Right vs. Left Sidebar
Monday, February 4th, 2008 by MattIn a two-column layout, where should the sidebar go? Should it be to the left of the content, or to the right? This is an important question to consider.
First of all, what are you going to put in the sidebar? Is it going to be for navigation? Are you going to use it for extra, less important things, like widgets and blogrolls?
I’ve found that navigational sidebars are more effective when placed on the left, rather than the right. Meanwhile, sidebars with less important things should go to the right, as you want people to focus on the content more. I find a left-hand navigational sidebar more comfortable than one on the right, don’t you? Maybe it’s the whole reading-from-left-to-right thing.
So, remember this:
- Sidebars that are mainly navigation should go on the left because it feels more natural to look for navigation there. If you have a lot of navigational links, it might be a good idea to put them in a sidebar.
- Sidebars that are mainly less important things should go on the right, which distracts from the content column less. If you don’t have many navigational links, and you can put them in a horizontal navigation bar near the top, you’ll probably want to go with this option.
8:22 am on February 4th, 2008
The top spot in the left corner of the screen is the most precious screen real estate. Yes, it is the left to right reading ‘thing’ (at least in the western culture). A good spot for your Opt-In form or Adsense for example. Anyway, thanks for your tip.
11:22 am on February 4th, 2008
The top-left is also close to the “Back” button that is used so much by people who haven’t discovered tabbed browsing. See this:
http://www.webmaster-source.co.....b-browser/
4:00 am on April 7th, 2008
[...] idea on how different types of sidebar content could influence the decision. Read more in Right vs. Left Sidebar. Sidebars that are mainly navigation should go on the left because it feels more natural to look [...]
11:31 pm on April 8th, 2008
[...] idea on how different types of sidebar content could influence the decision. Read more in Right vs. Left Sidebar. Sidebars that are mainly navigation should go on the left because it feels more natural to look [...]
1:36 pm on April 9th, 2008
[...] Harzewski в своей статье Right vs. Left Sidebar предлагает интересную идею как содержимое боковой [...]
10:24 am on April 14th, 2008
While I think that there is some merit to having navigational links on the right, I honestly believe that if things are well placed in an area that the reader might expect - you will have the same effect on the reader.As far as SEO optimization, I believe that content should be first, sidebar(s) on the right. This also fits right along with the notion that your readers should also be exposed to your content first, after all - isn’t that why you blog?
3:56 am on May 6th, 2008
[...] engrossing intent on how different types of sidebar content could impact the decision. Read more in Right vs. Left Sidebar. Sidebars that are mainly guidance should go on the mitt because it feels more uncolored to [...]
8:03 pm on July 14th, 2008
[...] Matt Harzewski 有一个有趣的想法, 通过不同类型的侧边栏内容影响读者的注意力. 详见: Right vs. Left Sidebar. [...]