One Effective Strategy To Increased Pageviews
Did you ever enter into a shop because it looked cool from outside? I know I have. However, in some cases, I’m out the door within a few minutes, and it may be for a variety of reasons, but, one of the main reasons is, I just can’t find what I’m looking for.
For some of the ladies, this may be more prevalent. You meet up with a friend, and you compliment the beautiful skirt they’re wearing. In fact, it’s precisely the very thing you were looking for last weekend, when you were out shopping. So, you ask polietly where they bought it, and to your surprise, they bought it in a shop you were in. Why hadn’t you seen it? You’re a little miffed, not at them, but, at yourself, for not noticing it when you were there.
The price of a bad layout
The thing is, websites are often like shops. If that skirt was in the shop, you should have seen it if you looked at all, and in all likelihood, it’s not your fault that you didn’t. The shop is just badly laid out, and to find anything, you have to put considerable effort in. But, it shouldn’t be like that, it should be easy to find what you’re after.
My previous one column design, was like an attractive shop front. But, when people went in, they didn’t know where to go, or if the site actually had anything they may be interested in. So I decided to adopt an open layout, similar to my Mellowed Theme. I’ve made a few tweaks, added a number of new things, and have a few things to integrate in the coming days, some of which will be the subject of forthcoming posts. However, I’ve noticed something interesting already…
The difference a layout can make
In the first few hours of this new design (which, by the way, I’ve called ‘Sandy’) going live, the pageviews doubled, from their previous, lowly, 1.6/visitor average. The reason is simple, people arriving could immediately see their options. Titles of recent posts are there in front of them, categories are plain to be seen, and in the future, there’ll be links to popular articles, which (hopefully) will drive the average pageviews higher, and keep them there.
Learn from your stats
If you change something visually in your design, watch your stats to see how your visitors react. I was very generous in giving my last design half a month of existence, but I needed to make sure it was a real issue. Your design can be so simple, it has no direction, and the only button the user can see is the ‘back’ button on their browser. On the other hand, some sites are like a virtual TK Maxx, and you can’t see the forest for the trees — it’s just chaos!
As I further develop this layout, I’ll be monitoring what you guys do, and seeing if implemented ideas are working. As I learn, I’ll pass it on.
Very nice, Armen, and much easier to navigate through. Congrats on bumping your page views up!
David - Thanks. I probably give myself more work than necessary, but, I always learn something new when I create a new design.
I like the look of this one too, Armen.
User friendly!
Armen,
I love the new look!
Glenn & Neena - Thanks!
This is your best design I have seen, I like it. I like how you have your top post(s) on the third column. I also like how your rss feed is a bit different, I have just also redesigned my blog slightly and decided to do something different with the rss feed as well
One thing though:
- I would personally have the blue header go all the way to the top of the page and keep the gap though. The brown strip stands out a bit too much imo
Nice post.
I totally agree. A good design does a lot for a blog. Many people (including myself) will move on without hardly a glance if a site we visit has poor design or the Default Wordpress template.
But even if a web site has a custom theme, and it’s hard to navigate, the same results could ensue.
I like this layout!
It’s very clean and elegant.
You may want to cut down on the links in the header…
And possibly add a ‘top posts’ widget into the sidebar.
But even so, it’s a very nice design!
Nice post, I was wondering if you could do a screen shot of the site before. I myself have never been to your website before so I am curious to see what changes actually too place.
Thanks
Jermayn - Thanks! I like the ‘in your face’ subscribe button. Do you sketch those drawings, scan them, and then colour them? Or, do you draw them completely within PS/Gimp or somethng?
I don’t know about taking th blue to the top. I kinda like it broken up like that. Maybe the little pattern which runs through the top and bottom of the blue, is a little too faint?
Brian - Nice to see you around these parts
My last design, although nice, was definately not very usable.
I’ve thought about ways to restructure the menu. Admittedly, tt looks a little cluttered, but, I might just try and redesign it some way, to help the look of it.
I’m not into ‘Top Posts’ plugins, I like to hand pick them, and change them. It’s something I’ll implement though.
I haven’t visited your site in quite some time, but, I really like the design you’re using there. What is the new design you’re working on?
Matt - Yeah, sorry about that Matt. It was a little silly of me not to include a screenshot. However, maybe your curiousity could extend to next week? I’m going to release it as a theme.
I took the picture from a garden soil bag and he used illustrator to turn it into a vector and I used photoshop to create the rss, shadow and auto shape (speech bubble). Turned out ok in the end.
In regards to the popular posts, i find it handy as it shows me just what is popular or not, you may be surprised as I was.
Jermayn - You have Illustrator?
Do you know of a decent free alternative?
Generally, most of the popular post plugins make it difficult to shift the top few results. Maybe I’m just a control freak!