When to update your site to Web 2.0

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When to update your site to Web 2.0

dailypress

7:02 pm on May 14, 2009 (gmt 0)

I have installed Drupal on my fairly new website which is around 8-9 months old. I plan to allow visitors to add comments on each page (and maybe also create pages themselves) but was wondering if I should wait a little until I get decent organic traffic to make the site look active.

I would hate to see my visitor discouraged to post more after not receiving enough responses due to low traffic/visitors.

Whats your suggestion? Did your site have the commenting feature right from the get go? Or did you add that feature later on once the site was more established? What are the risks?

Thanks in advance,
DP

tangor

7:07 pm on May 14, 2009 (gmt 0)

Time will be the factor, obviously, but more importantly make sure that whatever input you receive is sanitized and will not lead to spam type entries, or attacks on your underlying server operations.

That said, if you want organic traffic jump in with both feet now. You won't get traffic until there is traffic to view.

dailypress

7:16 pm on May 14, 2009 (gmt 0)

I will moderate the comments and pages if/when I do add the features.

I do have referral traffic (in the 1-3K/day range) and I can adjust that accordingly. But organic traffic is only 150-200/day which I still think is pretty decent considering its not even a year old but dont think its enough.

So when you say Time will be a factor, are you suggesting to wait a little? And if so, how long do you recommend based on your own experience?

tangor

7:26 pm on May 14, 2009 (gmt 0)

Time is what google brings... results. Time is what you put up (or your users). Both need to work to generate traffic.

In your scenario you've indicated a fundamental revision of the site to a CMS which will put you back on the google sandbox for a bit... that is more time.

Time is also required for word of mouth, etc. to have any benefit. IE, it won't happen in a second, an hour, over night, or even in a month or two... Time... As for WHEN to make the change either do it NOW or not at all. That Time factor once again. Changing horses in the middle of the stream means you get wet and the second pony might not be as good a swimmer and it takes that much longer to get to the other side. :)