Portal Homepage: Simplifying and Channeling Traffic
29 December 2005 06:20 AM | Web Directories -
Portals
I spent the last two days actually working.
I have been redesigning a little portal I had, hastily cobbled together about 15 months ago.
Old Portal:
I was using a Blogger blog as the main index page. The blog acted as a CMS for all the written content of the portal. Behind the blog was a user submitted directory. Well, it did look sorta cobbled together - more than I liked. I also had problems with Blogger being down or buggy too often when I wanted to post something. It puts you off your content creation when Blogger suddenly gets stuck and won't publish.
New Portal:
On the redesign, I am trying to limit the choices visitors are presented with in the index page. I want the majority to explore the directory and find stuff the rest I would like to channel to the blog.
1. No blog on Index: I moved the blog off the index page. I think it is too busy. People stop to read the blog (not a bad thing) and never discover the directory.
2. New Index Page: A.) I have run links to all the top level directory categories down the left hand sidebar; B.) at the top of the main content area of the index page I put a search form for the directory and a link to the directory, below that is a seperator line and then a link to the blog. Below the link to the blog is a little headline ticker for the blog, I got via Feedburner, which rotates through the last 5 blog posts to act as a teaser. I don't think it is too annoying. 3.) Of course all this is also available through the navigation which runs across the top of all pages.
3. The New Blog: the blog serves several purposes: frequently updated content for search engine spiders; a place to link out freely and perhaps attract links; a place to build repeat traffic and importantly community and discussion; place for me to expound on the subject.
I am trying some different things with the blog. I.) keeping the blog main page simple, link lists like blogrolls, causes and references are all on seperate sub pages; II.) unlike the rest of the site no links to the directory categories in the sidebar on the blog; III.) the sidebar is mainly for links to the RSS feed and blog subject categories; IV.) I am going to try to not archive by date - only links to the blog categories (I don't know if this will work with this blog client but we shall see) I'm thinking, nobody really cares much about the date stuff was blogged on but the subjects.
My hope with all this is that there will be deeper exploration of the site beyond the front page and also deeper linking since some people will link to the homepage, others to the directory and still more will link directly to the blog. It will be interesting to see if it works.
You can see the results at the portal.
I have been redesigning a little portal I had, hastily cobbled together about 15 months ago.
Old Portal:
I was using a Blogger blog as the main index page. The blog acted as a CMS for all the written content of the portal. Behind the blog was a user submitted directory. Well, it did look sorta cobbled together - more than I liked. I also had problems with Blogger being down or buggy too often when I wanted to post something. It puts you off your content creation when Blogger suddenly gets stuck and won't publish.
New Portal:
On the redesign, I am trying to limit the choices visitors are presented with in the index page. I want the majority to explore the directory and find stuff the rest I would like to channel to the blog.
1. No blog on Index: I moved the blog off the index page. I think it is too busy. People stop to read the blog (not a bad thing) and never discover the directory.
2. New Index Page: A.) I have run links to all the top level directory categories down the left hand sidebar; B.) at the top of the main content area of the index page I put a search form for the directory and a link to the directory, below that is a seperator line and then a link to the blog. Below the link to the blog is a little headline ticker for the blog, I got via Feedburner, which rotates through the last 5 blog posts to act as a teaser. I don't think it is too annoying. 3.) Of course all this is also available through the navigation which runs across the top of all pages.
3. The New Blog: the blog serves several purposes: frequently updated content for search engine spiders; a place to link out freely and perhaps attract links; a place to build repeat traffic and importantly community and discussion; place for me to expound on the subject.
I am trying some different things with the blog. I.) keeping the blog main page simple, link lists like blogrolls, causes and references are all on seperate sub pages; II.) unlike the rest of the site no links to the directory categories in the sidebar on the blog; III.) the sidebar is mainly for links to the RSS feed and blog subject categories; IV.) I am going to try to not archive by date - only links to the blog categories (I don't know if this will work with this blog client but we shall see) I'm thinking, nobody really cares much about the date stuff was blogged on but the subjects.
My hope with all this is that there will be deeper exploration of the site beyond the front page and also deeper linking since some people will link to the homepage, others to the directory and still more will link directly to the blog. It will be interesting to see if it works.
You can see the results at the portal.
|
