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Mini-Session 4: (Why) Navigation is Important to You and Your Readers

March 12, 2007 by Liz Leave a Comment

Joe Hauckes

Liz has invited me to be a “speaker” at this Virtual Version of SOBCon07. I’m not really sure why she picked me, but I was more than happy to accept. So, whether you are able to attend the Conference in 3D in May or in 2D Now, Everyone is Welcome to join in Today at the SOBCon07 Virtual Version.

(Why) Navigation is Important to You and Your Readers

What’s the most annoying thing you encounter when you are looking for something specific? Let’s say you already found a Blog that looks promising as a place to get some answers to some questions you may have. You see the original article you landed on, but you have more questions.

You go through “Archives”. You hit the “Previous post” and “Next post” links in search of some specific information but you can’t seem to find what you are looking for. You know it should be there somewhere (and it very well could be) but you just can’t seem to find it.

What do you do next? You go somewhere else to find what you need.

That’s where NAVIGATION comes in…

When someone visits your Blog, especially for the first time, you need to give them a way to find other things that could be of interest to them. You want to draw them deeper into your site. In order to do that you should give them access to the places they can find what they are looking for by providing things like Series You Have Written, some of your Most Popular Posts and Posts related to the subject of the post they landed on.

Show them your Recent Posts so they can get a better idea of the overal Theme and Subject Matter of your Blog. Provide a Category List covering the various topics you have covered previously.

Put links to the Most Recent Comments and any Special Projects you have running at the time. Invite visitors to join in, let them know you want them to be part of your community. The more Intra-links you provide the deeper new readers might dig to find information and possibly become Loyal Readers and Friends.

The only way I can achive my objective to help out others working at home is to makeit easy for them to READ what I’ve WRITTEN. And this can Best be accomplished by providing really Good NAVIGATION to other posts on My Blog.

What are your thoughts about NAVIGATION? Can you think of other reasons NAVIGATION is important to you? Your Readers?

Thank you, Joe!
__________________
Visit Joe’s Blog Working at Home on the Internet where his main objective is to help others through my experiences in Working at Home by writing helpful articles. .–ME “Liz” Strauss
______________________

Let’s open the Q&A . . .

I’ll go first, Joe, what’s your biggest frustration when navigating blogs?


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During the Virtual Conference today, you can take $100 off registration to SOBCon 07.

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Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, joe-hauckes, navigation, Working-at-Home-on-the-Internet

Comments

  1. Ben Yoskovitz says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:07 AM

    Joe – I’ll ask another question – How do you TRACK what links people are clicking on INSIDE your blog (not coming from elsewhere or exiting)?

    And how important do you think that is to track?

    Reply
  2. Char says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:08 AM

    Ben,
    You can use http://www.crazyegg.com to track what links people are clicking on.

    Reply
  3. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:09 AM

    Hey Liz,
    My biggest frustration is not being able to find something I’m looking for. It can be something simple like finding a related article to the one I just read. It just bothers me when I have to click dozens of times to find one thing.

    Reply
  4. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:11 AM

    Ben,
    I have been using Crazy Egg, it shows hot zones and clicks within your blog. It makes it easy to see what people are interested in.

    Reply
  5. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:14 AM

    Come on guys and gals, I know you have more questions… 🙂

    Reply
  6. Karin says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:15 AM

    Like to suggest Statcounter as webtracker, very, very handy tool.

    And Joe, totally agree with your ideas on navigation, sometimes even more important than contents (because what good is good content if nobody can find it?)

    Reply
  7. Char says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:16 AM

    Not really a question, but navigation is one of the things I tend to have to overhaul the most when taking on a re-design of a client site. Logical navigation is one of the things I tend to get hung up on a lot.

    Reply
  8. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:16 AM

    I think I’m gonna cry, nobody wants to talk to me. 🙁

    Reply
  9. Carolyn Manning says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:16 AM

    Actually, I’m in the middle of questioning myself right now and wondering why I havn’t given enough thought to navigation.

    Reply
  10. Mark McGuinness says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:18 AM

    I think navigation is as important for the blogger as visitors – I’ve revamped my navigation a few times after spending a while looking for one of my own posts!

