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Search Engine Advice Column Hopes To Shatter SEO/SEM Myths  

:: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 ::

Kalena Jordan, owner and founder of Search Engine College is launching a new blog called Dear Kalena

Says Kal,

“I spend a considerable amount of my free time researching and answering these questions, so I thought, why not share this information? Why not blog it and become the official agony aunt of the search industry? So Dear Kalena... was born.”

From the press release:

Kalena is expecting a lot of questions about risky search engine optimization techniques or "spamdexing" methods to be discussed in the column. She hopes to educate readers about the risks inherent in using such tactics and to shed light on methodologies deemed more acceptable to search engines, based on webmaster guidelines published by the search engines themselves.

“I’m tired of seeing innocent companies get burned by unscrupulous firms claiming to be search engine marketing gurus and artificially inflating their link popularity via dodgy link farms or promising to submit their sites to 50,000 search engines. These are nothing more than backyard cowboys who play Russian Roulette with their client’s sites”, says Kalena.

For those that feel that Google "hates" them, or their marketing efforts are hopelessly useless, Kalena hopes to offer her "agony aunt" shoulder to lean on. Her blog allows comments and RSS feeds too.

Kalena is one of the few in the search engine marketing industry who recognizes the importance of usability oriented design and how it relates to SEO/SEM. She offers my self-study course,
Web Site Usability Course. The Search Engine College also offers very affordable search engine marketing and copywriting courses from reputable people in the industry.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 5/31/2005 03:28:00 PM

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:: Friday, May 27, 2005 ::

I tend to avoid arguments. My ex-husband once said that he stopped bothering to argue with me because I was always right.

What he really meant was I was a wicked fighter. When I get to playing devils advocate, or start delving into the levels of thought behind a point, it's like being in a contest and needing to score points.

Unlike some people, I find no pleasure in being the witty debater out for the kill. I think it's surprising that someone with my peace oriented nature can dig in and turn the knife so expertly, but thank goodness, I dislike how that feels and avoid it as much as possible. My new husband enjoys the exchange of wit, and will put up a good fight, but an argument with him is like spring cleaning and washing the windows. You always feel so damned good after you get the dirt out of the corners.

With some violently heated threads occurring more often in search engine marketing forums, you would think professional SEO's are out for blood. Long time, respected, well known industry leaders or just admirable individuals dedicated to SEO/SEM are being trashed and dragged through the streets. It seems as though many newer folks don't understand that the SEO industry is old, by Internet terms, and the people they're attacking have known each other, and worked alongside one another, for years.

Even when sitting on opposite sides of the fence, many of them have a high regard for one another. I deeply admire these classy folks.

Civil Integrity

Barry Welford, a Moderator for Cre8asiteForums, found some insight into the nature of debate after hearing a discusson on Canadian radio. He was moved to bring it up in discussion, in Promoting Civilized Debate Barry writes:

"The written word is so much weaker than the spoken word in transmitting information. Read too quickly it may even transmit an unintended message. The inability to see the physical presence removes the possibility of seeing a smile or an encouraging nod. You're not even sure how many people are "there" as the debate goes on. It's all one-dimensional and it's very tough to loop back and open up a previous point. You might even question whether serious debates can really take place in Forums."

Some other comments in the new thread...

"A civil debate requires civil debaters."

"Two things: an absolute willingness to accept disagreement -- and an absolute willingness to move your butt."

A family member of mine used to say, "Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Mine." Nobody liked him much until he learned the art of listening.

Somehow, on those rare occasions when I become Dragon-lady (short-lived, as these times are), I refrain from causing hurt to anyone. It's healthy to express and outflow the garbage we retain in our cells, but to dump that same garbage on another human being is not something we have the right to do.

Being of Blackfoot, Cherokee and Shawnee ancestry, my soul self is often guided by the old wisdoms. To me, the sounds of drumming are the call to heaven and passing the "talking stick" so that one person talks at a time is a brilliant practice. Rather than sitting on "sides", Native Americans gathered in circles and all voices were offered a chance to be heard.

I turned 47 years old today. (Thank you to those who have sent me birthday wishes. How did you know I'd be so touched?) It's likely a mid-life ritual thing, but I've been on this "What can I do to make a difference in the world?" trip. I still haven't figured it out, but I want to do something good and that feels good doing.

It goes along with this Dakota saying:

"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."

I admire and thank many of you who leave good tracks and carve out positive paths in the search engine optimization and marketing industries, and the user centered design related ones as well.

