"Deep linking" provoking design changes on article Web pages

Posted by John Burke on April 25, 2005 at 6:54 PM

With so many Web surfers linking to newspapers' online articles through RSS, aggregators, blogs and even other articles, Steve Outing at Editor & Publisher emphasizes the growing importance of a multi-functional template for article pages. When readers link to articles through other sources, they skip the banner page of a site, the page that traditionally serves as the table of contents that theoretically keeps the reader on that site reading that paper's news. Some studies that found that a mere 23% of a paper's readers entered through the home page show that if editors want to keep readers on their site, articles will need to be accompanied with enticements. Outing uses the example of Canada's The Globe & Mail who revamped their Website, adding the possibility to change the size of the text, added links to photo galleries, related stories, interactive features, columnists, and stories from the rest of the paper. Their daily page views skyrocketed 25% after the redesign. For editors considering redesigning their Websites, Outing lists a number of example sites and gives his own opinions about the best ways to keep the readers coming.

Source: Editor and Publisher through PaidContent

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