Greetings all. I’m starting to build my first site in FW Pro and am tackling what’s going to be the biggest single task - so I want to get the process right first time.
Its to make a list of about 300 links. These are links that I have complied over time through my own efforts and I’ve found in the past that people steal them. In one sense that’s not a problem because urls are by definition public and the point of my exercise is to publicise them further. On the other hand I rather resent people just take them for their own purposes including the extra value that I have added (which is how I can tell they’ve been nicked).
What I thought to do was make the links and the associated information graphic items, so they cannot be copied and pasted. But then that means that they will not show up in seach engines. So I am wondering about adding the link as text in a box next to the graphic (though I suppose they could be anywhere?) in the same text colour as the page background.
So I wonder, would this work, are there any attendant problems, and is there a better way?
Many thanks!
Stephen
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This is kind of a funny question. The point of putting a link on a Web page is to get people to find it and click on it, otherwise, the thing to do is to not publish it on a Web page.
What value do the links have as they are, in place on your page? If they are made invisible (same color as the background), who would know to click on them?
Walter
On May 29, 2020, at 5:52 PM, Stephen Kenyon email@hidden wrote:
Greetings all. I’m starting to build my first site in FW Pro and am tackling what’s going to be the biggest single task - so I want to get the process right first time.
Its to make a list of about 300 links. These are links that I have complied over time through my own efforts and I’ve found in the past that people steal them. In one sense that’s not a problem because urls are by definition public and the point of my exercise is to publicise them further. On the other hand I rather resent people just take them for their own purposes including the extra value that I have added (which is how I can tell they’ve been nicked).
What I thought to do was make the links and the associated information graphic items, so they cannot be copied and pasted. But then that means that they will not show up in seach engines. So I am wondering about adding the link as text in a box next to the graphic (though I suppose they could be anywhere?) in the same text colour as the page background.
So I wonder, would this work, are there any attendant problems, and is there a better way?
Many thanks!
Stephen
Thanks Walter, I realise I was far too vague! Each link is accompanied by some further detail, names, nature of the business etc so those elements are visible, the idea is to make the url tricky to copy and paste elsewhere.
What I’ve been experimenting with - bearing in mind I’m very much still learning the software - is using a table with three columns, one for the name etc, a second for the word Link and a third, coloured as the background of the page, into which I paste the url (text colour the background e.g. invisible) and then I use the url to make “Link” connect. The reason I feel it useful to keep the url so close is because there are so many, and from time to time they may change, so its helpful to have them nearby.
This is however very laborious and I’m wondering if there’s a better way, not least as each link takes several clicks to make…?
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It appears to me that what you’re trying to do is just set external hyperlinks - links to pages other than on your own site - without displaying the actual URL you’re linking to. You can just use the information here to learn how to do it.
You don’t need to display the full URL of the linked page to your audience. Select the text or image in your list that you want to use as the link, eg “Dorset Guitar Society”, then go to Edit > External Hyperlink and fill in the URL there - either type it in or go to the site and copy and paste the full URL from the browser URL field. Then when someone clicks on “Dorset Guitar Society”, they will be taken to the Dorset Guitar Society’s website (or whatever URL you have specified for that link). If a URL changes, you just go back and edit the URL specified in the Hyperlink. To check whether the links are correct, publish your site and follow the links (eg. by clicking on “Dorset Guitar Society”) yourself to make sure you are taken to where you expect and that the linked site is still valid and active.
In your example below, you only then need one column (or no columns) for your list. Just the list of common names for the sites/organisations you’re linking to, and make those names the links with the required URL sitting behind it.
Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?…
On 31 May 2020, at 8:46 am, Stephen Kenyon email@hidden wrote:
Thanks Walter, I realise I was far too vague! Each link is accompanied by some further detail, names, nature of the business etc so those elements are visible, the idea is to make the url tricky to copy and paste elsewhere.
What I’ve been experimenting with - bearing in mind I’m very much still learning the software - is using a table with three columns, one for the name etc, a second for the word Link and a third, coloured as the background of the page, into which I paste the url (text colour the background e.g. invisible) and then I use the url to make “Link” connect. The reason I feel it useful to keep the url so close is because there are so many, and from time to time they may change, so its helpful to have them nearby.
This is however very laborious and I’m wondering if there’s a better way, not least as each link takes several clicks to make…?
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Thanks Diane yes that’s basically what’ve I’ve been working with, perhaps you missed the bit in my original where I asked about keeping the url on the page so that it would show up in search engines … if a link is to a graphic or a different piece of text, is the url still present in the code and therefore searchable … ? What I’m thinking is that if somebody searches for, to use your example, Dorset Guitar Society, they will also get my page, which would include links to other Guitar Societies (how did you know about me and DGS …?)
Am still stuck on whether its best to use a table, graphic items for the names (can they go in a table?) or a stack of html/graphic items down the page - bearing in mind some categories have scores of entries?
And is there a way to save a setting so each link is automatically external, http and new page…?
Stephen
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I’m not an expert but I’m pretty sure search engines are looking at the content (as well as meta tags, keywords, etc which you might also want to make use of).
If you have “Dorset Guitar Society” on your page, that’s the content that the search engines are looking at. So if someone searches “Dorset Guitar Society”, your page with “Dorset Guitar Society” on it will be a match. Having a hyperlink sitting behind it is a bonus because search engines appear to like links.
