The Good News on Links: How to Generate More Unique Visitors

Tyler Metcalf 17 Dec 2009

Links are Hotter than Indian Bhut Jolokia

At Arkayne, we like to stay up to date on all the latest tech trends, social-media news and grocers that have 2 for 1 Dreyers Ice Cream, and while I was cutting the coupon out of the penny saver, the December 09 issue of Wired Magazine caught my eye. It turned out to be the U.K. version.

The page that caught my eye was #56 (preview below). The issue’s Infoporn #8. Nick Bilton, a staffer of the New York Times who works in R&D, created this graphic to illustrate how many publishers are now using their home pages as link farms to the rest of their content. The graphic below seems to insinuate that there is a buffer zone to make sure you abide by when linking on your home page. Sites that have links that take up 40% to 80% of the page seem to have a much higher probability of generating more monthly unique visitors.

Infoporn #8 – Wired UK Dec 09′

Preposterous right? Maybe not. After perusing some of these sites, I found myself wondering why it is that I visit certain sites over others. I don’t like having to use the backwards navigation button, I like to be able to see many interesting articles or stories on the home page, that i can then Command + Click into a new tab. This allows me to pick everything i want to read, and then as soon as I’m done, I can exit the tab, and another story I wanted to read is waiting for me. So what does that have to do with Linking on your home page? Users want fast ways of finding content they like to read.

For example, i frequent the news aggregator Digg.com

As you can see from looking at the above screenshot, Digg easily links me to different categories, new articles, popular articles, comments, and more. All I have to do is decide what I’m interested in reading, and then Command + Click them, and wait til’ I’m done reading. I imagine that if you did the Math, you’d find that Digg’s homepage has links that account for 40% to 80% of it’s words.