Warmest Greetings,

Usable Web Design  

:: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 ::

Usable Web Design

I had to take my car in for service today, cutting into my work day. Therefore, here are some thought provoking articles.

The Top 3 Priorities of the Talking Horse, By Jared M. Spool
     The problem comes when the team can't tell what functions the users require and which ones the team could delay. When this happens, the priority becomes understanding the users' tasks, to ensure the team can clearly identify the required features. This is when making an investment to identify and research the users' tasks really pays off. What are the users trying to accomplish? How do they know when they've accomplished it? What steps do they currently use to accomplish the same thing without your design?

The End-All Guide to Small-Screen Web-Dev, by Heidi Pollock
     Every cell phone, PDA, or handheld device that renders a Web page does so by means of a browser that will or won't be able to parse one or more of these markup languages. If the varying degrees of screen browser support for CSS makes you mental, now might be the time to run out and buy yourself a nice bottle of wine, because the small-screen world is a Rubik's Cube of compatibility issues.


The high cost of not finding information, by Susan Feldman of International Data Corporation (IDC)
     With the advent of the World Wide Web, every professional worker has become a searcher, but without either search training or a roadmap of what he or she is searching. Without information training and skills, most people don't know where to look, how to ask for what they are seeking or when it is OK to stop looking. One answer looks very much like another unless the searcher understands what constitutes valid information.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/31/2004 03:02:39 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 ::

In My Day, Radios Didn't Need To Bleep Songs and We Could Sing Real Loud, Outloud

I found this and was surprised that what I had felt to be true, is actually not that unusual.

Kids are listening to their parents. Their parents' music, that is

I noticed my kids are avoiding pop music stations and are selecting stations that feature 70's and 80's rock. They also don't complain when my mate wants to listen to stuff like Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and current rock bands.

What the kids are starting to become annoyed with is Rap and girlie Pop and the constant onslaught of naked bodies on MTV. They seem to recognize that what they're seeing isn't making them feel good.

I remember when music made me feel good, even when the subject was about War. Being a Neil Young fanatic, I would belt out "Four dead in Ohio" and "I've seen the needle and the damage done". Because there was melody and a chance for me to harmonize (I'm a natural harmonizer because I can't hit high notes), I was satisifed. With Rap, everyone simply wants to get laid and something as innocent as eating ice cream is manipulated into a porn scene.

My kids are uncomfortable with this. It's confusing them.

I happened to also read an article in a woman's magazine that says kids are putting up resistance to all the information they're getting and starting to not hear it at all. They gave an example of when a tragedy hits a school and the counselors are called in, there's tons of publicity and the teachers try to "get the kids to talk about their feelings". The kids want to move on, but feel hindered, so they start to block the information and eventually don't even know what's going on around them because they're protecting themselves. Armouring themselves.

Back to the music article:

Quote:
     As marketing consultant for The Beatles Anthology, he met with label execs plotting campaigns targeting fans 45 and up. "I've got news for you," Lewis told them. "I'm the oldest guy at Beatlefan conventions."

Sure enough, a marketing survey showed that the under-30 constituency scooped up 40% of the first Anthology run. "I've interviewed those kids," Lewis says. "I've said, 'Surely you'd rather listen to Justin Timberlake. Why are you here? Were you forced by your parents?' But they chose to be there."

I've been known to say, here at home, that I sorely miss music that did something productive. There are some new musicians I admire because they can really sing and its the strength of their voice that keeps me interested. But they're rare.

I miss Queen and The Who, and the long ballads and rock operas of old, that went on and on. There was nothing like the days when a carload of us would sing along to songs from "Tommy", or the band, Bad Company. My girlfriends and I would revel ourselves with Heart's "Barricuda" and everything by Fleetwood Mac. And yes, I was known to listen to Beatle anthologies, and documentaries and analyze songs that when played backwards "had a secret meaning". When I was 11 or 12, I truly believed all the Abbey Road hype that Paul was dead. When I was in 10th grade I changed my name to "Angie" because Mick Jagger was singing a song to her. I was as obsessed as they come, and it was all about the music.

Those were the days. Where have they gone, and why?

(Discussion in Cre8asiteForums - Yesterday's Music is Better, Kids Say

     "The girls are too young to understand that some of their antics are really difficult, if not impossible, for boys their age to handle. Boys/men are visual. Teen boys get turned on with very little prompting. It's got to be rough to be sitting in class, staring at butt cracks and thongs, or skimpy tight shirts, or walking down the hallways and staring at belly buttons all day."

(Isn't this more interesting than Google's "new look"?)

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/30/2004 12:55:26 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Monday, March 29, 2004 ::

Sunday Morning With Google

In the USA, there is a neat little TV show called "CBS News Sunday Morning" which features short newsy, interesting stories targeted to people who want to watch insightful, intelligent TV. Yesterday they did a feature story on Google.

Having just read the latest Newsweek coverage, as well as keeping up with the news online, I had a chuckle that even on Sunday morning, Google was still in my face. What stuck out from Sunday's show was footage of the Google complex and the reason behind free healthcare and food for employees. The thinking is that this company is not planning on sitting on any of its successes and taking a breather. Rather, they work day and night on innovative new ideas and enhancements to keep charging forward. Tending to the private and personal needs of employees means not only having a devoted, loyal staff, but they don't have to drive to lunch (saves time and gas) or suffer major personal frustations because of inflexible work demands.

     "Googlers also get free gourmet breakfast, lunch and dinner -- all prepared by the former chef of the Grateful Dead. They get free medical care. Everywhere you look, there's another free and all-you-can-eat snack bar stocked with healthy snacks, and not-so-healthy snacks. There's even a massage chair in the lobby.

     But according to co-founder Sergey Brin, there's a good reason why Google isn't frugal when it comes to pampering its staff.

     'Volleyball courts, masseuses, all these things -- these are all actually pretty well thought-out," says Brin. "For example, our lunch and dinners that we provide for employees -- it really saves a lot of time. People don't have to drive off campus, park, go somewhere, wait for a long time for food. You can sit and chat with your colleagues and talk about all kinds of work projects. Learn about new things. And head back to the office.'"


By contrast, my fiance works for a large company that develops software and database applications. They expect their employees to work overtime and weekends, but there are no efforts by the company to make this extra time pleasant. This is a special hardship for him because he is only allowed to see his son two weekends a month and a few hours a week. As he explained to his manager, who made him come into work yesterday, he has 48 hours to spend with his son, roughly 16 hours of that is spent sleeping. Now he must come in to work and lose more precious time. So, he brought his son (age 5, and not about to sit still for long), into work with him. He was allowed to leave after 4 hours and telecommute the rest of the work from home, where the rest of us here at the house can keep the young boy busy. But of course, the father still loses time with his son.

I'm sure Google has positive ways of dealing with this same situation. Not only is Google a class act search engine, but as for how to run a growing corporation without disrupting employee lives in the process, I think businesses need to study Google's ways.

Search Engines:

This is the year for search engines, as most SEO/SEM's know. They've been waiting and watching the changes, trying to keep up with the latest developments so their skills are up to date. One newcomer search engine, Mooter, is discussed in Upstart Competitors Try to Outdo Google. The article describes how several startups are tackling dynamic sites, the invisible web and more. (Thanks to Kalena for the lead.)

