Suddenly, with passion and close scrutiny, web site owners are discovering their web site navels. It’s the same thing as watching my kids discover their belly buttons for the first time. Without fail, each of them has asked, “Mom? What the heck is this thing for?”

And so it is, that today, the popular mantra is no longer, “I gotta have a web site.”

It’s been changed to, “Why do I have a web site?” and even better (the really aware ones) will ask, “Is this web site really serving the needs of my web site visitors?”

When Do We Check Under The Hood?

The most common type of contact I receive is from people who are redesigning their web sites or considering one. They want to know if they should get a usability evaluation before or after the redesign.

These site owners no longer question needing help with usability and user centered design. They already know their website has conversion issues. This is because in today’s Internet environment, performance matters over mere existence.

Even search engines are researching user behavior. This explains why you never know what to expect each time you use one. They’re watching your every move. Their eye tracking software is following test subject eyeballs. Their computers are counting your clicks, and well, they even know where your house is, but don’t even get me on that topic.

To answer the “When should I get my site evaluated” question, my answer is “Now”.

Web site reviews are performed while you’re thinking about usability. Or, while you are scribbling the layout on napkins, or drawing the information architecture on the white board before you meet with stakeholders (who will change it all anyway. Keeping a set of usability guidelines nearby will help hold you to this commmittment to your end users.

Evaluate your present site to learn what is not working, never worked well, or uncover things you didn’t know were turning visitors away or confusing them. A consultant with data in their heads can tell you in one glance whether your form is going to really draw a good sales lead. All of this information is good to know now, whether for existing web site maintenance or to get ideas for future enhancements, such as optimized landing pages or more call to action prompts.

A redesign consult is fine too. For companies that can afford it, I recommend bringing in a usability consultant on-site or in close enough contact that they can review all your documents, requirements, plans, wireframes, test plans for applications and act as support for both the designers and developers.

The Best Kind of Web Site Investment is Skills Support and Education

It’s been my experience that the pressure on web site and software developers or programmers is impossibly numbing. These folks are expected to be miracle workers. Have someone on staff whom they can check in with, who understands their questions are not dumb, and in fact are vital to the success of the project. Invest in and support your web team.

I don’t travel, but many usability testing companies do have consultants that offer this option. For smaller companies, startups, incubators, sole owners, or people comfortable with virtual work environments, having someone to call or drop an email to is all they need for reassurance.

Sometimes an owner wants a web page or section of a site in development reviewed, “Just to see if we forgot anything.” It’s harder for me to enter into these situations without documentation or knowing much about the project. And yet, I always find little things to tell them about. In nearly every case, what I uncover is based in simple logic, or it’s a visitor courtesy or customer service element that didn’t make it into the design.

Don’t Make Me Think or Work Very Hard

Two sites caught my eye recently because they caught the spirit of ease of use and courtesy at the same time.

The first one is the redesigned SEOMoz.org. The redesign is a beauty. But, the true kick in the pants is how their blog comments work.

When you enter a comment, you have the choice of being notified if someone else also leaves a comment in that blog thread. When you receive this email notification, it provides a URL for a fast click back to the site. Remarkably, it not only takes you there, but it automatically lands on the page, scrolls down the page and parks you exactly at the bottom, so you can read the new comment.

Everybody else’s system forces you to scroll from the top of the post on down. Most don’t have the email alert setup. I love how SEOMoz has gone the extra step and made returning to the comments thread a breeze.

And here’s the key to the perusasive design aspect of what they’ve done. Not only do I receive the email alert, but I’m more inclined to actually use it because I know beforehand that I won’t have to do any work once I get there!

The other example is a new blog tracking application from Performancing.com. I thought I might get around to trying the system when I first saw it announced on someone’s blog. When I finally did visit Performancing.com to investigate, there was a post on their site that discussed it and began to run testimonials.

The call to action was a visible prompt to try it right away, and a reminder it is free.

What attracted me to do something other than put this off for later were the testimonials and the word “free.” The customer signal I sensed from the company was customer care and product pride. The passion and excitement for the launch was evident in the page content. This was no sleepy ho-hum event. Desirability on the web is about making a human connection with your visitors.