    Reply
  11. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:19 AM

    Karin,
    I also use statcounter, but that is more for seeing where people are coming From I think. But you’re right, it’s Very handy and I use it daily.

    Reply
  12. Ben Yoskovitz says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:20 AM

    Joe – Crazy Egg is good – but it only works for 1 page at a time, right? You setup a “project” which equals 1 page on your site – certainly the home page is key – but with so much organic traffic from Google deep linking – what tools would you recommend or how important is it to track those other links on other pages?

    Reply
  13. GP says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:20 AM

    joe, your loyal compadre GP checking in (pun intended)… I think navigating to other areas of the blog are good. What about category setup? I ‘ve done the “label” thing in the new blogger, but now i’ve started a second blog http://makemontanamemories.blogspot.com which will focus more on navigating our fair state of Montana (with a stop of course at usn’s! ):)

    Can navigation assist with having a blog that covers several different niches (ie travel, running a business, blogging, travel tips) without getting too cumbersome?

    See now you dont have to cry
    🙂
    GP in Montana

    Reply
  14. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:21 AM

    Carolyn,
    That’s why I picked Nav to speak on, it is often overlooked.

    Reply
  15. Sandy Renshaw says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:21 AM

    LOL – I agree with Mark. My site needs some navigation work.

    When I am looking for something in particular, I first check for a site search tool.

    Reply
  16. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:22 AM

    Mark,
    I have gone through that too often myself, that’s why I try to make sure people can find what they’re looking for.

    Reply
  17. Char says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:22 AM

    MyBlogLog tells us what is being clicked on – even though it is not by page. I think that the level of importance for clicks on specific links has a lot to do with the goals of your site.

    Reply
  18. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:24 AM

    Ben,
    So far I haven’t found anything that tracks the overall site.
    Let me know if you find one. 😉

    Reply
  19. Ben Yoskovitz says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:24 AM

    Navigation is one of the single most important things on any blog.

    Although I can’t prove it statistically, I think adding POPULAR POSTS on my first sidebar was a very smart move.

    RECENT COMMENTS is OK, but POPULAR POSTS shows people exactly what your blog is about, what others liked and what’s important.

    I’ve had at least 2 people tell me they clicked through on those regularly…

    Reply
  20. Ben Yoskovitz says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:26 AM

    Char – seems to me clicking through into a site is always important, no matter what?

    Even if my goal is money off Google AdSense – I want to keep someone around long enough to warrant clicking on an ad.

    If I want a subscriber/new reader – clicking deep into the site is even more important.

    And although blogs give you lots of links – like Category and Archive links – I don’t think those are very effective at all.

    Popular Posts / Recent Posts / Navigation across the top…that’s where it’s at. Right Joe? (please say yes, Ben. *grin*)

    Reply
  21. Steli says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:26 AM

    Thankx Joe – you made me rethink the navigation model on my blog. I just made some small changes ( but maybe important) to improve my blog. Kudos to you! In terms of tracking I just want to suggest one little thing: track only data that you will use. Less is sometimes more 😉

    Reply
  22. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:26 AM

    Char,
    I haven’t tried MyBlogLog yet, do you think it is worth all the problems I have heard about?

    Reply
  23. Karin says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:27 AM

    Joe, not to ‘disagree’ with you, but Statcounter has added some more tools to their ‘tool-set’ again, like various ways to look at popular pages etc.
    The ‘visitors-path’ option shows you also the whole route a visitor takes.

    Must say I’m not familiar with Crazy Egg, so can’t compare the two of them.

    Reply
  24. Carolyn Manning says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:28 AM

    Wow! Apparently I have a lot of work to do once the site is up & running again.

    Reply
  25. Char says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:28 AM

    I spent most of the weekend revamping my personal blog http://www.casualkeystrokes.com. While I have all the major pieces in place, I have a list of about 8 more things to add to it – most of which have to do with adding content value to the navigation.

    Besides Popular Posts, what does everyone consider to be MUST haves?

    Reply
  26. Ben Yoskovitz says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:28 AM

    Something I just discovered:
    http://rawlinson.us/blog/?p=212

    It’s a WordPress plugin that’ll pull content from other feeds. You can include multiple feeds if you like.

