Sidebar column widths – px or %

This topic contains 5 replies, has 2 voices, and was last updated by  jkirker 9 years, 1 month ago.

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  • September 28, 2015 at 2:35 pm #54839

    jkirker
    Lifetime Member
    Post count: 298

    It’s important to be able to designate either px or % for sidebar column widths.

    Doing this by percentage allows the column width to shrink and cut off Google and other ads only partially displaying them therefor putting the site in direct violation with their TOS. If they recognize this, they could ban the site and once a domain is banned, there’s usually no going back.

    I do understand that we can inject our own CSS code to override this, but it’s a basic enough feature that it should probably be part of the interface.

    Perhaps add an extra field to the widths with a drop down %, px – and append that to whatever number is entered by the user. Default to % if not set and it’ll work with all pre-existing sites.

    September 28, 2015 at 4:31 pm #54868

    Paolo
    Site Admin
    Post count: 31206

    But that will break the responsive layout. Making your website less interesting for Google to start with.

    Wouldn’t it be better to hide the ads, only when the sidebar is to narrow to accomdate it?

    Let us know,

    Thanks

    September 28, 2015 at 5:37 pm #54870

    jkirker
    Lifetime Member
    Post count: 298

    In some ways we need to consider a more robust strategy for responsive layouts for mobile and tablets – all while focusing on creating a system that allows for the maximization of revenue while still promoting a positive user experience.

    Regarding hiding ads, that’s probably the worse thing we could do because when hidden, the js call is still registering as a view which skews RPM/CPM/CPA stats for both the advertiser and the site owner. Google hates this.

    Google’s policy forbids the modification of how an ad is displayed. Therefore, if you are calling the ad and hiding it, you are in violation of their policy. The same is true if the ad is being partially displayed. Doing this could get a domain banned forever. They don’t seem to un-ban domains. So getting into trouble with them is like committing a mortal sin with God.

    I often use the mobble plugin to offer a slightly different experiences to mobile, tablet and desktop visitors – but I’m not yet totally familiar yet with all the available hooks to take full advantage of this with whoop. And there aren’t hooks in places where I’d like there to be.

    It’s a tough subject area because it’s still being ironed out by Google – but it’d be best if we were to come up with something a little better. >50% of my traffic is mobile – so I need to make money from these visits.

    September 28, 2015 at 5:48 pm #54872

    Paolo
    Site Admin
    Post count: 31206

    Hi,

    there is no possible way to keep a layout responsive with fix widths.

    What you could do is to use mobble and a plugin like widget logic to serve different adds size for different screen resolutions.

    There is no need for hooks there.

    Thanks

    September 28, 2015 at 6:04 pm #54881

    jkirker
    Lifetime Member
    Post count: 298

    Yea, I’m justing using my own css and setting a min-width.

    Still plenty of need for a few more hooks if you are going to stop an add from displaying in the first position on the sidebar of a detail page, but you want it to appear between say the User Links and Ratings Info or Listing information on whoop.

    There needs to be a hook between each of the topic breaks so that it’s easier to include ads where they’d perform best.

    Putting them at the top in mobile is again Google policy, putting them at the bottom is bad for performance. Butt putting them in between or one in between and one at the bottom is the best option for mobile in the sidebar.

    Also, injecting ads into tabs could be a good thing too – if working with multiple ad networks – can’t us for Google but can for others where their policy allows for this.

    September 28, 2015 at 6:32 pm #54889

    jkirker
    Lifetime Member
    Post count: 298

    Go to the Buddakan listing on your Whoop demo in iPhone 6 mode with Horizontal Display.

    The search and near fields should probably be reduced to allow for them to be displayed and not stacked.

    The map should probably be full-width.

    The images are not displaying in the slider and the slider is overflowing causing left-right scrolling.

    There is a right border area which is wasted usable space.

    The surrounding content border should be reduced to 5px or 10px max to get more info on the screen.

    Look at the left sidebar – is it too compressed? Should it be wider or go full width?

    Now go to the “See all photo’s”

    Notice the massive amount of white space needed to see the entire photo.

    Notice the photo is not constrained within the boundaries of the content area and causes overflow.

    Notice the surrounding border of the content area which is wasted usable space.

    Notice the borders which should again probably be reduced to 5-10px all the way around – max.

    At minimum these tests and critiques need to be done for the Home/Listing/Search/Detail/etc. pages for iPhone 4,5,6,6s,iPad Mini3, iPad Air 2, 800×600, 1366×768 and 1920×1080 – for both left sidebar/right sidebar.

    Attached are my top 25 screen resolutions for the past month since launching WPGeoDirectory.

    Sadly over the same period, my old junky and clunky non-responsive site had a bounce rate of 56% vs. the current 68.17%. My average session duration has dropped by 25% from 1.30 to 1:12. ;(

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