Alexandra Melo-Mora

Introduction to Web Publishing

My site: woodmagazine.com

WEBSITE OVERVIEW

General site/company information:

The purpose of woodmagazine.com is to deliver knowledge to a finely tuned audience based on

quality, customer service, and trusted value. As you can tell from the title of the site it's finely tuned

audience is for wood workers. They provide quality in many ways. They do this by creating a

community base and from there narrow it down even more to forums, blogs, newsletters, and more. As

well as having communities they have information for projects from trusted sources and as well as

information on tools to purchase for the projects that are shown. Providing customer service is an

important service to provide so that those who still require more information on something can easily

contact those in with answers.

The content of this site varies from projects to tips to supplies and areas in between. Within

each menu tab are multiple sub categories. Here is a screen shot to demonstrate the vast number of

subcategories the site provides.

Woodmagazine.com is one of many sites owned by Meredith Corporations. Meredith Co. has

been around for more than 110 years. Meredith accesses the public in many media platforms such as

internet, magazines, television, and more. Outside of woodmagazine.com Meredith has Better Homes

& Gardens, All recipes, Parents, Meredith Beauty, and more. Each individual site owned by Meredith

focuses solely on one area and going as in depth as they can. For example this is shown above with

woodmagazine.com and their subcategories.

Competing Site:

In my opinion a site that is most like woodmagazine.com is americanwoodworker.com. I

believe this site is a big competitor, because they feature many of the same options as

woodmagazine.com, one of which include a subscription to their own magazine. In the screen shot

below you can see the comparison of the home pages of both sites. You can see that both sites

emphasize the title of their site, have multiple roll over tabs, a search bar in the upper right corner, and

similar information. The major difference that in my opinion makes woodmagazine.com a better

competitor is that their site seems more up to date. Americanwoodworker.com looks more like an

outdated site with up kept information and I do not feel like that is enough.

DESIGN & LAYOUT ANALYSIS

Browser Type:

When using my preferred browser, Google Chrome, in comparison to Mozilla Firefox

and Internet Explorer there were very minor differences. The first and most noticeable difference is that

Chrome was much larger then Firefox was only a bit smaller therefore allowing a little more

information below the main image to be seen. Then Explorer was much smaller than both browsers

before. I feel like that would cause huge issues with older people or those with poor eye sight. Out of

all three browsers Explorer took the longest to go from one page to another within the site. The font is

another difference between the browsers. Chrome and Explorer seem to have a thinner font while

Firefox looks as if the text is in bold.

Monitor Resolution:

With an original resolution of 1920 x 1080 the amount of information able to be seen on

each browser was different. Once I changed the resolution to the lowest, 1024 x 768, there was a huge

change. Woodmagazine.com was the same size therefore showing the same amount of information on

each browser. In the screen shots below you can see the difference between the two resolutions. Both

screen shots are taken on Chrome.

1920 x 1080:

1024 x 768:

Layout:

◦ Page Elements:

The lower two screen shots have boxes and numbers surrounding the areas that are

depicted in Above the Fold. 1. Header – Due to the fact we learned to read left to right our eyes

naturally begin looking at the upper left corner of a site. That is generally why the title of the site is

placed there in the header. The header is the first thing that we naturally look at and is typically

consistent throughout pages in the site. A few pages within this site the header shifts, but it is styled the

same. 2. Navigation – Navigation is the next important area in a site. While the navigation can be

considered a part of the header as it stays consistent through the pages as well it is its own separate

area. Without navigation people can't move about the site in an orderly manner. This also allows people

to find things much more easily. 3. Feature – The feature in this site is a scroll-able slide-show.

Typically the feature will have the most important or recent additions to the site. The feature on a

website is comparable to what newspapers would feature above the fold to grab readers attentions and

get readers to choose their newspaper. 4. Body/Content – The body and content contains other articles,

projects, tips, and more from the site that may also be featured. The body would be the next few stories

below the fold. The pictures add a focal point that grab readers attention which leads to the heading and

hopefully from there the reader will want to know more and continue to that area of the site.

