Frank Schulte-Ladbeck

Do you watch websites as they change? To keep the interest of our visitors, we engage in a process of trying to make our sites better, while also attempting to have our content found in search engines, but I wonder if we hold onto forms, because we think that the user will find them appropriate.

I notice that quite a few websites have been changing. Other websites seem old and stale. Do our customers notice? I ask this because I often go directly to the content of sites that I am familiar with. Most of us do not explore new sites, but rather visit a certain set of sites. We need the familiarity to navigate through easily, but change in the site keeps our interest.  We have the forces pulling at our site; moreover, small business sites have to catch the eye of the new user (customer) on a budget.  When looking at my own site, I questioned the usefulness of every element, which led me to a change in the design.

    I began my examination with posts and categories. I wanted to tighten the focus of site. Posts that dealt with the same information were combined. Posts or categories that had nothing to do with the business were deleted. A problem ensued when Google crawled my site. During one update of WordPress, the plugin handling my sitemap failed. I had to switch to another, more basic sitemap generator. I tried going back to my favorite sitemap generator after a few more WordPress updates, and it seemed to work. I did not notice that the sitemap from the other generator was in my specified location, which was used to crawl the site. Needless to write, the sitemap was filled with errors. As I was correcting my sitemap fiasco, I wondered how I could present my sitemap to the public. Do users find this a worthy navigation tool? I went to other sites, where I found most of them hiding the link to their sitemap away. A few sites had wonderful examples of displaying sitemaps to the public. I know search engines love them, so we are told to have them on the site, but I felt that they were not helping my users, so why highlight the sitemap. This led me to consider navigation to my pages and posts. In a nod to search marketing and search engines, I thought about how I could have everything within two links from any given point in the site.
    This adventure took another weird turn when I decided to look at advertising. Many years ago there was an article that stated that once a site reached over two hundred visitors a day, you could expect good money from advertising. What is good money was left undefined. I had long surpassed that visitor mark, and I was not seeing what I would call good money from certain ads. Mainly Google Adsense and my Amazon affiliate program. You have to remember my site is for a small business, and advertising revenue is an extra income stream that I think all small business should have if they have the opportunity. When I stopped to really look at the sites that I normally visit, I saw that advertising was coming to dominate more of the real estate, and here I was avoiding even looking at these ads. One site even had a text block asking that we regular users should check out the ads. I came to the conclusion that I should delete items to my site that were not helping me to obtain my goal of running a successful business. I had already limited Google AdSense on the site, so I decided to cut out the links for my affiliate program.
    This opened up real estate in my sidebars. I turned towards my header. I had several traditional links in that space, but only one was frequently clicked. I experimented with changes in the way the links were presented, but this had no significant effect on the click through rate. Navigation is a big deal for the user, but how were they navigating through the site. In the first sidebar, there were links to posts by their category groupings. Users did click on these category headings. For my site, this made sense. A user would come to a post, and they would either want to read other posts in that category, or they would choose a post listed as being related to this post, which was located just after the end of the content. I had a listing of my pages in the footer. Users were getting to the footer, but I had other links to those pages in the header or in other places on the site. If the pages list was more visible, this may help the user.
    What did I decide? I removed most of my links from the header. I had two rows of navigation, and now there are three simple links along with my phone number, which make it easier for users who want a quote or to reach me.  The only advertising in the sidebar is for purchased ads. No longer will I give space to another site if there is no return. I am not condemning affiliate programs or programs like AdSense entirely. They may work for your site, but if they are not fulfilling your expectations, then why continue with them? The pages list has come up from the footer to a sidebar next to the category list. I still have to work on how the category posts are presented, but users who are more into the post have a better navigation tool with this sidebar arrangement. In the end, I feel that I have improved the experience for the different users. Those who want no frills, but only want the information they require have quick access. Those who are delving more into the site are obtaining a type of sitemap in the sidebars: the category list and page list make the most sense in deploring my site. As for the sitemap, I have a link in the footer for the xml file for the search engines.
    I was trying to think of the user. More and more advertising does not equate to more revenue. Established navigation bars do not necessarily work for your website either. I still have some work to make everything right for the user, but this was my journey, and I hope that it helps you with your own.

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