Performancing Metrics has a 3-step installation procedure that requires no technical abilities or much of your time. Witin minutes, I had their new application installed, with data streaming in shortly thereafter.

The user experience was smooth. I didn’t have to think. I didn’t do any real work. Whether or not they consciously planned for it, visitor courtesy was built-in.

Tiny Details

Why does ease of use matter? Who would have thought that visitor courtesies improve conversions? Is there a worthy return on investment measurement when what you’re giving away is free? Is successful performance as simple as eliminating long pages, building descriptive and trustworthy navigation and not making web visitors lift a finger?

Yes.

It’s all those things, and a million other things you’ve never considered before.

Related discussion: Annoying Web Design, sponsored by Cre8asiteforums.

For those who experienced the thrill of the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York city last week, and would like to re-live it again, there’s a great recap at Cre8asiteforums of a first-time attendee’s personal experience, and a first-time speaker’s thoughts as well.

In a post made to the thread called Checking in from SES NYC, Risa writes:

“It seemed like I traveled to another planet every day, then went home to reality. It was like being in an SEO bubble. It was like being at the SEO Academy Awards. All the famous SEO people were there.”

Other quotes from the thread:

“In no way is SEO/M in any death throes. The overall state of the industry is full throttle, with a new generation of young people bringing fresh ideas to the table. Advertising agencies are getting the idea that search engines are a piece of the marketing puzzle too.”

“I thought Danny Sullivan’s evening forum was great. He has a great and humble personality. His voice is very mellow and he’s very charming.”

“I was struck at how few women attended the conference. I’d say it was 80% men. I’m not sure if this is representative of the industry or that it’s just harder for women to get away from their families for 4 days.”

(Yes! I totally agree!)

“The lunch provided isn’t anything exceptional, but the chance to walk up to some total strangers during lunch and introduce yourself is priceless.”

We, at Cre8asiteforums, were extremely proud that so many people got to see our Bill Slawski give his first presentation. He knows search engine patents, inside and out. His talk was the first time I’ve heard so many laptops “tapping” at once, trying to catch his every word. The room was standing room only, with people sitting or standing in every available space to hear the presentation called “Search Algorithm Research and Patents”.

Meeting the Boys from The Blog Peformance Hood

One of my favorite moments was fighting the crowds to get to the Text Link Ads booth in the Expo. I very much wanted to meet Patrick Gavin and Andy Hagans of the Link Building Blog.

These busy guys are friendly, sharp, smart, and were enjoying their chance to meet many of the people who read their articles, blogs and have accounts at Text Link Ads. Along came Nick Wilson, from Performancing.com (Previous owner of Threadwatch) as well, who is mellow, friendly and has his soul wrapped around blogs and Internet-related technology. I’d had the chance to be introduced to Nick earlier in the day while chatting with Aaron Wall of SEObook.com (Check out Aaron’s newly designed site!)and it was fun getting to know him more. He and my husband Eric share an avid interest in “toys”, which is to say they connected on the gadgets level down to models, brands and what’s coming out next.

Funny thing. I knew Aaron was sitting nearby in the lobby bar, but it took me a darn good 20 minutes to get up the nerve to walk over and ask him a question. I’d met him the night before, but was still chicken. I’m glad I worked up the nerve because that was my first introduction to Nick (and also J. Young) and I really enjoyed these guys.

The next generation of Search Engine Marketing (is it the 2nd, 3rd or 4th?) has many energetic, creative, bold thinkers. Which is good. It’s an environment and industry where only those who never sleep will survive for the long haul.

I had this list. I even had a plan. I had a plan for the event that The Plan made no sense, so I’d have another one in case. I even packed my suitcase the same way I was packing my head. Upon arriving to the Search Engine Strategies Seminar in New York City last Sunday night, I felt really good that I was organized and had a plan.

The plan had some easy parts. The first one was to convince my husband Eric that he needed to join me, as he does every time I attend any search engine marketing event. I’m seeing impaired enough that he’s not only my husband and best friend, he’s also my seeing eye person. As long as they have beer at these events, he never refuses to go. He is “Mr. Tech Toys” and can tap into his (software development performance) work via his gadgets. He’s happy to work in the hotel room, lobbies and bar lounges while I do my thing.

