I'm still thinking about possible improvements to SoftTester - I'm finding it hard to switch context! One thing that strikes me is that the categories are all quite PAD file category oriented - which is fine and there's no need to change. You've also got keyword based pages - which is also fine.
But ... if you look at the kind of hits you get they are often around certain types of program. By researching keywords I can also see that people look a lot for specific kinds of software to download. These kinds of software don't line up with the PAD file categories.
Now we've introduced the idea of Related Programs based on the top 10 programs using similar keywords, how about adding new top categories? These categories should be linked from all pages as per the existing categories BUT the new category page should contain a list of programs in the new category, i.e. they shouldn't be nested pages.
The point about the new categories is to get page titles that match what a lot of people are looking for.
I'd be tempted to list these new categories independently on the front page to make them stand out, e.g. in a panel saying Popular Picks or some such. This panel could then be on every page in SoftTester.
From research, here's what I think an initial set of new categories could be:
free dvd software
free photo editing software
free antivirus software
free screensavers
but there might be more to add in the future.
The page titles would then be along the lines of:
download free dvd software
download free photo editing software
download free antivirus software
download free screensavers
... and the h1 and h2 would follow the lines of the existing category pages.
Remember that the new category pages should probably just list programs and not contain nested subcategories. You may need to limit the list to 50 programs in a category or break the list into multiple pages.
The page titles should make the new pages be in with a chance of getting a fair few hits - if you're lucky.
Thoughts?
by ML
OK.
ReplyDeleteThe categgories which softtester users are those used in the pad file, theres no felibility there.
However I do understand and could picture this kind of setup.
I defeinelty agree there needs to be some sort of dynamic content providing provision.
Maybe its worthwhile looking at the top download sites.
I added the keyword pages as I thought that would bring traffic, there a site I always used a lot called bykeywords.com (I think).
Also some sites add popular recently used search phrases under the search box, maybe this woulf be good.
I looked at the top sites to back up the initial idea. Some of them do this, e.g. 5star shareware.
ReplyDeleteShould add that the number of searches for things like free dvd software or free photo editing software are ENORMOUS - outstripping searches for Free Software Downloads even. The idea is a way of tapping into this search traffic by automatically/ dynamically generating landing pages with good titles matching the phrases.
ReplyDeleteGuess I need to store searches too?
ReplyDeleteWhat data should I store?
If you mean storing the strings people search for no your site then yes I think that's a very good idea. It might give you clues as to what might make good categories/ landing pages in the future.
ReplyDeleteWe're coming up with quite a lot of ideas. I think there's a lot of potential for SoftTester!
Done :)
ReplyDelete