| link exchange directory The days of rude gossips about link exchange being dead are over. Now Internet audience understands that success and failure with comes up to such simple things as relevancy of your link partners and how appealing are the looks of your directory. There is a simple way to bring any directory on new level with clean and fair visualization strategy. Do you use thumbshots of your link partners in link exchange directory? If not - you are missing extra power. Put yourself in the shoes of your site visitor. Ok, site visitor got to your link directory, sees different categories, different links. Maybe you've done a great job about categorizing each link, and even provided a searching mechanism for necessary links - good job. But nothing stops you from making one step further on the road to give maximum pleasant experience of searching your directory. Put thumbshots of index pages of your sites-partners next to link title and description. And you will see how great are the looks of your directory with this one tiny change. For those who do not know what is a thumbshot, here goes the definition - thumbshot in simple words is a screenshot of web page. With thumbshots being close to each link your visitors instantly visualize link partners before they click. And this is where your gold pot is hidden, because simple thumbshot give your directory a pack of advantages. 1. Your link exchange directory looks more professional. When you compare the looks of the sites that go together with candy looking thumbshots with the same page that looks like a pile of links without thumbshots - absolutely another impression. 2. Your link exchange directory becomes more user-friendly. No doubts here I think. People instantly preview what they will see. Site visitors understand that you have made everything possible to make their clicking experience on your site super fruitful. They will be getting back to your directory more and more, just because you give them an advantage that others are missing. 3. Your potential link partners are magnetized too. When someone is on the verge to submit or not submit a link to your directory, thumbshot can become a trigger point inside their mind to say yes and submit you their link. If they have any brain, they will surely understand that their link with their thumbshot in your directory has bigger chances to be clicked on. Exactly what they are looking for. 4. Extra SEO power from thumbshots. Surely each thumbshot can be given certain title in alt. And most probably this title will have your keywords, because you are building links with relevant sites. It means when search engines index your directory, they see now only usual link with title and description; they also see a bulk of pictures that carry necessary keywords inside. Of course, the alt title is not critical with search engines to love or hate your directory. But missing extra advantage is just a not very wise thing to do, isn't it? Are there any disadvantages with thumbshots? No. But it is about some extra job with your link directory. If you are using a solution that automates link building and creates link directory pages for you, they may not have an option to add a picture to link title and description. But this is not a problem. Send them email with suggestion. For programmers it's not difficult: professional link directory software developers will help you with it. And if they reject, then better look for those who are ready to support their clients - not simply sell and forget. With this list of advantages that thumbshots can bring your link exchange directory, would you agree to miss an opportunity of adding extra power to your directory? Surely not. So, use this knowledge and make changes before others do them. Any type of link exchange directory will benefit from these efforts. And you site visitors will be bookmarking your pages. In addition to other benefits of your directory this can turn into new level of success with link building. |