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Is Wikipedia Corrupt?

By Ross Dunn in Featured

Responses to my previous posting called “How to Ethically Update Wikipedia” have been incredibly polarized and I felt it was important I provide some visibility to the ethical issues and ramifications faced by an immensely influential volunteer-run organization like Wikipedia.

First a Little Background
My July 17th posting was based on an excellent article published at Search Engine Land called “SEO Tips & Tactics from a Wikipedia Insider” written by a Wikipedia Administrator with the pseudonym Durova. My post summarized a few of the unethical Wikipedia listings that Durova had noticed throughout her time at Wikipedia and how Wikipedia responded to each situation. I was very impressed by Durova’s article and how transparent the process appeared to be.

The Ramifications
Since my posting I received a few comments on the posting that were obviously from people who felt very strongly that Wikipedia, and in particular Durova, had serious issues with ethics. In that regard I have little doubt that these people had previously poor experiences with Wikipedia/Durova and have an axe to grind; the anger was palpable. One of the comments even revealed Durova’s real name (which I chose not to allow) and linked to a page where unkindly and distasteful words are shared about Wikipedia and Durova.

The complainants’ comments on StepForth’s site and Search Engine Land’s insinuate Wikipedia is run in a mafia-like manner where those who administrate the encyclopedia can be malicious when angered and may act without repercussions. Here are some quotes:

1. One commenter by the name of Gregory Kohs defined Wikipedia:
   Wikipedia is not an encyclopedia. It is a blog disguised as an encyclopedia, controlled by a limited number of people with admin tools who have particular axes to grind about living people with real names, all while hiding behind a cloak of anonymity.
   Source, StepForth SEO blog post.
2. A commenter followed up Gregory’s comment with a long reply that included this:
   Durova’s advice to openly declare your intentions as COI (conflict of interest) in her article sound good - but like much of Wikipedia, the intentions are good in the script of the rules, but the proof of the “pudding” in implementation often winds up “on the faces” of the business people who naively trusted Wikipedia to be a professional and business-friendly place. It isn’t that.
   Source, StepForth SEO blog post.
3. A Search Engine Land comment caught my eye:
   Are we now to the point in our Web 2.0 society where anonymous persons holding authority positions within Top 10 website communities can say defamatory things (that I lie to journalists), and the end result of my politely personal complaint is to have my “professional reputation” further questioned by the anonymous administrator?That’s just lovely.

   Thank God I love my wife, daughter, family, and many friends — who all love me dearly and don’t give two whits about Wikipedia. I really can’t imagine that if any major donor to the Wikimedia Foundation knew THIS is the type of culture that is fostered there, HOW they would possibly sign that check over to Jimbo and his admins-gone-wild.
   Source, Search Engine Land article.

At the StepForth SEO Blog Durova posted the following response to some of the comments:
“I am a voluntary participant in a program called ‘administrators open to recall.’ That means I’ll stand for reconfirmation of sysop status if half a dozen Wikipedians in good standing request it. Nobody’s ever initiated such a request. My candidacy for administratorship passed on an 81-0-1 vote (one neutral short of unanimous). So the community has expressed its confidence. I do, however, specialize in investigations and dispute resolution. So some sitebanned individuals sometimes turn up elsewhere on the Web with complaints.”

Comment note: many more inflammatory and defensive comments can be found in a less censored format within this Search Engine Land article.

My Position
I cannot attest to the accuracy of the lengthy complaints against Durova and Wikipedia and I don’t have the time or interest to thoroughly research the past (there appears to be a LOT to review). That said, if any of the complaints have an ounce of truth then Wikipedia has to be more cautious about the stance they take on content that may irreparably harm others or face a dmoz-like fate. On the flipside, those who post content on Wikipedia had better realize that whatever they post has ramifications on their own reputations so they had better be 100% certain of their sources and intentions.

Also I commend Durova for replying to the comments by noting that her current role as administrator can be circumvented by a vote by members in good standing. That said, I do wonder whether members in good standing would have any reason to oust a fellow member that may be of like mind. (i.e. who guards the guardians?)

In Closing
I have to admit that a volunteer-operated site that has the ability to seriously harm a business’s or a person’s good reputation gives me the creeps. This is especially true for online encyclopedias like Wikipedia where content, by its social nature, tends to stray into gossip territory. I realize that this applies to many social media websites but very few have the massive power to affect opinion that Wikipedia currently has. If there is one thing that this whole scenario illustrates it is that Wikipedia’s content, no matter who administrates it, should be heavily seasoned with salt. The same goes for any socially driven content online.

If you are in dire need of reputation management on your Wikipedia listing then read the well-written Search Engine Land article by Jessica Bowman where she explores the various ethical techniques of battling bad press on a Wikipedia page.: What To Do When Your Wikipedia Page Goes Bad.

PS) Google Needs More Diversity!
Google desperately needs to level the field a bit and offer up content from online encyclopedias other than Wikipedia (who regularly sits at #1 for most searches) to reveal some differing perspectives and soften Wikipedia’s influence. After all, there are bound to be other online encyclopedias that deserve a shot at the limelight as well.

If you represent an alternative online encyclopedia please email me, I would love it if you would submit a couple-paragraph introduction of your site and the reason why your content is just as or more deserving than Wikipedia. When I receive your introductions I will blog them promptly.

Author:  Ross Dunn is the founder and CEO of StepForth Placement Inc. Celebrating its tenth year of operation, StepForth is one of the oldest and most trusted names in search marketing.

