The ongoing search for a better website
I’ve been thinking and reading about website usability, SEO, design – a whole bunch of website and blog related things. A discussion about tags and categories sparked an urge in me to learn more about SEO, links and over-all blog architecture.
One of my first ideas is that I might like to remove the list of categories from the sidebar, placing it on the archives page instead. The reasons being: fewer links on each page increases the value of each link on that page; the list doesn’t necessarily serve a significant purpose (on the homepage); reduce clutter.
What should an archives page be?
That brought me to my archives page – I only recently set it up, it isn’t linked from my homepage yet. Currently it has a list of months and a list of categories. So, I was wondering, “What should an archives page look like? What should it contain?”
The answer to the first question is simple (in my mind), “It should be neat and pretty, as (hopefully) the rest of your site is.” The answer to the second question is slightly more ambiguous in that, you obviously want a page that is useful, easy to read, easy to navigate… but what exactly is on it?
In an attempt to figure it out, I cruised around the archive pages of some well respected and/or popular blogs. Guess what I found! That’s right, a seemingly vast array of archive displaying methods that left my head spinning!
I looked at ProBlogger, ChrisG.com, Pearsonified, Wpdesigner, Binary Moon, Inspiration Bit, Circle Six Design, JustinBlanton.com and Geek With Laptop.
In those sites I found 1 search box (separate from the main site’s search box), 2 year + month links in a nice compact space, 2 month lists, 3 category lists, 4 lists of posts separated into categories, 4 lists of posts separated into months, 1 list of posts (no separations).
Of particular note was Circle Six Design’s archive page with their ‘live archive’, which allows them to show posts by month and by category in an elegant and easy-to-use way. Also, JustinBlanton.com’s archives were simple and readable – they are generated by his Smart Archives plugin. Geek With Laptop also has swank archives using his (originally Shawn Grimes’ ) SRG Clean Archives plugin, although I found differentiating the expandable links and the “detailed monthly archive” links confusing at first.
Is an archives page the right way to go?
Well, having looked at some lovely (and some not so) archive pages. It seems that it can be useful to link to pages where you will find more detail (posts, or their excerpts), but also to list posts according to month or category. However, is funnelling your more interested readers through the archives page really the best way to go?
SEOmoz article, What laziness taught me about the importance of flat architecture, suggests not. It says that for small sites – of which I would consider this to be one – you should aim for website architecture where the home page is the main hub for directing readers anywhere they might want to go. In a two tier way, as opposed to a three-four teir way. For example, homepage -> archives -> categories -> individual post or homepage -> about -> more about you.
Perhaps my definition of a “small site” is lacking. Should you measure size by readership, number of posts, number of pages, or a combination of the three? It seems to me that if you’ve got a lot of posts it might be useful to have a page that combines several methods of finding things.
Still thinking about it
I’m going to mull over it a bit more. Further information, comments and opinions are more than welcome!
Of course, none of this takes into account any popular posts, related posts and recent posts lists that you might have or use. I would assume that those things would be on the homepage and/or single post pages. If they contribute to your archives page decision it would be because they are useful for directing users to where you want them to go. Where as an archives page is for users to find what they want.
First of all, Kristarella, thanks for including my blog among all those popular/respectful blogs. That’s quite an honour.
I think I approached my archives the lazy way, by simply installing a plugin, written by Ronalfy that creates an easy-to-follow Sitemap of your blog. I myself am still thinking about various ways for promoting and displaying my old posts. I think the key is to not only rely on Archives page, but use other features as well – like dedicated posts, Popular posts, Recommended posts, etc.
You’re welcome inspirationbit. You can probably thank LaurenMarie – she speaks highly of you. 🙂
Interesting to know that you used a plugin. So far some of my favourite archive set-ups seem to use plugins. I was hoping to find a way to use the page template functionality – then I’m not dependent on a plugin that may not be compatible with future versions etc.
I agree, I think popular posts and recommended posts are a really good way to help people navigate your articles. My thoughts are that those types of lists belong on the front and post pages because they’re valuable links. Then category and monthly lists could go on the archive page, which you could instruct search engines to not index, or index less often.
Interesting post 🙂
Currently I use the old SRG archives plugin for my archives but I am intending to restructure them to, hopefully, make them easier to navigate.
I wouldn’t recommend removing categories from the home page altogether, but you should consider merging the less important categories with the categories that represent your blog better, e.g. the categories that you hardly post in anymore should be merged with frequently updated categories.
Did I use the word ‘category’ too many times? 😛
Ben – once I saw the SRG plugin I recognised that what you had there were dates (because the plugin’s archive page had both dates and page counts). Otherwise I think it’s pretty easy to navigate. I like it. 🙂
Moshin – I’m currently going through my old posts and updating tags and categories. I could very well delete a lot of them because they’re drivel, but I’ll keep them for sentimental reasons. 😛 So I will be merging and deleting some categories. Haha, you did say “categories” 5 times, but it was perfectly readable – no stuttering what-so-ever!
Many blog archives lack of a search function and most are quite unorganized – data is not useful if you can’t find it 😉