Design ups CTR

**Chris** · 10-02-2006, 12:52 PM

I've had my literature site redesigned.

http://www.online-literature.com/

You can see the old design here for now:

http://www.online-literature.com/quotes/quotations.php

I've still not updated all the pages/systems so a few use the old design.

Anyways, the top google leaderboard, right under the menu, has double the CTR it did in the old design. It was always close to my horizontal menu, but being close isn't the same as being directly beneat.

Since this was also the highest earning (daily, not per page view) ad placement in all of my sites put together, having it double in CTR is quite nice.

Of course I've only got around 16 hours worth of data, but so far it looks good.

**Emancipator** · 10-02-2006, 01:50 PM

i like the new layout better chris. I am no expert but i think it works well.

**agua** · 10-02-2006, 04:32 PM

Agreed the new layout is much cleaner and easier to follow.

I wonder if the CTR would increase if you changed the blue top link colour of the top google leaderboard to orange like the square box 250 x 300 google ad to the right hand side, or even to the same brown as the background of the navigation.

**Chris** · 10-02-2006, 04:37 PM

That is what I tested before agua, and blue tends to be best.

**AmbulanceBlues** · 10-02-2006, 07:27 PM

Like they say in that really annoying BMW commercial:

When performance impacts design, design returns the favor.

Ugh.

With your google ads so close to your nav menu, mightn't those click-throughs be the result of accidental clicks, therefore with lower action rates, therefore actually lowering the value of your CTR over time?

Or am I full of crap?

**Masetek** · 10-02-2006, 09:30 PM

Nice design looks good mate. I'm surprised at such a jump in ctr though, let's hope it holds

**Doug** · 10-02-2006, 10:49 PM

My eyes are definately drawn to the ads on the new design a lot more than on the old design.

**agua** · 10-03-2006, 12:07 AM

Originally Posted by Chris

That is what I tested before agua, and blue tends to be best.

Ah - I'm going to try that on one of my sites... in fact I'm going to read your adsense optimization article again

**Mike** · 10-03-2006, 06:55 AM

That layout looks so much better, I really like it

I can't comment on the ad placements though, Adsense gets blocked for me now...

**Chris** · 10-03-2006, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by AmbulanceBlues

Like they say in that really annoying BMW commercial:

Ugh.

With your google ads so close to your nav menu, mightn't those click-throughs be the result of accidental clicks, therefore with lower action rates, therefore actually lowering the value of your CTR over time?

Or am I full of crap?

Some of them I think, but it certainly does not account for the entire increase. The fact is what with the onmouseover color change I don't really see people getting much confused and clicking on the ad when they mean to be clicking on the menu, they definitely will end up reading the ad more often though.

**KelliShaver** · 10-03-2006, 12:18 PM

The nav is pretty big and bold, I doubt you're getting many accidental clicks.

**Todd W** · 10-04-2006, 09:26 AM

Looks good Chris!

It really is amazing what a design change can do to any site!
Traffic, clicks, etc

**s2kinteg916** · 10-04-2006, 11:04 AM

That feature... that integrates ur forum with ur cms is neat how does that work ?

Im loving the new deisgn it looks so professional.. and great placement and colors

**Chris** · 10-04-2006, 11:23 AM

Its a pretty standard hack, just a little more robust than the one you see on the frontpage of this site and many sites (That lists most recent topics). I of course did a little customization to it.

**STI** · 12-02-2006, 12:37 AM

Chris, I'm curious. Are you still seeing CTRs that are double what they once were?

Also, a few questions regarding your testing strategy:

- Do you typically test just one element (design change) at a time?
- How long do you usually test before drawing conclusions?