Web 2.0?. No thank you sir.

[Asia_Expat]

I recently did a redesign on my website. My skill have developed and I wanted to sharpen up the overall look of the site.

I decided to go a simple as possible and took the opportunity to order the source a little better. I went for a clean white page 960px in width with a simple grey gradient background (just 1px repeaded) I eliminated nearly all of the advertising space and the only images are the site logo a a couple of ads, one 468x60 in the content and one large custom ad in the right hand column. On most monitors, it looks like a simple A4 page of white paper.

Since rolling it out, the pages per visit counter has doubled and in some cases, gone even higher. It's too soon to tell the effect on ad revenue but on my information site, it's clear that my visitors like the page as simple as possible and their engagement with my website has vastly improved.

Also, the pages load faster than you can blink.

[jbinbpt]

Good for you.

A fresh presentation of your content can make a big difference. I am interested in the effect on your ad revenue. It sounds like you severely cut down the ad space, let us know what direction the ads and revenue take.

[Asia_Expat]

I remembered this thread and your question about ad revenue... something quite unexpected happened. I've started getting loads of emails in my inbox from ad agencies, affiliate scheme managers and direct advertisers, asking about advertising options on my website. Previously, I maybe only got one such email every few months but in the last two weeks, I've been getting 1 or 2 per day!

There has been no change in my traffic levels since I started this thread... so I'm convinced it's down to the clean cut (and much more professional) look of my new page design.

[maximillianos]

so I'm convinced it's down to the clean cut (and much more professional) look of my new page design.

And perhaps the fact that you don't have an excessive amount of ad space any more, your property becomes much more appealing to potential advertisers.

Picture a Billboard with 25 different advertisements on it... Would you want to be number 26?

Now picture a billboard with 2 advertisements on it. You might consider being number 3...

[Jonesy]

Or, the increased traffic to the web site is from advertisers looking for one of those blank billboards....

[thinker]

Jonesy, Asia_Expat states there has been no change in his traffic levels...

[Jonesy]

huh?

"Since rolling it out, the pages per visit counter has doubled
and in some cases, gone even higher."

[Asia_Expat]

'pages per visit'

It's clear, no?

[JS_Harris]

You can't go wrong with lean and mean. Code bloat is a pet peeve of mine. My sites generally have as much content and as many features as my competitors but if you "view source" you can fit my entire page inside the head section of a competitors.

I bet if a mandatory law came out that forced webmaster to reduce needless bloat the total size of the internet (in terms of bytes) could be cut in half... and i'm not kidding.

Good stuff.

[Lexur]

In this DSL/cable times, I still believe in the importance of load time.
Most newspaper sites will need 20-25 secs. to load its pack of multimedia ads and so on.
Text with <HX> and just the necessary graphics will load in 2-3 secs.
Every time I change a server or re-start with a clean re-setup, the traffic rises a 5%. (Unfortunately, I can't change my servers every week).

[blue19]

am i missing something here? whats the site?

[rocknbil]

am i missing something here? whats the site?

Welcome aboard blue19, You could be [webmasterworld.com], see #13.

[phranque]

welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com], blue19!

see #13

not to mention TOS #21:

We do not allow review my site posts.