As BrandRepublic has reported today, MailOnline has overtaken the Huffington Post to become the world’s second largest ‘newspaper’ site.

It receives plenty of criticism for its editorial stance, in particular for its inflammatory stories on immigration, benefit cheats and the sexuality of recently deceased pop stars.  Then there’s the incessant focus about women in the public eye being too fat, too thin, too old, too young, too fertile, too sterile, too rich, too poor, too pretty, too ugly, too drunk, too boring….you get the idea.

But it’s what they DO with this content that has helped MailOnline become Britain’s most popular news website with a daily average of 2.16 million ‘unique browsers’. Let’s look at the elements that make up today’s homepage and see what makes it such a success.

Navigation

This is clear and easy to read. It’s right at the top so you can’t miss it. Sounds obvious – so why don’t more websites make their navigation more accessible?

And what’s this in the important third spot on the top level naviation? A link to all their US content. They know they get a massive amount of clicks from people in the States and are making the relevant content even easier to find. Thus enabling them to grow this market still further, something they will be doing soon with the launch of MailOnline US.

The navigation is also flexible enough to change for high-profile events, like the news section on the Royal Wedding (where they reveal that Kate’s dress will be ivory).

Body content

The top story has a long headline with lots of basic facts included. This can be great for SEO. In print, you can’t beat a Sun headline for its humour and brevity. But when it comes to online the Daily Mail likes to squeeze as many of those popular search terms in as possible to make sure it’s picked up by Google. Try the Daily Mail headline generator to see what I mean.

The content is free to access, changes frequently and always offers an angle on the talking points of the day, encouraging readers to comment and share the content. People duly comply, particularly on Twitter, which is a big driver of traffic for MailOnline. It doesn’t matter whether it’s people genuinely sharing celeb gossip or if it’s liberal folk spitting with rage, the end result is still ‘look at this!’ And this is why it gets 350,000 comments a month.

They place a strong, provocative image in the middle of the page. Today it’s Nigella on a beach in Sydney wearing a burkini, which manages to play on obessions with celebrity, tv chefs, weight and the burka ban. By showing her full body – front and back – it’s simply inviting readers to make a response.

Right-hand column

The Daily Mail has a high female readership so a big chunk of the page is devoted to stories from their Femail section. The whole area clicks through – no hunting around for a tiny little ‘read more’ link. And they really work the content, using a 3-step approach to ensure that each element – headline, body text and image – offers something different yet complementary.

1. The blue headline, pulled in from the actual piece, is quite lengthy and captures all those lovely SEO keywords.

2. The one-liner underneath teases the content further, filling in the gaps and giving you even more reason to click through. For example, the second story on today’s homepage (above) manages to refer to David Beckham without even mentioning his name or showing his picture. The story about Kate Garraway and Claire Nasir dressed up as pop stars says ‘they nearly reveal all’ to add weight to the word ‘racy’ in the headline and the image of the two women in their revealing outfits.

3. The split image. Why go for a neatly-cropped headshot when you can pack more into the frame? Their picture editing talents aren’t up to much, as Photoshop Disasters will testify. But they make up for this by telling a story with the images. They’re fond of comparison shots such as before and after images of a celebrity who has lost weight. Or they use them to reinforce to the story, as with this item (left) on the Middleton family’s wealth in which they’ve pasted a picture of a £5m mansion into the background.

It’s also a way of getting as much flesh into the picture as possible, as they do with the story on the left about Jessica Wright to make a fairly insubstantial story very clickable. If you haven’t worked out from the text that the story is about her breasts then the picture makes it pretty obvious. Actually, the picture ensures that you won’t even read the text.