SmartMoney unveils new Web design

SmartMoney, the personal finance magazine run jointly by Hearst and Dow Jones & Co., introduced a new Web site design aimed at providing more information — and attracting more readers.

According to Nielsen NetRatings data, SmartMoney’s Web site ranked No. 18 among financial news and information sites, for September in terms of page views, with 19.6 million. CNNMoney, which is the home site for rival Money magazine, ranked No. 4 with 257 million page views for the month.

The average SmartMoney online reader spent 11 minutes and 40 seconds on the site, according to Nielson NetRatings daya, in September, compared to 18 minutes and 34 second for the average CNNMoney reader.

A note on the site states, “You’ll see that our homepage is now organized into three distinct sections. Our daily stock market coverage, which includes our market story, breaking news section and popular portfolio tracking tool, are now all at the top of the page. A quick glance will tell you how the markets are doing –- and most importantly, how your portfolio is faring.

“Below that, we’ve divided our daily features into ‘spending’ and ‘investing’ categories, making it easier to find the type of content you’re looking for. Better navigation throughout the site also makes it much easier for you to hone in on specific topics of interest – whether it’s the credit crisis or our popular 10 Things columns.

“And at the risk of sounding a bit Martha Stewart-ish, you’ll also note that we’ve spruced up the look and feel of the pages themselves, using softer colors and wider margins to make for easy online viewing.”

Read more here.