Ugly Banners, you know the ones that directories tell you to put up on your site or they won’t list you. The ones that are cluttering thousands if not millions of web pages. These banners don’t help visitors in any way, they make your site look unprofessional, and most of the time there isn’t a good reason to place them on your site.
Many of the sites that demand that you place a banner on your homepage are not driving traffic to your site, they don’t pass pagerank, and they won’t show up as a backlink. So why would you give those sites a homepage link and clutter up the look of your site?
When you should consider a homepage banner:
When you shouldn’t give a homepage banner link:
In general there are VERY few sites/directories that would deserve a homepage link in my opinion. Look for authority and high ranking directories to list your site in. You can do a search for “Real Estate” or “Real Estate Directories” to get an idea of what sites have a lot of weight, if they can rank well for a term like real estate they most likely are worth being in. These sites will also have a better chance in sending some traffic to you and that is what this all about anyways. Keep in mind that most of the directories out there that are worth being in also have a paid submission option.
So I leave you with this, why not pay for your advertising and keep your site looking professional and uncluttered?
Wanted to share some thoughts from others on the topic:
Henry stated: I agree, many homepages look good until you scroll down a little bit and see all of the ugly mismatched banners. It makes a nice looking site ugly. Not only that but most are of no value at all. I think so many site owners hear about the importance of getting links but none bother to learn what constitutes a good link.
Thanks Henry for your thoughts.