Deeds speak louder than words.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 5/27/2005 10:54:00 AM

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:: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 ::

According to the results, last I checked, the "leader" for SEO knowledge is Danny Sullivan. So, who is going to de-throne his number one spot as "winner" of the SEO Quiz?

Rand Fishkin (aka Randfish) of SEOMoz has written a fun quiz for SEO/SEM's who are in need of a challenge or feel the need to prove to themselves they know what they're doing.

See SEO Quiz

Although the quiz is "just for fun", says Rand, the questions require some thought and expertise. You can play it using "anonymous" as your name, just in case your clients are checking up on you.

Discussion and cheering squad here - On a lark - The SEO Quiz - It's just for fun

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 5/25/2005 11:58:00 AM

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:: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 ::

In 1995, I started to teach myself how to build web sites. I came to the World Wide Web in much the same frame of mind as someone about to step into a spring field of colorful wildflowers after being on the planet Mars. I rolled around in it. I inhaled the petals. Dirt got in between my barefoot toes. When I finally figured out how to put things on a web page using table cells, you would've thought I'd won the lottery.

Unfortunately, the only person who knew I was excited was the musician kid from Connecticut whom I'd met in a chat room somewhere. He had his own web site and liked teaching me things I wanted to know. We lost touch when he moved out West and became an Independent filmmaker.

I had other online teachers back then. All men. I wasn't to "meet" a woman who loved web stuff as much as I did until around 1999. That was Jill Whalen of High Rankings, who like me, is self-taught, passionate about work, and is a mom. The mother thing has a way of connecting women like nothing else can.

When You Can No Longer Tell The Woman from the Bacon

For roughly 4 years, I was a divorce-in-progress-to-done-deal mom of two, teaching myself a career after being at home for a few years as a full-time mom who was married to the house. I'm the only woman I know who refused to get a lawyer, refused child support, refused alimony and refused to be a burden on my ex-husband. Rather, we picked a female lawyer who let us work out what we wanted, which was to continue to co-parent our children together and live in peace. I typed up the Agreement for the law firm.

It wasn't a good time. Everybody thought I was truly nuts and I soon discovered who my real friends were. I could count them on less than one hand. I had no job, so he got our house. We had a rule that said, "Whoever can afford it, gets to live in it." That meant I had to leave. A woman out of the work force for three years doesn't stand a chance in hell of getting back in where she left off, and I had two kids to support when they were with me.

The only thing I had, back then, was a 286 homebuilt PC, a web site hosted by AOL and one I'd made for the spiritual teaching I had belonged to then. It's a fairly small worldwide religion, called Eckankar, and I was the first woman to build a web site for them (they have web sites in almost country of the world now). Mine was the 10th one on their list.

That web site was my entire portfolio. I hand-coded it in my kitchen, using Hotdog software, on the old 286, shortly before I had to move out of my house. That one site got me my first web design job for a magazine publisher. From there, the rest is all good news. Even when times got tough, and they did, I was always moving forward, making a better life for myself and my children. I achieved many personal and career goals, but more than that, I discovered things about myself in the process that I didn't know.

I also learned that I could break some conventional rules and society customs and still create (Cre8) an eventual positive outcome (PC = Peace).

R.E.S.T. P.E.C.T.

Which brings me to this year. In February 2005, I privately celebrated my 10 year anniversary of "being on the 'Net." Shortly after I turned forty years old, I was laid off from my first web design job. This Friday I turn 47, and I've been self-employed for almost three years, after being laid off from a famous web development company during the Dot.com Crash.

For 10 years, my daily life has revolved around a computer monitor and keyboard. It's my main source for communication with the world. In fact, in my earliest days, one of my other web design teachers was from Norway; another one of those "I met him on the Internet" finds who contributed to my career.

In a previous blog entry, I'd hinted that I had three reasons for slowing down the posts for this blog. I only wrote about two of them. The third one is more complicated, but essentially, it has to do with what happens when someone works very hard, and doesn't let anything get in their way of reaching their goals. A little scare with my heart forced me to slow down. Turns out my heart is in good shape, but it was a warning sign.

Ever since the "warning", I suddenly discovered a good excuse to play more. One of the ways for doing that is by actually leaving my office when I've finished a project for a client or writing an article. Who knew there was a planet out there, with real people? They have voices and there's this thing called "talking" that doesn't require the use of a keyboard!

Anyway, the point to this tale is that I felt I owed my friends (who now go way beyond one hand) a reason for why they're not finding me here as much. When I started my blog, there weren't so many of us. Same as when I started my first web site hosted by AOL sometime in 1996.

