Think eBiz; thoughts on eBusiness

Website Usability: How much information is too much information?

2009-11-11T12:20:16-05:00

Face it... people don't like to read web sites. They arrive at your web-site and want to know, immediately:

what do you do?
Why should they select you?
how should I interact with you?

The industry says this information is consumed within 8-12 seconds.

For many site owners, there is an innate need to impart all of their company history, philosophy, processes and... often right there in one large content-dump on the homepage. Thus a great divide exists between what is wanted by the visitors and what is provided by the site owner. This divide is easily resolved by the reader... click... gone.

Clearly less is more - far less in some instances.

To the site owner, we recommend that you have your clients and peers visit your site and let them tell YOU what it is that "they" think you do. We have heard people clearly ask - "So what is it they really do?" The site owner would retort, well read it and you will know. BUT that's the point, no one has time or desire or motivation to read it. And worse, the content continues on and on way down... scroll down and down... and that is another thing people won't do... they won't scroll.

Your web site should be "mostly" presented above the fold (viewed on the browser without scrolling). We like images and flash - yet keep this to a minimum. Use the HTML H1 and H2 tags for your main sentence and secondary support sentence. These two tags - which are valuable for SEO (search engine ranking optimization) should present your headlines. It should scream - "This is who we are, this is what we do!"

Then continue with a well written/tight content paragraph, telling the visitor more about your company product/service. This informative paragraph should support your headlines and tell the visitor: "why chose us".

Finally - the biggest thing missing from web sites - how do we contact you? This is called the "call to action". What do you want your visitor to do - what action should they take? Don't be afraid - ask them to contact you, buy something or...

Having a "learn more" action is also permissible, which takes the visitor deeper into your site. The reader has granted you permission to provide more details. We recommend that this page should be more in-depth yet not a novel. And include your call to action. Every page should have a call to action.

Keep it simple and reap the rewards.

#SEO Specialists - be wary, be careful.

2009-11-08T19:53:00-05:00

Why is it so difficult to find real highly qualified search engine optimizations (SEO) specialists for small and mid-sized businesses? Why are their needs any different than a Fortune 1000 level company?

Recently I have encountered a multitude of search engine optimization vendors that were more snake-oil, less substance to the detriment of their clients. Each had their unique angle for "gaming" the rankings, although they didn't use that word precisely. None of these vendors would last two minutes in presenting their services to a corporation, so why allow them to service your small business needs?

Successful - and ethical - SEO is about providing visitors with a highly relevant experience. This is the foundation for Google. Good strong content, a nicely designed web site, relevant links all contribute to the success of the web site. Success - meaning not only high ranking but conversion ROI. SEO is about ranking and providing more and better conversions - both!

In other words, a highly ranked web site does not necessarily equate to the delivery of real conversion results. Tip: When discussing SEO with a specialist, ask about how their work will affect conversions - not just ranking.

One of these specialist followed an old and actually erroneous technique of adding lots of keywords under the footer - in a color that was nearly invisible on the page. This is not even black hat (evil SEO techniques), it's just an automatic ticket for getting your site blacklisted. But consider this; all this blank or light text below the footer does not render a pleasing experience for your visitors.

Another offered various "submission" packages, whereas they would submit your web site at key-times during the month so that it would be spidered and ranked. Here it is verbatim, after they updated the meta tags on your website (no mention of enhancing your site content):

The next step is submissions. We submit your site to all 14 major search engines twice per month. By timing our submissions to coincide with the search engines re-indexing routines, we are able to achieve a strong placement initially. This timing is extremely important and not something available through software based submission programs. Basically what we are doing in this part is letting the search engines know who you are and what categories to place you in.

Can you actually name '14' major search engines - and we are aware that we can submit sites to Google, Yahoo and MSN all day long - they will visit when they are ready to do so. Present frequent updates and new content, refreshed and the spiders will come often - on their own.

And from this same specialist:

We need to increase your sites submission routines, but it must be done in a legitimate way. The use of doorways, gateways and mirrors are commonly used for this purpose, but can have negative results when found by a search engine. WE DO NOT USE ANY OF THESE TECHNIQUES! What we do is unique to our company. We use what is called "Directory Information Pages" , also known as D.I.P's. These pages are non-publicly viewed pages hosted on our own servers that are seen by the engines as completely unrelated websites.

I am glad they do not use any of those black-hat techniques - they have their very own! BUT the question to ask, how does all this enhance the user experience and help deliver more and better results? Perhaps their technique will temporarily cause an increase in ranking - but it could also be a quick ticket to the blacklist ball.

Finally, with this vendor, for nearly $3,000 set-up and $100/month - they...

Warrants top-10 ranking on at least 6 of the 14 major search engines.