     "In particular, crawlers are stymied by dynamic Web pages, which are customized as users choose various options, such as car color at Cars.com. To counter that, Chicago-based Dipsie Inc. is developing software that promises to fill out Cars.com's simple online forms, which are based on multiple choice, though not the complex ones for the government's patent and trademark databases, which require typing in keywords. A public test version is expected by summer."

New Google User Interface Dumps ODP Directory. Google Directory demoted: effect on ODP

     As of today Google.com has rolled out the new look that it has been testing for some time on random users. The 'Directory' tab has been replaced by one for Froogle. Also the links to its directory no longer appear in the SERPs. Nor do the listing descriptions from its directory.


Website Development:

Researching content management issues? You may find this interesting reading. Don't make these mistakes when buying content management software by Gerry McGovern, web content management author and consultant for gerrymcgovern.com


     "Most organizations don?t need content management software. Unless you have a very busy website with lots and lots of content being published, the return on investment is not there. The majority of those who do require such software need a very simple, streamlined solution."


Usability:

Though not easy to read (small font face), it's a decent article with usability basics for webmasters to pick up quickly. Using the 5Es to Understand Users

     "These gaps are signs that you need to start your program with some user analysis. You need to do some site visits, user interviews, and observations of people as they work to gather this knowledge. And that's your first action - learning about who your users are, their tasks and their goals in using your product."

Only in the USA:

No thank you, Mr. President. I'd rather have health insurance. Bush promises universal broadband access

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/29/2004 10:53:07 AM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Friday, March 26, 2004 ::

Navigating and Reading Web Sites is Hazardous to My Health

I know for a fact that many Web site designs are invented without thought to humans. They're optimized for search engines and buried in the content somewhere is the keyword you searched for it with. But speaking as one of the many users in someone's so-called target market, I can honestly say they didn't use me for their user persona.

I sit in my chair staring into my monitor a lot. My eye doctor has given up on the eye strain lectures. The more he points out I'm slowing going blind, the more I tell him tales about the popularity of teeny tiny fonts and animated ads. Testing sites, as I do, is another health hazard. I have to try and navigate them and figure out how the Web site user is supposed to use the site. (Something that should have been done before putting it on the Internet, but that's another story.) This is when my back starts to act up. Usually I'm scrunched over a homepage with left side navigation that goes on for a few blocks because they didn't think grouping into categories would be "understandable" enough or "the user might not find everything we have to offer."

Or worse, I'm trying to read well-written, interesting copy, but need magnifying glasses or must fiddle with my browser controls so I can see the words. A user oriented Web site means never having to force your visitor/browser/customer to work, think or strain performing any task.

But enough about me.

I think you'll enjoy a professional perspective and I actually have one for you. It's in an article called Don't Forget to Architect the Home Page by David Wertheimer
     "The solution is to stop trying so hard with the home page and start thinking about how the rest of the site works. Functionality and placement become more obvious inside the site. Why not carry those same principles backward, onto the home page?"

Friday Fun:

They sure as heck didn't survey me. Spam-commerce generated $11.7 bln
     "Despite consumer complaints about unsolicited commercial e-mail, the Direct Marketing Association yesterday released a study showing U.S. consumers spent $11.7 billion on products and services advertised in unsolicited messages."

Why yes, dear. Your posts are most certainly placed into your file in the Human Resources Department for review by your manager at any time. It's A Blog World After All
     "Corporate America is jumping onto the blogwagon for many of the same reasons all those journalists, brooding teenagers, and presidential campaigners are already on board. Unlike email and instant messaging, blogs let employees post comments that can be seen by many and mined for information at a later date, and internal blogs aren't overwhelmed by spam. And unlike most corporate intranets, they're a bottoms-up approach to communication."

Farewell to a FAST Friend. AllTheWeb (FAST) search engine is gobbled up by Yahoo!
     "Search results on AlltheWeb are provided by Yahoo!. For fast submission to the Yahoo! Search index via the Overture Site Matchtm program, Click Here. The Partner Site PFI program has been discontinued. Legacy Partner Site PFI customers will continue to receive distribution on the historical AlltheWeb network until their subscriptions expire."

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/26/2004 01:24:31 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Thursday, March 25, 2004 ::

My Favorite SEO Blogs and Stuff

When you work from home, as I do, it can feel lonely sometimes. I'm well acquainted with "cabin fever", my refridgerator and the exciting highlight of each day, a 2 minute daily walk to the mailbox. I do, however, have many friends who run around the 'Net as I do finding juicy news and stories to tell. Some of them have such interesting blogs that if I don't visit at least once a day, I will have missed out on something important or funny.

Who are Kim's Favorite Bloggers?

Kalena Jordan of Search Engine News has just had a baby and is back to cranking out her SE blog. You can count on Kal to look into a story a bit deeper than most. She will comment here and there and is known to test new products and share her findings with blog readers.

Andy Beal of Search Engine Lowdown has an inside track to both the news and newsmakers themselves. If you think the new MSN search engine is due out in July, think again. Andy has the story.

Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable runs a blog that monitors the leading search engine related forums. Guest writers help him stay on top of hot threads, which in turn has the added value of helping readers keep their finger on the overall pulse of the whole Search Engine body. This blog is often updated throughout the day, also keeping up with a new trend in blogging to keep entries not only daily but constantly refreshed.

Alan Webb's Abakus SEO Blog has the uncanny ability to find stuff that's real news, sometimes before everybody else has found it. And if things get boring, Alan digs to find things of interest.

Peter DaVanzo is just funny with his Search Engine Blog. Peter sees the ridiculous and marvy aspects of SE news. I always look forward to how he says so much, in so little words. Peter also trails off-topic in delightful ways, such as "Bush Lies" Yields 2550 Results On Google: Only 2550? Clearly not indexing the invisible web, then."

Andrew Goodman digs deep with his Traffick. You just can't go a day without wanting to see if they have things like Overture's Site Match is a Bit Too Revealing.
     "Therefore, we at Traffick call upon Yahoo to mask the URLs of pay-for-inclusion sites immediately to avoid abusive click charges from competitors and anyone else wanting to cause mischief."

Andy Bourland and friends run MarketingWonk , which has changed their name to Marketing Vox News and the new layout of their redesigned site is way better to understand in a few seconds (thank you!). This site is a daily romp into the world of SEO and marketing. They offer an RSS feed, and run email lists that cover many related subjects. They've been around a long time, in various forms and are still cranking out the good stuff.


Other Favorites That Have Grown on Me:

DonnaM writes on Information architecture, user-centred design, usability and other things, and isn't afraid to say what she feels.

Bragadocchio, which is tended to by Cre8asiteForums Administrator, Bill Slawski. Spend some time looking at the world from his view. He's smart, insightful and you feel like you've just been given a nice healing body massage.

We found this one because he loves "Grumpus" from Cre8asiteForums, and it garnered him a bookmark and "lookout for" from me. See Search Visibility Report by Merrick Lozano.

Too funny and always right on is Jeremy Zawody's Blog on "Linux, Perl, MySQL, Open Source, and whatever other random stuff catches my interest...". He manages to keep me interested and I'm not a programmer.

