Winged Wolf Studio » Webcomic SEO Tips

So you have WordPress, but you’re not using tags or categories?

KEZ — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:19:23 +0000

What is wrong with you? (I don’t really mean that, I promise!)

Everyone out there who has a wordpress blog (with comicpress, inkblot or slideshow), you need to realize something right now: WP is SET-UP to get you search referrals, to have multiple types of archives, and to easily navigate your posts/pages. It does this through the use of things called “categories” and things called “tags.”

A category is exactly what it sounds like. With wordpress/comicpress, everyone has a “blog” category and a “comic” category. Are you aware that you can have many MORE categories? How about “storyline” or “arc” categories? (this is a function of CP 2.7, by the way, but you don’t need it for what I’m saying here.) You can select multiple categories when publishing posts and comics. For example, here at Winged Wolf I have my categories set up on the side there *points right* When I publish this article, I’m going to select the “tutorial” category, the “tips and tricks” category, and the “Webcomic SEO” category. If you clicked any of those links, posts in those categories show up. This is archiving by category. If you are publishing comics from, ex, Chapter 1, you could select the “comic” category AND a “chapter 1″ category. Clicking the “chapter 1″ category would take you to all the comics you also put in that category.

A “tag” is a keyword listed (usually) at the bottom of a post. When you choose tags, pretend as if you are a person SEARCHING for your post on Google. What keywords or phrases would you search for? Which keywords are popular enough that someone will actually USE it, but not so popular that your post would end up on the 71st page of the search listings?

You can ALSO archive by tags the same way you archive by categories. Each time you choose a tag, WP automatically creates an archive for it. When someone clicks on that tag, all of those posts you’ve tagged WITH that word appear. For example, if you clicked “Project Wonderful” in my tag-cloud at the bottom of my side-bar, you’d go to this page. This isn’t important enough that I would make a CATEGORY for Project Wonderful, so I use tags. I don’t want to over-organize, so I don’t make a category for every tag I use.

When you are modding your WP sites, remember that these functions are there for you (to increase SEO) and for your readers, so don’t just not use them (or erase the functions in your sidebars) because you don’t see other people using them. Requiem for example, categorizes each comic post with the characters in it, so people searching for specific characters can easily find them. You can find this function on Requiem’s right sidebar, in the categories dropdown.

You can add categories in your WP admin panel (posts–>categories in 2.7, settings–>categories in 2.5, if I remember right). You should also be able to add categories whenever you make a post too. You add tags when you make a post as well.

Another thing to consider is using perma-links with your categories and tags. For example, would I want my “webcomic website reviews” category to appear at http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/?page_id=34 or at http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/webcomic-website-reviews? The latter, of course!

Long story short, use categories and tags to archive your work and to increase your webcomic website’s SEO.

So you have WordPress, but you're not using tags or categories?

KEZ — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:19:23 +0000

What is wrong with you? (I don’t really mean that, I promise!)

Long story short, use categories and tags to archive your work and to increase your webcomic website’s SEO.

Webcomic Website Reviews: Chirault

KEZ — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:53:47 +0000

Five brave, brave souls volunteered to have their websites reviewed by me based on what I consider a good webcomic set up. Here is the first of those reviews, for Varethane, the creator of Chirault (a comic which I read and love, BTW).

Before I begin, a note: I don’t ever ever review in the form of “this sucks, change it to suit me, puny human!” I prefer to use reviews as a teaching tool, and I definitely try to write reviews such that no matter who or what is being reviewed, everybody wins/learns. Also, all of the links inside this article do not lead to Varethane’s site, but instead to articles that expand upon the point I’m making.

