Re: Do I even need a Links Page?

Repeatedly, I see specialized sites of two to 10 pages with a short list of
links. I think it's counter-productive for most sites to have links leading
a visitor away. What did it take in time, money, effort and marketing to
bring that visitor to your site?

The exception, is the mega-site that is attempting to create a virtual
community. That is, "come to our site for everything you need for xyz."
There is money to be made posting banner advertising on a site, if the
traffic is high enough. Very few sites have enough content to keep a visitor
at the site without depending upon sources outside of themselves. In that
case, links to other high-quality sites can create a one-stop shop that will
bring your visitor back again and again to your site, where they can find
everything (or alot of) what they need.

Leslie Owen
Director of Client Services
leslieo(at)lawinfo.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: Ddrewd(at)aol.com <Ddrewd(at)aol.com>
To: hwg-theory(at)hwg.org <hwg-theory(at)hwg.org>
Date: Friday, August 21, 1998 9:54 AM
Subject: Do I even need a Links Page?


>Greetings to all!
>
>As a new [albeit Trial] member of HWG, this is my first post.
>
>[Insert applause here.]
>
>I'm a newbie to the world of HTML programming, but I'm trying to apply my
>surfing experience to web-page building.
>
>My question: Does a site [even a commercial one, such as I'm working on]
>really need the ubiquitous "Links" page?
>
>Are commercial websites that prominently feature links pages shooting
>themselves in the foot?
>
>I ask this based on my own experience. When I'm visiting a site, looking
for
>imformation, early on I'll check out the Links page to see if there are any
>better sites. And there usually are. So, the site I originally visited
never
>gets bookmarked.
>
>I would like to avoid such "click-throughs" [is that phrase my own
invention,
>or did I read it somewhere?] by limiting my links to ones embedded in the
>text, serving a "For-more-information-on-this-subject-see...." role.
>
>Would I be making a humungous mistake by not having a Links page?
>
>I realize that this question may be more appropriate for the hwg-techniques
>list, but that list is overflowing as it is. I would like to discuss this
as a
>matter of theory.
>
>Thanks in advance for your input!
>
>Dave Dughi
>
>PS: Just to prove that I did my homework, I located a 4/10/98 post by ND-IT
>concerning a customer of his who was concerned about 'audiences who wander
>off' because of Links pages. That's very much my concern, too.

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