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Is your website a unicycle, a vehicle that requires much training and skill before it can be used? While there are so many “beautiful” websites online, some simply don’t make sense. Have you ever found yourself on a website that seems quite impossible to use? Even worse, landed on a website after doing a search only to wonder why you are there at all?

Site usability is possibly one of the more important factors of a top performing website. While so many will argue that the site is nothing without a genuine web presence, I will argue that some websites rely purely on offline marketing. At the end of the day, if your website is impossible to use, nobody will be able to (or even want to) use it. Points to ponder when designing your website:

1. Navigation
2. Login/Signup
3. Onsite search
4. Flash and other multimedia
5. Bookmarks/Favourites

1. Navigation

This may seem like an obvious point but as most visitors are more likely to find your homepage, are they able to navigate to the section of the website that best relates to their needs? Simple text navigation will also make it easier for the search engines to index the individual pages of your website (where have you heard the design the website for a human visitor before?).

2. Login and Signup’s

Does your website require that visitor’s to login; do you want new visitors to signup for your newsletter (or other services)? If so, is it possible to do so from the homepage? While you may not want to place a login on the homepage, a link to a login page will suffice. Again the key is to keep it simple and clear as to what you expect of the visitor.

3. Onsite Search

This is crucial for any website that offers a large quantity of information or products. Can you imagine trying to find an item among 2,000 by going through a product list 10 items at a time? I didn’t think so. Offer you visitors what they are looking for by adding a simple search to your website. This should help speed things along. Many websites have a quick search option towards the top right-hand corner of the homepage (sometimes this spans the entire website in all the headers). Keep it simple, visible and obvious. Make sure that the average visitor knows that this is a search function.

4. Flash and other Multimedia

Okay so Flash is a pet hate of mine. But the same could be said of all multimedia that simply clutters a website. Remember that while multimedia and other interactive agents can at times seem really cool or even a good idea, some visitors don’t have advanced updated browsers. That said, sometimes the best way of doing something is through the use of these tools. Make sure that these are placed on well marked pages with an explanation of what they are about. This way, if the visitor is unable to view the contents the at least know what it is about and why they can’t view it. Otherwise they will simply think that the website doesn’t work and leave. After all, what use is a website that is broken?

5. Bookmarks and Favourites

If you want returning visitors (who doesn’t?) then it is usually a very good idea to offer a “bookmark this page” or “add to favourites” button. I’m pretty sure we are all in agreement that traffic is valuable so there is no excuse for letting it get away. The “favicon” is a useful way of separating your website from the others. Once made a favourite this icon will be found next to your websites name. This is an ideal spot to promote your logo and brand.

6. Contact

Even after making the site as foolproof as possible there will still be occasions where even will all that planning something will come along that you hadn’t factored. When this occurs make it as easy as possible for the visitor to contact you. Be it by making your contact details (phone, email and fax) available on each page, or by placing a quick contact us form that is accessible from each page. Again, you’ve worked hard to drive the traffic to your website; don’t let it simply get away.

Remember simple is best, leave no room for mistaken functions. Signups, Logins and searches should be clearly marked so as not to confuse the visitor. Make it as easy as possible for your visitors to find what they are looking for. With a well structured website you will notice that the conversion from visitor to customer will increase. At worst the few questions on where to find something or how to use the website will decrease. Your website is after all supposed to make your life easier as well as save you time.

Robert Cerff is a search engine analyst and marketing consultant in South Africa for Prop Data Internet Solutions. He has ten years experience in e-commerce, online marketing and web development. http://www.propdata.co.za

Tags: Business, webmaster

The reason Google is the most successful search engine in the world is because they provide the best search results; pages ranked by tangible value. That tangible value is a combination of content and links, with links being the more important factor (they assume any pages linking in will only link to good content or risk their own ranking.)

Here are a few tips that will help you take full advantage of Google’s love of linking…

1.) Link Deep and with Relevance

So why is deeper better and what’s this about relevance? Google figured out that a link to a homepage is only good if that homepage has the information the visitor needs. If a person clicks a link for “amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe” and ends up on the home page, which has nothing of the sort, Google discounts it as a wasted link. On the other hand, if the link leads to the page containing info on the “Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe,” even five levels deep, the link has huge value to the visitor and to Google.

Want some proof? You already have it if you’ve ever used Google’s AdWords pay per click service. They will not even accept PAID links to pages that are not the most relevant for their visitors, regardless of what you are willing to pay per click. Now that’s saying something!