Let’s get started! *cracks knuckles*

The first thing I’m going to touch on is pretty obvious: the comic is not on the front page. Now, this is not necessarily always a bad thing, as I wrote at length about in a previous post. Things to consider when having your comic off the front page are:

do you have multiple comics updating? If yes, and your home page lists the updates of all the comics, having the comic off the front page may be acceptable. Your one site displays updates to all your work this way, but if you only have one project going…why isn’t it the first thing people see? (no, really, I’m asking you all this question).

does your comic page format change? If your pages constantly change size or format (example, widescreen vs. vertical formats), having a comic page in a good-looking template is nearly impossible, and you may want it on it’s own, simplified page.

do you have this format because your home page is of a totally different design, with different content than your comic archive pages? If yes, perhaps you want, for example, a title image, site news and ads on your home page, but you want comic news, vote images, and a chat-box on your archive pages.

Where I’m going with this is that I would highly recommend YOU specifically putting you in particular having comics on the front page. The minimalistic approach you’ve taken (content-wise) defeats the purpose of having a front page. If it’s not highly dynamic, or if there’s not some sort of interaction (in the form of commenting, chat-boxes, etc that doesn’t take a click/link to find), people will start bookmarking your “most recent comic” page instead. When you have a front page like this, the goal is to keep people coming back TO the home page, not visiting the home page once or twice, realizing there’s little in the way of new content, and then bookmarking the most recent comic page. If everyone bypasses the front page, what is the point of having it?

Also, what is with having the tag-box on a separate page? Don’t make it harder for people to communicate with you than it has to be! And we all know, for some reason, that ONE EXTRA CLICK is superhard for 99% of internet users.

So, add more to the front page, or put your comics there instead. Before I move on, I also wanted to touch on your choice of front page image. Now, I’m a total fan of your style. I think it rawks, and I have no idea how you get such great lines, but I don’t like your choice of a front page image. It’s very static. Instead of seeing *BAM* CHIRAULT THE WEBCOMIC SEE MY AWESOMNESS, my eye is confused on where you want me to go! I’m stuck at the top left because of the gold coloring and complicated design. Just like in any artistic piece, focus is important (and it should be on the content, not on the surrounding art). Webdesign needs to take this into account. I would suggest a stronger title image, either strong letters specifically, or Kiran not kinda squiting and grumbling at the news. Or perhaps a more organic incorporation of the content into the background. The text gets a little lost, especially at smaller resolutions.

NEXT!

BIG POINTS on the following:

update schedule is prominent
direct links to the latest page, first page, and archives, a MUST for having the comic off the front page
prominent “contact” link
An updated and dated news area (a must for a webcomic site, regardless of the content)

SITE NAVIGATION: I’m not seeing a “links,” “cast,” or “about” link, which are webcomic website must-have’s. Since I don’t see those, I’m going to click the mysterious “other” link to see what I find. Mysterious links are NOT good to have. Don’t make people guess about the content of a page before they click. Always title a page exactly what it is. If you don’t want to upkeep multiple pages, then organize all the content of your “other” page with link anchors, and just add the extra links into your nav menu.

Okay, you have banners on your “other” page, so that’s good! For everyone reading, how are people supposed to link you if you don’t provide banners? You also have a gallery section here, though I would of course recommend you add a “gallery” or “art” link to your site navigation too! Don’t make people hunt for your banners though, Varethane! So get up a specifically-titled “links” or “banners” section.

I’m looking for a “cast” section still, and…oh! There it is! Hidden between art sections! Get this link on the FRONT page. Who your characters are is almost just as important as your archive page. This is a highly visited page on any long-form comic, so give it the attention it needs!

Provide an “about” page with information about your comic (such as a synopsis or pitch) and if desired, about yourself. All of this helps improve your site’s SEO, which I think it really needs. Your site has extremely little text, so I would imagine you get very little in the way of search referrals unless someone is searching specifically for your comic’s title. Webcomickers in general don’t think much of search referrals (with the logic being “they’d search for my comic if they knew it, and no one will read it if they stumble across it while searching for something else”), but they are important! The sites that really make it big get the majority of their visits from search referrals, NOT direct referrals (bookmarks, etc).

Your archive page links each page, and it’s ordered by chapter and page number. Nice!

