As Content Grows, Where to Go?

theChronic · 06-01-2006, 08:33 PM

Hey whats up,
I was thinking about the future of my websites and was wondering, as I get into the hundreds of articles and only have like 5 - 10 different sections, what am I supposed to do with the organization of my site? Just have it paginated and have a lot of pages (then only the new content will prob be accessed most unless by search engine or search function)? Add more specific sections?

Not sure what to think / do to plan ahead.

Thanks for any input

John

Izzmo · 06-01-2006, 10:25 PM

I say get a search feature and then also maybe on a side menu, put the different categories you have and when a user clicks on that category, it brings them to a page with all the articles in that category so they can sift through it. Those are basically the only things you really can do if you keep adding articles daily.

theChronic · 06-01-2006, 11:34 PM

Yea, that is how it is set up now. I guess my mind just doesn't like thinking about the disorganization of users "sifting" through the content. Any other ideas?

Thnx btw
John

Net-Margin · 06-02-2006, 03:38 AM

You could have a catagory inside a category for example.

- General Development

- Search Engine Optimization
- Web Marketing
- Web Hosting

- Client-Side Development

- Javascript
- DHTML

- Serverside Development

- PHP

If you get what I mean but you can also add a search function for a better usability as well.

Izzmo · 06-02-2006, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theChronic

Yea, that is how it is set up now. I guess my mind just doesn't like thinking about the disorganization of users "sifting" through the content. Any other ideas?

Thnx btw
John

Well "sifting" doesn't mean it's disorganized, it kinda means it's organized if you allow them to go through there own choice of category with all the news shown from the newest to oldest

That's pretty organized.

**LazyJim** · 06-05-2006, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theChronic

Hey whats up,
I was thinking about the future of my websites and was wondering, as I get into the hundreds of articles and only have like 5 - 10 different sections, what am I supposed to do with the organization of my site? Just have it paginated and have a lot of pages (then only the new content will prob be accessed most unless by search engine or search function)? Add more specific sections?

Not sure what to think / do to plan ahead.

Thanks for any input

John

If it gets too big breaking down some categories is often helpfull, don't remove the option of treating the new sub-categories as one whole category though. Also bear in mind it certainly possible to divide the set into too many categories.

You can also change the order results are displayed and provide search filters.

You could highlight popular articles, or whatever sort of articles you want. Perhaps introduce a customer rating system or provide links that are related to the article the user has just read, (related by their content or because many other people read both articles).

The question is how when and if people will want look for articles and why. Only when you identify these can you decide the most appropriate way to facilitate their needs.

theChronic · 06-05-2006, 01:30 PM

Thanks for the good comments, like Net-Margin said, I already have it split up into large categories and then sub categories but in his example, my concern would be if the sub category say SEO gets too big. Then I would need to resort to LazyJim's comment of splitting up the sub-categories. My only issue is that Joomla only lets you split things up into Sections and then Categories (Basically categories and one sub category).

Debating whether to switch from Joomla and try Typo3 or something, or what.. *ponders*

**LazyJim** · 06-05-2006, 05:21 PM

Well a constraint like that makes you work harder to get the functionality you want, it could be good in general to stop Joomla users over-categorising. However if your site needs more levels of sub-categories it would be silly to subject you to artificial constraints.

Perhaps start invistigating possibilities only for now and wait and see how it grows?

mbongwe · 06-11-2006, 05:41 AM

You can combine sub-categorizing (like suggested above) with blog-like structure, i.e. allowing to browse by month/year. Search engine is also good idea. And don't forget to add a sitemap :-)

megamoose · 06-11-2006, 06:43 AM

Also it should be noted that make sure your pages are SEO. If there are people who are looking for an article or specific information on how to do something and do a search on google or another search engine, the chances of your page being shown are more likely.

...and if they are automatically taken to the page they actually want to see, they won't have to sift through the site

Just my 2c.

Mark

dcristo · 06-12-2006, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theChronic

Hey whats up,
I was thinking about the future of my websites and was wondering, as I get into the hundreds of articles and only have like 5 - 10 different sections, what am I supposed to do with the organization of my site? Just have it paginated and have a lot of pages (then only the new content will prob be accessed most unless by search engine or search function)? Add more specific sections?

Not sure what to think / do to plan ahead.

Thanks for any input

John

Adsense Search is cool to add search functionality to sites.

I usually upload most of the content pages to the root directory, then link to the new pages where appropriate.