The Internet Room wasn't nearly as crowded as it is now and have you noticed how folks want to shrink it even more? There's the handheld device or cell phone monitor. Or the size of a TV set, which is now small enough for a car.

So, while everyone else is cramming their reality into teeny tiny spaces, I'm curious to know what's beyond the 1024 pixel world, before I get too old to enjoy it.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 5/24/2005 11:15:00 AM

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:: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 ::

Who knew a site map could mean so many things?

To force me into the idea of relaxing and getting away from my computer, my husband found a great deal on a used, 14 year old motor home. I never knew I had it in me, but we’ve learned, from the moment I first clumsily stepped up into it and gazed at this little house on wheels, that I’m crazy about camping. (Not that camping with an RV counts as true camping. Roughing it in the woods with your own bathroom and microwave is a bit pathetic and fantastic at the same time.)

There are two reasons, okay, three reasons, why I’ve slowed down the pace of posting in this blog. The first reason is more companies are interested in hiring a usability person, so I’m working a lot. The second reason is that I’ve been fanatically and passionately “studying” Recreational Vehicle (RV) life and finding campgrounds for my family to escape to on weekends and our summer vacation. This is when I discovered a new meaning for the term “sitemap”. The third reason has to do with why my husband bought the RV. It was either that or bolt my office door to keep me out of it.

A site map on a campground web site has nothing to do with being an alternative to graphical navigation or being an easy page for search engine robots to crawl. Nor does it do anything for special needs visitors. Rather, a site map for a campground web site is a site map of the campground layout itself. This is how you can tell, before you arrive, where the showers are, heated swimming pool and if they have a 50 things for the kids to do so they don’t sit around complaining they’re bored.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I clicked on a link to a campground web site's "sitemap", only to get a large image of a real map with roads and buildings on it.

One Word. Two Syllables. Sounds like "Night Cap"

A sitemap can also mean something else. I’m part of a small team that is designing a medical web site. The project manager uses the term “site map” when referring to everything from a wireframe to discussing the information architecture to designing templates. This had me confused until I gave up my attachment to my personal definition and now I just nod and smile and hope I understand what he’s talking about.

I have seen web sites link to sitemaps that are beautiful graphical presentations of the web site, but do little to get anyone somewhere quickly (because of the pretty pictures. Who would want to leave?) I have seen site maps that are nothing more than a carbon copy of the left side navigation, with no categories or subcategories, so you only get (as you would on any other page) a view of the top level of the site.

Who Cares about a Boring Sitemap?

I love the site map on my UsabiltyEffect.com site. It’s starting to get too long, but I had wanted to make it organized and interesting. Sitemaps can be terribly boring. Why do that to someone who was kind enough to visit your web site? Hand them a beer or low fat granola bar and show them your house.

Folks have come to Cre8asiteforums in search of the sitemap holy grail. Below are some fascinating discussions on web site sitemaps – not campground layouts.

Sitemap Advice

Sitemap Ideas

Nielsen Site Map Usability Report

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 5/18/2005 01:06:00 PM

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:: Thursday, May 12, 2005 ::

As the two industries mesh together and find common ground that benefits them both, there comes this surprise news piece by Senior CNET editor, Molly Wood, called Is search ruining the Web?.

This isn't the same old blather about how search engine marketing ruins creative, user centered web design.

Rather, it claims the ultimate goal for web sites is search engine rank and nothing else, including revenue, end users, business goals, and site functionality matter.

If the only sites on the Internet were about Viagra, casinos and sex toys, I'd agree. But, I can't apply this theory to other highly competitive industries, because though many of them reach out for more calculated, so called "black hat" SEO methods, these sites still care about their site mechanics and more importantly, their online visitors.

Molly Wood writes:

"If Google tweaks its algorithms just a little bit, thousands of Web sites either have a very good or a very bad day. Search is the big dog; and it, more than standards, usability, or even aesthetics, drives the evolution of Web site design.

and

"Basically, there's a natural friction between the way people think Web sites should be designed, and the way they almost have to be designed in order to make it in the race for page rankings. And in such a battle, design for search engines are destined to win, because it's just bad business to ignore a dog that size."

I wondered what folks would think about this, so I showed the article to Cre8asiteforums in the thread It's the SEO that counts, not user centered design (*no need to register to view thread). Some of the comments include:

"Bad business is forcing rank for a web site that sucks. Sooner or later, the web site will need to earn its reputation by satisfied customers and productive traffic, not satisfied SERPs."