My guess is that you will not see top ranking on Google, Yahoo and MSN, which represents nearly 94% of all searches. TIP: Ask for their success and warranty on these three major search engines.

Their proposal was totally devoid of any enhancement to the user experience - content and even relevant linking. Relevant linking is a means of getting related web sites to link to yours. If your web site sells car parts, having links from auto related blogs and non-competing mechanic/auto web sites will enhance your ranking.The key, these are related sites to yours.. and will actually deliver visitors as well from those sites to yours. The DIPS (good name eh) mentioned above is on non-public sites, so how will this help deliver qualified visitors?

We at Think-ebiz could go on and on about this subject - and may in additional articles as we uncover more snake oil. One last tip.

To rank high for a specific keyword is important - but do people actually search on that keyword? Ranking high on seldom used keywords is equivalent to having a fantastic billboard - in the middle of the woods.

Ask the specialist for samples of keywords they have ranked high or ones they project for your web site. Then do some simple homework. Visit the Overture Keyword selection tool and enter in the keyword. This easy to use tool will provides an estimate of the number of searches for the given keyword during the prior month (on Yahoo). If the result is at nor near zero, then you may be dealing with snake-oil. And also consider the level of competition for the keyword, expressed on Google as the number of possible results (top right of the search results page). Total results under 1 million are not very competitive, 1-10 million are moderate, 11-25 million are highly competitive and over 25 million is very competitive. It is relative easy to gain high ranking in the moderate category, and possible but may be expensive to reach high ranking in the highly or very competitive categories.

The following is a fun example of this last point, using the keyword Stephen Harris (click on image to view).

In this example, this keyword meets the requirements of an SEO specialist. The keyword is ranked #1 in a moderately competitive keyword and there are indeed 640 searches per month (on Yahoo) for Stephen Harris. Wow, am I that popular?

In conclusion - ask questions and always relate the service offering to how this will enhance my visitors experience - on the 'three major search engines' and deliver real results for your web property.

#SEO for SMB's - it's more about usability.

2009-11-03T20:32:00-05:00

Search Engine Optimization practitioners won't like this, yet we believe there is too much emphasis and hype over SEO for the small and mid-size business segment. We love SEO and we know that achieving high ranking in your keyword segment can deliver real results for your company. Yet what is the value of a highly ranked web site that does not excite and motivate your human visitors?
We have working with small companies that demand high ranking. They hear the hype and want to be numbero uno in , yet their site is presented poorly - difficult to understand or navigate through. The visitor can, with one click, return to their search results and visit your competition. Click... gone....
We recommend developing our web site with SEO basic (title tag, h1/h2, strong content, meta tags...) while focusing on your site's usability. Present strong tight content and your visitors will come and do business! Keep in mind, the search engine spider never buys - unlike the human visitors you with to attract. Managing to both masters - SEO and site usability and your site will deliver real results for your business. This is how we recommend they spend their limited dollars - then circle back and increase their SEO focus to continue to increase their site's ranking.

Build it and they will come; Not without a social marketing plan

2009-11-01T12:51:00-05:00

In the web "0.0" days, we built web sites and the people came. We used to report to our management how many "eyeballs" we had on our site today (major Payroll company). We bought keywords (pre-Google) and congratulated ourselves when more people came to visit our humble web site. Today - you need to do much more to draw attention. Dare we say - even more than Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Paid Click to be heard above the Web 2.0 noise level.
Consider this: How would you bring people through the door of your "brick and mortar" store, which is located on a quiet side street in a small town? Perhaps by attending social events, advertising in the newspaper, developing word-of-mouth/viral campaigns, standing on main street with a large sign. All of these offline means are a form of social marketing. Attracting people to Ttoday's web site is not much different.
We are working with a client that sells professional business PowerPoint templates, managing their paid click and SEO. Both of these mainstream online marketing programs deliver results. Yet to deliver stronger results we recommend a social marketing plan. For this specific client, we are recommending a newsletter/blog and possibly incorporating videos on "how to create and give highly effective presentations".
Give to get...
By giving of your expertise, you will develop a reputation that will come back to you in terms of real revenue. At least, that is the plan.
Think outside your website to bring more traffic to your website. Build a socially minded marketing plan and they will come - delivering real results for your business.

