Comments on: WordPress 2-Column Themes: Left Sidebar or Right Sidebar?

By: Ben Tremblay

Ben Tremblay — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:02:56 +0000

Yes, it’s all about the “left to right” thing, but that can be interpreted two very different ways, depending on your intention.

I’m sure ads get noticed more on the left … because they snag the readers’ attention every time eye movement darts to the start of a new line of text.
They get noticed more because it’s aggressive. Ok, fine, then let’s call it “assertive”.

My angle is different: I want my readers to have, if not “a really pleasant experience”, at least a break from being manipulated and poked and snagged and grabbed at. So all my sidebars are on the right.

All depends on what a person wants to do!

By: Salvatore

Salvatore — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:18:32 +0000

Right sidebar: I don’t want to turn my head when I read a post.

By: Stephen Coley

Stephen Coley — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:46:06 +0000

I agree with David when it comes to people reading left to right. Where I differ is that I think it is more important for content to get noticed first. I know we would all like to make a little money with our blogs, or at least break even.

Here is my logic. If the first thing your visitors see are ads, they might click on an ad and get you some cents for that day. On the other hand if they see the content first, read it, and enjoy it…they’ll come back. Which gives them more of an opportunity to see an ad that pertains to them, and click it. And since they’re now one of your loyal readers…this might happen this week, and the next, and the next.

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:15:22 +0000

I don’t mind the sidebar being on either side but it must go well with the theme. A right sidebar seems to give more preference to content rather than the ads and the links so that is what I use.

By: Tao

Tao — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:32:34 +0000

@David

Thanks for that information. The site looks good with the Adsense well integrated too!
Well done and keep up the good work!

By: David Cooley

David Cooley — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:19:47 +0000

Tao, I have run test on left and right sidebar with Adsense. I found Adsense did better on left, however, with that said. PPC typically is not as good in any sidebar as in the body.

Over a year period, Top is best, Bottom is next and then Middle of page, all on left edge.

Here is an example of a good page for me. It is a custom Tag page on a Music site.

Eric Clapton

By: David Cooley

David Cooley — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:19:38 +0000

skarld, That is similar to what I was trying to point out in the original post.

The SEO issue was originally to put the content first, which is on the left, but, it is pretty easy now with CSS to place it on the left and still read the content first. Which give you the best of both worlds, design and SEO.

By: Tao

Tao — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:05:40 +0000

I also read about the “left to right heatmap” thing.

I also admit that people seem to be going more for the 125×125 ads too.

I would be interested to hear of anyone’s experience of having a site with lots of traffic with Adsense placed in the sidebar on the right and then swap the code to show it on the left and then note the earnings difference after.

By: skarld

skarld — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:37:59 +0000

Historically, I think navigation began on the left because it was more intuitive, but switched to the right for SEO.

By: Kyle Eslick

Kyle Eslick — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:08:16 +0000

@ David – Yes, you are correct, though it was more of a paraphrase.

I have updated the post with what I meant!