All I know for sure is that Sharon came zooming into Cre8asiteForums with her smile, blond hair and Corvette, asking how to start a blog. The rest is history. Sharondippity. She recently wrote,
     "I'm rarely gushy, geez, over anything that isn't edible or kissable..tee hee so when I say I really like a site for its information, set up, and helpful members, it is a rare thing. I have found Cre8asite.com to be the most friendly and smart and non-cliquish-est site I've ever known. Here's kudos to them. I hereby recommend them to anyone ever needing help in web design or programming or site ranking. Excellent. Kudos to them."

Which brings me to the new blog launched by Cre8asiteForums (sneaky aren't I?) called Peabody's Cre8tive Flow featuring web design, development, site promotion and industry news as found by Mr. Peabody and several friends brought in to assist him.

There's a bit of mystery at Cre8asiteForums as to who Mr. Peabody is. We first met him while creating the first sketches for the Cre8asiteForums logo, which during the first incarnations, spoofed Google's logo. Mr. Peabody, I believe, is what's left from a rather good time the artists had with the letter "O".

These are just my favorites. There are many more blogs I drop in on and new potential "favorites" lurk at every turn. Thanks to everyone who makes my day such a pleasant daily read and especially to those who make me laugh out loud. It wakes up the dog.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/25/2004 02:34:31 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 ::

Win A Date With a Google Billionaire

When Newsweek arrived in my mailbox, I squealed outloud (on my country road while the doggie went potty) to see cuties Larry Page and Sergey Brin on the cover. Later, I cuddled up under blankets after the kids were asleep and my mate was glued to his computer and inhaled their story like a schoolgirl gawking at Teen Magazine.

I will never win a date with Sergey or Larry (to be honest, I'm already matched up with a dark eyed, dark haired younger guy), but I wouldn't mind working for a company that allows dogs in the office and offers free lunch to employees. But, flirting doesn't get you in the door with these guys. Brilliant minds that can see into the future does. As annoyed as I get with Google-Land and the whole SEO cat and mouse game, they DO deliver great search results.

The Newsweek article, All Eyes on Google doesn't deliver any real news to those who already stay on top of search engines. There is, however, a related story called Little Engines That Can that talks about Groxis, Eurekster, Dipsie, Brightplanet, Quigo and Mooter. (Do you ever get the feeling people name companies after their pets?)

From the lead story,
     "Every minute, worldwide, in 90 languages, the index of this Internet-based search engine created by these Stanford doctoral dropouts is probed more than 138,000 times. In the course of a day, that's over 200 million searches of 6 billion Web pages, images and discussion-group postings."

Which, of course, impressed me even more than the two sexy Google billionaire hunks on the cover that caused a brief ruckus of the heart to yours truly on a rural country road in the middle of nowhere, while her faithful doggie companion did his duty nearby. Sorta puts things in perspective... when you really think about it.

Quickly Subscribe to Newsweek

You, too, can get Sergey and Larry in your mailbox. Buy Newsweek Now

Proceeds Help Support Cre8asiteForums (which in turn keep it free for everyone. No subscriptions to get to the good stuff!)

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/24/2004 10:14:00 AM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 ::

So Totally DMOZ, Baby

Frankly, when I say I'm going to "submit to DMOZ", it sounds naughty.

But, the truth is, it's quite challenging to navigate this famous Directory. Who better to go to than Cre8asiteForums' own Jean Manco who gives members the inside track.

Here are some fantastical places to seek help:

Site Stability
     "A site with frequent server problems could be in trouble from the start."

Tips on getting a Dmoz listing
     "Review times vary dramatically - from a matter of minutes to years. There is no average time that you can count on."

New To DMOZ
     "It's been calculated that the ODP adds 1,000 listings a day. So what kind of sites are editors eager to list? I thought I'd pick out a few as I add them."

When do Google and AllTheWeb update their ODP directories?
     "All I can say is that the old pattern of an update once a month was broken last year. There has been much speculation about the reasons."

Cyberworld Antics:

If you use Hotmail or Yahoo! Email and MSIE - Hotmail, Yahoo Users at Risk of PC Takeover
     "A potentially serious security flaw found in Web-based e-mail services offered by Microsoft and Yahoo could put millions of PCs at risk of takeover, an Internet security research firm warned Tuesday."

How many freaking toolbars can one PC have? Download the HotBot Quick Search Deskbar

This is why we don't allow name calling at Cre8asiteForums. How to Manage Your Corporate Reputation Online
     "Online discussion forums—commonly referred to as consumer generated media (CGM)—are increasingly being used by consumers to ratify or criticize products and brands."

Usability 101. Blaming the User is Rude
     "It's not my browser's fault at all, it's Yahoo's."

Click Fraudsters: Be Very, Very Careful
     "In the past year, I've been asked at seminars and in interviews what can be "done" about the problem of bogus clicks. In those instances where I just came right out and said what needs to happen is that the perpetrators need to be arrested, I've noticed the interviewer would often go very quiet and change the subject."

Earthworld Antics:

Please don't read this if you're "feeling hormonal" or love butterflies. Mass Extinction Not Inevitable
     "By 2050, between 25 percent and 50 percent of all species will have disappeared or be too few in numbers to survive. There'll be a few over-visited parks, the coral reefs will be beaten up, grasslands overgrazed. Vast areas of the tropics that have lost their forests will have the same damn weeds, bushes and scrawny eucalyptus trees so that you don't know if you're in Africa or the Americas. Without its natural diversity the world will be a poorer place. It will be boring."

Yesterday Seems So Far Away...

I posted yesterday's post in the new Cre8asite Blog called Cre8tive Flow, not to annoy everybody with dupes, but to help get that blog going and tested. The bonus is that over there, people can comment on what I write! See Keyword Horse Remarks

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/23/2004 03:13:59 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Monday, March 22, 2004 ::

Putting The Keyword Before The Horse Will Not Make Him Drink

Neither will putting keywords and PPC marketing, or SEO, before persuasive web design. The challenge every website faces is a return on investment (ROI). Funnily, and annoyingly enough, paying for usability design help is considered after first paying for banners, text ads, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, search engine submission and pay per click campaigns. When a keyword fails to pull its weight, it's tossed out and another keyword is bet on instead.

Who thinks to ask the website visitor what went wrong? Who gets the brilliant idea to re-evaluate the website design to make sure it's not scaring away potential customers that just found it?

Frederick Marckini writes, in Ass-Backwards SEM
     "But if the Web site had a more persuasive architecture, if it spoke to more segments of the audience in their language and led them through the buying cycle, the site's overall conversion rate would increase."

In the past week, two people wrote to me asking if their sites should be redesigned. A third website did undergo a major redesign, only to learn that visitors hate it, and is now seeking urgent help. It's rare that I would suggest a total redesign. What I do instead is find failure points in the present overall structure of the site and focus on repairing them. There are two major areas that nearly everyone falters on. The first is the primary objective of the website. The second is navigation. They're intimately connected. I don't ask clients "What keyword did you build your website for?" I ask them, "Why did you build it?", "Whom did you build it for?", "What do you want them do on your website?", "Where do you want them to do this?" and "How?"

What's surprising is how many times they don't really know the answer to those basic questions, and yet have spent loads of money marketing the site and buying up keywords.

