@BTwoWeb
Latest posts by Jon Dykstra (see all)
- Discover How I Successfully Pick Products to Promote as an Affiliate Marketer - March 26, 2013
- WordPress Website Design: Widget Zone Home Page vs. Traditional Blog - January 23, 2013
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One of the big WordPress website design questions that must be address before choosing a WordPress theme is whether the website will use a particular home page layout or simply post the most recent blog posts.
What makes this issue more interesting is that there are some WordPress themes that have home pages comprised solely of widget zones where a website can list recent posts as well as other content.
Therefore, when building a WordPress website, should you go with a widget zone home page or use a traditional blog home page?
Both home page formats have their advantages. I set those out below.
Advantages of a Widget Zone Home Page
1. Home page design and content flexibility
Widget zones enable you to insert any kind of content within the zone. Moreover, there isn’t a limit to the amount of content. Therefore, one widget zone provides for a great deal of flexibility. Multiple widget zones configured into columns provide even more home page layout options.
The more flexibility you have, the easier it is to test different content on your home page to what works best.
Determining what works best depends on what your primary goal with your website is. Therefore, it’s imperative you know exactly what you want your website to do for you when planning and building it (as well as choosing a theme if you’re using WordPress).
2. Best of both worlds
Some premium themes include what’s called a “featured posts” widget, which means the home page can be formatted easily as a traditional blog home page. However, because it’s a widget zone, additional content formats can be included such as a slide show, links to specific pages, contact forms, etc.
3. Feature your most important content
With a widget zone home page, you can get your most important content displayed front and center on your home page. This is important if you have specific goals or purposes for your website that you achieve with your content. It may be selling something, getting people to read a particular article,
Advantages of a traditional “recent blog post” home page format
1. Excellent for an audience
If your website/blog has an audience who revisit your site, placing your latest blog posts on the home page makes the most sense so that readers don’t keep running into content they’ve seen before. This makes it easier to build up a loyal audience who get their eyeballs on your latest work quickly upon visiting your website.
2. Zero formatting involved
When you have a widget-zone home page, there’s quite a bit of formatting, planning and design work involved to get the home page just right. When going the traditional blog-format, there’s zero home page formatting required. You simply focus on providing top notch content and let the WordPress CMS do the work for you.
How do you choose?
If you’re website is a true blog, go with the traditional, non-widget zone home page format. If your goal is to publish timely and new posts regularly for readers, the blog format is for you.
However, if you’re publishing a magazine website, business website or wish to feature a portfolio or e-commerce catalogue page, a widget-zone home page is best. The widget zone home page will give you more flexibility in formatting and laying out your content to create a high-calibre home page.
Twitter: tricky_techno
Home Page design,is very important.It must be simply and attractive.Just like this blog
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Twitter: googlai
Thank you for sharing your best ideas.
Googma Sansar recently posted..33 Ways to Make Money Online
Twitter: pathaderavi
Does Enabling too many Widgets can slow down wordpress blog?
Ravi recently posted..4 ways to Auto Post WordPress Posts to Social Networks
Twitter: prabhatrayal
i personally prefer the “”recent post” type homepage because i have tried both of them. earlier i was using magazine theme and it decreased my bounce rate significantly but there were many other problems like a bit of coding and page loading time also increased so i removed it.
now i am using simple format and it shows my recent post and i feel this configuration is best.
prabhat recently posted..Micromax A 116 Canvas HD Price in India, Specs and Features
Twitter: fred_henning
A very insightful article Jon!
I chose a widget zone premium wordpress theme because my plans were to promote my style as an author, not just a reporter. Right out of the box, this platform gave me all the flexibility I could ever possibly need.
Lots of widgets are built in, though I use only a few of them. Others were downloaded from WordPress Plugins. An unlimited trove of opportunities are available there.
To make this short, my blogsite is a comfortable place to hang out, to learn stuff and to be entertained. Too, I constantly crawl the site to optimize and tweak it. Many comments say it is well balanced, colorful, informative and entertaining. I owe most of that to the widgets.
Thanks! I felt right at home with your post.
Fred
Fred Henning recently posted..Four Best Principles that Secure Success
I think the final formatting decisions should be made by your readers. Of course, you should design a page that you like as well, but you should welcome feedback to come to a final decision in how your site should look. Whatever layout best suits the needs of your readers should be implemented, because really, that is what we are doing with page layout anyway, creating something appealing to look at. Let the decision be a two way street, if your audience wants something, let them have it!
Twitter: jksingh99
Hi Paul,
I think you’ve made an important and valid point here. So, in a way, we can safely state that, content and consumer, both are kings.
In such a scenario, the use of A/B testing of websites becomes crucial and must be undertaken at regular intervals to arrive at the desired results. It is highly that bloggers and writers conduct these tests diligently.
