It’s been a couple weeks since the website redesign was launched and I’ve put together some preliminary data on what effect the new look has had on traffic.

First, unique visits are down… barely. There’s was a 2% drop between September and October. Part of this is the tiny bit viewers lost in transition. And part is because there hasn’t been much new, exciting content to bring people in through the RSS feed (though subscriptions increased 12%) or social networks.

Second, return visits and page views are way up. Return visitors increased by 40% over the previous month and page views increased 72%.

I attribute this to the new look and better organization. Less clutter and more white space makes reading easier for the viewer. Related post lists at the end of each article and the enhanced footer have pulled viewers to content they missed in the past.

I’ve also been using the “more” feature from WordPress on lengthy posts so viewers hitting an article from the home page have to click through to get the whole story. I’m using this sparingly as I don’t want it to take away from the overall experience, but that has definitely increased the number of page views.

Adsense earnings are down. Part of this is because some ads were “hidden” when viewers used the “more” feature and jumped past the ads. Also, I took Adsense offline for about a week while I tried Bidvertiser. That was an expensive test.

Over the next month you’ll see minor changes in structure as the logs tell me what needs adjusting. And improved writing as I’ve been brushing up. My goal is an improved experience for you. If you have any suggestions, drop them in the comments below.

PS. The advertising program is getting off to a slow start. Prices are low - check it out!

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