By Month Archive Section in the Sidebar — Needed or Not?
On Monday (06/25/07) I posted simple instructions outlining the necessary steps for adding category totals to you sidebar. Graphic artist David Airey (of davidairey.co.uk) stopped by and commented that he was thinking about doing just what I described. I thanked him and then told him to stop back later in the week as I was soon posting similar instructions for adding an archive total to the sidebar. David wondered if the archive section was even necessary as he had already removed it from his site. That comment got me thinking about the overall value of the archive section.
I did a simple site redesign a few months ago and when I did I specifically discussed the sidebars. At that time I said the following about the archive section:
Monthly Archives: Another standard blog section that provides simple navigation. Not as important, or as useful, as the other navigation sections and therefore I’ll place it at the bottom of the sidebar.
I was on the right track at the time but I never went so far as to remove that section. That being the case, I’d like to throw this question out to anyone coming across this post:
What are your thoughts on the standard by-month-archive section in a blog’s sidebar?
Also, let everyone know whether it’s needed or not by taking the single question poll below. I’ll keep the poll open till Monday 07/02/07 at which time I’ll follow up with a post and review the final votes.
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Filed under: Blogging Related
Thanks for the link love, Bret. Nice anchor text too.
I’ve voted for your poll, and am interested in finding out the results.
Bye for now.
Thanks for taking the poll David. Hopefully I can get some good discussion going here on this topic. I think it’s a good question you brought up and I’d like to hear what others have to say on the subject.
Voted also. I reckon they’re not that important. For a young blog, they can have a negative effect because visitors see it’s new, and so it loses credibility.
For an old blog, the vast amount of links can be overwhelming, and so people avoid clicking on any of them.
Thanks for voting Armen, and thanks for adding your comments about the by-month-archive section. Greatly appreciated.
I have been advocating this for a long time. Monthly archives on the sidebar are a waste!
If you really want to have archives, use a single page that lists all your posts.
Bret - I removed the Monthly Archive in the sidebar some time ago. I did put an Archive link at the top of Instigator Blog, and I use a plugin to display the archive sorted by month.
I don’t track how many people click there and visit the archive - my guess: very, very few.
I also moved to a Category Cloud instead of a laundry list. In some ways it better represents the mish mash of things I write about, but I’ve never measured its effectiveness for people using the site.
Daniel and Ben, thanks for your input on the topic. I did notice that both of you have removed the by-month-archive section, and so far it looks like the majority agrees with your thoughts. Of course, I’ll try to remain impartial and wait for all votes to be cast.
FYI: Voting in the poll will stay open till Sunday night July 1, 2007. If you know anyone that might have an opinion on this topic, by all means send them over.
I’m not sure having a monthly archive like you do helps much for the reader. What you might need, though, is get an archive similar to the one in my blog as I’ve seen people use it.
Hi Ilker, thanks for the input. Are you talking about the sidebar section near the bottom where it says “Worth a Look”? I like that idea…expanding the current month and leaving the remaining months collapsed.