69Design escort web design, specialist agency and independent escort website designers

Front page banners posted: 27 07 07

Ok a real bugbear with me.... the insistance of certain sites on large garish front page banners in exchange for a listing.  Fisrtly yes I know we add small buttons to the front page of each site but
1) These are unotrusive
2) They represent established directories and link partners who generate quality and sustained traffic.

My “problem” is with sites who want a 468 pixel width banner prominently displayed on the front page and these are becoming more and more prolific recently. Apart from the expected designer gripe about the page aesthetics (sometimes these banners are not pretty) my main concern is that they benefit the directory far more than the escort herself. To be blunt they are mainly an invitation not to enter the site at all but simply to browse the competition instead.

Where the directory itself generates a lot of business and traffic then a case can be made, but where previously only the large directories asked for this, I have noticed a trend for smaller directories to aggresively demand parity with the bigger established directories, often demanding top places. This is a trend I believe does little good for the escort, who at the end of the day is the important person here, masses of flashing and often clashing banners on a front page will cheapen the image, slow down the page load and divert the eye from what after is the important content, the escort herself.

We at 69Design have tried many different solutions, most reasonable directories have been happy to adopt our text link solution which is hidden by default when placed on a front page, these load quickly, are preferred by search engines, and do not divert the eye too much. I have just reduced down the opacity of these links (which revert to full on mouseover) on the front of the new Blue Monday agency site, it remains to be seen if this is acceptable, but at least it keeps the aesthetics. In other cases I have simply given up and added them, to the detriment of the site IMO.

We are currently looking at the provision of links programmes and the best way to implement some form of standardisation, let’s see how this develops. Ok rant over, maybe some food for thought, but at least it documents our position.