Regards
Jay
Jay recently posted..Towards Energy Solutions One Step At A Time
For corporate websites, I think the spreading article posts out through your site in various areas is the best route. This allows the user to see quality content always in front of your sales pitch. However, on blog websites, I would think latest posts would be the best format.
Sir Dykstra,
Great breakdown of the basic advantages of both approaches to designing a web site.
One thing I have considered on my blog is that at the moment it is just that: a blog. I do not see much of a purpose in creating a landing page that requires users to make an additional click to access the value-based content, so for me it makes much more sense to set the landing page as that with intro snippets from the four or five most recent posts. I do also have a “EVO’s Faves” scroller at the top, which provides easy access to earlier articles that are not in the top four but that are valuable to all.
My plan is that when I have finished writing, editing, producing and bundling an eBook on Dating, Relationships, Lifestyle and Learning (the focus of my blog), then I can create a more diverse landing page, as I will actually have two products to offer.
Does that make sense? Do you have any comments/critiques to my approach to all this?
Cheers!
Twitter: BTwoWeb
Hi Evo,
I understand your approach. A blog style works great as well for specific sites. I use this layout on my blogs that I update frequently.
If you do roll out products for sale, you will want to test what converts better. Sometimes quality blog content will convert better than a landing page. For example, blog posts may result in subscribers who you can then promote your product to.
At the end of the day, you want to test different layouts.
Jon recently posted..13 Great WordPress Plugins I Use for Local Business Websites
I’ve found that enabling too many widgets does slow down a site. I recently had to change some code and remove some to speed things up.
Excellent article.
Mike Levinson recently posted..Home Surveillance Systems
Twitter: techupdatesorg
I like traditional Home Design for blogs . Its the best one for regular blogs but for the landing pages results may be alternate .
Narender recently posted..Tips to Increase Domain Authority
Home is so important because when visitor visit on your site and they don’t attract with your site then leave your page if your page is so attractive then visitor stay on page and second thing is our content also good, no grammatical mistake and relevant content.
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Twitter: It_Freelancing
Hey Jon,
Really nice points, No doubts that plugins have played important role in the success of WordPress but you can’t ignore widgets too. They also help your blog to give user friendly information at right place.
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Twitter: jonnalarajkumar
One of the best advantages of recent blog post format will help to index each and every post fast than normal. Gives the user latest updates.
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Twitter: sjrancor
Hello,Yes site home page and navigation must be effective and look-feel is healthy, so that user can spend his more time on site easily.
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Twitter: bivori
Wigetized home page is attractive and stands out of the whole lot of crowd, however, it is not as friendly for the readers of your blog. Lets take example of famousBloggers.net and shoutmeLoud.com. Both are community blogs and both used to have recent-posts-first layout. But after some time FamousBloggers.net switched to website-style-homepage and even me often feels it harder to find the recent post there. It expects an extra click to reach up to the list of recent posts.
If you have a blog (not a website), better stick with recent-posts-first. I guess, that’s what blog readers expect.
Suresh Khanal recently posted..Don’t Ignore These SEO Tips for WordPress Websites
Twitter: BTwoWeb
Hi Suresh,
I agree with you, but a widgetized home page doesn’t eliminate the possibility of using recent posts. Many widget-based themes offer a “featured posts” widget which you can structure to list recent posts. Because it’s a widget means you have the flexibility to add other content if you wish … you’re not relegated to only recent posts.
Jon recently posted..Website Structure – Pages vs. Posts, Navigation and Layout
WordPress is primarily used in blogging and is very popular around the world.I feel that widget zone blogging can attract more traffic than traditional blogging style.Anyways, thanks for the post!
Twitter: seojus1
I know that if I want to implement any info very quickly I just add a widget. Editing the home page to make it look right just does not seem right, that;s why there is a sidebar for many types of info.
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It sounds really interesting. I totally agree that the home page layout is critical for design, and flexibility is exactly what we need when creating the home pages. Thanks for your advice – it sounds reasonable as always)
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Twitter: internetdreamof
It all depends on what you like.
Also, what purpose is your blog going to give to your audience?
Answer those questions first and see what works.
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Twitter: @rommysunnyblog
hmm Nice ideas i think traditional is more handy…i stick to that
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Twitter: Techblowup
We should use widget zone homepage as it is quite helpful in bounding readers with all of your blog posts as you can use many widgets like popular posts, related posts etc.
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hey Jon,
Nice post and thanks for sharing this post with us. I learned lots of good things from this post and I prefer widget zone homepage design.
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Twitter: Techblowup
Yes I also prefer widget zone home page design Sudipto.
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widget zone home page design have lots of features and suits our blog that’s why many of us are using it.
Sudipto recently posted..Best Android Phone Under 10000