2.) Use Absolute Links Internally

It sounds complicated but it’s not. Absolute links are those with a fixed full URL. There’s another kind, called “relative” links that skip the first part of the domain and remain “relative” to the file structure. Let’s take a look at the difference…

Here’s the absolute link to the Google Ads page from Google’s homepage: “http://www.google.com/intl/en/ads/”

Here’s what it might look like as a relative link: “./intl/en/ads/”

Long story short; absolute links help your SEO efforts and relative links don’t.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: google rankings, seo

If you’ve been involved in the design of your company’s web site, you probably already know how difficult it can be to convey the type of website design you want.

Website design is a matter of personal taste. What one person finds attractive and professional, you may not and vice versa. Oftentimes, what you want is a matter of “I’ll know it when I see it,” but unless your graphic designer is a mind reader, that’s not enough information to assure you’ll get what you visualized in your own head.

Below is a list of questions to help you solidify in your own mind and communicate to your website designer the look and feel you believe would best represent your company.

Website Design Questions

• Do you prefer website designs that contain many different colors

(<http://www.reductionengineering.com/> as an example) or designs that use

fewer colors (<http://www.reissbuilt.com/>, for instance)?

• Do you prefer bright colors (as on http://www.hmroyal.com/>) or muted

colors (as on <http://www.reissbuilt.com/>)?

• Do you prefer website designs that have white backgrounds behind

the text (like <http://www.isternplastics.com/>) or colored backgrounds

behind the text (such as <http://www.purgeusa.com>)?

• Do you prefer sites with black type for the main text (such as

<http://www.reliable-resins.com/>) or those with colored type for the main

text (like http://www.naturalgas-electric.com/)?

• Do you prefer website designs with a horizontal layout (such as

<http://www.rotomachines.com/>) or a vertical layout (like

http://www.elmonteplastics.com/)?

• Regarding navigation, which button locations do you prefer - horizontal across the top, down the left (as on <http://www.dbi-global.com/>) or the right side

(http://www.elkayplastics.com), in blocks (as on <http://www.be-ca.com/>),

or a combination of some horizontal and some vertical (as on

<http://www.jomarcorp.com/>)?

• Do you want a straightforward, rendering of the logo,

or would prefer something with more color gradation or artistic treatment

(<http://www.utility-savings.net/> as an example)?

• Does your company have a motto or tagline that should be incorporated into the design?

• If yes, do you prefer the site tagline in a straightforward, headline-style format or do you prefer a more stylized format (as on

<http://www.evidencebags.com/> or <http://www.tecpapersdigital.com/>)?

• Some sites have faded terms related to their businesses embedded in

images (<http://www.unitedpolychem.com/> and <http://www.pilotfishseo.com/>,

as two examples) -Do you like this technique?

• Do you prefer sites with actual product images (as on

<http://www.elmonteplastics.com/>), or those with stock photographs that

evoke specific responses, such as a sense of dependability or

professionalism (<http://www.hmroyal.com/>, for example)?

• Do you prefer website designs with straightforward, realistic photographs of

products or those that contain artistically altered images of products

(<http://www.airpowerusainc.com/>, <http://www.rotomachines.com/> and

<http://www.evidencebags.com> are examples)?

• Do you prefer to have your product images on the left side (as with

<http://www.firestonepolymers.com/>), along the top (as with

http://www.polysort.com/ntm/index2.html) or down the right side (as with

<http://www.airpowerusainc.com>)?

• Are there any logos for industry quality, certification programs or

association memberships that should be part of the site’s design? (See

<http://www.hmroyal.com> for example)

Of the sites you viewed above, please provide feedback on the following questions:

• Which sites from the list of examples do you like best? And why?

• Which do you dislike the most? Why?

• As you review the sites, which company logo placements do you feel are the most appropriate for your company?

• Which color schemes do you prefer, as you look at these sites? And why?

• Which color schemes do you absolutely hate? Why?

• Are there any other web sites that you have seen that you like or feel demonstrate the style of design you prefer?

Answering each of these questions will go a long way in helping your graphic designer to create a website design that satisfies your graphic sensibilities.

Angela Charles is president of Pilot Fish, a website design and SEO firm based in Akron, Ohio.

Tags: website design

Today marks a special event on the web.

According to the Google Blog, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has today accepted KML 2.2 file format as an official OGC Standard. KML began life in Google Earth as a way to save custom map features and developed into a sophisticated format that is used by a large number of widely used mapping platforms.

Google handed KML 2.2 over to the OGC in a bid to provide a higher level of accessibility to geographic-based web content. Bravo Google!