"IMHO, the article is brilliant in that it probably says exactly what CNET's audience wants to hear, but less than great because it asks a question "Is search ruining the Web?" and then doesn't answer it. I am no more convinced that the title is true than before I started reading, but then I did read it."

"While it bases its premise upon search harming the experience of a site, there's some bad information about usability going on here."

"Usability now seems to be part of the new white. You are VASTLY overestimating the 'needs' of your users ...they simply (and lazily) want the path of least resistance."

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 5/12/2005 11:23:00 AM

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:: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 ::

Web site conversions are like baseball. If you don't keep your eye on the ball, you'll strike out.

Sometimes the visitor experience is like holding a bat in you hands and wondering what the next pitch will be like. Take navigation links for example. You're either pitched (pointed to) a page that lands where the link label said it would go, or you're suddenly out in left field, with no idea how you got there.

A lot of web site visitors are patient and keep trying to do something productive such as finding a contact phone number, company address or price for products. A web site can throw them lousy pitches. They'll keep striking out. Their inner Umpire keeps calling the shots.

"Page is too cluttered!"

"It looks like a shopping cart. It acts like a shopping cart. Where's the button to return shopping?"

"Is, or isn't, that logo the way back to the home page from here?"

Enough strikes and your visitor is "out". You kept pitching them bad balls.

Granted, in real baseball, we love Pitchers who strike out everybody who comes to the plate, but trust me. If you do this with your web site, you're going to lose your fans (customers).

To increase your chances of blowing away the other teams (competitors), all you need to do is understand your end user and give them what they want. And, you have to give this stuff to them in exactly the way they want it. It's so easy!

Not.

But, there is plenty of coaching available. Today's E-Marketing News features an article by Jeffrey Eisenberg called Beyond Conversion

He writes:

"Conversion is what the visitor does; it's the "take action" part of the buying decision process. At the macro-level, the visitor converts from prospect to buyer. Helping prospects convert basically entails making it easier for them to buy by getting out of their way. Getting out of their way usually entails a copy, usability or information architecture adjustment."

One of the worst places to lose your online customer is in your shopping cart. It's not just a matter of it functioning. The shopping cart has to do whatever a person believes it should do for them. There's every chance you weren't worried about this when you chose the one you use for your web site.

In What makes a good checkout process?, you can see that people have high expectations for buying online.

Example:

"Whenever possible and logical, communicate with instructions. These appear as steps involved in the shopping process (pages), any confirmations that will be emailed after the purchase and my favorite, giving *advance* notice before your customer lands on the last possible page they can print a page for their records. Sometimes pages look similiar or contain similar functions and info, and its hard to tell which one the visitor is expected to print before the shopping cart tosses them out."

Finally, if this is old hat blah blah to you, please see Customer Satisfaction Doesn't Count

"Clearly there is little consciousness about what makes products desirable enough to engage emotional connections. But you can start with a real mission, real ideas about doing something for customers and users, and a real dedication to design."

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 5/11/2005 03:10:00 PM

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:: Thursday, May 05, 2005 ::

They didn’t have anything like this when I started out as a search engine optimization consultant in the late 1990’s.

Back then, we were more likely to call it “web site promotion”. Today, the craft of getting your web site into search engines is referred to as “search engine marketing”.

Gone are the days where we could tweak a title tag and see a page’s rank shift up or down a few hours later. While you no longer have to make 50 different versions of a page to meet different search engine algorithms, or submit pages every month, the maintenance required for any search engine marketing program is just as complicated, if not more mysterious, than ever before.

Adding to the mystery is the rather complicated process of SEO itself, which is fueled by competition. Many of your industry competitors pay professionals who are trained to design and optimize web sites to work for both people and search engines. The most illogical advertising ploy is a guarantee of rank, with no mention or regard of what happens afterwards. If you site ranks well, but your web site visitors can’t find what they need once they click into it, all that money you paid for fame just went down the drain. What’s worse is when you’re required to pay for every click into your web site and yet earn no revenue to pay for those advertising costs.

If you like to control your web site’s destiny, and your wallet, it doesn’t hurt to teach yourself some of the basic skills needed to market your web site. Long time professional SEO and speaker for Jupiter Media’s Search Engine Strategies conferences, Dan Thies, has written and compiled a new workbook called The Search Engine Marketing Kit.

Continue to read full article

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 5/05/2005 05:28:00 PM

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