On August 5th, the Cityfile New York Website published an article about celebrity-owned bars and restaurants in NYC. The article simply is a map (created with Click2Map). Our numbers indicate that the map (direct link here) was viewed 4 357 times, accumulated a total of 187 hours spent on the page, and generated 27 607 clicks on markers. Those numbers show a modest traffic converting into an engaged readership. How did this conversion happened?

For starters, kudos go to the author of this article who created a compelling and demanded content: “celebrity-owned bars”. Who doesn’t have a favorite star, right? The idea was bright enough to bring 4,357 people to the page. But once the author got attention, what made the engagement happen?

The conversion into 6+ clicks is due to the map format of the article. A map is a much faster way to process small bits of data in a much user-friendlier environment: Pics of stars are laid down on a map. Visually, with no reading effort, you get the gist of the story. Hover over the pics to see names of the stars (in case you don’t recognize them right away). Click on the pic to pop-up a witty description of the restaurant/bar, along with the address. In a way, it’s like reading Star magazine on a map. in a traditional text format, the article would have looked much heavier, and the snail mail address of the restaurants wouldn’t have generated a clear understanding of of each places’ location. On a map, you just cruise around, spend time on the page, and pop-up content here and there.

Something else might have facilitated the time spent on the page. I don’t know if the author made this little map navigation optimization on purpose, but you’ll notice that when the map opens, it focuses on the Lower East Side, the south of New York’s central peninsula. If you click on a marker/pic in the upper part of the map, the map automatically scrolls up to allow some room for the pop-up window. In the celebrity map for example, the more you click on pics, the more the map naturally up to unveil new markers/pics up north. The naive scientist approach that I adopt here is to say that online maps have a natural tendency to take their viewers north.

This map is almost turning in a case study here at Click2Map because it gathers 3 fundamental facts:
1. A popular article can be a map.
2. Maps create engagement on the site.
3. There are ways to optimize maps to enhance the navigation experience.

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