How to Build Comprehensive Keyword List

By Maria Bumbarova in Featured

Each day hundreds of millions of people search for products, services and information using search engines. Choosing the right or wrong keywords make the difference between going down in a blaze of glory or potentially earning hundreds every day. Choosing the best keywords and phrases for your site is the single most important thing you can do to ensure the success of your site. That is why everyone that works online must to know how to build comprehensive keyword list.
Why? Because if you choose keywords that no one is searching for, then your site will never be found. Or, if you choose keywords that are way too competitive, your site will have a difficult time making it to the top of the rankings. Either way, your site or business loses.

Markets are different, and the consumer buying behaviour in those markets are never the same. Many businesses use search marketing to attract customers in international markets. The one thing to remember is that not everyone searches the same. Its very important to know as much about your market demographic as you possibly can find out. Do your research. Try get into the head (mindset) of your target visitor.
It will help you understand the intent behind each keyword phrase search. It will help you identify the right keywords for targeting international customers. What keywords to keep, and which ones to dump.
You must to choose the keywords that bring good traffic and good conversions. These are the words people use when they are in buying mode. Your keywords list have to inclusive yet the keywords that bring you good traffic but poor conversions and the keywords that bring low traffic but great conversions. These are the words people use when they are in research mode and the words that represent buying behaviour in niche markets.
How to start research your key worlds and to build a comprehensive keyword list?
- Start with a common word or phrase that is appropriate to your business
- After then find words and phrases that are related to your original keyword
- Use the related words to generate many more relevant keywords
If you want to succeed online, you have to spend enough time and energy finding out the words your customers really use whey they search. You will need not just 30-50 keywords, you will need hundreds - and many of the most successful online companies will have thousands of keywords. Successful keyword researchers well and will attract customers to your site.
There are many keywords research tools you can use to find and choose your the best keywords and phrases that will boost your traffic, online sales and explode your profits. Here are just a few of them that I can remember off the top of my head…
Free Online Keyword Research Tools
Overture Keyword Selector Tool
Google Keyword Tool

Google Suggest

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool

Digital Point Keyword Research Tool

NicheBot Classic

KwBrowse
Free Keyword Research Software
Good Keywords
The Best Web-based Keyword Research Service
Wordtracker

Keyword Discovery
The Best Keyword Research Software
Ad Word Analyzer

Keyword Elite
The Keyword Research Tools will help you research appropriate words and phrases to include in your webpage’s body text to aid in promotion. Simply enter the sort of word of phrase you wish to be found under, and the tools will suggest some additional words and phrases you can think about using.
People use different words when they search for your products online. Use these keywords in your website copy and people will find your site when they search. No matter what business you are in, The Keyword Research Tools will tell you the words people use when they search - and how popular each word is. Spend enough time and energy to find, choose and build comprehensive keyword list. The massive list of the keywords and phrases your customers really use when they search is key to your success.

Author:  Maria Bumbarova, Brand Digital Products. Check out: http://stores.pressmania.com/experts/lists.aspx

Should You Have Your Own Website? (Take this Quiz!)

By James Kronefield in Featured

I have been asked numerous times about the necessity of having a website. After asking the same questions I developed a quiz. Not all questions have the the same value but answer each question honestly before looking at the scoring criteria. (For scoring, go to www.easywebdesignbasics.com and click on the Quiz link.)

Here are the basic questions:

Question 1 - Do you have an interest or hobby that you spend at least two hours a month pursuing?

Question 2 - Are you interested in earning additional income?

Question 3 - Can you spare a couple of hours a week to learn something new?

Question 4 - Do you have a product or service you are currently selling or plan to sell in the near future?

Question 5 - Are you interested in saving time and money?

Question 1 - Do you have an interest or hobby that you spend at least two hours a month pursuing?

Most of us have several interests or hobbies. I like photography, hiking, teaching, learning, video, reading and the list goes on and on. However, there are only a couple of interests that I can actually enjoy regularly due to lack of time. It is the ones that you actually make time for that relate to having a website.

Let’s say that you actually spend an hour a week on gardening. Are you aware of the massive number of people who are also interested in gardening and have websites on this topic? Do you realize the amount of information you can get from fellow gardeners? But most importantly, do you understand how many fellow gardeners would benefit from your expertise?

You need a website to share what you have learned from practical experience. Your website can steer beginners in the right direction to avoid mistakes that you made.

Question 2 - Are you interested in earning additional income?

I haven’t met one person who has said no to this question.

Question 3 - Can you spare a couple of hours a week to learn something new?

Designing a website will require you to learn some new skills. Don’t worry, these are not difficult skills to learn but it will take time. There is a minimal financial investment. You can use free editors and free software to upload your web site. All you would have to pay for is a domain name and hosting. However, if you go with a blog you don’t have to spend any money!

Question 4 - Do you have a product or service you are currently selling or plan to sell in the near future?

If you answered yes to this question and do not have a website, then you need to get started now! Whatever you sell, a website is a great way to advertise. You can target your website to the specific type of client you are looking for. You direct your prospect to your website and let it presell your product.

It does not matter whether you are local or worldwide. Let your website expand your business.

Question 5 - Are you interested in saving time and money?

Whether you use a website to help others or advertise your products and services, you can leverage the Internet to ave you time and earn extra income. Website can save you time by information access. For example, I am asked the same questions over and over and now just send people to a special page where they can find the answers. This save me a lot of time.

You can provide great detail about your products and services for others to read and even buy without taking your time.

As the saying goes, “Saving times saves you money.” You also save money by consolidating resources and increasing you use of free online advertising

To score this quiz, go to www.easywebdesignbasics.com/quiz.