Persuasion architecture takes it a step further by asking "Are you conveying your message?" or "How are you going to create a "call to action" website that dances all over the competition?" You want to convince the first-time visitor that you know your stuff, you offer the best deal for the money, you know your product inside and out or you have a passion for your topic that's so incredibly intoxicating that people bookmark your site to learn more or recommend it. And that's really just the tip of the desirability part of usability oriented design.

I don't expect that a complete makeover is your answer. I do suggest enhancements to the information architecture and user interface (or in simple terms, the design and foundation.) Sometimes I refer a content writer who can work magic with words that sell and convince. I suggest a serious look and evaluation of all goals. I advise practical thinking when it comes to determining who your website users are. There are usually several types of visitors coming to your website. Have you found a way for each of them to stick around, once they found the site? Have you found a ways to make their visit productive, which in turn turns into a higher conversion rate for you?

Ah well...sometimes I think people would rather waste their money bidding on keywords or consider sending their visitors a link to the song "Stay" to see if that helps them.

"...oh won't you stay, ay ayy...just a little bit longer? Please, please stay, ay ayy..."

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/22/2004 03:12:02 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Friday, March 19, 2004 ::

Usability Techniques and Gurus On Fire, and Under Fire

I bet Jakob Nielsen is feeling a bit like Disney's Michael Eisner - unloved, unappreciated, misunderstood, and about to be hung by his toes.

Exhibit A: An open letter to Jakob Nielsen
     "I would dare say you are doing far more harm than you are doing good, and I ask that you cease this behavior."

Meanwhile, a little thing like Breadcrumb navigation has been the topic of disagreement.

Exhibit B: Things between Peter Merholz and Mark Hurst heat up (again) in The Joy Of Navigation Design
     "Had I clicked down through the site, this all might not have been as much of an issue, but when I found myself on a page deep within the AIGA's labyrinth, care of Google, I was totally disoriented."

     "You've set up a false dichotomy between breadcrumb links and the Page Paradigm. If you are visiting the site with a goal, and using the Back button when things don't pan out, your usage fits right in."

Other:

Hot on the heels of its new Cre8asite Resource Library, Cre8asiteForums proudly announces its new blog:

Cre8tive Flow



SERoundtable has added a new feature to their blog. Since the main objective is to provide coverage of hot threads and topics from all the leading SEO oriented forums, Barry Schwartz (RustyBrick) has added an RSS feed that pulls in latest threads from several of them, and updates every 30 minutes.

Winners of the The Bloggies were chosen March 15. Scroll down for a bit to find the The Web Blog Awards winners on the left side. Nice place to see how others blog.

More rank nonsense for the page rank obsessed. Yahoo!'s WebRank. Blech.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/19/2004 03:42:16 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Thursday, March 18, 2004 ::

If They're Targeting Me, Why Are The Magazine Models Still Starving and Listless?

Here's a marketing tidbit for you. Older women have money, live longer than men, control the family spending and are tapped into some powerful goddess energy that hasn't been seen the days of Avalon.

Note to Autobytel - "Car manufacturers seem equally clueless. "Given that they buy or influence the purchase of 80% of all cars, you would think the entire automotive industry would be focused like a laser beam on women," says Barletta. "But it's not. Every single woman I know can tell you a horror story about having gone into a car dealership."

Fast Company has an eye opening report for marketers about women and how they're completely overlooked when it comes to targeting advertisements. Where The Bucks Are says:

     "The 40-plus age group is now 45% bigger than the 18-to-39 group and will be 60% bigger by 2010."

     "According to Martha Barletta, author of Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the World's Largest Market Segment (Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2003), women control or influence 80% of all purchases of both consumer and business goods and services. They have sole or joint ownership of 87% of homes and buy 61% of major home-improvement products. They account for 66% of all home-computer purchases and 80% of all health-care services. They carry 76 million credit cards, 8 million more than men. And they start 70% of all new businesses. "In a nutshell," says Barletta , "women are the ones spending the money, and boomer women have more money to spend."

Information Architecture:

Truly inspirational. We Are All Connected: The Path from Architecture to Information Architecture, by Fu-Tien Chiou
     "Noticing the similarities between physical and virtual environments can help information architects visualize web design elements. A web page is like a physical room or space, but viewed on a screen. A link - be it a text link or graphical button - connecting one page to another is like a door connecting one room/space to another."

Good read if you're designing a form. Creating sites that meet users' expectations, by Michael Meadhra
     "Web builders may be familiar with this usability concept, but that doesn't mean they always implement it successfully. In fact, while working on a client Web site, I was reminded of how easy it is to lose sight of such usability basics. There are some lessons you need to relearn and reinforce from time to time, so I thought I'd share my experience."

Grab Bag:

I added this nifty tool to my website version of a tool-belt. It's called the Google PageRank Report and is a smart alternative to the Google Toolbar.

Hire me. I work at home. I work in a bathing suit in the summer. Teleworking helps attract far-flung staff

The comments section is my favorite part. Which group is the most skilled at marketing to boomer women?

I can think of MUCH easier ways. What the Heck Is Social Networking?
     "The story of Friendster is that my girlfriend dumped me and I created the Web site to get laid."

Cre8asiteForums is just getting warmed up. Introducing the Cre8asite Resource Library

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/18/2004 02:47:50 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 ::

Smile If You Love Little Green Irishmen

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone who loves green beer, little green people and any excuse to change the day's routine.



The Party is Being Held Here

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/17/2004 12:51:01 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 ::

Can SEMPO Take Some Heat?

Hot on the heals of Yahoo!'s new Site Match paid inclusion/pay per click submission program, and the renewed enthusiasm by SEO/SEM's for all things search engine related, came serious questions about an organization that represents them, called SEMPO.

Cre8asiteForums Moderator, Barry Welford, asked So What Does SEMPO Mean To You?. The thread turned hot and heavy, but there was no peep from SEMPO itself until finally, yesterday, Barbara Coll, CEO, WebMama.com Inc., President and Chairperson of the Board, SEMPO, Inc. arrived.
     "We are not a standards body or a policing organization. I expect we may address best practices in the future but our mission and goals do not include this right now. Maybe the IAB will focus on this and we can focus on our mission of education."

Met with more questions and a tad of frustration here and there from non-believers, Barbara continued to present SEMPO information and included a look into future plans for the group. If you ever wanted to know what's going on with SEMPO, start the thread from the 4th page in to see what Barbara has to say. She explains much, and holds up quite well under pressure.

Web Design Strategy:

Wondering what people see on a web page? Page length and website complexity is a new thread that opens discussion and asks "What site when you first saw it, made you want to return to it?"

A related article from Gerry McGovern offers more insight. It's called How to design for the tunnel reader He writes,
     "People may initially scan read on the Web; their eyes moving quickly across a page. However, when they find the keywords they are interested in, they tend to tunnel read. What this means is that they focus on a specific set of content. They basically don’t see anything else on your website."

Liken Those Labels. Forms Usability - The Label Element offers examples.

Back to Search Engines Again:

This just in. eBay Enhances Stores for Search Engine Optimization
     "eBay Stores URLs will include dashes between the words so the individual words will be considered by search engines when determining the relevance of Stores for a given search."

A little late aren't they?

She's Back!
Now a CEO and a new mother, Kalena Jordan has returned to work and her blog, High Search Engine Ranking Welcome back Kal!

