It just struck me while reading Jakob Nielsen’s eyetracking research into web usability and Google’s own Adsense heat maps, that sidebars on the left get a lot more attention from readers.
It makes sense for 2 reasons.
1) We read from left to right.
2) We’re so used to seeing right-sided sidebars that we’ve learnt to tune-off to them.
If this is really true, then the implications are great. For one, the CTR of your Adsense ads in the sidebar could go up, and people might actually start buying text link ads from you. If you display popular posts and comments on the sidebar, you will see an increase in readership too.
To test this theory, this blog now uses a left-sided sidebar. In response, a friend said, “It looks weird.” Then he added, “Well, at least I notice things in the sidebar that I didn’t before.”
What about you? Do notice the content in the sidebar now, where as you didn’t before?
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About the author
I'm Alex Choo and I live in sunny Singapore. I'm also the developer of WP Text Ads, a WordPress plugin that lets bloggers sell ads directly to advertisers so that they pay 0% in commissions and earn 100% in profits.
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Comments 3
Actually, I never thought of that. Something struck me as odd on your page at first but I _did_ notice the left hand column better. I’ve done some experimenting with the sidebars on my blog as well, and I’m not done yet.
Kudos for thinking outside the box.
Posted 30 Aug 2007 at 5:33 am ¶Mattias,
Thanks. Do let us know what your results are ok?
In what ways are you experimenting with the sidebar?
Posted 30 Aug 2007 at 1:32 pm ¶Всем привет! Я тут новичок. Примите в компанию?
Posted 20 Jun 2009 at 7:22 am ¶Post a Comment