A site should have stop signs in place to direct the traffic coming from various sources. An effective stop sign can lower bounce rates, increase visibility of monetization efforts, encourage RSS subscription, and ultimately provide more value to readers. I have noticed on my blog that my bounce rate increases from certain sources of traffic. This article does not illuminate strategies for one particular source of traffic but for all sources.

Site Visitors and Their Needs

Every site visitor has a need, whether its to educate themselves on a topic or simply to entertain themselves during their off hours. Every blog should likewise have a purpose. Affiliate marketing blogs would obviously be focusing content on marketing strategies, while SEO blogs would be helping their readers optimize their sites. But what happens if the reader comes in to the blog through a stale link and finds a post concerning a contest? Will they care to stop to read about the contest, and even further into the archives to determine what the blog represents? Can you entice them further into the site?

I think its best to work with examples, so I’ve traveled around to my favorite blogs and placed stop signs where I think visitors might be sucked in a little further to that site’s content. Let’s start out with Tyler Cruz.

Case Study #1

Tyler has a very unique and colorful site, where he describes his adventures as an Internet Entrepreneur. A site visitor would stop after seeing his logo for sure. They would also check out the Get Noticed area due to the nice finger graphic and its placement on the page. I also think his post titles do a good job of illuminating content in a bold, yet not overpowering, way.

Keep in mind I’m not looking at Advertising spots, but areas of design that encourage readers to stick around, read content, subscribe to a feed, etc. I think his RSS Feed area doesn’t attract my attention as much as it should. It could be muted by the over-sized ad banner or the pull of character graphics on the left side of the screen. It’s not terrible, by any means, but I think you have to look for it rather than have it pop out at you.

Lessons Learned from Tyler Cruz

It pays to have a unique logo and template for your site. The placement of certain graphics can weight one side of a blog too heavily and attract attention away from important activities like site subscription, but may also encourage advertiser activity on the site. In Tyler’s case, an advertiser would gain prime real estate and attention across the main ad banner, or along the side, as the eyes tend to be pulled in that direction.

Case Study #2

Ben’s site focuses on providing readers with blogging and website tips without the jargon. He’s mindful of usability standards when creating his blog archives, which include a separate Tutorials section. The site is based on Majestic, not WordPress. You may notice his template doesn’t look like some of the standard designs you see around the Blogosphere. Like Tyler’s site, he pulls readers into various parts of his blog through his graphics and design.

His site header seems to shrink every time I return. I think the header design does a good job of attracting the eyes towards the weighted right sidebar, with the tiny arrows directing you right. Above the sidebar, a visitor would stop to read the navigations as Ben has separated out various parts of his blog. It makes it quite simple for someone to visit the Tutorials section when they find his site looking to learn something.

His most discussed blog entries widget on the sidebar may also attract readers to dig deeper into his site content. It’s placement lower on the page also makes it appear after reading an entire article on his site. It’s positioned at the level where you would naturally look after reading. This works well to draw readers in and stop them from leaving the site.

Lesson Learned from Ben Barden dot com

Ben’s site teaches that subtle graphics can draw attention to different areas of a site. A breadcrumb trail can also place valuable links in front of readers, giving them the option to dig deeper into the content. His site also shows how the placement of certain items, like popular posts or recent comments widgets can be lower on the sidebar to encourage further exploration after a visitor reads the day’s article. Again, I think the only thing lacking would be more attraction to the RSS subscription service, although he does offer a helpful guide to RSS. I know I’ve pointed a few of my offline friends to his description just to save the hassle of IMing a dissertation on the subject.

Stop Signs and Traffic

Of course having great content, like the two of these sites, encourages readers to stay. Even with great content, a flawed design may let visitors off the hook sooner than you like.

These two case studies should have at least peeked your interest. How many stop signs do you have on your site?

This is a new series for Jason Boom dot com. These mini reviews take a look at what attracts readers to certain areas of your site. If you would like to be included in this short run series, please use the contact form to request your site’s inclusion in the upcoming case studies.