Some websites announce immediately that they belong to a person. They do not have to say “personal website.” You can tell by the way the page keeps a few of its seams visible.
Field marks
Look for the following:
- links that are blue because blue is perfectly good
- a page width chosen by a human, not a conversion funnel
- small images with notes that sound like a friend
- an archive that is more interesting than a homepage
- one inexplicable piece of ASCII art
- a sentence that could not have been written by a committee
How to stay
Read the first page, then click one link. Do not use the back button too quickly. Strange sites reward a little aimlessness. They are not trying to end the visit as soon as possible.
There is usually a trail: a recommended book, a friend’s page, a photograph with a date, a project that never became a business. Follow that trail and the website becomes less like a destination and more like a map of attention.