Create a Roundup Page to Greet New Visitors

Lori Soard

Some people call a roundup page a “sneeze” page. Basically, this is a page centered around a theme that repurposes old content and draws the reader to read more on a topic.

That format allows us to highlight that month’s content to our readers. It makes it easy for readers to read through the roundup and see which articles they might have missed that appeal to them.

A roundup page can also center around a theme. Let’s say you run a recipe blog. You have a lot of older posts on your site that are still valuable, but aren’t getting as much attention because they are pushed to older post pages. You can highlight these fabulous recipes again by creating a roundup page on something like “lemon desserts” and share a link and short description to each of these articles.

There are many benefits to roundup or sneeze pages.

ProBlogger wrote an article about sneeze pages a while back and pointed to some of the main benefits.

• It pulls blog posts that are hidden deep within your archives back to the forefront.
  
• A sneeze page helps with search engines because of internal linking.
  
• It keeps people on your site longer, making it “sticky”, because they are already interested in the topic and the articles are easily accessible from one location.

A roundup page not only pushes readers deeper into your site, but can be used to highlight your best content and keep them coming back for more.

Sample of a Roundup Layout

Below, you will see a sample layout for a roundup page. You can certainly organize it with boxed content or in any way you choose as long as it draws the reader’s eye and is easy to navigate.

As you can see from above, the idea is to come up with a theme for your page and then find old posts that tie into that theme. You should include:

• A post title that makes the overall topic clear to the reader, but also makes her want to click through and read more. Jerry Low wrote an article titled Write Headlines Like Brian Clark, Neil Patel, and Jon Morrow: 35 Headline Samples From The A-List Bloggers where he studied some of the best headlines out there. He offers some truly valuable tips for writing headlines that don’t suck.
  
• An introduction that outlines why you are writing this roundup and what the reader might learn. According to Nielson Gorman Group, most users leave a web page in 10-20 seconds. However, if you can prove to the reader that your website has value, you will hold her attention longer and she just might stick around. A roundup page is the perfect opportunity to entice readers to want more and to read more.
  
• A list of posts you want to drive readers to on that topic. More in a minute on how to choose topics and posts to include on your roundup page.
  
• A powerful conclusion that urges the reader to sign up for more great posts like this or toward some other type of conversion.

Ideas for a Roundup Page

Roundup Blogger Friends

One thing I do on my own blog is to take a look at a topic and blog posts by some of my blogger friends and share what I think is truly fabulous with my readers. I don’t do this often, but my readers really enjoy it when I do because it introduces them to other bloggers.

This also helps with my own site traffic, because those bloggers appreciate me sharing and will often share my work with their readers or let their readers know they’ve been mentioned on my blog. Just another type of roundup page you might want to consider. Here is an example of one I did recently on Mason jar crafts.

Roundup of Best Tips

As I mentioned before, we do a monthly roundup here. This allows our readers to see at a quick glance some of the highlights of what we’ve covered. Each month, Jerry low also reviews various web hosting companies to help our readers see which ones are best for starting off or taking your site to that next level.

If you are posting more than one or two articles a week, this is a great way to keep content fresh as at the top. You can even revisit older posts from time to time that tie into your last month’s batch of articles.

However, we also have a very effective sneeze page on expert blogging tips. This page lists some of our very best articles on how to get started and simply outlines them.

Twitter Chat Recaps

I recently saw something I thought was absolutely brilliant over at Christian Mommy Blogger. She has a page that is devoted strictly to Twitter chat recaps. I’ve mentioned before that Twitter chats are an excellent way to reach new potential readers.

Now, you can reach out to anyone interested in those chats by posting a roundup of the recaps on your website. Notice how she includes her Twitter chat hashtag at the top of the post as well as her Twitter username. She then shares a catchy headline/title of the chat, the date, and links to it. Simple, but very effective. I spent a long time reading through her chats on this page. It really pulled me in and you can repeat her success on your own blog.

A Numbered List

Another idea is to create a numbered list and share posts on your topic. For example, you could create a sneeze page on the Top 10 Ways To… ProBloggers has a page called 31 Days to Building a Better Blog. On this page, they share links to topics such as planning a posting schedule, commenting on a new blog, and even creating a sneeze page. This is a great way to offer a guide to your readers and keep them coming back day after day to read your blog.

When it comes to creating a roundup page, you really have to stop and take a look at your reader demographic. Are they looking for super fast tips? Maybe you could create a roundup of your infographics. Do your readers crave more in-depth guides on topics that matter to them? Then link to how to articles on a topic.

You may even want to take the time to survey your readers to discover what topics they want to know more about. You might be surprised to find that the topics they are interested in are already buried in the archives of your website.

If you haven’t already used sneeze pages on your site, give them a try. You’ll be pleasantly surprised and you’ll also highlight content you’ve already spent a lot of time on. All that hard work will keep paying off in new, loyal site visitors.

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