Directing Traffic to Less Popular Pages

Here are two methods - not new but infrequently utilised - of (re)directing traffic to less popular pages. Not always applicable but useful tools to have available in one's knowledge kit.

Rotate Stock

A well known principle in retail if not as widely practiced online. Think of a grocery store moving a stock item to a more prominent place, i.e. from floor to eye level, from back corner to front of aisle.

Some e-commerce sites knowing the value of eyetracking hotspot studies place the items they want to sell more of in the top 3-5 placements or dynamically rotate the listings through the prime converting first place(s). Just as SE traffic diminishes down the rankings so it is with sales down product lists.

Content sites can also leverage this behaviour to increase traffic to less popular pages. Any index/directory/category page that lists more than a screenfull of subsequent pages can benefit.

For example: you have a index/category page for Gulls, listing each of the 43 species by thumbnail, common and latin names, brief description and link to individual detail pages:
Glaucus Gull - Larus hyperboreus;
Glaucus-Winged Gull - Larus glaucescens;
Herring Gull - Larus argentatus;
Slaty-Backed Gull - Larus schistisagus;
Western Gull - Larus occidentalis;
etc.

You may have them listed by popularity, alphabetically, whatever. You may have a 'search' or 'order by' option. Regardless, with 43 possibilities there are going to be a majority of less popular gulls and less visited pages.

Testing is required to determine optimum gull rotation frequency but by bringing the bottom listing to the top and pushing the rest down a space, the 'golden triangle' eye tracking study results can be put to work. Even the most unappreciated gull page will get more traffic.

Popular gulls will lose some volume but it should be minor in percentage terms while the boost to the bottom can be orders of magnitude, i.e. 'losing' 10 visitors from a page that normally gets 100 (-10%) offset by adding 5-each to two that usually get 1 (twice +400%).

The bottom can be significantly raised with minor impact on the top. More well trafficked pages may mean more better converting pages. The SERP results can be positive over time as well.

Cut Across Site Architecture

When designing a site one of the first things decided is it's architecture: the knee bone is connected to the shin bone, the shin bone is connected to the ankle bone, etc. Look at any site map: a lot of 'toes'. Not a problem if the visitors logic is the site's architecture logic. What if more than one 'logic' is probable?

Unless you track visitor click paths you may never notice other 'logics' in play.

Example: You have a site devoted to colour. Logically you have it divided into the common wavelength nomenclature: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, etc. Unfortunately colour 'logic' for photographers can differ greatly from painters and dyers and glass makers.

If your site is sufficiently broad to incorporate all of these creating 'one logic to bring them and in the site bind them' would be difficult. Should the other logics not be discovered until after launch, via comments or click path analysis, the reno required would likely be a costly impractical total redesign.

A simpler solution may be to create sub-Home pages that cut across the current structure. If your site architecture is based on 'light' colour, add a sub-Home page based on 'paint' colour, a sub-Home page based on 'dyes' colour, a sub-Home page based on 'glass' colour, etc. Each one a collection of descriptions and intrasite links following the new logic.

Painters, dyers etc. will now find the site easier to navigate so are likely to stay longer, return more frequently, say nicer things. The non-light colour pages will see an increase in traffic volume. More pages with more traffic mean more conversion opportunities. There may also be longterm SERP improvement.

A further benefit is that sub-Home pages like the main Home page are logical bookmark pages. Having multiple bookmark pages especially ones that naturally filter/prequalify traffic is of enormous value.

Reproduced with permission from the Cre8asite topic: I'm Just A Lonely Page, Leverage Internal Linking to (re)Direct Traffic by iamlost.

 

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