SUGGESTION: Comment box on top of comments

1. 75

   Anti-Valentineposted 11 years ago

   There are two issues that have led me to make this suggestion. One is that I recently received an email from a person who claimed he couldn't find the comment box on one of my hubs.
   
   The other issue is that some claim that scrolling all the way down the page to the comment box at the bottom might result in fewer ad clicks.
   
   I would like to suggest that the comment box stay on top of the comments. So in the case where you have many comments, you don't have to scroll all the way down the page to reach it. I mean you could argue that people wish to scroll down the page to see the latest comments, but in your account you can sort it so the latest comments appear first and not last.
   
   Would this be doable?

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   1. 73

      MickiSposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It's a good suggestion. Thanks, Anti-Valentine.
      
      In user testing and general usability discussions that I've had with people, the standard web convention is to put the comment box after the comments since most people who comment will read (at least some) of the comments before leaving one of their own.
      
      In which case, most people who comment are inconvenienced by having to scroll back up the page.
      
      As far as fewer ad clicks, my data leads me to believe that the position of the comment box likely has no impact on ad clicks. Once a user has gotten to comments, they've by-passed the 520-wide ad that sits above the related hubs. By scrolling to the end to get to the comment box, they at least see the two 320x250 ads near the footer.

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2. 66

   2uesdayposted 11 years ago

   Are comments considered new content by Google Search and are they also considered part of the word count?
   
   I was trying to decide if it was wise to reduce the number of comments on display on my hubs to bring the comment box and ads higher up. Also I wondered is there now an advantage to having the newest comments first for readers and for search results.
   
   This line of thought was brought on because I was a bit thrown when the new layout had the comments box so far down when there are a large number of comments. 
   
   When I wanted to reply to a comment recently,the scrolling down seemed a bit off putting. If there are lots of comments on a page it seems to me like people might quit before they get there to leave their comment or to see the two ads. I know if they do read the comments and leave their own comment then they are increasing their time on the page which is good. I suppose the only way for us to see the effect, is by looking at time on page on Analytics.

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