Author:  Are you new in the web design? Let’s James help. Jump start in at http://www.easywebdesignbasics.com/

Negative Factors or Techniques Affecting the SEO Industry

By Hari Qumar in Featured

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is all about increasing the number of visitors who come to your website and enhance its chances of being ranked in the top results of a search engine. A number of factors are important when optimizing a website to be search engine and user friendly, including the content and structure of the website’s copy and page layout, the HTML meta-tags, backlinks and the submission process.

Following are some of the factors or techniques negatively affecting the SEO industry:

1. Dynamically created pages
2. Sub Domains
3. Cloaking(or Masking)
4. Spamdexing
5. Link Spamming
6. Page Jacking
7. Mirrored (or duplicate) websites
8. Hidden Text
9. Create Doorway pages

1.Dynamically created pages: Dynamically created pages are web pages which have more than one parameter in a website URL.

(e.g.) http://www.seo.com/main.php?category=books&subject=biography

Such type of pages in a website is database driven. Multiple parameters in a dynamic URL (?, .php, .pl, .cgi extension) can often mean that a search engines spider will choose to ignore the document. So, such URLs are not very search engine friendly. Google is presently able to index dynamically generated pages. However, because their web crawler can easily overwhelm and crash sites serving dynamic content, they limit the amount of dynamic pages they index. So, Search Engine representatives have long urged website creators to limit dynamic parameters to two, optimally to one so that spiders will easily crawl them.

2.Sub Domains: Many large Web portals and online retailers structure their sites using subdomains (e.g.http://groups.seo.com). A subdomain lets you brand your different specialties with your primary domain name. Subdomains are considered to be independent web sites even though they may share the same IP address. But do check with your Web host to make sure you’re sharing an IP address with legitimate sites. Otherwise, this could get your site banned from search engines. Some legitimate sites make the mistake of using duplicate content in their subdomains. This can also make the search engines treat duplicate content in subdomains particularly harshly.

3.Cloaking (or Masking): Cloaking is the SEO process of delivering one version of a page to a user, and a different version to another user such as a search engine. The benefit is code and copyright protection. We can custom build a page for the user. If the user is a search engine, we want to give it our best most optimized stuff. If it is a user, we want to give it a pretty page that is tricked out for navigation and usability. Mouse-over cloaking is a new SEO technique used widely now-a-days. When a visitor clicks on a website after performing a search query in the search engines, they are directed to a website or web page which is gibberish, but the search engines have indexed it highly. With just the slightest jostle of their mouse, the visitor is quickly re-directed to the site which has allegedly been “SEO optimized.”

4.Spamdexing: Spamdexing or search engine spamming is the practice of deliberately and dishonestly manipulating search engines by SEO’s to increase the chance of a website or page being placed close to the beginning of search engine results. (e.g.)Metatag Stuffing: Repeating keywords in the Meta tags, and using keywords that are unrelated to the website’s content.

Keyword Stuffing:Repeated use of a word to increase its frequency on a page. Presently, search engines have the ability to analyze a page for Keyword stuffing and determine whether the frequency is above a “normal” level. The keyword density of a webpage should be between 2- 7%.

5.Link Spamming: The submission of pages that are intended to rank artificially high by various unethical techniques. These can include submitting hundreds of slightly different pages designed to rank high, small invisible text, or word scrambled pages. (e.g.) Link farming: A set of web pages that have been built for the sole purpose of increasing the number of incoming links to a web site. Link farms are a known SEO spam tactic and sites that participate in them are likely to be penalized or banned from the major search engines.

6.Page Jacking: Often when your competitor gets a high ranking page under quality keywords the first thing that will happen is your competitor’s page gets stolen (called Page Jacking).It is the SEO process of duplicating a high ranking competitor’s page, but the page is redirected to your website. Many search engines, upon seeing a duplicate page will delete the competitor’s website from the directory leaving the fake page in its place.

7. Mirrored (or Duplicate) websites: Mirrored websites are nothing but, creating duplicate sites having the same images & the content with the same number of pages in both the websites. In this case, one of the website stands a high chance of being rejected by the search engines for indexing.

8. Hidden Text: Hidden text is links with the same background color as that of the website. This SEO spam technique is used to increase your page rank of your website.A user to your site may accidentally land to this hidden link & the page thereafter.

9. Create Doorway pages: A doorway page is simply an additional page on your website that is created to target a specific keyword not related to the website and then submitted to the search engines. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a website and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include websites with unsavory or illegal content.

Author:  Hari Qumar is a management graduate from a UK university and owns Begonia Infosys. He is actively involved in promoting SEO in India and works for an Entertainment portal as well.

3 Things You Should Do When Your Search Rankings Suddenly Drop

By Jonathan Cook in Featured

Anyone who depends on search engines for traffic - which is just about all of us - has a common disorder. It is our preoccupation with our rankings. It only makes sense that this be so widespread. After all, those rankings often ARE our business. At least as far as supplying those prospects we so desperately need.

It’s safe to say that all of us have woken up to see our rankings drop from page 1 to a status that can only be compared to being enrolled in the Federal Witness Relocation Program. You can’t be found. And that’s bad news.

Here’s what you should do when this happens. You may not be able to fix the problem quickly, but you’ll at least be in a much better position to address it and deal with it.

1. DON’T PANIC.

This is very important to remember. Take it seriously, but don’t lose it. There are many reasons why rankings can drop. Sometimes it’s due to one of Google’s famous algorithm shake-ups. This might be a temporary shift that will see your rankings restored in short order. The key here is to avoid the urge to do something that will only hurt your site, its long-term rankings & your business itself.

Many people will jump to work and make large-scale changes in their site. They try to bring it in line with what they think the search engines want now. This can actually hurt their standing in the search engines as they alter the structure and layout of their pages.