COMIC ARCHIVES: You have full comic navigation (first/prev/next/last), YES! What you DON’T have is navigation above AND below the comic. A lot of times comic creators do not realize the importance of having this navigation for the READERS. It’s not for you, it’s for them, especially when your pages require a scroll in 1024×768 resolution (which has replaced 800×600 resolution as the default). Don’t ever make your readers scroll more than they have to, especially if they’re looking for a specific page. It’s not all too important for casual readers who check only the latest page, but what if I want to go back 10 or so pages to see what happened? Are you going to make me scroll beneath your comic every time? You’ll make my fingers tired, and just annoy the crap outta me.

You also don’t have links to your “archive” page or your “cast” page from your comic archive page. Remember, make it as easy as possible for your audience! Anticpate their needs, and provide it for them. Now, what if I’m starting out on your latest page, and I don’t recognize a character? I click the home page, looking for a cast or characters section, and I don’t find it. That’s one click. So then I try the “others” page. 2 clicks. I scroll down, and FINALLY find “characters” page link in the Miscellania section. That’s 3 clicks and scroll total. Ack! People are going to just give up before they find what they’re looking for!

CMS CHOICE: You are hand-coding your archives, aren’t you? D: No wonder your archive pages are so bare! If you don’t want to deal with WordPress, go for something like SomeryC, which requires no skill with PHP, and nothing more difficult than creating a mySQL database. If you don’t have access to a hosting admin panel, or the ability to get someone to make a database for you (by making, I mean “naming” and “setting a password,” no pain involved!) try i-strip. You may actually want to try i-strip first since it doesn’t require a database.

Based on how your webpage looks and your page source code, you obviously know what you’re doing or have someone who helps you out. Take advantage of this web knowledge. I’ve said it so many times here, but I’m going to say it again: webcomics are half comic, half web! Don’t sell you, your comic, or your audience short on the “web” part! A CMS will also make you entire site easier to manage.

Since I think you’re not using a CMS, I’m now actually wondering if your site format (webcomic off the front page, barebones nature) is a result of not having any automation. It’s somewhat easier to create the html files for blank comic archive pages rather than continually change the front page links. This only reinforces your need FOR a CMS though.

I’m going to sum everything up now:

Add “cast/characters,” “about” and “links/banners” link in your site navigation. For you, I might also recommend a “world setting” section. I would also recommend taking out links for your DA and contact, and putting those inside your “about” section. Your chat-box needs to be somewhere that doesn’t need a click.
Add more content, period! Your site is barebones. If you can keep the streamlined nature of what you already have while adding more content for people to explore, it will be perfect! A lot of people offer either too much, or nothing at all. More text content in particular will increase your SEO. Webcomics are about more than just the comic–they’re about the site too!
You ought to either have your comic on the front page (which would recommend considering your small page size and distinctive art style that you ought to be showing off more) or improve your front page design to make people want to keep coming back to it.
Find a CMS you like!
Add full comic navigation above and below the comic pages.

Phew, that’s it from me! Four more reviews to follow. At this time, I am NOT accepting more sites to review until I can make sure I can handle what I have. I’ll post here when I can do more.

Displaying the Webcomic OFF the Home Page…CORRECTLY.

KEZ — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:50:26 +0000

EDIT: before you start to read this, I should warn you. This is a more heated and opinionated article that’s been boiling in my head in response to a couple forum posts blasting the display off webcomics off the front page. I’m far too passive to go and post this there, but I wanted to write it nonetheless. I may gut the opinions from it at a later time and go for a straight tutorial with images, but not tonight. Also, I’m going to be posting snippets of my college thesis here, which is mentioned in this article, and again, not tonight.

——

One of the very first pieces of advice someone new to webcomics will receive from the webcomic community is very simple and 99.9% of the time the right thing to do: always display your webcomic on the front page.

The reasons to do this are numerous: the webcomic is your main “product.” It is what you are “selling” to your audience, and they shouldn’t have to look for it. It is the driving force to KEEP first time visitors, and you’re supposed to give them what they came to get. Many visitors will LEAVE if they can’t immediately find your comic. “It’s the only right way to build a webcomic site.”