    If you’ve got multiple blogs and want a way to combine all the stuff into 1 list, this could be interesting. And it’s navigation-related…

    Reply
  27. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:29 AM

    (Yes Ben)
    Steli,
    Sometimes it’s the small changes that make a Big difference to your readers.
    I agree with you that less is sometimes more, the hard part is finding the right less 😉

    Reply
  28. Char says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:31 AM

    Joe, I have had no problems with MyBlogLog at all. I have found it to be a really nice addition to my blogs and I have discovered some great blogs through it.

    Reply
  29. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:32 AM

    Karin,
    I do like the fact that you can see where people are going within the site on the newer version of statcounter. I forgot to mention that part.

    Reply
  30. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:34 AM

    You guys are coming up with some great suggestions, I’m going to have to try some of them out.
    I just worry about Blog Clutter (~~shiver~~)

    Reply
  31. Steli says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:34 AM

    hahaha…exactly!:)

    Reply
  32. Rick Cockrum says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:34 AM

    On WordPress I use the Landing Sites for people who are coming from Google, and a related posts plugin to help people see other posts that may be related to what the reader is looking for. Other than that, my navigation is pretty standard. What do you think about using a tag cloud instead of categories for navigation?

    Reply
  33. Karin says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:35 AM

    Very glad we’re in agreement 😉
    (like to keep friends)

    Reply
  34. Char says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:35 AM

    Joe,
    I am finding that using “Pages” is a good way to cut down on some of the blog clutter.

    Reply
  35. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:38 AM

    Rick,
    I was going to try that Landing Sites plugin, but lost the link somewhere. Thanks for bringing it along. 🙂
    As far as tag clouds, I personaly don’t think they help in navigation at all, they just take up space.

    Reply
  36. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:40 AM

    Char,
    Pages on my site work fine, but the template puts them in the head by default. That just fills up the top and again Blog Clutter…

    Reply
  37. Char says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:41 AM

    All, I am soooo sad to say this, but I have got to run. I’ll be back later on to check in with everyone.

    Keep the conversations going – and be sure Chris saves me a Klondike Bar for later!

    Reply
  38. Carolyn Manning says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:42 AM

    Bye, Char

    Reply
  39. Karin says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:43 AM

    For my blogs I use typepad.com and I find the TypeList funtion (where you can create your own items for you sidebar(s)) very handy to help with the navigation in my blogs, or to other worthwile blogs/sites/articles.

    Reply
  40. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:43 AM

    See ya Char, thanks for your input. Always good to talk to you. 🙂

    Reply
  41. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:45 AM

    I’ve heard good things about typepad, Karin, but I think I found a home with WordPress. 🙂

    Reply
  42. Ben Yoskovitz says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:52 AM

    Rick – I use Landing Sites too – although I think you get blank results when people come from Google Reader. Not sure that bug was ever fixed.

    Reply
  43. Carolyn Manning says

    March 12, 2007 at 11:53 AM

    I know this wasn’t billed as the “let’s teach Carolyn Manning hour”, but she sure learned a lot of good stuff. 🙂

    Reply
  44. Rick Cockrum says

    March 12, 2007 at 12:02 PM

    No, that bug hasn’t been fixed. I didn’t know it existed until you mentioned it just now.

    Reply
  45. Ellen Weber says

    March 12, 2007 at 12:06 PM

    Great stuff Joe and great discussion – thanks. I often feel caught between the need to have graet art on a blog and the need to keep my head above water with the tech stuff to make it happen. Any hope for folks like me – with gaps – would be great! Ellen

    Reply
  46. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 12:13 PM

    Hey Ellen,
    Blogging is a balancing act, give good content to your readers and keeping up with all the latest tech stuff to make the blog work and look better.
    You can send me an email if you have any specific questions you think I could help with.
    As can anyone else. 😉

    Reply
  47. HART (1-800-HART) says

    March 12, 2007 at 1:06 PM

    Hi Joe. I was thinking that the navigation on this blog “sucks” on days like today. There should be the links above the post that goes to the PREVIOUS post and the NEXT post. (sean!)

