Joomla!® 24-Hour Trainer

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Configuring Web Links

For some websites, it may make sense to include a list of links to related websites. In our example, we want to provide a list of “kid-friendly” websites for children to visit. We might also want to provide a list of links to parenting resources. These links help our community of parents, teachers, and children, by providing a positive Internet experience for children and enhancing the skills of their parents. Similar to a reading list, this list of links gives children and parents topics for conversation and consideration. For a school, this resource makes good sense.

For many sites, however, a list of links is not necessarily required, or even desirable. Remember that these links can distract site visitors, sending them to other websites where they are no longer concentrating on your content. That's why it's rare to see links to other websites from e-commerce sites, for example — a site that is selling something wants you to concentrate on shopping and buying from them, not other places on the web.

Web links are an option, not a requirement, for most websites. Think carefully about whether links to other sites are a good option for your website, based on the strategic planning you did for your website as described in Lesson 2.

If you do decide that web links are suitable for your site, Joomla's web links component offers a convenient way to categorize web links and monitor how often the links are visited.