to our blog.
- netfire 14y ago
  The whole navigation when on your blog seems confusing. If you click on the logo while on the blog, you get the blog home, but if you click the about link, you are taken to the main site with similar navigation (and a similar looking logo/layout). You really don't get the feeling that you've left the blog site. Wouldn't it be simpler and much more straightforward to just add a blog link to both your blog and your main site, make your blog look like your main site and make the logo link to your main site. After all, isn't your blog part of your main site? Also, when you click on your profile link on the right of your blog you get a posterous profile page. Seems like that should link to the about page as well.
firefoxman1 14y ago
I thought "YES! Please!" as soon as I saw the post title. It's one of those things that always annoyed me, but not enough to say anything about it.
kenrikm 14y ago
I had exactly the same issue with the flattr blog. I tried flattr.net then got to flattr.com but it was a pain and involved me typing in the URL. Bad! Anyway big +1.
cvanderlinden 14y ago
Thanks for this post. I thought I was the only one getting a little upset about this.
degenerate 14y ago
This is my biggest pet peeve on the entire internet. It seems no matter how intelligent and creative some people are, they always screw this up. It's like when someone has bad breath, but online. You really don't want to mention it...
kapilkale 14y ago
There's a secondary reason for this: SEO. If your blog gets links from other blogs, you'll want that link juice to flow back to your main site for Google rankings.
languagehacker 14y ago
I wonder if JazzyChad would have used Flattr's blog as an example, or written this post at all, if Flattr hadn't made it to the front page six hours before this was posted.
- jazzychad 14y ago
  I would not have. Their link on HN was the straw that broke my back and finally pushed me to write my post. In fact, I say as much in the post :)
scott_hardy 14y ago
I actually thought the exact same thing when I was browsing the Flattr blog. I spent a good 10 seconds looking for a link to the real site before giving up and manually changing the URL.

56 points by jazzychad 14y ago

Definitely agree that this is an issue, it often bugs me ... but the site linked presents the same problem, why can't i click my way to jazzychad.net? Jazzychad - Fix Your Blog Links ;)

jazzychad 14y ago
This is true, there's not a direct link from my blog to my homepage... however I think that personal blogs fit it a different category. I'm not trying to sell my readers anything (except opinionated advice!), but the argument could be made that I am selling myself as the product. At least you can click your way there through the "About" link in the header, albeit that is two clicks. Edit: Ok, after lots of people calling me out on this, I've added a link to my homepage in the nav section :)
- rcknight 14y ago
  I did notice that after my reply ... still, the main page tells me at least as much about you as your about page, and I often want to find out more about the author of an article I enjoyed, you are indeed the product!
- rmATinnovafy 14y ago
  You should link them. People will find them either way.
rmATinnovafy 14y ago
From article: "I'm not just picking on Flattr, they are just the last in a long line of blogs that have done this." i++;

borski 14y ago

Rather than linking to the homepage, we chose to make sure we linked to our relevant About page. http://blog.tinfoilsecurity.com http://blog.tinfoilsecurity.com

jazzychad 14y ago
That's great, but I would also argue that linking the big "Tinfoil Security" logo to the blog homepage is even more annoying. I feel like I've been tricked since I expected that to go to the homepage.
- borski 14y ago
  Hm, that's a fair point. Would it be better to point that logo to our homepage and have a separate Blog link?
  - jazzychad 14y ago
    Yeah, you could add a "Blog" link before the "Pricing" link and aim the logo at your homepage.
  - borski 14y ago
    Changed as per the feedback; logo now goes to our homepage, and Blog link now goes to our blog.
netfire 14y ago
The whole navigation when on your blog seems confusing. If you click on the logo while on the blog, you get the blog home, but if you click the about link, you are taken to the main site with similar navigation (and a similar looking logo/layout). You really don't get the feeling that you've left the blog site. Wouldn't it be simpler and much more straightforward to just add a blog link to both your blog and your main site, make your blog look like your main site and make the logo link to your main site. After all, isn't your blog part of your main site? Also, when you click on your profile link on the right of your blog you get a posterous profile page. Seems like that should link to the about page as well.

firefoxman1 14y ago

I thought "YES! Please!" as soon as I saw the post title. It's one of those things that always annoyed me, but not enough to say anything about it.

kenrikm 14y ago

I had exactly the same issue with the flattr blog. I tried flattr.net then got to flattr.com but it was a pain and involved me typing in the URL. Bad! Anyway big +1.

cvanderlinden 14y ago

Thanks for this post. I thought I was the only one getting a little upset about this.

degenerate 14y ago

This is my biggest pet peeve on the entire internet. It seems no matter how intelligent and creative some people are, they always screw this up. It's like when someone has bad breath, but online. You really don't want to mention it...

kapilkale 14y ago

There's a secondary reason for this: SEO. If your blog gets links from other blogs, you'll want that link juice to flow back to your main site for Google rankings.

languagehacker 14y ago

I wonder if JazzyChad would have used Flattr's blog as an example, or written this post at all, if Flattr hadn't made it to the front page six hours before this was posted.

jazzychad 14y ago
I would not have. Their link on HN was the straw that broke my back and finally pushed me to write my post. In fact, I say as much in the post :)

scott_hardy 14y ago

I actually thought the exact same thing when I was browsing the Flattr blog. I spent a good 10 seconds looking for a link to the real site before giving up and manually changing the URL.