Creating own link-gathering page: Biolink clone

I noticed that link-gathering pages are created by many people as a way to connect with their audience and promote their work. It helps people to gather links to their work, social media accounts, and other platforms in a single place. So after a bit of research and development I found a way to create one for myself too.

One clickable link

Many popular social media apps do not allow you to share external links as it is a potential way of driving traffic away from the original resource. A great example is TikTok. It allows only one clickable link called “bio link” or “personal website”.

If you already have a personal website, that's great you don't need to bother anymore. For others, a link-gathering page is what you need.

Easy but not optimal

If you are not a tech person or don't want to spend much time on this just go and create a free page with bio.linkas this became a standard solution for creating a link-gathering page these days.

The main disadvantage of using services like bio.link is that all of them add “nofollow” options to your links which basically hide them from search engines like Google and don't give you any SEO benefits.

More complex but more rewarding

If you are looking to improve a search engine optimization of your website or blog, you should consider establishing a better link-gathering page that will drive traffic for your links.

You can either pay someone to do it or copy my repository, change it a little bit and have your own link-gathering page just like I do.

https://github.com/vladmykol/biolink-clone

Above repo is a React app setup with Next.js and Dokku. It's actually more than you need for link-gathering page but it gives you perfect stack to bring more functionally on you personal website over time.

Also, there is another post explaining how exactly I built and deployed it from scratch.

Closing thoughts

Link-gathering pages make it easier for people to connect with you and learn about your work. If you still don't have your own website, a link-gathering page would be the perfect alternative especially when there are bunch of free-to-use constructors like bio.link.

If you are more technical person or concern about SEO benefits, go ahead and:

• copy my github repo
• update it in any text editor with your details
• deploy it with your own domain name
• give yourself a pet and enjoy your link-gathering page

In a way, link-gathering sites are the new business cards. They can quickly and easily provide people with information on where they can find you online. So whether you're looking for a new way to connect with other digital nomads or hoping to boost your online presence, link-gathering sites are worth checking out.