It confuses the search engine bots and creates an impression of confusion, a lack of cohesion in the site. That’s bad for rankings. So, remember - Don’t Panic. The drop may be temporary. If it isn’t, an impulsive Bulldoze & Rebuild job is not the way out.

2. Think Back: What Have You Changed Recently?

Sometimes your rankings plummet because of something you did. For example, I’ve had rankings drop because I screwed up the code on some redirects I did in my .htaccess file. Did you add some new pages lately? Check that the links in them, and to them, are pointed correctly. If you write the destination URLs wrong you’re feeding the search engines a bunch of 404 Error pages. They don’t like that.

There are many things that could cause the rankings to slip. Keep in mind that you should look at changes you’ve made as long as 2 weeks ago, just to be safe. Search engine bots vary in how often they come by your site, so they may be reacting to an alteration that is old news to you, but new to them.

3. Keep Going

It’s tempting to turn to the dark side of SEO, become a Black Hat when you see your rankings drop. Especially when you see a weak site, or a totally irrelevant one, outrank yours. We’ve all been there. But you know what the right choice is, even if it’s hard to resist doing a little cloaking. What you must do is continue building a solid site: adding relevant, targeted content, working on your site structure so that all content can be found & indexed by the search engines, working on links to your site. A little boring? Yes, sometimes. But it’s the best choice, especially for those of us looking to be in business for the long-term.

Keep in mind these 3 steps next time you see rankings fall. It’s okay to be frustrated. It’s okay to be confused. It’s even okay to be a little angry. Let it out, constructively, and then get back to work. It’s the surest path.

Author:  Jon lives and works in Waikiki/Honolulu, Hawaii. He provides clients with marketing and copywriting services. He relaxes by walking down to the beach with his dog, swimming with his wife and paddling outriggers.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for the beginner

By Stephen Greenwood in Featured

Ranking near the top on the major Search Engines is the real key to bringing free, targeted traffic to your website. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will help to take your website above your competition, and towards that number 1 position.

When a search is performed on Google, the resulting Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are decided depending on certain criteria set down by that particular Engine. These criteria include the placement and density of the chosen keywords within the website, external link popularity, and structure of the web page to name a small few. Not only does each search engine use a different set of criteria for ranking websites, but also these criteria are constantly changing as they refine their results on a continual basis. The following will help you on your road to optimising your own website.

Keyword Analysis
When designing websites, finding the right key words involves considerable research and is one of the hardest and most time-consuming tasks. It involves using the keywords under which you would like to be found, and then finding out whether anyone searches on these keywords and how popular they are. For certain keywords, others may have to be chosen that give a better search-to-competition ratio. It is also important to ensure keywords are relevant and specific to each of the web pages. Each web page should be optimised individually depending on the content of that page.

Website Design
There are two goals a Webmaster should try to achieve when designing websites. First, it must be visually pleasing to the customer. Your website will probably be the first introduction to your business and so it must be professionally written and provide them with easy access to the information they are looking for. With all that hard work attracting visitors to your website, the last thing you want to do is see them press the BACK button as soon as they arrive at your site. The main goal of each web page should be either to offer something the visitor is looking for, or to direct them to that page.

Second, the website must be search engine friendly. To ensure all your website’s pages are properly indexed with all the search engines, it is important to avoid broken links, automatic redirects, an all-flash or all-images pages and every page contains unique and informative text.

Site Content
With the website’s code optimised for search engine readiness, and your keywords chosen to match the message you want to put across to your customers, now comes the task of writing those content-rich web pages that will sell your product or service to the customer. Writing rich content that contains the necessary keywords, and yet remains easy to read without being stilted, involves much thought and can take considerable time. Websites optimised in this way and avoiding quick fix Black Hat techniques, are more likely to produce a constant flow of targeted traffic to your business and prevent your website from getting penalised or even banned altogether.

Link Analysis
Many of the major search engines, and most importantly Google, assign great importance to a ‘Natural Link Profile’ when indexing a website. Unfortunately, its not just a matter of incorporating as many links coming in and going out of your site as you can, but great emphasis should be placed on factors such as who you’re linking to, using associated links from well-respected websites, and positioning your link near a small paragraph of relevant Anchor text that contains keywords associated to the page the link is pointing to.

Much time can be spent creating a natural linking pattern for your website. By avoiding link farms and reciprocal-link requests from shady websites, and concentrating on linking to and from respected and authoritative web sites, you will be well on your way to success. If you’re not sure if the website is respected, sometimes common sense can be your best friend. If the answer to ‘would you like to tell your friends and family to visit this wonderful website’ is a no, then that should be your answer.

Submit, Review, Revise, Submit again, and keep going! Optimisation is an ongoing project. It is important to review your rankings at least once a month and to compare your website against your competition. Not only do new websites appear all the time, but search engines, continually change their ranking criteria, so that a ranking on the first page today, may suddenly drop to page 3 the following week. It is also necessary for a website to grow in size and content, otherwise it will fall behind the many other websites on the Internet fighting for the same top ranking you are searching for.

With perseverance and a little by little each day, your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) efforts should show continual rewards as you head ever upward towards that number 1 ranking spot on Google. Good luck.

Author:  Steve Greenwood has been designing and optimising websites for businesses all along the Costa del Sol for the last 3 years. Please click Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tips for further beginners information. Peachily offers design and marketing solutions including Social Media Optimisation (SMO) for today’s Internet businesses.

Building Communities Within Your Community

By Lisa Barone in Featured

The always awesome Kim Krause-Berg issued a thought provoking post on Friday entitled Why Social Media Bugs Me, ME, ME! Why does social media bug Kim? Because there’s too much selling and pushing of irrelevant content. Kim doesn’t care about your agenda, she only wants the headlines that are important to her. This is Kim’s world, after all; why should she have to be subjected to your garbage?