5. Sidebar – The sidebar is typically where sites will put advertisements, social media links, and

promotions for the sites magazine as shown below. 6. Footer – In the second screen shot we see the

bottom of the site where the footer is located. The footer while it can be an after thought can also prove

to be very useful. Typically the footer has features such as site information, subscriptions, contact

information, and any other factual elements necessary. and 7. Background – The background to this

site is very simple. Everything is on a white rectangle with an outer grey and a few shades of an

attention grabbing red in the most used areas. This works well with the site, because there is a lot of

information and pictures a loud background could be very distracting and cause legibility issues.

◦ Above the Fold:

As mentioned before and in the book using the term “above the fold” refers to

newspapers and the content that editors found the most attention grabbing that would be placed literally

above where newspapers were folded. When referred to a website the fold would be where the web site

ends due to the browser. On woodmagazine.com I feel like some of the content is very appropriately

placed here. There are one time offers and daily contests that subscribers or regular visitors will want to

know about. Then there is information on random pages that could be a hit or miss for visitors. It could

be something very useful or information that a visitor isn't interested in or looking for.

◦ Upper Left:

In the upper left corner we see the title of the site, woodmagazine.com, a Facebook

“like” button, and a Twitter and Pinterest “follow” button. As you go throughout the site the same

images present themselves. As we know the upper left corner is important, because it is typically where

our eyes travel to. By placing these buttons in the same place throughout the pages it provides a

stability so that if someone needed to go to the home page they would know to click on the title of the

website or if as they went through the content they realized it held very helpful information they can

click the social media buttons and get more content from different social media platforms. I do believe

this is good placement on their part, especially with the social media buttons. While there are also

buttons on the sidebar of the homepage for their social media, having them on the upper left corner

provides convenience.

◦ Ads:

Below are three screen shots depicting advertisement on one page alone. In the first

screen shot there is an advertisement to buy their magazines. In the sidebar there is a payed

advertisement that changes occasionally based on time or if you go to a different page. These two ads

are above the fold so as to stand out and immediately catch the users attention. In the second screen

shot we see more advertisements in the sidebar, but below the fold. These deal with the site whether it

is a chance to win money or monthly prizes. In the last screen shot we see another advertisement to buy

their magazine. This advertisement is at the footer of the page. By spreading out the advertisements as

such they become less overwhelming, but still give a constant reminder of their magazine, prizes, or

other companies paid advertisements.

TRAFFIC ANALYSIS

Traffic Source: Quantcast.com

◦ Woodmagazine.com Average Unique Visitors: 1,733 per day

◦ Analysis: In the traffic statistics Quantcast says that globally there are 75,464 visits per

month which calculates to only 1.82 visits per person a month. When looking at the whole

picture it looks as though woodmagazine.com would get quite busy, but it does not seem

like there is a very good return rate.

◦ Americanwoodworker.com Average Unique Visitors: “This site has not implemented

Quantcast Measurement”

◦ Analysis: Due to the fact the competing site hasn't established itself on Quantcast tells me

that it isn't as up kept or possibly not viewed nearly as much as woodmagazine.com.

Traffic Source: Alexa.com

◦ Woodmagazine.com Bounce Rate: [45.50%] Page Views Per Visitor: [3.21] Daily Time on

Site: [2:38]

◦ Analysis: The bounce rate is almost at 50% this shows that about half of the people that

come to the site do not go any further than the first page. The statistics for that are not very

good. The rest of the people that go beyond the home page visit approximately 3 pages and

the average time a user spends on the site is 2 and a half minutes. Compared to sites used

daily by many users such as Facebook these statistics do not prove to be doing so well.

Compared to other sites similar to woodmagazine.com the statistics say something much

different.

◦ Americanwoodworker.com Bounce Rate: [73.30%] Page Views Per Visitor: [1.85] Daily

Time on Site: [2:23]

◦ Analysis: The bounce rate is more than 50% which means a majority of people do not even

stay on the home page. If you go back to the comparison screen shot on page 3 you can see

that the home page isn't too impressive. Visuals play a huge part in a website due to the fact

that it needs to be easily accessible as well as eye-catching, but not too busy. Their site can

be busy with all the advertisements and text. Users that go beyond the home page view one

if not two more pages. The average user then spends 2 minutes and 23 seconds. While a lot

of this data is very close to woodmagazine.com there is a difference and you can see that

users prefer woodmagazine.com over americanwoodworker.com.