Also, if people are searching “Dorset Guitar Society” they’re unlikely to be using the full URL as the search term, which is another reason for using the commonly used name in your list of links. What if the Dorset Guitar Society’s URL was https://dgsuk.com. The URL isn’t a good descriptor of the actual organization.
If you use a graphic instead I think you can name the graphic and add a description in its metadata and that is searchable. Or set alt text for the graphic too.
How you arrange it on the page depends how you want to present it to your audience. If you have lists of links within categories, you might want to have a list of categories at the top and then link to anchors on the same page to jump to the category and its detailed list of links.
If it was me, I’d use HTML text.
External hyperlink is already a separate option. You have to type in or paste the URL for each one anyway so don’t need to select the type of link, just put the whole link with http (or even better https) and Freeway will work it out.
I can’t recall if you can set a default for the target. Shouldn’t be hard to find out. Softpress has a really good user reference guide for Freeway that you can download.
I googled your name to see if I could work out what you were trying to do with your site.
Sent from Di’s iPhone
On 31 May 2020, at 6:32 pm, Stephen Kenyon email@hidden wrote:
Thanks Diane yes that’s basically what’ve I’ve been working with, perhaps you missed the bit in my original where I asked about keeping the url on the page so that it would show up in search engines … if a link is to a graphic or a different piece of text, is the url still present in the code and therefore searchable … ? What I’m thinking is that if somebody searches for, to use your example, Dorset Guitar Society, they will also get my page, which would include links to other Guitar Societies (how did you know about me and DGS …?)
Am still stuck on whether its best to use a table, graphic items for the names (can they go in a table?) or a stack of html/graphic items down the page - bearing in mind some categories have scores of entries?
And is there a way to save a setting so each link is automatically external, http and new page…?
Stephen
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I agree with Diane. The link (URL) is not what people visiting the page will see, they will see the text within the anchor. So if you have entered some text that you want to be the link itself (the name of the page you’re linking to, rather than its URL) then you can select that text, use the shortcut Command-K or Edit / Hyperlink to open the link dialog, and paste in the URL. Human visitors will see the text you have selected, and search engines and browsers will see the URL along with the text.
Walter
On May 31, 2020, at 7:22 AM, Diane Low email@hidden wrote:
I’m not an expert but I’m pretty sure search engines are looking at the content (as well as meta tags, keywords, etc which you might also want to make use of).
If you have “Dorset Guitar Society” on your page, that’s the content that the search engines are looking at. So if someone searches “Dorset Guitar Society”, your page with “Dorset Guitar Society” on it will be a match. Having a hyperlink sitting behind it is a bonus because search engines appear to like links.
Also, if people are searching “Dorset Guitar Society” they’re unlikely to be using the full URL as the search term, which is another reason for using the commonly used name in your list of links. What if the Dorset Guitar Society’s URL was https://dgsuk.com. The URL isn’t a good descriptor of the actual organization.
If you use a graphic instead I think you can name the graphic and add a description in its metadata and that is searchable. Or set alt text for the graphic too.
How you arrange it on the page depends how you want to present it to your audience. If you have lists of links within categories, you might want to have a list of categories at the top and then link to anchors on the same page to jump to the category and its detailed list of links.
If it was me, I’d use HTML text.
External hyperlink is already a separate option. You have to type in or paste the URL for each one anyway so don’t need to select the type of link, just put the whole link with http (or even better https) and Freeway will work it out.
I can’t recall if you can set a default for the target. Shouldn’t be hard to find out. Softpress has a really good user reference guide for Freeway that you can download.
I googled your name to see if I could work out what you were trying to do with your site.
Sent from Di’s iPhone
On 31 May 2020, at 6:32 pm, Stephen Kenyon email@hidden wrote:
Thanks Diane yes that’s basically what’ve I’ve been working with, perhaps you missed the bit in my original where I asked about keeping the url on the page so that it would show up in search engines … if a link is to a graphic or a different piece of text, is the url still present in the code and therefore searchable … ? What I’m thinking is that if somebody searches for, to use your example, Dorset Guitar Society, they will also get my page, which would include links to other Guitar Societies (how did you know about me and DGS …?)
Am still stuck on whether its best to use a table, graphic items for the names (can they go in a table?) or a stack of html/graphic items down the page - bearing in mind some categories have scores of entries?
And is there a way to save a setting so each link is automatically external, http and new page…?
Stephen
On 31 May 2020, 11:22 am, Diane Low wrote:…
I googled your name to see if I could work out what you were trying to do with your site.
…
On 31 May 2020, at 6:32 pm, Stephen Kenyon
Many thanks … and it looks like my SEO, such as it is, still works!
Great, that’s I think nice and clear now, many thanks and as hoped its saved a whole lot of work, but also confirmed there’s no quick way … well my fault for wanting to take on such as task, though, historically (20 plus years ago), it was building all the links and getting at least some reciprocated that helped a lot with the SEO.
Stephen
On 31 May 2020, 4:19 pm, waltd wrote:
I agree with Diane. The link (URL) is not what people visiting the page will see, they will see the text within the anchor. So if you have entered some text that you want to be the link itself (the name of the page you’re linking to, rather than its URL) then you can select that text, use the shortcut Command-K or Edit / Hyperlink to open the link dialog, and paste in the URL. Human visitors will see the text you have selected, and search engines and browsers will see the URL along with the text.