I am here to tell you that final, blanket statement is not true, and that my site proves it. I am not trying to brag here, I assure you, I simply want to make a point. I’m not saying my way is the BEST way either. What I DO want to say is that sometimes there are special circumstances that may push you to move the webcomic off the front page, and that if you do decide to do so, there are wrong and right ways to do it. The problem is, most people who go about putting the comic off the home page do it wrong. Yes, totally and completely WRONG.

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First, I’m going to speak to real reasons not to display your comic on the home page. Perhaps you have multiple comics updating on your site, and you don’t want to have multiple sites. You want multiple comics updating on ONE site because you want to pool your audience and MAXIMIZE the exposure of all your comics. You can’t [or rather, shouldn't] display all those comics on your front page–that’s just confusing! You are therefore left with 2 alternatives: display one comic on your main site, and link the others on their separate sites, or create a “hub” page, and link all comics to their own separate pages. Why go through the trouble of creating separate sites for each comic, and then the additional trouble of setting up a “this is my portfolio [look at all my comics] that no one is going to look at, but I thought I should have anyways?” site? Don’t. Just organize a single, central domain well and you’re set. Get the extra domain names later if you want, when your audience is already pooled. It is ALWAYS best (for pagerank, for Alexa rank, etc) to have everything under ONE name, remember that!

Another reason might be because of stylistic choice of comic. For example, my comic pages change dimension with each update. This is a conscious, experimental choice I have made to take full advantage of the digital format of my comic. I don’t care if it annoys people. My comic is not, and never was meant, to be published as a book. I don’t like squishing every panel, regardless of how large I want it to be, into a set size. I don’t like panels, period. But I digress, and will stop myself here. If your comics change dimension with each update, it is extremely difficult to place them in a good-looking template without breaking that template. The answer? Either conform (boo!), or don’t put them in that template.

A third reason to have comics off the main page is to save the audience loading time. Perhaps you want extra features available, and on your home page, but you don’t want these extras to load with each archive page. Slimming down webpage clutter is nearly always a good thing. Also, similarly, perhaps your pages are saved at high quality (and you want them as such, within reason.) Putting new pages in a slimmed down, SEPARATE page (off the homepage) allows you post high resolution comic pages with each update. For example, how much would I LOVE Phoenix Requiem or Xylia’s pages to be displayed at a much larger size. The comics are so detailed, it seems a travesty to display at such a small size.

A final reason, perhaps just as important as the others, perhaps not: increasing total site pageviews. If a visitor continually comes to your home page, and the proceeds to the page that displays a comic, that is two total pageviews for one returning visitor. Obviously, if the comic is on the front page, a returning visitor gets you only a single pageview. When most ad companies pay by CPM (or as with Project Wonderful, auction prices are often determined foremost by pageviews), doing what you can to increase pageviews can be imporant.

*************

Some people are going to argue here some very basic things that I was taught FIVE YEARS AGO when I first started webcomics: filesizes should ALWAYS be under 200kb; comics should NEVER have a scroll; comics should NEVER change size or dimension; your webpage should be 90-100% text functional and should not rely on art.

THIS IS BULLSHIT. Five years ago, 60GB harddrives and 500MB RAM were considered state of the art. Many people still used dial-up connections. The most common screen resolution was 800×600 on a CRT monitor. 5 years of technological evolution has changed the rules, and really, the rules are changing all the time. The fact, the very awesome and important fact, is that digital medium (that is, how we are displaying, and in some cases making, our comics) is so vast, has so much potential, that it should be used. Not everyone makes their comics for print, nor should conform to print requirements. I wrote an 80-page college thesis about this. You may not agree with me, you hard-core, dead-tree formaters, but I do have experience here. You may not believe me, but I do ask that you listen. Oh, and finally, of COURSE webcomic sites should take full advantage of artistic layouts. It’s a visual art for goodness’ sake! Having a good looking and functional website is HALF of making a webcomic.

