The Web Authority
Wednesday, March 12
Best Practices for Website Navigation
We've got six tips to consider as you plan your website navigation. Find out how you can make your website better for search engines and readers with our best practice tips.
Labels: Web Design, Web Visibility
¶ 3/12/2008 07:18:00 AM 0 Comments
Monday, January 14
Top Web Design Mistakes
In my experience in working with clients, reviewing and replacing older websites, and search engine optimization work and practice, I have found some common mistakes in websites that affect consumer confidence and performance. Here is my short list:
1. Poor use of navigation. The best place for navigation is the left side bar and then at the top under the banner. This is where research shows that clients will look to find site navigation. It is best to utilize this research when setting up a new site to make it easy for clients to find your pages.
2. Poor use of prime real estate. Eye tracking research shows that a prime spot for attention is the top right of the content block. This is an excellent place for a feature or highlight box. After viewing navigation scanning from the left column down and then across the page horizontally from left to right, the eye lingers in this prime spot. Make sure you are using it for your site's benefit.
3. No address or phone number on the website. Ouch, are you trying to hide from customers? Make sure your address is on your website, you want people to have confidence that you are a real business. I recommend putting your phone number at the bottom of your page in the footer. More often than not, I will have someone on my site who picks up the phone to call and chat with me right then with my site open in front of them. In fact typically even my clients who find me by pay per click ads like to pick up the phone for the immediacy of response. Make sure you understand that this is how many prospects and clients will contact you and don't make it hard for them to phone right when they want to.
4. No privacy policy on the website. Google is looking for this! If you are doing pay per click advertising, make sure you have one. If you are doing any kind of email marketing now or think that you will in the future, make sure that you have a privacy policy in place. You need to give visitors information on what you do with the information that they share with you either through a website contact or if they contact you directly by email.
5. No about page on the website. You may think that this information may be superfluous, but put yourself in the reader's shoes. You really should take time to identify yourself, explain who you are and what your background is, who is on your team, and about the products and services you sell or offer. All this is a part of creating confidence and trust which are cornerstones to closing a sale.
All of the items on the above list are easy to implement and easy to correct. Now's the time to take a very candid look at your own website through your customers' and prospects' eyes to see where you have areas of improvement.
1. Poor use of navigation. The best place for navigation is the left side bar and then at the top under the banner. This is where research shows that clients will look to find site navigation. It is best to utilize this research when setting up a new site to make it easy for clients to find your pages.
2. Poor use of prime real estate. Eye tracking research shows that a prime spot for attention is the top right of the content block. This is an excellent place for a feature or highlight box. After viewing navigation scanning from the left column down and then across the page horizontally from left to right, the eye lingers in this prime spot. Make sure you are using it for your site's benefit.
3. No address or phone number on the website. Ouch, are you trying to hide from customers? Make sure your address is on your website, you want people to have confidence that you are a real business. I recommend putting your phone number at the bottom of your page in the footer. More often than not, I will have someone on my site who picks up the phone to call and chat with me right then with my site open in front of them. In fact typically even my clients who find me by pay per click ads like to pick up the phone for the immediacy of response. Make sure you understand that this is how many prospects and clients will contact you and don't make it hard for them to phone right when they want to.
4. No privacy policy on the website. Google is looking for this! If you are doing pay per click advertising, make sure you have one. If you are doing any kind of email marketing now or think that you will in the future, make sure that you have a privacy policy in place. You need to give visitors information on what you do with the information that they share with you either through a website contact or if they contact you directly by email.
5. No about page on the website. You may think that this information may be superfluous, but put yourself in the reader's shoes. You really should take time to identify yourself, explain who you are and what your background is, who is on your team, and about the products and services you sell or offer. All this is a part of creating confidence and trust which are cornerstones to closing a sale.
All of the items on the above list are easy to implement and easy to correct. Now's the time to take a very candid look at your own website through your customers' and prospects' eyes to see where you have areas of improvement.
Labels: best practices, Web Design, Web Visibility
¶ 1/14/2008 09:50:00 AM 0 Comments
Saturday, October 6
Linking From Blogger Blogs Does Not Work Anymore for SEO
I downloaded my blog files the other day to keep an up-to-date archive as I was moving my site to a new server and noticed that Blogger is now adding in the links inside comments on my site this tag rel="no follow".