Expanding Web Applications with Mobile Technology

2009-10-29T14:18:00-04:00

Yes yes, it's a recessions yet it is also the best time to expand your companies portfolio in preparation for the good times. And the good times will come- will your application be ready?
We are feeling the exciting high energy coming out of the rich mobile market space. iPhone is over 100,000 applications, and Verizon/Google is going long on Droid. Blackberry remains the number one device and is staying strong on the hips of business people everywhere. Let us ask you - is your application on the phone? No? Why Not?
B2B and B2C - think of the potential new reach for your application. A dental office application that is mobile accessible to your clients and doctors. A travel web site goes social over the phone, with people sharing photos and making reservations - from anywhere! An insurance company making it easier to find a doctor or a repair center or to file a claim from their phone OR just to get helpful advice on health and safety. What application could not be extended by the mobile platform?
We speak with many ISV (independent software vendors) and entrepreneurs that are considering small incremental updates to their existing applications. Why not spend the dollars and resources on creating a competitive advantage? Go long with mobile applications to increase market share and create a strong differentiation in the market place. Want to learn more - contact us today (projects@navsoftusa.com).

#Twitter: Is this social media star fading?

2009-08-21T10:56:48-04:00

We aren't here to slay Twitter. In fact, we like twitter; we just wonder if this social media star is now on the decline, fading away like the CB Radio's of yesteryear. Twitter burst on to the scene and has been center stage for some of major international dramas (Iran Elections for instance). And we have met many influential people - even generated business leads from this platform. So why are we speaking of Twitter's demise?
Watching the tweets from the past month, we have seen a sharp increase in spam and self-promotion (in terms of obtaining more followers or quick-rich schemes). Just this week, we added a dozen new followers - all women with a single tweet; offering a peek at their... uhh selves. In other words, we believe the noise level and lower quality tweets will eventually drive people from this platform.
And this is not really a strong two way communications platform; just how many of your followers are actively in communications with you? Not many. In fact, I wonder how many of the 660 followers we have really see anything we write. There is so many tweets; without effective groupings and filters, much just simply goes by - replaced by so much other spam...
Are we wrong?
What do you think about the future of Twitter? And what is really next? Will Friendfeed's hook up with Facebook take away Twitter's thunder? And where does that leave Biz Stone in terms of monetizing Twitter? Will commercial accounts be a money maker (we don't think so). What do you think?

The #Yahoo and #Bing Deal: Yahoo Fails or Does It?

2009-07-29T20:20:10-04:00

Today Yahoo and Microsoft announced a deal to combine their forces against Google. Yahoo gets to retain 88% of ad revenue ($500 Million in value over 10 years), and access to some of Microsoft's reach. And Yahoo gains$ 250 Million in savingsMicrosoft gets an instant bump in search marketshare - 28% vs 65% for Google. So what did the investment community think of this long time deal. Who came out on top....
Microsoft gained nearly $2.94 Billion on market value - nearly all of it at the direct expense of Yahoo, that lost $2.91 Billion. Ouch. Read TechCrunch's review of this Yahoo to Microsoft valuation shift.
Investors lamented that Microsoft paid Yahoo no money upfront and that it will share only 88 percent of search revenue from Yahoo sites with Yahoo.

"I was surprised at their decision to give the milk for free rather than forcing Microsoft to buy the cow," said Eric Jackson, a former Yahoo investor, who sold off his holdings in September after Yahoo turned down Microsoft's $47.5 billion buyout offer.

"Yahoo should have fought harder for a big upfront," similar to the search proposal Microsoft initially suggested last year after it failed to buy all of Yahoo, Jackson added. Reuters.
We think CEO Carol Bartz underplayed her hand and was out-matched by Microsoft. However, over time will this deal make sense - time will tell. We think it spells the end of Yahoo and possible Bartz' herself. And what about Google? We always believe that any innovation that Bing/Yahoo come up with - Google has the resources to quickly leap over- and maintain...and potentially grow market share. It is good that there may be competition for Google's search prominence, yet we believe that the combined marketshare for Yahoo and Bing will maintain current levels or drop off... stay tuned. If anything - the search market just got a little more interesting. Yahoo - RIP.
Updated: on the second day - yahoo dropped 3.43% -further eroding value.

#twitter monetization: did Biz Stone miss the boat?

2009-07-23T12:42:00-04:00

Twitter has become iconic in the social media space; mainstream with today's society. The State Department even asked them to delay their scheduled maintenance due to the unrest in Iran.So the question is - with over 23 million users tweeting about ... well frankly anything, how does Twitter make money?
Recent suggestions are focused on extracting a fee from corporations to perform a validation process - to certify that the tweets are legit. Certainly this is viable but is also quite weak. Adding any kind of advertisements/messages to the 140 character tweets would become obnoxious and fail. We think Twitter missed the boat big time; and yet there are milllions of dollars being made... by others!
Take for instance Eye Wonder; leveraging Twitter for one of their clients - the Fox TV Series Dollhouse. Eye Wonder utilized the "free" API's made available by Twitter - and are accruing value. None for Twitter.

The Economist presented an interesting article "T weeting all the way to the bank" discussing Twitter and Social Media monetization.

