"max khesin" <ma*@NcOviSsPiA oMntech.com> wrote in message
news:_L******** *************@t wister.nyc.rr.c om...
There has been a long argument as to whether high link density is good
for the users. Some say it is, as it contains more information, the
others say it is confusing. There is statistical study support for both
. I am just wondering if having the main body in a column and putting
the relevant links in a sidebar may be a healthy compromise, have you
seen this style?
thanks,
max
Links in a sidebar, hm, ... that sounds like a menu!
And if it isn't a menu, well then that is confusing.
I may be missing your point, but a couple of links in the main body text
shouldn't scare people anymore these days. Turning every other word into a
link is of course not helpful for a proper appreciation of the text itself,
but so much depends on the content at hand that it is silly to have these
discussions.
The Google Webmaster Guidelines pages,
http://www.google.com/intl/nl/webmas...uidelines.html advise to keep the
total number of links on a page below one hundred:
"Houd het aantal koppelingen op één pagina enigszins binnen de perken
(maximaal 100)."
(I can't quote the English as they keep sending me this, changing /nl/ to
/en/ in the url doesn't help, and I am not going to delete my cookie).
It doesn't say whether those links should be in a sidebar or not, and I
don't think they they programmed the bot to care about that. If it cares
about anything, it 's whether the links on a page are relevant. That is my
understanding.
It boils down to the question what your site is really about, is there a lot
to read, or to do, for who you build your site, what kind of people you wish
to attract. If your website is aimed at internetophobic people, then keep
your links at a minimum and out of the way, otherwise, do as you think
appropriate,
Ivo