The Net Untangled is a weekly column looking at the Internet side of the Radio Industry. You can read the Introductory column for a look at how to approach site design, and how to think critically about your site’s presentation.

Last week, we explored a few options for morning show websites. This week, we’ll get back to basics again with a look at the most basic part of a web page – the hyperlink. Yes, in order to improve your website, we’re going to give people reasons to leave it. As I’ve said before, in order to make a good radio website, you first have to make a good website.

Don’t give people the option to leave!

This is one of the areas where good radio programming and good site design butt heads. One of the unspoken rules of radio is “Don’t talk about your competitor (unless they get way bigger ratings than you do)”. We like to think that our listeners may not even be aware that their radios have a “seek” button, and as long as we don’t point it out, they’ll never go away.

In fact, it’s better for them to not even realize that they’re listening. That’s why everyone fears dead air. If you are listening to a long string of music, a period of silence is jarring and it may remind the listener that something better may be further down the dial.

However, for websites, it is not only expected that you point users to different options – it’s the basic function upon which the World Wide Web was invented!

Yes, in these times of AJAX (those super fancy animated functions that allow you to interact with a website without the page reloading) and Flash (that other super fancy animated function that allows you to interact with a website without the page reloading) – we often over look the link. But it is the most important part of the web. Without them, you’d have to type in the location of every page you wanted to see. Madness, I tell you!