*************

So, more ranting aside, if you are going to display your comic off the front page, here are the ways to do it wrong, and then do it right:

WRONG 1: Do not ever have a “static” (unchanging) home page. Last Blood is a good example of this. This page set up has not changed since the day the comic started. If your front page never changes, why would anyone bookmark it? They won’t. They will instead bookmark the page WITH the comic, defeating the purpose of increasing exposure to all of your comics or other works.

RIGHT 1: Always have updating, dated news on your hub page. It should change with every update to every comic, and preferably, have an RSS feed (done right for a single project: Phoenix Requiem). What if Bobby Crosby instead had “bobbycrosbycomics.com?” And let’s say this page linked to all the comics he works on, with linked RSS feeds, and updated news/commentary for each time a comic of his updated. This page would be POPULAR, due to the success of his projects. Someone who comes for Last Blood might discover Marry Me, and love it. The overall exposure of all his comics would increase dramatically, as opposed to mere static text links in his lower left sidebars. I leave the measure of commentary vs. news up to you guys. My rule of thumb: if it’s not interesting (or at least inflamatory, because those are always fun), you probably shouldn’t post it. I personally post short, pertinent news blurbs on the homepage, and leave commentary for beneath the comic itself.

WRONG 2: Having more than 1 click to the most recent comic of all comics/projects you have. Multiple clicks lead to frustration, and frustrated visitors simply leave. For example, on your home page, don’t have a button that says “my comics” and then a “my comics” page with links to each comic. A more frustrating example: an inane and babbling home page that has unintuitive link names (for example, “my comics” vs “my art projects;” well, what KIND of art projects? Lead them directly to your comics.) that lead to a gallery page with random art pieces than FINALLY leads to your comic archive and then, FOR REAL THIS TIME, to the first/most-recent comic. By the time visitors get to this point, 90% will have already left. Have the links to each comic’s most recent page on your home page. The common reason I see for this kind of mistake in design is that a person can’t decide what they want their site to be ABOUT: themselves, their portfolio, their comic, their school projects, etc. Decide, and focus, when designing a webpage.

RIGHT 2: Having a dated, titled image and/or text link to the most recent comic page update(s). If you have an image, it should have a new file title each update so it is not cached. I prefer to have both a text link and an image link. This/these link(s) should be given TOP priority on the page design. Reading your news is optional. They came for your comic(s), but hey, they might be interested in what you have to say too. However, since they didn’t come to hear you talk, links to comics should be above/before your news, not at the bottom or after.

WRONG 3: Having more than 1 click to the archive page(s) of your comic(s). Let us return to the first scenario of WRONG 2: mulitple clicks to the comic. Okay, well, what if a new visitor wants to go to the archive page first? A lot of visitors like to see what they’re getting into first (in other words, how long they will be sitting to read your work) before going to the first page or most recent page. If they have multiple clicks to get to the comic, how will they react with even MORE clicks to get to the archive? Or, what if, an even worse worse-case scenario, you don’t even HAVE an archive page?

RIGHT 3: Prominently displaying the link to your archive in your site menu, which should be nearly at the top of your site. I prefer navigation horizontally below the title, but some people like it on a sidebar. That should always be your LEFT sidebar though, never the right (unless of course, you speak a R->L language like Arabic). Don’t make people search for how to explore your site!

WRONG 4: Not having a direct link to your comic’s FIRST page. Somewhat like the previous scenario, some visitors like to jump to the first page rather than check the archive or go to the most recent comic page.

RIGHT 4: Displaying an image or text link or menu button for your comic’s first page. This image/link should be intuitive and LABELED. Do not rely on the “<<” image that has become commonplace in the webcomic world. People new to webcomics will not know what that means. Anything you can do to make the reading experience easier, you do, especially since you’re moving (or at least thinking about moving) the comic from the home page.

