Where do users click?

Tracking where users change pages

[mdharrold]

Assuming a site has the same links at the top and bottom, does anyone track which link a user is clicking to move to the next page?

ie:
top of page <a href="contact.html?top">contact</a>
bottom of page <a href="contact.html?bottom">contact</a>

[sagerock]

I try to track as many url's in that manner, as I can.

I'll use a similar process in emails, ppc accounts - pretty much any place that will allow me to.

The problem comes with what to do with all that data. You could easily go blind analyzing each and every link. But likely you will start to see general trends that will likely have value in overall traffic tendencies.

As an example, I know that the link to my main site at the top of my newsletter gets far more clicks than any other link. Interestingly, though, is that the 'contact us' link at the very bottom of the newsletter is the second most used link.

[volatilegx]

Yep data overload can sometimes be a problem. I like to track where people go when they leave my sites, so on some of them I encode all hrefs that lead offsite with a cgi script that tracks clicks, like: track.cgi?http://www.foo.com/

every day the script sends me an email which tracks the session of each IP that visited the site: where they came from, where they went inside the site, and where they went when they left (if they clicked on a link)

[mdharrold]

I was thinking of doing this to pick the best location for ad placement.
Since sagerock's visitors click the top of the newsletter most often, that would be a logical place for an ad to appear. With the bottom "contact" link being second most clicked, a less expensive ad could be placed close by.
Obviously by placing the ad at the top, more people see it. But placing it close to the most used links, means ads relavent to your users would be near the location they tend to go.

Just a thought. Could be wrong.

[rcjordan]

My current hunch is that a well-done boxed text ad or skyscraper placed on the right and down a bit so that it straddles the fold on 800x and 1024x would be a killer for click-throughs.

[sagerock]

I think you are right, rc. I'm going to be trying that very placement with a new ad coming up.

Ads are a new phenomenon for me. It would seem to me, however, that a tall box or skyscraper would be beneficial in that the visitor continues to see it as they are scrolling down the page.

[Brett_Tabke]

Just as they developed a "banner blind" spot, I think most users will come to get a set of skyscrapper blinders too.

[chiyo]

im noticing that im not noticing :) skyscraper ads. I went to a lot of news sites today who use it, and its TOO big, Funnily enough i remember some of the small grahic ads, but I just cant remember the big ones or flash/skyscraper ones at all, apart from the fact they flashed or animated. Cant remember the brand name nor the pitch.

Then again, I surf a lot, Im not your average user.

Maybe big is not good after a while.

[skibum]

I'm noticing that I "forget" to visit more and more sites that clog up the page with skyscrapers. They'll probably get increased click-throughs for a while, but may see not only falling click-throughs in the future but falling impressions, that is unless they are really targeted and relevant to the accompanying content. It's the relevancy not the size that determines the success of an ad at least when it comes to conversion rates.