SEO: Sites with Quality Design and Content Attract Link Partners - by Liz Jackson
When looking for link partners, SEO specialists look for sites with quality content. If a site is unorganized, poorly designed and difficult to navigate through, link partners are less likely to want to trade links. First impressions are very important since link partners are evaluating a very large number of sites when choosing link partners. When pulling up a site for the first time, the layout, design, and content of the home page is a huge factor in whether or not the link partner will initiate a link exchange, or agree to a previous link exchange request. The quality design of the site shows that the owner of that site has put time and energy into the site and is serious about their work. Such sites are more likely to stay around, more likely to attract and keep visitors to their site, and more likely to increase their page rank over time. These sites therefore will attract more quality link partners. Page rank is of course a factor in link exchange decisions. However, even if one site has a lower page rank than another site, link partners may still choose to trade links with the lower page-rank site if the design of that site is superior.