Hint on Strategies?

how to optimise entry pages?

[skirril]

Hello,

my server hoster provides (among other things) a tool called urchin, which allows to get the entry pages, exiot pages, length of visit etc.

Am I correct in the assumption that the entry pages (wherever in the hierarchy they are) should contain more links, and be bigger (I want ot interest the customer, and want them to stay on my site, and possibly buy something)?

Another thing, suppose I have a very shallow depth of visit factor (3-4 pages on a site containing about 20-30 pages), is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Also, are there any 'good ballpark' figures for the length of the visit? (I provide no free email yet).

The site i run is purely product info & company info, plus an optioon of providing feedback (inquiries) per mail

Skirril

[Brett_Tabke]

Entry page archetechture is black art. There are four schools of thought:

Spam the browser with links and content. Some go so far as to say you should use a huge page. The theory is that the longer a page takes to download, the more likely the person is to read longer (they already have a time investement).

There is also the mega-browser-spammer school of thought. If the page is content rich with high value to the point that a person is likely to print it out, then "dump on them". You can see this phenom most often on Press Pages. I hit one a couple weeks ago, that was 4meg. If a reporter is doing a story and goes to print out the page - they get it all baby.

The other more normal approach is to just do your normal template and links. Don't do anything out of the ordinary for the page. Like the user figure it out.

Lastly, there is the a method I call herding. You go low key on the page, and only include your best and most high value links on the page. If they click, you want to direct where they are going to go. It is surprising the number of people that will click on a link if there is less than 5 links on a page. The fewer the links on a page, the higher the ctr rate.

> Length of time on site

I've seen alot of different kinds of sites, and I can find no bench mark to judge one against another. It's all reflective of the type of site, type of content, and depth of content.

[Craig_F]

> The fewer the links on a page, the higher the ctr rate

I've found this to be true too, but does anyone know of any proof of this?

I'm looking for some hard numbers, so I can prove to the higher-ups that the 40+ links we have on each page are not helping things...

-Craig

[bufferzone]

IMHO the key is balance. Balance in everything you do, wellbalanced content, with the right amount of relevant links, The article long onough to be intrestering, but short enough to be readable. The keyword here is balance if you should have missed it ;)

[rcjordan]

I guess I use a hybrid of the mega-dump and herding. The dump or visitor sensory overload can be done with less content per page and more pages. The individual pages themselves can be crowded with link selections (again, part of the overload strategy) but herding can still be achieved with placement, copy, and visual cues.

[skirril]

I think it also has to do with on topic pages.

If oyu are on a page on scuba diving, a link on carpet stain removal or remote lfower deliver probably wont cut it.

[tbear]

How do you think this thread relates to the Pyramids theme
[searchengineworld.com]
?

fixed the link -rcj

(edited by: rcjordan at 2:44 am (utc) on Mar. 13, 2002)

[rcjordan]

>Pyramids

Interesting question. In my strategy it's closely related, part of the reason to break up the pages and cross-link is to widen the pyramid so that you're getting incoming referrals at the secondary (but more focused) term levels -levels 3 & 4 on Brett's chart. Almost by definition, these levels are going to have a few links on them. Herding, as Brett calls it, is just an attempt to move them to the money pages.