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Web rings can be considered a web optimization technique.
Webrings was started in 1994 in Imperial College by Dennis Howe with a ring called EUROPa (Expanding Unidirectional Ring Of Pages). Since then, it has gone through a lot of changes, including being acquired by Yahoo! in 1999. Unfortunately, the revised Yahoo! Webring unveiled by Yahoo! in year 2000 did not receive much enthusiastic response. In 2001, Yahoo! pulled their support of WebRing and the control was handed over to one of the pioneers of WebRing, Tim Killeen. Now, the WebRing features are reminiscent of the original WebRing.
Since 1994, there had been 40,000 communities created via WebRing.
A Webring is a collection of websites, with similar themes, joined together in a circular structure.
When you are part of a WebRing, your site will be linked to other sites, similar to yours. The first site in the WebRing is linked to the second site, and the second site is linked to the third and the third site is linked to the fourth... and so on. To form a ring, the last site is linked to the first.
From a user's point of view, a WebRing allows him to search sites that are similar in content. He doesn't have to go through the results of conventional search engines, which sometimes turn out redundant or irrelevant results.
From a marketer's point of view, there are multiple benefits:
1. It is another way to drive users to your site.
As an Internet marketer, you will realize that quality traffic is very precious and all sources of qualified traffic is much welcome. Becoming a WebRing member is potentially a source of qualified traffic. By being a Member, your site will potentially be found by a user who found a site to which you are linked. The "Next" site in the ring could be yours.
2. It is a way to improve your search engine results.
Websites that become members of a WebRing display a NavBar. This is a common navigational tool used by members of the WebRing. The NavBar accumulates hits from all of the sites in the ring so that a hit to one site is considered a hit to all sites. The NavBar also acts as a link so your web site is linked to every other site in the community. So now your site is benefiting from higher search engine results because it has more hits and more links from relevant sites.
3. You can share information and connect with other members of your WebRing.
Once you become a Member, you can make use of the one-to-one or one-to-many communication channels available.
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Webring.com offers two types of memberships. Web 1.0 is free. With this option, you can start to join existing webrings or create your own ring, if you cannot find any that suits your site.
Last January 2007, WebRing introduced Web 2.0 membership. The 2.0 membership costs $36/year and entitles the members to some benefits such as: higher ranking in the WebRing searches, turnkey assistance to be included in the ring, personal and priority support, new e-mail systems, and an enhanced chat box for one-to-many communications.
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If you do not wish to be a 2.0 member but would like to join but do not know how to deal with the technical implementation of installing the NavBar in your site, they offer a support option for $10.
This site is a member of a webring on Internet Marketing. To see how a webring works, view the ring below:
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