Egg Hunt Anyone?
Hopefully you answer no to this question! An egg hunt is great for little kids and parents around Easter time, but it's certainly not what you want people to think of when searching for something on your site. You don't want to make people run around your site looking for what they need; you want to make it readily available.
Multiple points of entry (MPoE), is the name of the game. Many times people say "why do you have a link to widgets in two places, isn't that redundant?". Yes it is, and for very good reason. Would you have noticed the link to widgets if it was only in one place and that one place was at the bottom of a list of other links? Probably not. Sure it may seem a little redundant, but wouldn't you rather be redundant and have people find what they want then be conservative and have them "hunt for eggs"?
Now don't get me wrong, I think that there is a fine line between being positively redundant and negatively redundant. You certainly do not want to start making every word in every sentence on your website a link. However, appropriately done, a little redundancy can be a positive thing.
Take for example www.target.com - they have multiple ways to get to the same thing. What they did however is use different wording each time. So if I wanted to get some bedding I can click on 'Bed and Bath' on the top nav bar, or 'Bedding' on the left nav bar, or further down there is 'Bed and Bath' as a text link on the left nav bar. Three ways on one page to get to the same area of the site, but it works and it doesn't feel like they are yelling at me to get there.
Take some time to look at your site. When you are on the home page specifically or any landing page you should have at least two ways to get to the same place (for the most important sections at least). Have one way be a nice navigation button/link and another be a content bucket or ad/button. I think you'll like the results you see.
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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Multiple points of entry (MPoE), is the name of the game. Many times people say "why do you have a link to widgets in two places, isn't that redundant?". Yes it is, and for very good reason. Would you have noticed the link to widgets if it was only in one place and that one place was at the bottom of a list of other links? Probably not. Sure it may seem a little redundant, but wouldn't you rather be redundant and have people find what they want then be conservative and have them "hunt for eggs"?
Now don't get me wrong, I think that there is a fine line between being positively redundant and negatively redundant. You certainly do not want to start making every word in every sentence on your website a link. However, appropriately done, a little redundancy can be a positive thing.
Take for example www.target.com - they have multiple ways to get to the same thing. What they did however is use different wording each time. So if I wanted to get some bedding I can click on 'Bed and Bath' on the top nav bar, or 'Bedding' on the left nav bar, or further down there is 'Bed and Bath' as a text link on the left nav bar. Three ways on one page to get to the same area of the site, but it works and it doesn't feel like they are yelling at me to get there.
Take some time to look at your site. When you are on the home page specifically or any landing page you should have at least two ways to get to the same place (for the most important sections at least). Have one way be a nice navigation button/link and another be a content bucket or ad/button. I think you'll like the results you see.
--------------
Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Labels: internet marketing, marketing, tricks
posted by Ignite Media LLC at
Friday, March 21, 2008
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