Google Says We Love This

Did you know that Google not only displays your phone number, but also shows a map to your house? Apparently, according to Google, people love this feature. I didn't, and I filled out the form to have it removed. But, what about people who aren't aware that this is being done? Why was this tried without our knowledge or permission? These are just a few of the questions I'm writing to my Congresspersons about. Homeland security in the USA? Pathetic.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/16/2004 10:02:52 AM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Monday, March 15, 2004 ::

The Holistic Approach to Web Design Benefits Search Engine and Directory Submissions and Users

Did you know that DMOZ (Open Directory Project) is owned by Netscape? How many ODP Editors do you think are reviewing your website using Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser? Since most websites render well in MSIE, to fully understand how well built and cross browser compatible they are, what types of browsers are used to test them? As a reviewer seeking quality content for any website Directory, when presented with two websites on the same subject, which one would you choose?

Is it the one that renders well on all types of browsers, loads fast, and whose homepage meets usability and accessbility standards or is it the version built for only MSIE users with 20/20 vision with high-speed Internet access?

At Cre8asiteForums, these questions are addressed in the DMOZ forum, in the topic called Cross-browser compatibility
     "So if your site is designed purely for IE and does not function properly in other browsers, there is a risk that the editor who reviews it may conclude that it is not working and so not list it."

Gaining the trust of ANYONE looking at your website, especially for the first time, is vitally important. It helps to understand who your website users are by creating user personas. It's also imperative you establish authority, credibiliy and find ways to impress on your visitors, and especially potential customers, that you, your company and your website can be trusted. People learned more about this in It's a Matter of Trust
     "One of the usability tests involved asking users to buy a product online. I noticed that though several sites had low prices for the product, most users chose a site that they had heard of before, to buy the product. I even had one user who went to the manufacturer's site and checked out the lists of all the authorized distributors. He then chose to buy from one of these listed distributors."

     "Usability = trust. Wow, the case for usability gets stronger by the minute!!!"

     "The emotional aspect is very much a part of overall usability. Trust factors into this feeling."

     "If I had to name only one, for me it's knowing the people who are behind the website. That means being able to relate to them as people."

Search Engine Optimization and Marketing:

Should services be guaranteed? Yes, says the writer of SEO help wanted
     "I have been through the sales spiel of several SEO "firms", not one of which could guarantee final results.. Its seems logical to me that pay should be for performance, the more you provide, the more you get paid...."

     "Every now and again search engines change their algorithms. Google in particular is promising to do that with greater frequency this year quite deliberately to throw off any SEOs who manage to have any 'formula' approach."

     "This is so easy anyone with a working knowledge of SE algorithms can put me at the top."

Usability:

Jakob Nielsen on his wife's BMW (and other usability points to ponder). Why Consumer Products Have Inferior User Experience
     "No amount of advertising can leave as strong an impression as a sustained user experience with a shabby product. "

Bah! MSN User Personas. I'm Not Buying It
     "Any woman nursing her newborn and IM'ng at the same time will give user testing a run for their money. How many software developers are thinking of them?"

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/15/2004 11:45:54 AM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Thursday, March 11, 2004 ::

Alice in SearchEngine Land...

The Rabbit Hole is, once again, led by Garrett French, with his further adventures on Yahoo!. Yahoo Responds To Site Match Questions
     "Why should I pay for Site Match if my site is already indexed or may soon be indexed for free?"

I hear the drums. I hear the little patter of Google bots. I've seen rankings moving about quite a bit in the past 2 days
     "Yup, they are playing with something"

This is my bandwagon. Search Engine Optimization And Web Site Usability by Kristy Meghreblian
     "Not only are you in competition with the millions of other Web sites owners who sell the same product/service as you, but you are also competing for users' time and attention. "

Drink this first. Free Yahoo! Submission

Through the Looking Glass. I think Yahoo! got their ideas from here. Yahoo! Pricing Models (Dated February 26, 2004 )
     "My money, however, is a blend of the paid inclusion and CPC model where smaller sites could pay the fee per URL, while larger sites would be encouraged to submit a feed and pay per click. This provides for the majority of sites to get indexed, while making money for Yahoo!"

Elsewhere and Nowhere:

You go Sweden! US Broadband Penetration Crawls to 43% - Sweden Tops in Internet Penetration - February 2004 Bandwidth Report
     "57% of US home users dial into the Internet with "narrowband" connections of 56Kbps or less.* Sweden leads all countries in Internet penetration at 76.9%."

Bill is not Martha. Martha is not Bill. Neither can keep a damned secret. Microsoft Search Engine to Launch, Rival Google and Yahoo
     Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is set to challenge the dominance of Google with his own high-powered search engine, which has been in secret development for more than a year.

It gets even better at the end. Bowmac Internet
     "We do take our customer service very seriously."

Advice from the Caterpillar:

"In a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and yawned once or twice, and shook itself. Then it got down off the mushroom, and crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went, `One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.'

`One side of what? The other side of what?' thought Alice to herself.

`Of the mushroom,' said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud; and in another moment it was out of sight."

Optimizing Your Chances with Accessibility
     "If your page is read by a blind user, or spidered by a search engine, using images will leave significant gaps unless you use Fahrner Image Replacement (FIR)."

What It's Like Living in SearchEngine Land:

"At this moment the King, who had been for some time busily writing in his note-book, cackled out `Silence!' and read out from his book, `Rule Forty-two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court.'

Everybody looked at Alice.

`I'm not a mile high,' said Alice.

`You are,' said the King.

`Nearly two miles high,' added the Queen.

`Well, I shan't go, at any rate,' said Alice: `besides, that's not a regular rule: you invented it just now.'

`It's the oldest rule in the book,' said the King.

`Then it ought to be Number One,' said Alice."

(Source for Alice quotes courtesy of Alice in Wonderland

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/11/2004 01:06:43 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 ::

Usability, Conversions & Search Engines...

As I have been saying all along, search engine results are only as good as the quality of the page the searcher clicks on. It appears as though someone from SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) is beating the same drum as I am.

Christine Churchill of KeyRelevance is the Co-chair of the SEMPO Technical Committee. In an article by Garrett French called What The Experts Learned At The Search Conferences she is quoted as saying:

     "Another impression I have is that search marketing is evolving. Search used to be limited to us technical types who liked to get our hands dirty with the code. Now it's less code and more marketing, more usability, and more conversion oriented. Search has entered a new phase in its life cycle.

"In the past I was always appalled when I'd see a top ranked page that was unfit for human eyes. I think the emphasis has migrated from building pages to please search engine spiders to building pages that enhance the user experience. I see this phenomenon in both the organic and paid sides of search.

"Personally, I think this is a healthy trend."

As evidenced by the steadily increasings sales of my ecommerce usability/user interface checklist, I guess some people, and companies, are beginning to understand the value of building user centric websites and Internet applications. Paying a usability company to review your website BEFORE it's submitted to search engines and directories is the cost effective approach, both in terms of increased sales, but by the logic behind holding the attention of the person who first clicks into your site, from any page. Even if they leave without buying, if you've made a positive impression on them, they'll be back. With friends and family too.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/10/2004 10:23:17 AM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 ::

Mars, Moms, Marketing and Making Websites

Do you ever get the feeling that some companies throw up a website with "build it and they will come and buy lots of our stuff" as their main objective? I see this in my work in website usability evaluations. It's often not clear who the site was built for. Or, perhaps, not enough research was done into the buying patterns of certain user types. It's not always easy, or inexpensive, to get this information, which is why articles that cover research and studies are helpful.

