Warmest Greetings,
:: Thursday, January 08, 2004 ::
Is it helpful or risky to put that "Site Designed by You" link on clients' websites?
The question started in Incoming links from client sites. "My company does website design as well as seo. On sites that we design, we normally put a "website designed by " link at the bottom. Could this cause a problem with sites that we also host on our server? Our server all sites off the same IP address. Is there a possibility that engines see this and disregard the fact that all the client's sites are for real, and just think that we are spamming?...The reason I was concerned was cause it occurred to me that some sort of autodetection in google might up and say "hey look a bunch of sites on the same IP address owned by same company all linking back to one site -- spam!""
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"Assuming the client is happy with the work, and agrees to add that page somewhere, it's definitely a "vote" for the designer's work. A lot of designers have a significant impact on the client's business, because "site design" is a lot more than "graphic design."
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"Firstly, this isn't saying we need to discard the idea of having links on client sites. Rather, we need to make the relevance more implicit. The simplest way of attaining this would be to change the way these links are worded. A typical credit for design currently might look like" (click here to read several examples and scenerios.)
Also in Cre8asiteForums. The Semantic Web. Ammon Johns (Black Knight) shows us a research paper on Semantics (Latent Semantic Indexing or LSI). Can this add insight into Stemming?
"It seems to be a well trodden path at the moment. Both Kartoo and Grokker are playing with this kind of analysis. The real question is are people going to be able to cope the presentation offered by these analysis companies or are the old fashioned listings going to prevail?"
Promotion/Marketing
Check out newly launched MarketingFind.com. Topics cover email marketing, SEO, affiliates, PPC and more.
"MarketingFind.com is a great marketing resource for beginners and seasoned pros alike. Recently launched, the site should be added to any online marketer's list of resources,” said Andy Beal, Vice President of Marketing for KeywordRanking.com and author of Searchenginelowdown.com. "
Usability
Big is not better? What do you consider a large page?.
"I've always been one of those surfers that if the page doesn't load after 5 seconds, I move on."
Move it. So What Exactly is a Call to Action?
"People like to be “sold.” They just don’t like being pushed. Persuasion is an act of gentle pulling."
ROI
Clever. Thought provoking. Who Are Your Best Customers?
"Are you using revenue as the sole method of calculating customer value?"
Babies
Kalena Jordan saw yesterday's note in my blog about baby pics and via her SEO blog (we have this fun back and forth!), offered up a link.
I guess I'm excited for her because I remember my first-born. My daughter, Arielle, was my inititation into the "club". Motherhood, I came to learn, is sacred. I loved it. It felt like I was tapped into a place and energy that was previously off-limits. Like Kalena, who stood here in all her growing belly glory, I too, had a special picture taken where I stood against an old farmhouse. The sun was in just right spot, creating a silhouette of my rounded pregnant belly. My pose was just like Kalena's is in her picture.
Thanks Kal, for sharing your joy with us.
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 1/8/2004 09:30:34 AM
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:: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 ::
I couldn't run past this one! The Nightmares of a SEO. This is one of those great nod-your-head-up-and-down-a-zillion-times articles. Yes, yes yes she yells! (We even started a thread on it...Isn't this what we've all been saying all along?. Feel free to chime in!)
"Unfortunately SEOs are forgotten a lot of the time just like place-kickers. They are left out of marketing strategy, site updates and even redesigns and yet they are the first to hear complaints like, "I can't find myself on Google anymore!" - "How come we went from 1st place to 100th place?" - "Why has our web site traffic dropped, you're not doing your job!" These usually come after some kind of change or move has been made without first consulting the SEO company."
Still a hot discussion in Cre8asiteForums. How To Prosper in the New Google
"There's a good chance that Google is employing click-through data, or will be soon. Inktomi does. Teoma does. I don't know why Google wouldn't use it, now that they are collecting this data.
I'm sure there have already been discussions here about the "onmousedown="return clk(#,this)" that has been added to the links on Google's SERPs, where # is the position of the result (1-10). They're tracking what people click on now."
Something new. Some of the things are not so new, but for those new to SEO, this website has quick access to commonly needed tools to help with search engine optimization. Try SEOPal
It's my blog and I can stray off-topic if I want to. And, off-planet. Earth in True Color and so totally Mars, dude. If you really want to leave this blog, I'll send you to Visable Earth.
Next will be Kalena Jordan's baby pictures. (!) (When she delivers of course.)
Don't be afraid to try this at home, even if you don't have a twin to help you run the test. A scientific measure of the benefits of online shopping, from a trade group
"Thumping the tub in the U.K. for online shopping, trade association the Interactive Media in Retail Group reports the results of an experiment that sent two sisters on Christmas shopping expeditions, one online and the other offline.