That means if someone leaves a comment on your Blogger blog, or you leave one on someone else's Blogger blog as a way to try to improve your Website visibility, the link you leave means nothing. It is not considered in Google's algorithm and because Blogger has arbitrarily made this decision it means that using this tactic as a workable strategy to point people to your website has now effectively been dissed. No engine will follow the link now. This is not a setting you can change it is a behind the scene thing that Google, the owner of Blogger, has done.
Google has effectively worked to disregard linking on the web that we used to use for SEO organic placement improvement in one of their last algorithms. This means that we no longer do resource pages in websites as a place to show reciprocal links. As Google considers these links literally meaning nothing. Another way we used to get placement was by posting comments on blogs and pointing back to the main website, and now this tactic is gone as well for Blogger blogs. Many blogs you simply can not identify if they are blogger blogs or not, some you can by the template choice but not always.
So the bottom-line is that the world of SEO is really changing. Using blogs and forums to point to new sites to get links to improve your chances of being picked up on a search engine are narrowing. If I can think of any other way to get exposure that replaces these previously tried and true methods, I'll let you know. One that I am thinking of right now is MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Do you have one you want to recommend?
That means if someone leaves a comment on your Blogger blog, or you leave one on someone else's Blogger blog as a way to try to improve your Website visibility, the link you leave means nothing. It is not considered in Google's algorithm and because Blogger has arbitrarily made this decision it means that using this tactic as a workable strategy to point people to your website has now effectively been dissed. No engine will follow the link now. This is not a setting you can change it is a behind the scene thing that Google, the owner of Blogger, has done.
Google has effectively worked to disregard linking on the web that we used to use for SEO organic placement improvement in one of their last algorithms. This means that we no longer do resource pages in websites as a place to show reciprocal links. As Google considers these links literally meaning nothing. Another way we used to get placement was by posting comments on blogs and pointing back to the main website, and now this tactic is gone as well for Blogger blogs. Many blogs you simply can not identify if they are blogger blogs or not, some you can by the template choice but not always.
So the bottom-line is that the world of SEO is really changing. Using blogs and forums to point to new sites to get links to improve your chances of being picked up on a search engine are narrowing. If I can think of any other way to get exposure that replaces these previously tried and true methods, I'll let you know. One that I am thinking of right now is MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Do you have one you want to recommend?
Labels: Linking, Reciprocal Links, SEO, Web Visibility
¶ 10/06/2007 09:11:00 AM 1 Comments
Friday, August 31
The New World of Web Visibility for New Websites
You just can't do the same old thing anymore - get your website out and hope that someone visits. You just have to more now to be visible on the Web.
In addition to building a great website that is search engine friendly you need to prepare it for search engines and really push to get your initial exposure. Here are some of the things that we advocate to help get your new website visible and in the Google index quickly.
In addition to building a great website that is search engine friendly you need to prepare it for search engines and really push to get your initial exposure. Here are some of the things that we advocate to help get your new website visible and in the Google index quickly.
- Make sure to do a Google Sitemap and Yahoo URLlist. You want to make sure that when the spider comes they will spider everything.
- Make sure to use the free webmaster tools to register your site on Google, MSN, and Yahoo Engine. I don't recommend that you pay $299 for Yahoo Directory listing unless you have other issues where this may be needed.
- Register with Google Local with a free business listing.
- Create a My Space site as well as one for Facebook and LinkedIn. Sounds foolish? Well I have to say that one big problem for new sites is getting Google to pick them up and put them in the index. We have found that the Sitemap helps, but that the site doesn't actually make it into the Google index (even thought the Google bot has been by) until you have one or two links to your brand spanking new website. These services will provide the links you need to get indexed on Google fast.
- Post your website link in some of the blogs on your topic or forums. Some sites will not allow you to do this and I certainly do not advocate being carried away here, but you are trying here to get a few links to your new site so that the search engines will take notice.
From my side as a professional, I am definitely seeing the difference when we follow these steps in regards to how quickly I will be able to find a new site for Google searches. Try it and you'll be convinced that this is truly a very smart yet simple strategy.
Labels: Web Visibility
¶ 8/31/2007 07:36:00 PM 0 Comments