This one claims moms do a hefty amount of Internet work. Study Finds Internet Is the Medium Moms Rely on Most
     "Among the study's other key findings: Moms now use the Internet almost twice as much as they watch TV, spending a total of 13.2 hours a week online versus 7.6 per week for TV. They use the Internet primarily as an information resource (86 percent placing it well ahead of TV and newspapers), secondarily as a source of entertainment (63 percent), and thirdly as an activity to engage their kids (43 percent). "

Jumping off the planet for a moment, we find that Mars rover fails to dig hole in rock
     "Meanwhile, on the other side of Mars, Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit, traveled nearly 86 feet Saturday, bringing its total odometer reading to more than 822 feet. "

After reading that, I felt really great about the fact that I was able to get out of bed this morning, walk downstairs and get the family off to work and school before I walked the dog and walked down another flight of stairs to my home office.

Marketing:

I guess Yahoo! and Overture have some promoting to do. Small businesses not on the pay-per-click bandwagon yet, says new research
     "Only 11% of small to medium-sized enterprises that have web sites and that responded to a survey report being aware of pay-per-click advertising."

Good news for ecom. Online sales grow 27% for week ending Feb. 22"
     "Online retail spending for the week ending Feb. 22 was up 27% over the corresponding week a year ago, reaching $1.19 billion from $937 million."

Information Architecture:

If you design task oriented software applications like shopping carts, forms, wizards, etc., this Boxes and Arrows article is a feast of information. Wizards and Guides: Principles of Task Flow for Web Applications Part 2, by Bob Baxley
     "Wizards are not simply chains of dialog boxes strung together to make life easier for the user. Rather, they are a particular interface pattern for expressing a precise and rigid procedure that has to unfold in a known and specific sequence. Although wizards can contain any number of required or optional steps, that does not mean users can randomly navigate between those steps."

Credibility and Persuasiveness:

Design to sell. Some inspirational gems.

Persuasion Architecture: A Strategy to MAP the Selling Process to the Buying Process by FutureNow. (PDF File download)

Discussion: It's a matter of trust (credibility)
     "What was interesting in this article was that credibility was related to risk. I hadn't thought of it that way before but when I stop and think about it, this is why we also seek authenticity in websites. If you're going to believe information, what does it need to do to get you to believe? If you're going to make a purchase, do you buy from a site that offers a viable business address or one that doesn't have one at all?"

Web Credibility Org
     "Our goal is to understand what leads people to believe what they find on the Web."

10 Ways to boost your web site's credibility

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/09/2004 01:50:40 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Monday, March 08, 2004 ::

Google is Just Soooo Last Year...

It feels so good to have something fun to do besides beat the Google PageRank horse to death. Now, with Yahoo!'s new search engine jigsaw to figure out, each day is about studying new pieces and figuring out which ones fit where. And, how search engine optimization and submission fit into the whole shebang. Today, every page that will be submitted to Yahoo! requires some thought and planning. It's no longer who you know and who you can convince to link to your site. It's how much money you have to spend and if you were wise enough to hire someone to review each page for usability flaws before submitting it.

"The future of search is in verticals" is one idea mentioned in Garrett French's Yahoo! Talks BlackHat Optimization And Search As Media. This struck me as strange because verticals, vortals and theme engines were all the rage starting back in 1999 (when I started noticing the trend). They haven't caught on like some people banked on. What's changed? Apparently Yahoo! hasn't given up on the idea. Alta Vista and AllTheWeb will have different search results, when Yahoo! (who now owns them) rolls them out again. If those results are targeted to specific markets or media, you've got a vertical search.

The better part of the article touches, and only whispers briefly unfortunately, on "black hat" SEO (the kind that some people say is "unethical" and others insist is the only true way to search nirvana.)

     "In certain forums, he said, where veteran members discuss blackhat seo techniques freely, newer members use these techniques on their own sites and then get banned. I asked Tim about somehow warning webmasters that they're using blackhat techniques, thereby protecting those who inadvertently cross the line.

He said, 'we do warn them. We ban them.'"

And Google being uncool? Well, this may take some time.

They're changing their interface again (trying to be more usable) and still insisting on being free. The latter idea is worth a lot of loyalty. Forrester: Google To Weaken As War Rages
     "Its innovative search technology has gained Google several dedicated followers. However, those followers do frequent other search portals and can easily switch to another alternative should a better or more relevant search engine arise."

For me, whichever search engine delivers the most accurate results will be the one I use the most. This means dropping poor quality sites that spammed their way to the top. I don't like search engines that place paid listings on top for websites that offer a bare hint of what I was searching for. The next search engine that's actually usable will be sooooo this year.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/08/2004 02:24:37 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Friday, March 05, 2004 ::

The Usability Oven Is Getting Hotter

The recent ruckus over Mark Hurst's The Page Paradigm and whether or not breadcrumb navigation has value continues to thrive. For me, anything that helps both website users and search engine robots is the logical, cost effective choice in today's ROI-driven Internet environment.

To recap.

     "Users don't much care "where they are" in the website. So-called "breadcrumb links," which show the user the exact hierarchy of the website as they click further down, are a nice but mostly irrelevant technology. It's not that users don't understand the links; it's that they don't care." according to Mark Hurst.

To which has been written.

The Oversimplification of Mark Hurst by Peterme.com
     "I did a quick assessment of the site Mark points to, and I can say with no reservation that you should totally follow all of Mark's suggestions when you're designing a 26 page site. Which is how many pages comprise the Shure earphone site. (It gets a little over 50 if you include the Mobile Headset). For all of you out there designing sites with 50 pages, feel free to ignore consistency, breadcrumbs, and the notion of "where content should live." And focus on the Goal, because there won't be much more than one."

The missing page paradigm by Donna Maurer
     "Mark Hurst consistently makes my blood boil"

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, March 1, 2004
     "For example, it's easy to run a study that shows breadcrumbs are useless: just give users directed tasks that require them to go in a straight line to the desired destination and stop there. Such users will (rightly) ignore any breadcrumb trail. Breadcrumbs are still recommended for many sites, of course. Not only are they lightweight, and thus unlikely to interfere with direct-movement users, but they're helpful to users who arrive deep within a site via search engines and direct links. Breadcrumbs give these users context and help users who are doing comparisons by offering direct access to higher levels of the information architecture."

The Business of Design
     "...unlike content websites where higher (ad-) revenue is a factor of increased traffic; on shopping sites, even the smallest change in user experience is immediately reflected in revenues since higher revenue here depends upon conversion rates, even with traffic remaining constant."

You go Jesse James Garrett!

All Those Opposed: Making the case for user experience in a budget-conscious climate is such a kick-bleep article I posted it in Cre8asiteForums.
     "In any commercial enterprise, Web sites exist for one of two reasons: to help the organization save money, or to help it make money. In both cases, the user experience can make the difference between a successful site and a failure."

If you own a blog, you're just plain cool.

Warning: Blogs Can Be Infectious
     "'What we're finding is that the important people on the Web are not necessarily the people with the most explicit links (back to their sites), but the people who cause epidemics in blog networks,' said researcher Eytan Adar."