We think that Twitter should have held their API's tighter - providing them to agencies and developers for a fee. And secondly, they should have come out with their own rich Tweetdeck version. Their home page is weak functionally - and yet a modified Tweetdeck could support paid advertising and other potential monetization vehicles. Tweetdeck did not miss the boat - they may be in fact one of the captains, leaving Twitter and Evan and Biz at the dock.

Effective #Blogs: Some basic suggestions

2009-07-22T15:58:47-04:00

There are many articles (and blogs) about what makes a blog effective, however we believe it comes down to being real, writing frequently and with strong tight content.
Real:
A blog has to be written in your voice, it has to represent your views and passions. Write about what you know and feel - and believe in. And keep your blog on topic. For example, if you are writing about travel destinations, don't write entries about political views or that hot new song you just heard. Focus is important. Staying on point will help add relevance to your blog - which is crucial to search engine optimization (SEO) rankings.

Frequency:
The objective of a blog is to gain readers - who come back time and again to read and learn more from your expertise. Write entries to your blog frequently - at least 2-4 times a week. When a reader comes to a blog - where the last article was six months ago (or six weeks) that reader will never return. Stay true to the first point however - never write for writing sake. Frequently written content is also valued by the search engines. The more often your blog is updated - the more often the search spider will return. Spiders love content and may reward your efforts with higher rankings.

Content:
Most of us are not professional writers and -we believe - that our lack of prose skills are easily forgiven in the blogosphere. However - spell checking and good sentence structure is important. A blog is also not a place for a novel. Entries of 200-400 words are sufficient. Readers have patience for small doses of information - and want nice tight content. Give them the cliff-notes version on the subject - and include links where they can learn more.

The challenge in content writing is the balance between the use of relevant keywords (for the ingsearch engine spider) and sentences that are readable by your human follow. Always defer to readable, but ensure that you use keywords to satisfy the search engines. If your blog article is easily readable, that should suffice.

Additionally, a blog should not be viewed as a self promotion device. Naturally, the reader can know about your business and brand - but this is not about "I" - it should be about "You". In other words, give of yourself - your expertise. Educate your readers about the topic - without directly promoting your service or product. Your readers will appreciate the information and associate you and your business in a positive light.
Lastly, don't overstress yourself in writing - get your thoughts, ideas and advice out there. Keep it real, keep it tight - and share your wisdom frequently. And - a fnal tip: after you publish your entry, revisit it a few days later and edit it... we find this an way to ensure that the article is effective - because you then become...the reader.

To #Bing or not to Bing: Initial Reactions

2009-07-02T17:13:09-04:00

Is Microsoft's revamped MSN Live Search engine, named Bing - a Google killer? Does Bing push the search game to a new level? Will Bing eat into the huge marketshare that is Google's?
We will admit, it took us a few weeks before we gave Bing a try. What we like is the very calm, easy on the eye results display. And we like the "related searches" that is well presented on the top left of the page. However - these can be easily managed by Google, so no real news here. We can give or take on the images presented on the main Bing page.
When testing for relevancy, which we believe is the most important deliverable from a search engine - we don't see much different. In many Google searches, the related Wkipedia entry is often top ranked, yet it is 2nd or 3rd in Bing. And the actual returned results, in our limited (and unscientific test) was similar. However, we noted that Bing returned many more total results. For instance:

Internet Marketing Executive - Bing returned 81 Million (now down to 36 million) results to Google's 20 Million (now 44 million).

Hawaiian Resorts - Bing presented 42 Million to Google 283,000.

Web 2.0 Technology - Bing returned 119 Million (now 147 million!) to Google's 5.8 Million (now 196 million)

The question we ask - is this is a better search experience? Has Bing delivered on the promise to deliver results that lead to a better decision (aka decision engine). At this early stage, we do not think so. In fact, we believe the results are similar to what we observed from Google 2-3 years back.
No doubt, in some instances, the results from Bing could be stated as superior - however in our limited and random checks, we haven't see this yet.
Our initial reaction, especially to the news that Bing has increased it's marketshare, could be accounted for because of it's strong publicity and marketing efforts. Do they stay and sustain Bing's marketshare - for now yes. Until Google reacts and provides added value to return to the dominant search player.
The last two thoughts: we like that "some" twitter feeds are being added to Bing, however it is limited and for now you need to include "twitter" into the search query. And, how does Bing affect the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) world. We want to understand Bing and SEO (and will report on this later), as our own professional website took a ranking hit on this Microsoft search platform:

"Stephen Harris" (Google #1, Bing #10)

"internet marketing executive" (Google #1, Bing - Page 3)

"online marketing executive" (Google #2, Bing #4)