Media Kit / Advertiser Info Analysis

◦ Woodmagazine.com Unique Visitors: 1,733

◦ Analysis:

Traffic Conclusion

Over all the traffic information shows that woodmagazine.com is more of a commonly

used site for wood working. I found out many searched words that lead directly to woodmagazine.com

and other sites that direct to woodmagazine.com. While some of the site user statistics would look low

to people in a generation full of social media and sites used daily, the statistics compared to the

competitive site show that woodmagazine.com is used more frequently. The statistics could also prove

that woodmagazine.com is very efficient in finding the information that users are seeking.

POPULARITY ANALYSIS

Link Popularity Source: MajesticSEO.com

◦ Woodmagazine.com No. of Referring Domains/Backlinks: [2,633/160,287]

◦ Analysis:

There are a larger amount of backlinks to referring domains. This shows that many of

the sites contain multiple links to woodmagazine.com. This also shows that the backlink profile is very

weak.

◦ Americanwoodworker.com No. of Referring Domains/Backlinks: [6,800/7,243,421]

◦ Analysis:

The same can be said about americanwoodworker.com and its referring domains and

backlinks. Americanwoodworker.com on the other hand has many more backlinks which suggests that

their backlink profile does not do well either.

Social Media Analysis

◦ Brand-based success:

woodmagazine.com americanwoodworker.com

Facebook Page Likes 125169 N/A

Twitter Followers 11.8K N/A

Google Plus +1s 688 N/A

◦ Analysis:

It is more difficult to make a proper analysis with the date provided, because the

competitor, americanwoodworker.com, did not have any Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus account.

For woodmagazine.com on its own, these numbers do very well. This shows people access their social

media accounts which can in turn lead to more people visiting and using their site.

◦ Page-based success:

woodmagazine.com americanwoodworker.com

Facebook Page-Specific Likes 1 N/A

Twitter Page Shares unavailable N/A

Other Shares

◦ Analysis:

When searching for Facebook page-specific likes I could only find one page which was

the tips page in woodmagazine.com. I assume that this was the only specific like page, because the tips

page is most commonly used. I could not find the number of Twitter page shares, but I based on their

Twitter account I can assume that while they post towards specific pages that many people will go off

of that and use the link or share it with the rest of their social media group. Since there were no

Facebook and Twitter for americanwoodworker.com there were no page-specific likes or page shares.

Popularity Conclusions

In conclusion, the popularity of a site starts with the search engine. Users searching for

detailed to vague information which in turn leads to your site or will not lead to it. From there if your

site is one of the top few a user will most likely check out your site. Woodmagazine.com does a good

job of fitting into the algorithm Google has created to be a top site. Just by searching “wood tips”

woodmagazine.com came up as the first two links. Woodmagazine.com grabs the attention of their

close knit market and maintain it through their site as well as their multiple social media accounts,

updating them frequently.

SUCCESS CONCLUSIONS

I think for a smaller niche site woodmagazine.com does well for itself. Specific markets

are going to grab the attention of less people than if it were a website that had an overall theme of

house work that would include cooking, wood working, house projects. By delving deeper into one

area, traffic statistics, for the website will seem lower, because less people may need that specific of a

market. Then when you look at popularity as a whole I think woodmagazine.com does a good job of

promoting social media. Most people turn to social media and this way the user can get the information

they may want without having to go to the site. Other users may see sources on social media and want

to learn more which in turn will lead them to the website. Woodmagazine.com is an overall very

efficient site and is well kept. The fact that the site has their statistics on every traffic site while the

competitor did not shows that it is often a first choice and the owners want to keep everything updated,

from the site to their statistics on other sites. The layout and design of the site are updated and handle

well with different browsers and resolution. The site is user friendly as well and is not overwhelming in

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