Yahoo! still hasn't sold everyone on its new Overture/Inktomi Site Match solution. Yahoo Free Inclusion? Not So Fast… raises questions about Slurp and how well or even if, it will work.

Linking for loonies is the topic of Mike Grehan's Google PageRank Lunacy
     "The quest by some to improve their Google PageRank score seems to have reached the point of sheer madness. Even common decency may be abandoned in futile attempts by desperate (or simply less educated) online marketers and others who will seemingly stop at nothing to try and gain links in hopes of seeing more green in their Google toolbar."

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/05/2004 10:51:01 AM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Thursday, March 04, 2004 ::

Please Ring Bell For Server

Yesterday I thought I would have peaceful evening catching up on a backlog of reading. Not so! Robert Clough happened to mention an ebook I wrote, with the help of my friend from Cre8asiteForums Bill Slawski (bragadocchio), called "Please Ring Bell For Service: A Usability/User Interface Checklist for Ecommerce Websites".

Firstly, I would like thank Robert for his kind words about Ring Bell.
     "I've read it and it is worth every cent. If it helps you spot one problem area, it will be worth many, many times the $12.99 Kim charges for it."

Incidently, while Robert has an affiliate link to Ring Bell tucked into his website, he chose to purposely not use it because "You are a great encourager" and other truly sweet things he wrote to me which I'd love to blab about but that would be tacky. If you love Robert, and are interested in purchasing Ring Bell, this page has the link that will give him a little something for it. He certainly deserves it for all devotion he has had to us over the years.

Secondly, I'd like to apologize to the few folks who tried to download Ring Bell at the same time 105 others were also trying to. It appears as though the two third party payment systems I use aren't used to something selling like hotcakes. Makes one wonder what kind of performance testing was done. In any case, I had another download URL from my server to send to people who had trouble with Digibuy and Paypal.

It's funny what happens when something you have is promoted to a wide audience. I heard from a company just down the road from me, for example. Another person wrote wanting more information on my qualifications, which seemed strange since I have this information on the Cre8pc site (but in lieu of her comments, I added a visible link to the Ring Bell page to find the information quickly.) Months ago someone told me it was hard to figure out how to purchase Ring Bell, so I took the information that was on the page, on the right side, viewable above the page "fold" and placed it in a wide angle view taking up nearly the whole top half of the page. This way, I figured, nobody could miss the information. So what happens? Someone else writes to say they need more information before laying out the $12.99.

For the record, of that $12.99, the first $4 of each sale goes to the affiliate who referred it, and another roughly $3 goes to the third party payment system. When you subtract the monthly Payloadz fee and annual Digibuy fee...plus my hosting fee for Cre8pc which has the Ring Bell order/info page on it, it does makes one wonder why people go to the trouble to write for online sales.

I'm not done pondering the past 24 hours yet though. Sometime before noon my time (EST) my ISP must have had a problem because for about 45 minutes the Cre8pc site, this blog and my email were all unaccessible. I no longer worry about bad hair days because I work from home and nobody cares what I look like. I DO have to sweat over bad server days though.

The NYC SES Conference is winding down today. It's been a real exciting week, even for those of us following the stories coming out from the kind folks who are reporting from there everyday. Kudos to Barry Swartz (RustyBrick) of the Search Engine RoundTable for pounding his keyboard every day to keep us up to date on what's happening there.

While still figuring out the new Yahoo! Site Match offer, I found out it's not going to be offered outside the USA yet. Odd. And, inquiring minds like Search Engine Blog's Peter DaVanzo are demanding some real working facts such as "If you pay, but then stop paying, will you still be included given that your site has been crawled by the free crawler in that time? Or doesn't the free crawler visit paid pages?"

Congratulations:

To Andy Beal and cohorts at WebSourced and KeywordRanking.com on their good news.
     "record growth in the fourth quarter of 2004." (I somehow missed that Christmas Andy!? )

Their news is buried this week by Andy's tremendous reporting from the SES Conference via his SearchEngineLowDown Blog.

And lastly, there's Kalena's news. She and her husband delivered a lovely baby boy a few weeks back. I look forward to her return to the SEO blog reporting family when she's ready to get back in the computer saddle again. I must admit it was fun sharing email birthing stories with a peer and friend across the planet.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/04/2004 02:17:08 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Wednesday, March 03, 2004 ::

Now, more than ever, if you want your web pages to rank well, come up in searches, and lead to sales, you have reason to bring persuasive usability techniques into your design arsenal. Why? Yahoo!'s new Site Match program will work hard for your pages, but you will have to convince Yahoo! reviewers and searchers your pages are worthy of anyone's attention and money.

Google remains a free search engine, but the rules to stay in its database or rank high are confusing and frequently change. Since it began, I've hated their principle behind the link algorithm. In Google, your website worth depends on who links to you. (Among other things of course.)

Or it was. Barry Swartz (RustyBrick)wrote, in his coverage of the Organic Listings Forum at the SES NYC Conference:
     "Paddy Bolger said now you can be hurt from links. For example, if your site is linked to by a major authority, Google might remove your site because there is no need for you to be there, since you have a link from the authority site. Its not a penalty but more of a filter."

With Yahoo!'s Site Match, despite its price tag for review and clicks, there's less of a fear factor. The page is reviewed. If accepted for inclusion, it's assigned to a targeted category. Organic SEO, including our old meta tag friends and keyword targeted content, help with rank.

In all honesty I'm still not entirely sold on the Site Match offer, but what trips my trigger is the lack of mystery and better overall control involved with the whole search engine submission process. For free, Google can play as many head games as they wish to and experiment with their system, which we know wreaks havoc on SERPS (and often your sales) on a regular basis. For free, there is no control. For a fee, at Yahoo!, there's advantages. Some of them are still being brought to light and reviewed by professional SEO/SEM's.

The smart SEO/SEM's will hire usability experts to test pages before submitting them to search engines, or include usability site reviews that cover user centric and heuristic elements, as well as, and even more vital, the desirability and persuasiveness of the site and the pages submitted to Site Match.

Make every click pay for itself.

One website that offers affordable website checks that include SEO and Usability is James Saunders' Site-Report.com. This company offers services in both the UK and USA (and elsewhere).

Which I'd Been There Moment:

The Site Match Stink
     "Naturally, the issue of pricing came up. Prices for Site Match start out at $49 for the first URL and $10 - $29 for every additional URL submitted. This doesn’t include the cost-per-click fee, which is fifteen to thirty cents per click and varies depending on the industry.

A woman named Jackie Jahosky with Specialty-Life.com stood up to Yahoo by telling Tim that the pricing is going to kill small businesses. Her company is a one person drop-shipping business. She works on a small markets so that price just won't work for her.

“I just don’t like it,” she said. This resulted in the audience applauding her with claps and cheers."

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/03/2004 10:27:28 AM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 ::

The rules of the search engine game have just been changed by Yahoo!. Now, with their new Site Match search engine submission program, you pay a minimum of $50 (US), PLUS a per click fee of either $0.15 or $0.30, depending on the content category. (Different rules apply for non-profits.)

Google is looking REALLY REALLY good again.