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It’s obvious here that in some places I have merged wrong things to do and how to fix them. A lot of things will simply boil down to common sense webdesign and knowing what your audience wants (which in nearly all cases, is what YOU would want if you came to such a site.) My #1 rule is to always make a site as intuitive and as easy to use as possible. Provide all the short-cuts to all the important pages. Don’t make your audience WORK to read your comic or use your site. My home page features the above “rights” and more: I have a text synopsis for each feature of mine, increasing the SEO of my site. The home page has a lot of images, but each has alts and titles. My navigation menu includes (in order of importance) links to the first comic, the archive, the cast page, etc. I have 2 links to get to the most recent comic page: one is an image, one is a text link in the news. My news updates with each comic update. My home page has a bounce rate (visitor see, visitor flee) of 1.34%. This means only 1/100 visitors come to home page and leave without clicking anything. What is the bounce rate of sites that display comics on their front page? 60-80%.

Could my site be done better? Yes, of course. There’s almost always a way to do things better. Does my site “work” with the comic off the main page? Most definitely. If it works for me, it can work for others. Just do it right!

And now, to finish my longest article ever, a list of popular comics that don’t display their comic on the front page and still make it work:

White Noise/ Welcome Committee of Magic High/ Doom ‘n Stuff

It would be a good exercise for those into webdesign to consider how each example could be modified or done better, and then to apply it to your own site. Please remember that even with all these features on your “hub” page, some people WILL still bookmark your “most current comic page” instead. Some just refuse that one extra second to click, and that’s alright. There are ways to stop this behavior, but really, it’s not worth the effort half the time, not if you just design correctly. The majority of your readers won’t mind that extra click, so don’t be discouraged.

Does Webcomic SEO work?

KEZ — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:00:50 +0000

Does webcomic SEO work? After the attention I’ve been giving the topic, I certainly hope so! I will use my own site for an example. Over the past couple months, I’ve slowly been optimizing everything I can. I’ve added link titles and alts, image titles and alts, meta descriptions (even though these are now ignored by search engines, grr!), more text with keywords, webpage titles, the whole shebang. If you look on my front page, all the text is readable by search engines. Check any secondary page of mine, and you’ll find lots of text–as much as I can fit without it being overpowering.

I give you now proof that it works:

This graph shows search engine referrals from May of this year until now, and is graphed by month, courtesy of Google Analytics (a free service you all should be taking advantage of). Yes, it is trailing down at the end, but a best-fit line will still show a positive slope, and the month isn’t over anyways. Yes, the percentages there are negative (in red), but that is contrasting the behavior of search engine referrals to the rest of the referrals I get–so of course people who stumble across my site via search engine won’t be as keen as the group of people who come to my site directly, knowing what they’re getting into.

The success that this graph shows is:

1) a distinct increase in the number of referrals per month since taking steps to optimize my site, and therefore…
2) a distinct increase in gaining NEW readers through search referral rather than direct webcomic-webcomic referral.

My goal was to gain new readers, real NEW readers, and I think I succeeded. This isn’t a “hey, I’m so great!” article. It is my intention that this article simply proves that if I can do this kind of thing, anybody can! My degree is in biology, not um, computer science. Everything I’ve learned has been the result of paying attention, and learning from people with experience. My goal with this blog is to pass all that experience on to you, so you don’t have to scrounge it up yourselves over the course of years.

For new readers of this blog who have their own sites, I will repeat myself about what SEO is, how it works, and why it’s something you should be doing for your own site:

[From this article] “…Why is it important to get more search referrals to your site? Because outside of webcomicdom, that is where sites get most of their visitors. Here, it’s the opposite. Most people visit our sites from direct links on OTHER sites. It means we get a small, in-bred audience, with few opportunities to catch a truly new reader. This is why it’s critical to improve your site’s Search Engine Optimization.”

SEO works by reading the text on your webpages. Search engines don’t see images, and webcomic sites are primarily composed of images, which is why traditionally, they don’t get many search referrals. You can fix this problem by adding more text, cleaning up your code, inserting titles and alts for links and images, and relying less on images (well, text flattened onto images, especially if you’re not all to HTML/CSS savvy).