When I read Kim’s post my first thought of was, “Go, Kim!”
My second thought was, “Kim, you’re not hanging out in the right neighborhood.”

I think a lot of people feel like Kim. They look at the social media sites and at first glance all you can see is the spin. There are too many people trying to sell to you, too much weak content, too many fake promises and too much waste. This is not what social media is about. It’s just not helpful.

The proper way to use social media sites is to find like-minded users and then break off into smaller, more engaged topic communities. Communities that actually encourage discussion about topics relevant to you specifically.

This is something I wish Sphinn offered. I’m becoming a total Sphinn head, but that front page of never-ending content is only useful for users trying to get a general idea of what’s going on. It’s not at all helpful for members who are trying to find a certain conversation, or better yet, trying to start a conversation. Danny had the right idea forming a Water Cooler section, but I think its open-endedness is keeping users away.

Not to sound like a pathetic brand evangelists, but I feel like this is what really separates Facebook from its competitors — how strong the user-created communities are. If you’re looking for a social community that’s targeted to you and where you can hold actual discussions, then I think Facebook trumps most other sites.

This is where the Kims of the world belong, assuming they/she can get passed the silly apps (it’s not always easy). Kim doesn’t want a generic social media site. She wants a site that’s targeted to her interests only and that will show her the headlines that she wants to read. Not what you want her to read.

Obviously one of the reasons I like Facebook is because it’s clean and it keeps me connected with my friends and contacts that I don’t get to see nearly often enough (Like Marie Howell from Bruce Clay Europe. Hi Marie!). But the other reason I like Facebook is a result of how engaged my groups are. I’ll admit, I may have my share of vapid Facebook communities (i.e. Red Sox Nation, most groups created by Ciaran Norris), but there are also a slew of groups present that really are valuable and introduce me to new ideas and discussions.

I’m talking about the Internet TV, vloggers and media disruptors group, the vaguely-titled Search Engine Optimization group, and the most powerful of them all, an SEO/SEM awareness group that I won’t properly mention thanks to Rae Hoffman’s colorful way of naming things.

The groups on Facebook are what allow me to skim through the headlines (of course some are more active than others). They’re what help me finds the gems before the clutter, they allow me to eavesdrop on industry conversations, and because they’re so small, no one is out to spam you. You’re not going to hear about how the Meta Keywords tag is the key to search engine optimization; you’re not going to see comments (or at least, not a lot) about how you absolutely must go check out someone’s site. Group members are producing content for the group, not for themselves. And that changes the spirit of everything.

I’m not saying everyone needs to join Facebook. However, I think for someone like Kim (meaning you have a brain) the average, top level-only social media site isn’t going to do much for you. You’re going to be bombarded with topics that aren’t particularly relevant to you. The key to using social media is being able to form communities with the larger community. I’m sure there are other sites out there that let users do this, I just don’t know about them. I like Facebook.

Author:  Lisa Barone is a Sr. Writer at Bruce Clay Inc. as well as being a friend of everyone on Facebook

SEO with Usability: What The People Want

By Kim Krause Berg in Featured

If you are in the business of optimizing web pages and promoting web sites in search engines, in all likelihood, you’ve never personally experienced the product or service you’re paid to market.

And yet, your client expects you to make them rich. At the very least, they want their company to rank well in search engine results. They expect you to find the exact keywords their customers are using to find their product or service, but you don’t have access to those customers, do you? You rely on tools and server logs to do your job.

You may be given data to analyze but seriously, if you had the choice, wouldn’t you rather experience the big 10 person party hot tub yourself rather than read dry data on who has purchased it?

Wouldn’t the feel of the warm water, the night sky bursting with stars and the teasing touch of skin nearby just nail the reason for wanting to buy one? Would you know how to target the different sizes of hot tubs and their uses? What if a Bed and Breakfast wants to buy one? Are their needs different than the family of five who want one in their backyard?

How do you advertise what you don’t know about?

SEO’s are demanded to do this. Blind folded. Web site developers are asked to design ways to order products they’ve never held in their hands. Usability consultants are asked to make sure everybody did their job properly, knowing full well in many cases, site designers were never given guidelines, requirements or anything other than a Wish List by the site’s owner.

Does the Search Engine Marketing industry need to know more about Usability and do User Experience designers need to understand that someone has to market their creation and make it findable and appealing enough to use or buy?

Experience and Marketing

There’s a hilarious scene in the movie, What Women Want, where Mel Gibson is competing with a top woman executive for the best marketing campaign for various women’s products. Everyone on the project has been asked to come up with slogans for the self-care products. Mel Gibson doesn’t like the new woman, played by Helen Hunt, who came on board to take over the job position he believed he was entitled to. He decides to outdo her.

So he takes the products home and while guzzling wine, begins to use them. He waxes his legs, paints his fingernails, nearly gets killed with a blow-dryer and my favorite part, puts on women’s pantyhose. The experience of the hell women go through to be attractive slowly dawns on him.

Add to this the fact that he can suddenly read the minds of women and you get a marketers dream. His character uncovers their raw emotions, their hidden thoughts, even fantasies and desires that he never knew women had.

While still not as intimately educated on the products as a woman would be, he was able to get enough of a glimpse so he could understand how best to sell not only the products, but the EXPERIENCE of using them.

He had direct access to user experiences and created the marketing campaign based on what he learned.

