Encouraging Small Website Discoverability
Recently shared on Hacker News, Marginalia’s 2021 post, The Small Website Discoverability Crisis caught my attention.
There are a lot of small websites on the Internet: Interesting websites, beautiful websites, unique websites.
Unfortunately they are incredibly hard to find. You cannot find them on Google or Reddit, and while you can stumble onto them with my search engine, it is not in a very directed fashion.
It prompted a response from Kyle Drake of Neocities, always worth hearing from in our circles.
Anyway, Marginalia’s post delves into the challenge of increasing discoverability for sites like ours. Their proposal? Federated bookmarking. It’s a concept familiar to many of us here, emphasising the importance of personal websites having a links page that connects to other personal websites. Don’t just link, describe why you appreciate or are linking to these websites, as discussed in The Art of Hyperlinking.
To federate this concept, link to other bookmark/links-lists you come across, thereby creating exposure and a sense of community!
I was pleasantly surprised to find a link to my own links page on Marginalia’s bookmarks. I’m planning to add a new section to reciprocate as soon as I find a moment.
Let’s keep the conversation alive. Do you have a links page that celebrates the diversity of personal websites? Join in and spread the love!
