I’ve been having a great time surfing Blog Explosion; there are some truly interesting and wise people blogging out there. It goes without saying that there are also some crackpot and opportunist blogs out there. But one of the really frustrating things are blogs that don’t give their audience a chance to discover their worth. Most of the advice in this post is specifically target to Blog Explosion users, but the principles apply to most websites. So without further ado, my list for improving your blog’s effectiveness:
- Put actual content “above the fold”. In the newspaper business, “above the fold” is the part of the front page people see first and putting interesting headlines there sells newspapers. In blogging terms, this means putting interesting content on the first screenful of your blog. Have a look at how many headlines the New York Times and the Washington Post cram onto the first screen of their websites.
While surfing Blog Explosion, I’ve run across several sites that don’t have any meaningful content above the fold. Between normal user interface junk (menubar, browser title and tab bars), the Blog Explosion banner, their own blog title, and a banner ad or two; some sites have absolutely nothing interesting to see without scrolling down the page. Sometimes I do scroll down, but if I’m surfing Blog Explosion, I’m more likely to let the 30 second timer expire and move on without bothering to check out the rest of the blog.
Sometimes, the blog owner has a cool graphic or picture to attract my attention, but again they allow these elements to push the actual content off the first page of their site. I hate to say it, but there are a lot of blogs out there with great designs and pretty pictures; filling 50% of my screen with yours won’t necessarily keep me at your site. Of course, photoblogs are an exception to the large image rule; if the image is content then by all means – go large.
- Make sure your page loads quickly; I’ve actually been to pages on Blog Explosion that don’t even load in 30 seconds! You can blame it on a slow connection, but I’m surfing on a broadband connection at home (1.5 Mbps), and a seriously fast (OC-12 – 622 Mbps) connection at work. If your blog takes more than 30 seconds to load, it’s pretty much not my fault. If your page doesn’t load before the 30-second timer expires, what are the chances that people will stick around?
In most cases, the problem seems to be all of the cool toys people put on their front pages: virtual pets, wall clocks, weather widgets, etc. Last week’s blogroll outage was a good example of how external dependencies made lots of people’s blogs extremely slow. One external widget (from a dependable source) included in your blog won’t hurt your speed much, but let it get out of control, and it will start to impact your blog traffic.
The same is true for music, images, and flash animation. Load too many large items into your first page and it might not even render in the first 30 seconds. You can help yourself here, by including the
widthandheightproperties for image tags and embedded movies; also using progressive jpeg gets something on screen faster, but it somewhat slows page loading. - Check your blog in at least two browsers (and preferably more). I’ve been to a few blogs that load poorly, or not at all, in some browsers. In a couple of cases, the whole design loaded, but there was no text on the blog at all, just the images and backgrounds. One or two sites brought up a blank page. Most of these websites are simply suffering from a slight HTML or CSS error, and are easy to fix, but the owner doesn’t even know there’s a problem. Viewing your blog in Firefox and Internet Explorer will at least ensure most web surfers can see your design, and that it looks the way you want. If you want to be really popular, make sure to check your site in Opera and on several Macintosh browsers as well.
- Finally, if you’re going to include music on your page, provide a way to turn it off or mute it. I often browse while listening to music; if your blog starts playing music as well, the result is just noise. Give me an obvious way to turn off your music; I’ve often surfed off a site immediately to shut-off their music rather than even wait for the 30 seconds to expire.
It took longer than 30 seconds to read this post, but it kept me around to finish it. Good article. I’m constantly bothered by unnecessary items on a page that do not load properly, I also, will not continue to read poorly coded websites. Most of the time, I don’t even stop to read blogspot sites, at least not ones where no time or effort have been spent on the look of the site.
It took longer than 30 seconds to read this post, but it kept me around to finish it. Good article. I’m constantly bothered by unnecessary items on a page that do not load properly, I also, will not continue to read poorly coded websites. Most of the time, I don’t even stop to read blogspot sites, at least not ones where no time or effort have been spent on the look of the site.
“I’ve actually been to pages on Blog Explosion that don’t even load in 30 seconds! You can blame it on a slow connection, but I’m surfing on a broadband connection…”
Amen to THAT, my brotha. So, imagine what its like for ME with my even-slower-than-yers stone-aged dial-up.