Marketing Without Blinders On

My son recently asked why horses that pull Amish buggies wear “blinders”. I told him this is because they can see on the side of their heads and they can spook easily, such as when cars come whizzing by on the road. It’s a common practice to blindfold horses when leading them away from fire or other emergency situations because not seeing danger calms them. Once, I needed to tie a shirt over a horse’s eyes just to get him to walk over a bridge. A horse will not go where it doesn’t feel safe.

This same theory applies to customers who make purchases online. Promotional descriptions nearly always focus on an aspect of the product to get the first click through. Once on a page, several things happen at once.

1. The searcher’s expectation for what they think they’ll find must be met.
2. More information must be presented to enable a decision or make choices.
3. The next steps must be clear, such as learn more, change your mind but keep searching on that site, where to go next and where to get customer assistance.
4. The entire experience must feel safe, secure, authentic and believable.

Therefore, it’s important to promote and follow up with a persuasive, logical presentation.

Funny thing is, many SEO’s feel this order sequence also means their part supersedes usability in importance. However, chances are the optimization elements were entered AFTER the design, rather than during. The usability and accessibility heuristics were likely there first, at least in some basic form like site guidelines. If they were not, and the site is truly not usable, then an SEO has an uphill battle they may not wish to climb.

Listening to Feedback and Using the Information

The foundation for your web site may not be strong enough to withstand variables in human behavior, cultural differences, advances in computer technology, new search engines and directories and competitors whose Internet marketing tactics out perform yours.

This is another reason why usability and accessibility design begin from the ground up. You want to meet standards. You want to be armed and ready with a fortified site. It’s also why preparation during the conceptual stages and testing during the build process are valuable to you.

For example, does your web site need a plug-in and if so, can someone who needs assistive technology use it or find a workaround? If your web site relies on customer experience to help sell products or services, how many human assisted search engines or directories have actual access to the product or service and can place the site or product page in the correct place so it will be found?

This is not the same as a directory editor looking at content and finding the correct category to place a site. It’s about searchers asking for help in making better searches by seeking the help of people who work for a search engine. New search engines that offer human help offer a new kind of personalized search experience. A representative, who has personally worked on rebuilding car engines, for example, knows best where to guide someone searching for specific parts vs. just getting pages back based on paid keyword analysis or keywords chosen based on category or popularity.

The user experience plays into marketing either by personal experience with a product or service or user studies. Their feedback may be applied to the overall site design and functionality. For Internet promotion, a blog post written with details on how a new customer felt about the new iPhone will come up in searches. The phone’s manufacturer may find certain keywords in that customer’s story that can be used to sell it better, and also be used in the product’s web site design itself in navigation or link labels, image alt attribute text, product descriptions and names of categories.

The customer teaches us how to market to them if we listen to what they have to say.

There’s a reason the “Long Tail” and Word of Mouth marketing helps us. The information offers clues into how we think. How we think matters to design. Design matters to sales and traffic.

Snap Decisions and Impulse

How often have you visited a web site and been turned off in a few seconds?

We react. We make snap decisions. If you watch people use websites, you will notice they will sometimes make what seems like intuitive decisions. Sometimes they want more time and data because some choices require longer consideration. However, studies show if you provide too much information, the ability to make a decision runs a higher risk of causing errors or inability to process the information. This is one reason why application development is so tricky. To buy a computer online requires a lot of content to help with decision making, but too many steps in the process, pages to read, decisions to make, factors to consider and guess what? User fatigue.

Your marketing investment has to consider the user experience or you’re throwing money away.

A new book called Blink, written by Malcolm Gladwell, is about “the power of thinking without thinking” and the ability to do “thin slicing”, which is making accurate conclusions based on little information. It’s a fascinating read for anyone wanting to understand how people make decisions. It offers insight into our intuitive process. The book may help with both user centered design and marketing by forcing us to think harder about what really happens out there.

One story in the book talks about how Tom Hanks was hired to play an astronaut in Apollo 13. Hollywood producer, Brian Grazer, explained that everybody failed to envision Tom Hanks as an astronaut. But the movie was about a spacecraft in danger, and he explained, what actor do we want to see saved the most? Tom Hanks. The producer knew audiences loved him too much to watch him die. They already had the emotional connection based on how we “know” him from his various other characters.

What we think we know triggers decisions. Words have powerful associations. They can change our behavior. Visuals trigger certain responses. If clothing models don’t look like you, this may prevent you from buying or remaining on the web site. Word meanings vary. One study, illustrated in Blink, showed this clearly. When asked to put words into categories, it took longer to put the word “Entrepreneur” into the “Career” category when “Career” was first paired with “Female” than when “Career” was paired with “Male”.

Prior association influences how we interpret words. It also plays into how we navigate web sites, click on ads and develop confidence in a web site’s design.

Do Software Developers Need SEO, Usability and Accessibility?

If the application, such as shopping cart, online reservations, sales lead or order form is intended for use by people who can not use a mouse, hear, are blind or suffer from anything that requires assistive technology to allow them to use the Internet, the answer is “yes”.

Removing tables, incorporating CSS and adding text all are helpful organic SEO practices for application design. While you may not think a shopping cart needs to rank high in search engines, a contact or order form page has a good chance of doing that if optimized well. In this way, a search for “contact acme” will bring up the Contact page for the company rather than the homepage that requires an extra click and time to find where the Contact page is.

This small gesture is optimizing with usability in mind.

Dell is notorious for making buying a computer online frustrating. It still is, despite their continued efforts to improve. The expectation for “Build Your Computer” means just that. It means showing options and choices. It means comparing all the Vista software and offering use cases for each to help customers make a valid choice. It means explaining why higher a CPU may be helpful or why it may not be necessary. Are images optimized so that they appear in search engine image searches? Can someone who needs a Braille keyboard use one with a Dell product?

