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I belong to a local business support group. At our last meeting the topic of iPhone apps came up. iPhone apps are getting to be like blogs – everyone thinks they need one, they just don’t know why. I mentioned that a webpage for mobile devices would be more appropriate.
After the meeting I was asked how they work – so here are the basics.
Google recently announced the release of their latest major update – code name ‘Caffeine’. Google has been working on the update for a number of months. The release is currently in a test stage. However, you can expect it to be rolled out across the Google network later this year.
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A half of a second isn’t much time. Most of us would have a hard time thinking of something we do that only takes half a second. Certainly it is not enough to worry about!
Wrong!!
Over the years I have bothered anyone who would listen about the way forms are designed. Problems range from entering unnecessary information to forms that are hard to understand. However, I have always looked at the problem from the user’s point of view.
In this article Jared Spool looks at the cost of poorly designed forms from the businesses’ point of view. In particular he outlines how one business lost potentially $300,000,000 (yes – 3 million dollars) in sales due to one button.
A few years ago I saw an article saying Google had applied for a patented on the concept of basing search results on the users response to the items. The particular application quoted in the article was to base future results on how long a user spent on a page before returning the the search engine. Since then Google has refined the technique to what we now see as personalized search.
Personalized search means your search results are based on your past searches. For example if you are trying to determine the position of your website on the search engine results page (SERP) and continually click on the page once you find it, you may see it rise to a higher position. The search engine has learned your preference for that page when used with a specific set of keywords. Now, the SERP you see has no relevance to that seen by other users searching for the same term.
This means that a high SERP position can no longer be used as the ultimate measure of a websites success in bringing traffic to a site. As personalized search becomes more refined the differences between what you see and what your neighbour sees for the same search results will become more varied.
Search engines are already doing a good job of geo-targeting search results. (see Island Pizza Beats Pizza Hut ) So, a search for a plumber here in Comox is not going to give the same results as a search for an plumber in Victoria or even Campblell River.
So, how do you measure the success of a site? Qualified traffic!
Traffic by itself is a rather useless measure of a sites success. Qualified traffic, users that remain on the site, view at least two pages or, better yet, take some action that will lead to a sale, is the only true measurement. of success.
We still need to use the tools to view the SERP position for someone who doesn’t have a history with your page or keywords. And, we still need tools to get the results of searches from different geographical areas. But, these results now have to be viewed through the lens of personalized search.
Top Rank had an article on the Marketing blog A Strategic Approach to Internet Marketing with Content & SEO where they interviewed a number of marketing professionals on the importance of content in marketing online. While the comments were insightful, they seemed to me to lack one basic premise, knowledge of you audience. (I left a comment to that effect.)
Too many small businesses treat their website like a shotgun. If you have a wide enough pattern you are going to hit something. Put enough information on your site and someone will buy.
This is the wrong approach.
Think of your website as a laser pointer. Narrow your focus and put targeted information on the website. If you have more than one target audience – segment your website. Keep each area focused. Give your prospective customer the information they want. Don’t make them hunt through a lot of information they don’t want to find the relevant information.
Websites can be segmented in a wide variety of ways. Product segmentation is the most common. But, if you have a product that appeals to a wide variety of people you may want to segment by age, singles and married, families with kids, families without kids. The possiblities are endless. But you have to know your customers.
A potential client want to meet to discuss optimizing his website. I hadn’t been to the site before – so I decided to take a look before meeting with him. ( I like to be some what prepared.)
As usual, when I am surfing the web, I had my headphones on and working my way through my playlist. All of a sudden, there was the sound of crashing waves over top of Neil Sedaka. It took me a few seconds to figure out they were coming from the website and another couple of seconds to see that I couldn’t turn them off.
Audio and video are great was to promote your product or service. They can add a personal touch that can connect with your customer. However, there are some basic rules that you need to follow.
First – and by far the most important – they must NOT start automatically. You should invite people to listen to, or watch your presentation. A message that starts automatically when the visitor is not expecting is intrusive and rude.
Second – there MUST be a way of pausing the presentation. Everyone of us has been interrupted while surfing the Internet. From a phone call to the call of nature, there are times when you need to go and do something else. Don’t force the visitor to the site to listen to everything again — have a pause button.
Finally, the presentation MUST deal with your product or service. In this case the sound of crashing waves had nothing to do with the service. It was just background noise.
The key to any web business is repeat customers. How many times do you think someone will be returning to this site knowing they will be getting the same noise? What do you think is the first thing I will be talking about at our meeting?
There was a post in one of the Google groups I belong to about splash pages. The group was for web developers, and the person was asking about integrating a spash page into WordPress.
This was the second time I had come across someone interested in a Splash page in the last two weeks. The first was from a potential customer who wanted us to do some SEO on her Splash page. The rest of the site was Flash and she wanted the Splash page to carry the SEO for the rest of the site. When we couldn’t convince her to redo the site without the Splash page – and the Flash pages as supplements to a regular site, we gently refused the job.
Splash pages were concieved, rather poorly, as an introduction to the main site. Think of your website as a store. Have you ever seen a store with someone guarding the door saying:
“You can’t come inside until I waste your time telling you nothing about our product or what we do. Thank you for listening — you may now enter the store.”
Sounds like something out of a Seinfeld sketch.
Take a critical look at your website. Does the first page show off your product or your web designers skills?
Too many web designers see your web page as a place to show off their skills. While you want your website to be attractive, the focus MUST be on the product and not the designer’s skills.
Colour selection, image placement and page copy must all focus on the product. Getting this right separates the business website from those that just pretend to be business sites.
Here are three things you can check to see how well your website supports your product:
Unless the header is featuring your product it shouldn’t take up more than ¼ of the page. The product and the call to action should be seen without having to scroll down the page.
Under Construction – NOT!
Finally, made it home from my holiday. Spent a LOT of time driving. This being spring, much of the driving was in road construction zones, constantly slowing down, speeding up and watching for flag people. All-in-all not very enjoyable.
We all know road construction is necessary. And, while we might not enjoy it – we all put up with it. However, ‘Under Contruction’ is something you should never see on a website.
Web page that waste their clients sites with links that go nowhere or to the all too common – “Page Under Construction” message have no place on any website – particularly a business website.
Keep your website professional – check that links still work and never – EVER – link to an “Under Construction” page.