    For instance, I started at post 1 a few moments ago in my bloglines and read the comments. Now, I had to click the header and scroll down from the 5th post back to the 2nd post (as I wanted to read these in order).

    As for other topics .. (quickies)

    * Don’t like CrazyEgg! Hate it!
    * Ben/Joe – Check my own Must-Have Plugins .. I use Firestats Plugin and it seems to show sites clicked inside the blog fine .. plus the WordPress Reports Plugin ties in the analytics and feedburner stats into your dashboard.
    * I like tag-clouds – especially since WP2.1 screwed everything up combining bookmarks/blogroll/categories. I use them on 1800HART (sidebar) and my Battling Series (Footer) with help from UTW

    I do have one question. Is anybody using the landing page of WP2.1 option? I want to set a few sites to a page – but, how do you get people to start seeing the posts? You can’t just click the top header or a HOME link – you get that durn page. // Okay. To session five. ~waves

    Reply
  48. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 3:12 PM

    Hey HART,
    Good to see ya, you always bring something worthwhile to the conversation.
    You have to talk to Liz about the Nav here, nothing to do with that. I think it’s just the way things work until someone writes a plugin to fix it. 🙂
    I just read a post over at Smiley Cat about Tag Clouds, I don’t think it helps with navigation too much, but from what Christian says and the links he provides, they can be VERY good for SEO. 😉
    I want to check out that Firestats plugin you mentioned, I’ll let you know what I think.

    Reply
  49. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 3:14 PM

    Oh, and I don’t know about that landing page plugin, I think it defeats the purpose if you are trying to keep the current post on the front page. 😉

    Reply
  50. HART (1-800-HART) says

    March 12, 2007 at 3:29 PM

    Sorry, didn’t want to confuse – it’s not the landing page PLUGIN i was talking about (when people arrive via search engines etc) .. In wordpress, it’s the Options/Reading/Front Page option to have a static landing page as the front page – that I was referring to.

    EG. I’ve set my ABOUT page as the front landing page. This is just a site aggregating posts from the listed links. Now – how do I get to the “blog” where the posts actually are from this page? That’s what I don’t know. I just don’t get that option in WP2.1

    Reply
  51. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 4:13 PM

    HART,
    Did you try putting a link to “HOME” at the end of the about page?
    I don’t know if that would work, but it makes sense.
    You would think the guru’s at WP would have thought of a way to navigate to the current post with only one click.
    I can play around and see if I can come up with a better answer for you.

    Reply
  52. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 4:17 PM

    I just tried the home link and it just takes you back to the top of the page, but i’m sure you already know that.
    Let me think about this one and I’ll let you know if I come up with anything that works. 😉

    Reply
  53. HART (1-800-HART) says

    March 12, 2007 at 4:22 PM

    I’ve placed a link at the bottom to go “home” but, it just goes to the same front/landing page which is my About Page. What version are you running Joe? It’s hard to tell when I view source 🙂 .. if you are not running 2.1+ you don’t have that option.

    Reply
  54. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 4:27 PM

    I’m running 2.1.2 at this point. I haven’t even tried to use that option and probably won’t.
    I noticed all of the links that you have on that page go to various blogs. Are you trying to write posts on THIS Site?

    Reply
  55. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 4:35 PM

    Hey HART,
    Try thi Plugin, it may do what you want and give you somoe more options on managing the site.
    http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/home-page-control
    You may have to make some adjustments to your existing template/options, but it may be the right answer for your needs.

    Reply
  56. HART (1-800-HART) says

    March 12, 2007 at 4:41 PM

    Joe – that Ilfilosofo plugin was for pre-2.1 blogs as this plugin is built into out WP2.1 blogs now 🙂

    I’ve reset the options so the HOME page is back to the latest posts E.G. this is where I wanted it to go back to – the latest posts .. I suspect the only way I can do this is reconfigure the permalinks into an imaginery sub-sub-folder for the blog posts but, in all reality I’ve spent too much time thinking about this and no sense wasting your time on it either. Thanks for thinking about it 🙂

    Reply
  57. Joe says

    March 12, 2007 at 5:04 PM

    HART,It was worth a try to help a friend. 🙂

    Reply

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