All of this information has to be easy to find and use, while not interrupting the purchase process.

Word of mouth marketing and usability are buddies.

While in the hospital for knee surgery, a nurse complained to my husband and me about the computer software she was using to monitor me with. My husband works for the software’s competitor, so he thought this was great information. He was getting user feedback on the competitor that he could take to his company. However, his company doesn’t do usability testing on their product. How these two companies sell their software is a mystery.

Bad user experiences may hurt sales eventually when the truth finally comes out. Is it worth the risk of not user testing your product? Can your company support the wrath of broken contracts, lawsuits and diminishing sales? Are you an SEO asked to market a product nobody cares about or wants?

What People Want is for Usability and SEO to Work Together

Search Engine Optimization is focused on findability. Search Engine Marketing is targeted advertising via paid positioning and ads. Both utilize traditional media, social media, blogs and user generated content. Both conduct keyword research and require content written to inspire and motivate.

The Usability field has many arms but the unifying goal is user focused. All roads lead back to how we use something, or better yet, how we want to use it. Usability satisfies user expectations, accessibility, creating momentum, and enabling tasks.

The User Experience arm concerns itself with how we conduct those tasks once we arrive to the site, likely via search, personal recommendation or a link. It includes how we learn a site’s navigation, how we read and understand content and user instructions, and whether we successfully arrive at the conclusion of a task.

Persuasive Design feeds in human behavior from a marketers’ perspective. Everything is tested to make sure something as simple as a color or word performs exactly as desired. Just because a keyword may be popular doesn’t necessarily equate to converting to sales or increased traffic.

Captology gets into how designs change what people believe or what they can do. Can your web site motivate someone to stop an unhealthy habit? Does it offer comfort to families suffering trauma, while also offering information and resources? Does your feedback form just beg to be used?

Does your website create a desire to visit when it is found in search engines or does it just take orders from “General Algorithm” and stand front and center when someone types in a word or two?

When your public announcement led everyone to your new web application, did they pounce on it and destroy the place or did they feel welcome, wanted, catered to and most of all did everything work? Or did things not go as you had hoped?

Try on those stockings

Understand how it feels to use your web site. Promote it with confidence. We’re in this together, usability and seo.

We may even want the same things.

Autgor:  Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com, Cre8pc.com, and Cre8asiteForums. Her background in organic search engine optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers unique insight into web site development.

The Largest Online Multilingual Markets

By Mathias Levarek in Featured

With Google reporting that over 50% of their traffic comes from multilingual searches, it has become crucial to consider developing a multilingual online presence. However, the question remains the same: Which markets to target? Which ones are the most important in terms of users, etc.?

First of all, let’s see which parts of the world feature the most users. Contrary to general belief, it is not North America! With close to 400 million users, Asia definitely takes the lead, followed by Europe with approximately 315 million users, in comparison to 232 million in North America (North America being defined as the U.S., Canada, and Mexico).

In my extensive experience with multilingual online applications, I have learned over the years to differentiate clearly the amount of users versus the market potentiality of a product or a service. For example, the Hispanic online market (between South and Central America, the U.S., the Caribbean and Spain) features slightly more users than the French-speaking market. But when it comes to buying power, countries like France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada (Quebec) have so much more buying power than Peru, Bolivia or Chile!

More than just buying power, we need to look at the cultural ramifications involved in internet behaviors. In other terms, is a specific market used to ordering & transacting online? For instance, compared to its amount of users, France is extremely active online, while French-speaking countries in Africa are proportionally inactive. The same applies when comparing Spain and some South American countries. If you were to compare the online buying habits between 100,000 users in Spain and the same number of users throughout South America, you would notice that people out of Spain order products and services at least 5 times more than their South American peers.

In many cases, it is not a matter of buying power, but rather mail order habits based on the country’s postal delivery system. In fact, in many countries where the postal system is unreliable (not to say flaky!), online users were not “groomed” with mail order habits prior to the internet. As a result, although such markets will look for products and services online, they certainly are not as mail order oriented as other countries featuring more efficient mailing systems.

Therefore, it is impossible to rely solely on the amount of users when considering establishing a multilingual presence online. Another good example to illustrate such fact would be China and Japan. China currently has almost 145 million users and it is one of the fastest growing markets on the internet. Japan, with 86 million users, has nearly reached its maximum potential with almost 70% of its population online. A very small proportion of online users in China own a credit card or even have the right to order what they want, while in Japan it is exactly the reverse.

Once again, no one should confuse the amount of users versus the buying power of a given market.

On the other hand, one needs to consider the worth of Third World markets/economically disadvantaged countries. For instance, countries like Bangladesh, Mozambique, Somalia, etc., might not seem very attractive at first. However, in Third World markets, those online are affluent and wealthy. In those countries, there is no middle class. Basically, you are either dirt poor or filthy rich! Online users in those countries belong to the the second category. Many online gambling portals and entertainment websites of all kinds have found high spenders in economically-disadvantaged-markets. In fact, wealthy individuals in Rwanda or Chad do not have many entertainment outlets in their homeland! Furthermore, most everything is lacking within their country infrastructure: clothing, electronics, etc. Online applications have therefore become a form of “entertainment salvation” for the wealthy minorities of third world markets.

Online multilingual markets are complex, and instead of looking at languages/countries just by their buying power or number of users, one should evaluate what they have to offer and define the marketability of their products and services accordingly.
Are you looking for end users to buy your products? Then look at the buying power of the targeted markets along with the reliability of their postal and transportation services. Are you a manufacturer looking to find more distributors/to increase your exports? Then chances are that the world is your oyster.