Great suggestions there, kiddo.
{Stands and applauds ya but then, uh oh!, runs off to go check the load time of her very OWN page}…..
“I’ve actually been to pages on Blog Explosion that don’t even load in 30 seconds! You can blame it on a slow connection, but I’m surfing on a broadband connection…”
Amen to THAT, my brotha. So, imagine what its like for ME with my even-slower-than-yers stone-aged dial-up.
Great suggestions there, kiddo.
{Stands and applauds ya but then, uh oh!, runs off to go check the load time of her very OWN page}…..
Well said! I read it all too ; )
Well said! I read it all too ; )
Great advice! I’m right in the middle of redesigning my sight and your advice is helpful. Learning the coding has been a challenge for me and I still haven’t got my banner accross the top…… so content is definitely above the fold! LOL
Great advice! I’m right in the middle of redesigning my sight and your advice is helpful. Learning the coding has been a challenge for me and I still haven’t got my banner accross the top…… so content is definitely above the fold! LOL
I was just thinking about that “above the fold” idea earlier. I was actually at a site that had adds and other crap all over the place, including along with each post. I actually had to go down a page before I could get to a post. I almost didn’t bother….Mind you as well that I’m running at 1600×1200 here….someone at 800×600 might not even make it down 2+ screens in 30 seconds…
I totally with you on the music thing as well. I think it’s the most annoying (and hence perhaps the most rude) thing a person could do with their site. Even if I’m not listening to music or anything, it’s incredibly annoying to have sound just start up on it’s own. To make matters worse, I typically have a bunch of windows/tabs open and when music starts playing I never know where to look (not a huge problem on BE, but it is if I’m just opening up links in general). A sound that ends quickly isn’t a huge deal, but when I start getting noise that doens’t quit, I’m usually looking to find it and close that window ASAP. (but like you said, if there’s an obvious way to turn it off right away then that’s just as easy and preferable to actually closing the window).
I was just thinking about that “above the fold” idea earlier. I was actually at a site that had adds and other crap all over the place, including along with each post. I actually had to go down a page before I could get to a post. I almost didn’t bother….Mind you as well that I’m running at 1600×1200 here….someone at 800×600 might not even make it down 2+ screens in 30 seconds…
I totally with you on the music thing as well. I think it’s the most annoying (and hence perhaps the most rude) thing a person could do with their site. Even if I’m not listening to music or anything, it’s incredibly annoying to have sound just start up on it’s own. To make matters worse, I typically have a bunch of windows/tabs open and when music starts playing I never know where to look (not a huge problem on BE, but it is if I’m just opening up links in general). A sound that ends quickly isn’t a huge deal, but when I start getting noise that doens’t quit, I’m usually looking to find it and close that window ASAP. (but like you said, if there’s an obvious way to turn it off right away then that’s just as easy and preferable to actually closing the window).
You are absolutely right. You have also not provided me with any more material for my collection of ‘bloggos.’ (This is a good thing, by the way. You do not really want to become famous in my mind as the person who wrote: “He was left in a brain dead comma.”)
However, I have a horrible feeling my blog is one of the ones ‘the Mike’ won’t stop to read. I will design something one day, PROMISE! Actually, I did design a nice banner, but haven’t figured out how to put it up. I’m the Dummy the “(Whatever) For Dummies” books were written for.
(Also, I’m on a very old system/browser, so I’m afraid that anything I do that looks OK in my browser will look crap in anything else.)
You are absolutely right. You have also not provided me with any more material for my collection of ‘bloggos.’ (This is a good thing, by the way. You do not really want to become famous in my mind as the person who wrote: “He was left in a brain dead comma.”)
However, I have a horrible feeling my blog is one of the ones ‘the Mike’ won’t stop to read. I will design something one day, PROMISE! Actually, I did design a nice banner, but haven’t figured out how to put it up. I’m the Dummy the “(Whatever) For Dummies” books were written for.
(Also, I’m on a very old system/browser, so I’m afraid that anything I do that looks OK in my browser will look crap in anything else.)
ooo. So true.
great advice.
I am so a member of the “I hate website’s with midi’s” club.
ooo. So true.
great advice.
I am so a member of the “I hate website’s with midi’s” club.