Titles Only or Summaries?
First, the titles-only looks lends the blog that minimalist look that I was aspiring for. Introducing summaries even if they are only 50 words per post, those are 250 words more than I wish to be on the front page while they add precious little. If people are not going to click after reading the title, I don’t see why they should after reading the first fifty words of a post especially if they do not directly add or extend to the post’s clickability. Also, I think just displaying your post title gives you a stronger incentive to relay as much information as possible in as few words as possible to the reader. It imposes discipline on a verbose writer like me.
This aspect was also argued by Tyme White at 9rules as a reason why they do not feature summaries on their pages. Chugs and I had also discussed this while redesigning DesiPundit but going for the minimalist look wasn’t on top of my agenda for DesiPundit. Some may argue that WordPress offers an excerpt feature that you can use to specify the summary you want your posts to display; something like an tagline or synopsis in magazine articles. But that imposes an additional burden while publishing something quick. Also, some of my posts are shorter than the summary might be and just features a link so in those cases, it is redundant. I wouldn’t mind writing a summary for longer posts but not unless I’m convinced it is worth it. This helps for search engine listings because you are competing with other blogs offering similar content/advice and you want to make sure people click on your blog link.
Some say that new readers might be turned off by excluding summaries but chances are that any new reader is more likely to arrive on a single post page either through a search referral from Google or via another blog/website referral. I use the ‘What Would Seth Godin Do’ plugin to welcome and nudge them toward my archives pages for more content.
Another suggestion was to offer a collapsible roll-down feature to hide the summaries beneath each post, much like the (+) does on the Movie Reviews page. Now that would be definitely worth exploring because it would still allow me to keep my front page minimalist and yet offer the opportunity for readers to check out the summary before clicking through to the whole post. But unfortunately, coding this in is beyond my technical abilities; I tried looking through the Movies plugin code but it was overwhelming. If anyone of you knows how to, I would be glad if you could help out.
Finally, if you are reading this via a feed reader or via email, this post and its arguments are moot. In fact, for my regular readers I do prefer if you read me via a feed reader. Nothing like a feed reader to keep it clean and minimalist, right? All focus on the content and none on the bells and whistles. I know you’ll click through and comment if you’ve anything important to add to the discussion.
“Titles Only or Summaries?” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=3100] was published Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 1:45 pm by Patrix, filed under 9rules, Design, Weblogs, and tagged as blogging, Design, theme, WordPress. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.
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I find reading through feedreader pretty boring; I the blog and its design are often an extension of the blogger’s personality – and I’d like to have the feeling while reading their blogs.
That said, lesser the better for me! Heck I want the “only” titles look on my blog (though I dont even blog anymore hehe!)
S
9 months ago replyI like reading blogs through Google Reader and coming over to comment or read through comments, as you suggest..Hope you find a kind soul who can help you with the + idea!
9 months ago replyI would prefer if my reader hopped over to my blog to read but I think feed readers are convenient and efficient. But of course, I like to hop over once in a while to check out a new design or a sidebar feature if necessary.
Anyway, thanks for the “only” titles vote :)
9 months ago replyWell, I’m trying to reach out to some people and will post the query on WP Forums so lets see.
9 months ago replyFor what they are worth, my two cents below.
Summaries for me. It’s like turning the book and reading the blurb, then continuing to read the opening paragraph before thumbing through its pages.
Personally I do not base my decision to read further on opening lines alone for, far too many times it can lead to someone deliberately writing something fancy to catch one’s attention while offering nothing interesting beyond it, and at other times when one can risk missing out on interesting pieces just because one relied on the opening lines alone to avoid reading further.
I feel minimalism is fine but upto a point. It might work for those who read your blog regularly, but am not so sure about new readers coming upon headlines. Moreover there’s no way of knowing which headline will serve appropriately for what kind of reader. A grey area.