When you optimize your site for search engines, you also optimize your site for context-based advertisers, a service I champion as a way for webcomickers to make money. As soon as I exhaust the articles on what you need to do to change your site, I will change focus to how to make money with your comic (AND your site.)

Interested readers can find more about that in a 2-part interview I gave at The Floating Lightbulb.

Next Up: Links and Gallery Pages: two great pages to have for “webcomic relations.”

ADDENDUM: I would like to apologize to those who have sent me emails within the past 72 hours. I have been phenomenally busy with website commissions, and have not responded to anyone. I greatly appreciate your comments and your emails, and I will reply as soon as I have free moment. No, I am not ignoring you, I promise! I would also like to say that I flattered at the attention this blog is getting. I really had no idea so many people would find it helpful, and I will earnestly try to continue posting articles of substance. Thank you for visiting, everyone!

SEO, by Google. It’s gotta be good!

KEZ — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 21:52:07 +0000

For those of you intrigued by my very shallow presentation of SEO, Bengo of The Floating Lightbulb published an article about a recent release by Google of an SEO guide. If it was released by Google, it’s gotta be good!

SEO, by Google. It's gotta be good!

KEZ — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 21:52:07 +0000

Webcomic Website Must-Have’s: Archive Page

KEZ — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:03:58 +0000

The second feature of WWM-H, (whee! Acronymns!) is an archive page. If you have a webcomic, this is a secondary page you must have. When I say “secondary” page, I mean that the page is not primary; it does not display your comic and it is not your home page. This is my personal vocabulary. Just wait until I get to tertiary and quaternary! Oh wait. That’s protein structure, never mind. A little bio-major humor for you.

Of all secondary pages to have, the archive page is the most obvious one, and indeed, about 99% of comics have it. However, the format of the page seems to be beyond some people. First, I will list what you should not do:

Do not have your archive be a listing of “calendars.” This is most often seen on Comic Genesis sites. A calendar contains no information about chapters, page titles, or filler pages you may have. The only thing it’s good for is showing people what your update days are, and/or how often you miss them.
Do not list your archive by text-link, date only. This is most often seen on ComicPress sites that have not been personalized. This is just as bad as the “calendar” feature on Comic Genesis.
Do not list your archive as shrunken-down “thumbnails” of the original comic files (make real thumbnail images instead). It’s called a “thumbnail” for good reason: it’s small, and it loads fast! You may think you are being innovative, but you’re really being annoying, taxing your bandwidth, and taking up people’s time.*

When people visit your archive page, they are looking for a couple things. First time readers may want to know how large your archives are. For example, “This comic looks great, but I don’t have the time or energy to read an epic. I will check the archives to see how big/small it is.” First time readers may also being trying to find a link to your first comic page, and this is often the fastest way. Loyal readers will browse your archive to pull up a specific page they are looking for, or to re-read a part they liked a lot. This is why you should not have your archive set up by date or calendar. No one can find anything! Remember KEZ’s #1 webcomic website rule: make it as easy for the reader as possible. Not easy for YOU, for the reader.

Now that you have the “do not’s,” how about the “do’s?” When in doubt, go the archives of the most popular comic you read. I choose you, Phoenix Requiem! See how the information is presented in a chronological AND chaptered way? What about Tales of Pylea? Date, page number, chapter and page title, though ideally, the formatting of this page would be a little improved. It can be hard when it’s automated, I know. What about Xylia Tales? Chapter cover image, chronological and chaptered order. Ok, now what about my own archive? I’ve taken everything I like about the previous examples, and then added my own flair: The War of Winds’ Archive. I have a thumbnail image, chronological chaptered order, each page text linked, AND a written synopsis. The written synopsis serves three functions: it is a refresher for long-time readers looking for a specific page, it gives a better idea what the story is about to new readers, and lastly, it provides textual content for context-based advertisers and search engines.

How could I improve my archive? I could add page titles as link titles and alts, as discussed in a previous article of mine. I have the chapter cover image, the chronological order broken down by chapter, but I don’t have titled pages. If I included link titles, the final piece of information my own archive doesn’t offer, the page title, could be seen whenever you hovered over a page number. Why haven’t I done this? Well, I’ve got 270+ pages. That’s a lot of work. It’s on the list of to-do’s though!