The trade group operates the web site E-Christmas.com to promote online shopping. As part of that promotional effort, Royal Mail, a sponsor of E-Christmas.com, recruited two sisters from Essex to participate in a test to determine exactly how much more convenient and less stressful online shopping is over store shopping."
I still think ecommerce has a long way to go to meet user needs, and I wrote about it in Why Ecommerce Is Not Ready For My Daughter and Me
Blog Stuff
Hey they stole my "8". This site is a Blog Design Showcase. Pull up a monitor and get ideas.
I'm checking this recommendation out. It's called Technorati.com and is a way to see whose blogs are linking to yours. Thanks Brad! More on tracking back here in Getting The Word on your Blog Out
And of course, usability.
Dirk Knemeyer interviews Richard Saul Wurman, the man who coined the phrase "information architecture" 30 years ago. (Thirty years ago?)
Devour Richard Saul Wurman: The InfoDesign interview
"DK: What can we learn from our history to guide the future of design, information and experience?
RSW: It was something like 26 years after the first Gutenberg Bible that somebody invented pagination. Page numbers allow you access; it was one of the first steps in trying to understand things and find things. History teaches us that people will struggle with the obvious. Try to discover the obvious ways that make things clearer. Try to search for clarity."
Thanks for stopping by.
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 1/7/2004 10:17:09 AM
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:: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 ::
Peanuts, Yahoo!, Google, and dare I add, Usability?
It started with a peanut jar and the shock of discovering there was a change in it's design. This one incident has inspired an incredible thread on various aspects of usability, from design, to target market and everything possible in between. In Can You Get Too Usable? you'll find things like:
"Usability isn't necessarily about following the same set of guidelines, and the same structure all of the time. But, chances are that you'll come across a number of myths dealing with usability, and even some usability experts who will speak of place of things on a page in absolute terms. "
"Good web designers, like good writers, must be able to recognize their own blinders if they are to remove them. I'm honestly not sure if that is harder for the writer or for the designer. Unlike the writer, the designer should also always be a user, but they can't allow themselves to be just "a" user. They have to be ALL users, avoiding the habits that shrink a web site to just a few linear paths. If usability is about choices, the designer must be willing to constantly exercise and explore those choices. I think those who fail to do so are the ones guilty of wearing blinders."
"As I develop, in my work, a "user character" I literally tap into who these people are, including their home and professional lives. I fret over whether they're browsing from work during lunch hour, sneaking a peek when the boss isn't looking or suffer from Attention Deficit Syndrome. Believe it or not, those things matter to the site design and architecture."
From there we move to Yahoo! big news. Yahoo Gets Set to Give Google Run for Money
"First, Yahoo is expected to dump Google as the primary search technology on its site within a few months, a move that could come around the time Google is preparing a long-awaited initial stock offering. Some marketing firms, which help advertisers manage their online campaigns for search-related ads, say they have been told Yahoo will switch from Google to its own technology as early as the first quarter."
We knew it would be a fun year for SEO!
Google is getting lots of attention of course, but for SEO's working with SERPS, it's business as usual. One strong thread at Cre8asiteForums is called How To Prosper in the New Google
"I find it interesting that Google will start to use Teoma's "Subject-Specific Popularity" concept within its PageRank algo."
"All smart businesses use the success of of their competitors to improve their own products- the key is copying the right ideas..."
This, Looking For a Gig is hilarious. Check out the nifty accessbility convenience for font switching.
In today's spam stack I got one that I thought would help me through a slump in business right now (nobody thinks about website usability during the shopping season! Cough. Cough.) The subject line reads "Become a pro....pornstar".. Right. I can see the headlines now..."Usability advocate does more than teach you how to use the thing. She demonstrates it right in your own living room!"
Meanwhile back on this planet. I have a bit of news regarding my short-lived stint as a Contributing "Blog Author" at SERoundtable.com. I retired already and I just got there! Nevertheless I'll be dropping in with usability oriented posts once in awhile as a Guest Contributor to that blog.
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 1/6/2004 12:22:00 PM
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:: Monday, January 05, 2004 ::
Here we go!
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs to Manage Google IPO
"Google Inc. hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to arrange its initial public offering, a sale that may raise as much as $4 billion, a banker involved in the transaction said.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs will lead a group of underwriters that includes Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse First Boston, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Thomas Weisel Partners LLC and WR Hambrecht + Co., two bankers in the sale said. They spoke on condition they not be named.
The sale by Google, the world's most used Internet search engine, would be the biggest IPO since CIT Group Inc.'s $4.87 billion deal in July 2002. It ``will certainly be the deal of the year,'' said Sanford Robertson, who founded San Francisco-based investment bank Robertson, Stephens & Co. before starting private- equity firm Francisco Partners LP."
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 1/5/2004 05:27:30 PM
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