I advise you to perform a meticulous evaluation of your market potential when developing a presence on multilingual search engines. So many factors need to be taken into consideration…Do not look at Japanese, French or Spanish just as country specific, but rather online language market shares! Just as an example, aside from all countries where Spanish is spoken, one of the most active Hispanic online markets is in the U.S.!

WWW = World Wide Web. Is your website really reaching worldwide?
The time has come to implement action on a global scale!

For fun, test your global knowledge by taking the following quiz: http://www.mseo.com/quiz/quiz.html

Author:  Mathias Levarek, Ph.D. SEO Consultant for http://www.mseo.com

Personalized Search - All’s Well or Orwell?

By Scott Buresh in Featured

You go to Google and enter your search term. Big Brother, the totalitarian character from George Orwell’s novel 1984, watches with detached interest. You see, to Big Brother, you are only a number - but he’d like to know as much about you as he can. Knowing you allows Big Brother to do many things - both good and evil.

Alright, enough of the “Big Brother” comparison - it’s been done many times before (and done many times better). However, there is an important central point to be made about personalized search. Google is now (and has been for some time) collecting data on individual users, and they are assuming that users will trust them with this data to “Do No Evil,” as their famous slogan goes. Only time will tell whether the trust is well-placed, or if people are willing to trust search engines with this type of data at all.

The basic principle behind personalized search is simple. When you go to Google and type in a search query, Google stores the data. As you return to the engine, a profile of your search habits is built up over time. With this information, Google can understand more about your interests and serve up more relevant search results.

For instance, let’s say that you have shown an interest in the topic of sport fishing in your search queries, while your neighbor has shown an interest in musical instruments in his search queries. Over time, as these preferences are made clear to the engine, your personalized search results for the term “bass” will largely be comprised of results that cover the fish while your neighbor’s results for “bass” will be comprised of results that primarily cover the musical instrument.

At present, you need to have signed up for a Google service for your results to be personalized. Such services include Gmail, AdWords, Google Toolbar, and many others. By default, as long as you are signed in to one of these programs, your personal search data will be collected. The term “at present” is used because Google certainly could implement personalized search on any user of the engine, regardless of whether he or she has a Google account. Google already places a cookie, or unique identifier, on the machine of anyone who types in a search query on Google - it would not be hard for them to use that information, rather than the Google account, to collect individual user data and personalize results. It is quite possible that Google is testing the waters of personalized search with people who have opted in to one of its services and will expand the system to all users if there is limited uproar or government intervention.

For search engine optimization firms, the major shift brought about by personalized search will be in how they report on Google ranking data to clients. When collecting this data, they will have to run from a “clean” machine - that is, one that has no Google programs or cookies on it. The baseline results that are reported to the client will essentially be a snapshot of what a search engine user would see if they had no Google software installed. The good news is that Google account holders who have shown an interest in certain products and services will likely have results more favorable to the client than the baseline results indicate since personalized search assures that their search histories will be reviewed and the results likely skewed toward the client’s industry. The bad news is that the search engine optimization firm will be hard-pressed to demonstrate this - not to mention that the results that the client using a Google program has on its own personal machines will almost certainly not match up with the results that the firm is reporting (although the client machines should have better results, for the same reasons cited above).

Some people find the practice of storing information for personalized search purposes disturbing; others find the end result to be useful (still others find themselves experiencing an odd combination of both reactions). In defense of the engines, it is not as if they are building a dossier on individuals - again, you are only a number to them. However, the potential for misuse of the data is fairly high.

There are many advertising firms out there already that go through the cookies on your machine to figure out which ads will have the best effect on you. If you’ve ever been on a website and seen a banner ad that is directly related to something you have been doing research on lately, it is most likely not a coincidence. The ad platform simply browsed through the cookies on your machine to find out what topic held your interest, and dropped in a related ad once it determined what that topic was. Search engines have been buying firms with this technology lately; notable recent purchases include that of DoubleClick by Google and aQuantive by Microsoft. There seems to be little doubt that your search history will be combined with existing ad-serving technology to deliver even more relevant ads. Whether this constitutes misuse seems to be debatable - some people seem to have no problem with it, while it makes many others fairly uneasy.

Privacy issues that arise from personalized search are also a big question. The EU recently announced that it is probing into how long Google stores user information (this probe was subsequently extended to include all search engines). AOL recently committed a serious blunder when it released search data from 500,000 of its users, and it was discovered that it was fairly easy to identify many people by the search terms that they use (anybody ever “ego surf” - that is, type your own name into a search engine to see what comes up? If so, you wouldn’t be hard to spot). In addition, since the IP address of the computer creating the query is also reportedly tracked, a court order forcing the engine and the ISP (Internet Service Provider) to provide specific search data on individuals is a distinct possibility - the technology required to deliver upon such a demand is already in use.

Unless the government intervenes, the question will probably be decided by personal preference. As it becomes more common knowledge that Google (and other engines) store this type of data to enable personalized search, many users will take measures to block its use.

Are the search engines that collect this data “Doing No Evil?” The answer, I believe, will depend on each individual’s definition of evil. In the meantime, don’t be surprised when you type in a search query, and the engine seems to be reading your mind. It isn’t, really - it’s merely parsing through your memories.

Author:  Scott Buresh is the founder and CEO of Medium Blue, which was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld. Scott’s articles have appeared in numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, SEO Today, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. He was also a contributor to Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue is an Atlanta search engine optimization company with local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, Cirronet, and DS Waters. Download Medium Blue’s latest exclusive whitepaper, “Adding Search to Your Marketing Mix,” for more insight.