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APBNews is a crime reporting site. Being an analyst at heart, I enjoyed looking through this one for the investigative methodologies, that mind set common to all analytical professions, as well as the differences in crime analysis from my own work. I recommend this site.
Although APBNews appears fairly well laid out and has good content, it makes three serious blunders which may put them under. Those are:
A report of this is posted at http://www.SitePsych.com/apbnews.html, along with a form to let you run this analysis tool on your own web page.
To make intelligent use of these traffic targets requires a slight change in the structure of the site as seen by long term visitors such as the search engines. The stories need to be classified into categories, then each needs to be placed on a category-named page, rather than on a date coded page, so the content is always fresh.
When new content arrives, the existing content at the category named URL is be moved to a time-code-named page, and linked from an archive page backing the category-named page. Each time-code-named page is also linked from multiple archive indexes for less frequent terms, which also serve as excellent indexing and traffic targets. This technique can easily be automated using internal page submission scripts without the need for an extensive database system. (Though it can also be implemented using a database system.)
Having new content always arriving at a known URL encourages both frequent indexing by search engines at the category level, from which it woll chase down and index new time-code-named pages as well as encouraging widespread book-marking and linking from external sites which refer to similar content. Once these visitors have seen the page, the archive index page lets them gain a perspective on the story by consulting similar stories. And remember, each page view is a banner exposure opportunity.
For example, stories of thefts from actresses would be in a personal-theft directory, rotating through actress.html or perhaps pearl-necklace.html as they happened. Result:
Give the people what they want, and establish a category for them which they can repeatedly check. That saves you time trying to market each page, and provides good target area which continues to grow!
The best example of that, is NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, one of the best linked pages on the web. Changed every day, it serves as a launch point for many astronomy and science buffs. If it were not a government site, it would provide prime banner advertising real estate!
In many cases, heavier in-text linking could double, even triple banner exposure rates. Once you have drawn a person off the home page, you have a person who is categorically interested, and who slowly gives you an extremely good view of what he or she is interested in. This may be used to provide highly selective advertising which the visitor would find harder and harder to ignore.
E.G. if you are looking at celebrity thefts of pearls, you may be prime candidate for faux pearls in the style stolen; a link in the text towards preventative measures section will further qualify, or disqualify, you as a potential buyer of personal security items for the duration of your visit, and perhaps for some time to come. If the visitor shows no interest in such tips, one may suspect them to be more suitable for exposure to ads for higher price jewelry. This is prime marketing information!
Beyond that, the analysis of traffic patterns will show what the public really wants to know, allowing far more intelligent steering of the news gathering and news presentation teams. After all, visitors vote for what they want to see with every click of the button! What more could a market researcher want -- votes on specific words and concepts, given freely and repeatedly by each visitor! This media is beyond a market researcher's wildest dreams!!! Use the media's abilities, don't try to force it into old and worthless forms.
But is APBNews.com taking any advantage of it? Are you taking advantage of these kinds of things on YOUR sites?
APBNews, Dr. Koop.com, and many other dotcoms share these critical deficiencies. The web is NOT print media, and can not be successfully sold in the same manner as print media. Those who try, are doomed to failure. Those who look at what really happens on their site, who hold their true goals in mind, can benefit considerably by the extreme flexibility and extreme feedback this rich media provides.
This is the kind of advice and research I and http://www.SitepPych.com provide.
-JVV-