HighRankings Forums has the press release here in Overture Sitematch - Replaces Inktomi Av And Fast, Overture SiteMatch - replaces Inktomi AV

"Grumpus" at Cre8asiteForums launches discussion here in Overture SiteMatch - Ugh Wait Til Ya See This one..., and links to more news coverage.

Search Engine News:

There's a lot going on, plus some good stuff coming out of the SES NYC Conference..so I'll list - you pick.

Overture Site Match- Yahoo Search?s Paid Inclusion

39% of Americans Use Search Engines
   "That?s 39% of ALL Americans, not just computer users, but every person in the US. That?s a large percentage and will probably grow greatly in the next 3 years, as search engine usage and paid search advertising is predicted to grow."


Opening Keynote by Danny Sullivan
   "Microsoft will be spending a ton of resources developing their own search and Danny is not so confident they will succeed. He feels Google's "monopoly" is over but they will continue to succeed. He discusses some of the problems people are having with the current Google. He said that Google has been trying out new algorithms over these months."

Ongoing SES Coverage by Search Engine Roundtable Weblog

Google Changes The Affiliate Industry

An Interview With Yahoo
   ""Expect Yahoo to be picky about the sites it accepts. If a site has even the slightest whiff of "spam," Mayer says it will be excluded.

How Yahoo Plans to Compile New Search Engine Index
   "Participation in Yahoo!'s paid inclusion program does not guarantee rank in the search results. URLs are ranked in search results in the same way as all other URLs from the free crawl. The key drivers of ranking are keyword-specific relevance and site quality, as assessed by our regular search relevance algorithms with input from the quality review process."

How to Survive Search Engine Changes, by Shari Thurow
   "Should firms practicing search engine marketing rush into those so-called latest-and-greatest strategies?"

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/02/2004 10:15:34 AM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

:: Monday, March 01, 2004 ::

When my old 386 PC was in my kitchen, across from the refrigerator, I was on cloud nine. A stay at home mom for a few years so I could be home with my second-born, I battled cabin fever and a disintegrating brain by dialing up every few mintues to check for emails and new posts on the many lists I'd joined.

If you remember what websites looked like back then in the middle 1990's, they were clunky and clumsy. Most were personal webpages, which didn't have great spelling or user oriented design. We tolerated frames and scanned endless pages with banner ads thrown all over them. Nobody worried about being found in search engines unless they were a company with something to say or something to sell.

Now, you wonder if Google and Yahoo! will ever crawl the whole Web and nab every page that exists. How many people have the same keywords these days and are competing for products? Social networking is all the rage. (Why?) Are we any closer to what we wanted to do with the Internet?

I thought it was funny to see certain articles crop up lately that seem to say nobody is quite sure if we've got the knack of website building down yet, after all these years. For example:

The Sad State of Web Content
"Your average Web site is damn near unreadable when you look at it as a whole, and it?s pretty rare to find a site that adheres to the techniques that make good Web content. The sad fact is that most companies don?t pay near enough attention to their content, many times it?s treated as an afterthought, or worse, filler."

The Web and The Good Things
"Many people don't respect the Web's potential. The treat it as a dumping ground for superfluous thoughts, marketing spiel and porn. They use it to trick, manipulate and take advantage of others. E-mail spam, comment spam, referrer spam, pop-ups, scams, poorly designed and written Web sites, hoaxes and all the rest do their best to keep people wary and ignorant to the full potential that could be achieved with the Web."

Speaking of potential, I love Nathan Shedroff: The InfoDesign interview By Dirk Knemeyer (March 2004)
"I truly believe that design can create change for the better but most designers view their place in the world as decorators of one form or another. Some view performance and usability as within their domain but few of these even view business issues, social issues, or structural issues as falling within their domain. "

FastCompany's March issue delved into lessons learned from the dotcom crash days. Anyone still dreaming of riches made via the Internet should read the issue, including Lessons From The New Economy
"Everyone learned, or relearned, something from the epic boom and bust. We ask five of that era's luminaries for their insight."

And, Relics of the New Economy: Where Are They Now?

"5. Marc Andreessen and 6. Jim Clark, Netscape cofounders
Then: It was the IPO that launched a million dreams. In 1995, Netscape (started only 16 months before by 22-year-old whiz kid Andreessen and Silicon Valley insider Clark) soared 154% at the opening bell.

Now: Andreessen is chairman of a company called Opsware, which delivers some sort of solution to some sort of enterprise. Clark and Tom Jermoluk, former chief of Excite@Home, started a real-estate firm."

Whatever happened to the search engine, Excite? Keeping The First Chapter From Being The Last Joe Kraus Cofounder, Excite.com
"Worth more than $500 million at one moment, Kraus saw his company fall to pieces after an ill-fated merger with Internet cable outfit @Home."

Meanwhile, SEO folks are pounding down beers and snapping up the latest search engine information this week at the SES Conference. Cre8asiteForums hopes members who are there fill us in here >>>SES conference NY

It's March 1, so that means it's Leek Day and/or St. Davids Day. That's a leek in the Cre8asiteForums logo.

Which brings me full circle. We may not all agree on what the Internet is for or how to use it, but we do know how to make some pretty creative pictures. Earth seemed like a gigantic room which, by use of the Internet, problems could be solved because people could converse with one another. But, now it holds child porn and bomb making instructions. What is going wrong?

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/01/2004 10:57:36 AM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

Feed Bin

Learn how to make RSS Feed Buttons

Highly Recommended!
(Read review)
Search Engine Marketing Kit, by Dan Thies

• User Centered Design
• Usability Industry Research
• Increase Website Conversions
• Starter Ecommerce Checklist

• Web Design & The Usability Effect
• Usability and SEO Humor

Crooked sunglasses

My artistic friends love this picture.

• About Kim Krause Berg
• My Articles
• Me Again (My Fave Blog Posts)
• August 2005 : Expanding on Usability - An Interview with Kim Krause Berg
• Kim's Wish List

Recent Posts

I'm Too Sexy for My (Ego) Blog

Morae Customers Can Reminisce and Win Prizes

The Value of Content in Search Engine Rank

That's Me, in Step Two and Mike with Long Hair

You Have No Choice But To Suck in Search Engines

The Future of Website Design. It's Called a Blog.

Where are the Women Bloggers?

An SEO Ancestor's View of A-List SEO Lists

Pondering Your Search Engine Marketing Navel

No Awesome Usability Experience Ecommerce Trend This Year

Monthly Archives

It's That Book Again

Conversions Topic is New York Times Best Seller (Seriously)

Kim is a Member of the Usability Professionals Association

"This report exceeded my expectations. After reading it a few times, I went through and highlighted those parts of your actionable advice that I want to implement right away... I ended up highlighting most of the report. Stellar job. I won't hesitate to recommend you to one of my own clients." -- Andy Hagans of AndyHagans.com

"I have implemented the most obvious changes and I suppose the fact that we've seen an immediate increase in sales/conversions is no coincidence. I'd highly recommend your service to anyone running a serious web based business." -- Steve Clay, Plumeriabay.com

"As soon as we get our hands on one of her usability studies, my clients and I have a better understanding of what needs to be done with their sites to make them the best they can be from their site visitors' perspective."
-- Jill Whalen, HighRankings.com

"This is an exemplary piece of work." -- Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz.org

View more Testimonials | Clients
Learn about Website improvement services.