Laying out posts one below the other allows a reader to scan through several before either reading one of them or reading all, or none at all. But a reader who will click on a title to read a post may not return to the menu because it might be lost to him unless of course the links are provided alongside as a sub-menu of sorts. If not the reader will need to find a way to return to the home page or click on archives. The ‘Previous’, ‘Next’ links do not help much, more for the reason that a reader might prefer to be able to make a choice on what to read by what is laid out to them as in ‘several at once’ rather than ‘discover’ with a ‘Previous’, ‘Next’ button.
Typically sites register a bounce rate (from the home page) between 55-75 %, one reason why it might help to have summaries.
Actually no harm in trying out the minimalist theme for, it might be a learning in reader behaviour as well. Would be interesting to see what you blog analyticfs tells you. Maybe it could be a post by itself :-)
9 months ago replyThanks for your detailed comment. I still remain unconvinced to display summaries. As you say, people who write something fancy in their titles just to catch attention are just as likely not to reveal much in the summaries either.
Also, I think new readers rarely arrive at the home page unless it is from someone’s blogroll (a rarity these days). They come to a single post from either a search engine or referral from another blog. In that case, the bounce rate would be measured TO the homepage. But I rather have them browse through my archives or the colophon. I even use a WWSGD plugin and if you want to see it in action, clear your cookies and see any single post. The Related Posts in addition to the Previous and Next post links provide ample chances for discovery and keep them hooked.
The extensive links provided in the sidebar in terms of category archives, recent comments, recent posts, and other link widgets are rarely clicked in my experience so why add to the clutter.
9 months ago replyVery true. With blogs more than ‘conventional’ sites folks will likely land via search keyword(s), on an inner page that is. No two questions about that.
Surprisingly I find all visitors landing on my blog through image search actually landing on the main blog url instead of landing on the post whose image they clicked through as one might’ve expected. And this is amounting to a substantial portion of the traffic. However, with text searches they land on the relevant page like you said.
Yup, the related posts and the ‘prev’ and ‘next’ do show up. You are correct about side-bar links being rarely clicked, typically less than 1%.
With the latest feature to become available which will allow the user to check any one single page for past instances of data on it by using a drop-down in a browser to specify date and time might actually do away with archives to an extent too.
It would be interesting to learn of what the traffic data from your new design throws up in terms of user reading patterns.
It’s fascinating really, this user experience business.
9 months ago replyI don’t know why people would land on your homepage even if they come through an image search. I searched for a few images and it took me to the blog’s single post page where the photo existed. Unless users are cut-pasting the URL (in green) in the search results which I highly doubt. It doesn’t happen for me. For e.g. searching for “solar system”, people land on this page on my blog and not on the homepage. I wonder if it is a Blogger issue.
Also, what latest feature are you talking about in the fourth paragraph? Is it in Firefox or WordPress?
I’ll definitely share what I learn about traffic data after this new design was implemented. As of now, the traffic hasn’t decline; in fact for obvious reasons has inched up a little.
9 months ago replyI answered the question you asked in this post’s title with “full post”. :)
I have come to realise that all my nudging and pushing the reader isn’t going to do my blog much good. I do not much care for SEO any more. So my primary concern is to get the content to the reader.
If they subscribe via feed readers, they get the full text. If they come to the post page, they get the full text. If they come to the main page, they get the full text. Most of my traffic comes from my Twitter feed, so I do not consider it wise to make them click more links to get to the content.
Also, I am not a verbose writer like you. My posts hardly ever exceed 500 words. That much, to be sure, is an easy enough read on the main page.
9 months ago replySEO was not one of my reasons but minimalism was. As you mention, if your readers are using feed readers, then this question is irrelevant. The question is where do readers come to from your Twitter feed – your home page or post page? I assume the latter since you would share a post permalink instead of the homepage link. If so, it hardly matters what your front page displays. No additional clicks involved.
And I’m working on my verbosity :)
9 months ago reply