So, to repeat myself in a coherent manner, for your archive page, do the following (only the first two are definitely necessary for 99% of comics out there):

link every page. This can be done with a collapsible menu if your archive is extremely large, or be broken down into multiple webpages so as not to be overwhelming. The only comic I know of who can get away with NOT linking every page is Sluggy Freelance, because there are thousands of comics. Sluggy has an expandable dropdown instead. Be aware that an expandable dropdown does NOT replace an archive page!
split up the page links by chapter or story arc.
provide an image to represent each chapter or story arc.
provide page titles to differentiate between separate comic pages.
provide chapter synopses.

*ComicPress has an option for “archive by thumbnail.” If formatted correctly, and if your comic files sizes are rather modest, then this may be the option for you–especially if you have a black and white strip comic. You could even set up the archive by week (well, past 7 strips), if you know how to do it. HOWEVER, you should also have a chronological and chaptered archive as well, especially if you have a large archive.

Webcomic Website Must-Have's: Archive Page

KEZ — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:03:58 +0000

Do not have your archive be a listing of “calendars.” This is most often seen on Comic Genesis sites. A calendar contains no information about chapters, page titles, or filler pages you may have. The only thing it’s good for is showing people what your update days are, and/or how often you miss them.
Do not list your archive by text-link, date only. This is most often seen on ComicPress sites that have not been personalized. This is just as bad as the “calendar” feature on Comic Genesis.
Do not list your archive as shrunken-down “thumbnails” of the original comic files (make real thumbnail images instead). It’s called a “thumbnail” for good reason: it’s small, and it loads fast! You may think you are being innovative, but you’re really being annoying, taxing your bandwidth, and taking up people’s time.*

So, to repeat myself in a coherent manner, for your archive page, do the following (only the first two are definitely necessary for 99% of comics out there):

link every page. This can be done with a collapsible menu if your archive is extremely large, or be broken down into multiple webpages so as not to be overwhelming. The only comic I know of who can get away with NOT linking every page is Sluggy Freelance, because there are thousands of comics. Sluggy has an expandable dropdown instead. Be aware that an expandable dropdown does NOT replace an archive page!
split up the page links by chapter or story arc.
provide an image to represent each chapter or story arc.
provide page titles to differentiate between separate comic pages.
provide chapter synopses.

Improving SEO: webpage names and titles

KEZ — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 04:23:44 +0000

Another trick to increasing your site’s SEO is giving your webpages descriptive file names. This has its pros and cons, some of which are not so obvious. For example, take Palace in the Sky, coded and created by Scribe of Ladystar. The file names of the gateway webpages are descriptive, for example, “top-fantasy-webcomics.php.” When you use a hyphen in a page title, search engines read what is between the hyphens as separate words.

WEBPAGE TITLES ARE SEARCHABLE. This is the pro of descriptive names.

The cons of doing this are that such page titles break “tradition,” and are not always obvious titles (they may be linked incorrectly by others because they are different than the norm). For example, what if my archive page wasn’t “http://warofwinds.com/archive.htm” but instead, “http://warofwinds.com/fantasy-comic-book-archive.htm”? Some may consider this a “cheap move,” but really–if it works, and it gets you more readers, what’s the problem? Do it!

Not only are webpage names searchable, but so are the titles given in the area of the code. Again, I’m going to use Palace in the Sky as an example. Take the fantasy gateway once again. Instead of titling this “Fantasy Gateway,” Scribe has used, “The top fantasy adventure webcomics dragons swords magic myth and legends updated daily with new stories pages and illustrations.” All of that is searchable and relevant to the content of the site. Using these kinds of tricks in moderation will increase the number of search referrals you get, and more readers is the goal of every webcomic.

If you’ve never checked out the code of your website before, webpage titles are coded as such (very simplified, just so you know what to look for:

TITLE GOES HERE