Eric has met all my friends and even made a few himself. So, after he drove us to New York city Sunday night, and we were later comfortably settled in the lobby bar, he had his beer and I was soon catching up with my long-time friend, Bill Slawski of SEObytheSea.

Twice, on the way to New York, Bill and I called each other on our cell phones but I live in the boonies of Pennsylvania and kept losing my signal. He knew when we’d be arriving and so it was easy to meet up and begin the official Bar Ritual.

The Official Bar Ritual Rules

This is where you choose your table, prepare the waiter or waitress you’ll be there for 5 hours and make sure that every empty seat nearby is tagged and ready to be grabbed for the incoming “rest of the gang” that will eventually appear.

Eric saw Mike Grehan before I did. Always surrounded by a crowd, Mike called out my name, in his lovely British accent…“And here’s the lovely Kim Krause” (he probably just said “And here’s Kim Krause” but when he speaks with that accent, I can’t help but imagine I’m suddenly gorgeous.)

I stood up, gave him a big hug and stupidly said, (I’d had a few drinks by then), “I’m your buddy!” (in reference to a post he made in his blog, where he said that.)

I believe he took this announcement well, and after working the room a bit and greeting everybody and anybody in New York, Mike joined Bill, Eric and myself. He brought with him Jim Banks, which really was an immense thrill for me. Jim used to be a Moderator at Cre8asiteforums. He was introduced to me online by Ammon Johns and I trusted Ammon’s recommendation. Jim later went off to become rich and famous, and of course too busy to moderate.

He is hilarous. His company was bought up by Mike’s company, which made the news. But, what you may not know is that he is engaged to be married. Not only that, he shared his dream of working from a hammock on the island of Cyprus, which appealed to me very much.

A Traditional Dinner Experience with Mike Grehan

The legend goes that if you wish to join Mike for dinner, half the fun is watching how quickly the plan goes from “just the three of us” to “Does the resturant have a floor that can handle this crowd?”

There was plan for Monday night. Because, you see, I have been to SES without a plan and learned my lesson. So, Christine Churchill and I were trying to put together a “dinner somewhere” weeks earlier to celebrate her birthday on February 27, as well as Matt Bailey’s birthday (and the birth of newborn daughter), and my husband’s 40th birthday. She mentioned this to Mike, who was wishing to take Barry Schwartz for dinner, in honor of his years of blog coverage at SES seminars. Mike knows that Barry and I are good friends, and so he asked Christine if we’d consider combining our efforts.

And so it came to be that the small dinner became a 15 person gathering after the SEMPO “meet and greet” Monday night. We walked several blocks in the windy, freezing cold to LeMarais, at around 8pm, but the food was worth it. Jill Whalen was with us, as well as two of her co-workers from Search Creative. There was also Jim Banks and Christine Churchill. Rebecca Lieb, Kevin Newcomb, Erin Brenner were there (all with ClickZ) as well as, Bill Slawski, me, my husband Eric, Barry (RustyBrick) and his fiance, Yisha (whom I truly enjoyed meeting and chatting with), Mike Grehan, and Diane Aull (aka “Torka” at High Rankings Forum).

Matt Bailey, who has just launched his new company, Site Logic wasn’t flying in until Tuesday, so he was unable to attend the dinner. Happy Birthday Matt, anyway!

Danny Sullivan was our missing guest. He told Mike he was coming (Mike had said), but we presumed he was too busy or had to be at the ASK.com event held that night (which we heard was VERY LOUD and not conducive to networking.)

Nevertheless, we had Danny’s chair. It was across from me and between Jim and Barry. I have met Danny. It was last year and he had long enough to say he wished he’d more than 2 seconds so we could chat. In honor of him, I put the extra piece of birthday cake that Mike had presented to the birthday folks, in front of Danny’s empty chair.

Yesterday afternoon, while standing near the esclators on the second floor talking to some people, my husband, Eric (who never forgets a face) suddenly elbows me and says, “There goes Danny.” I went all buggy eyed, scanning the crowd, but alas, Eric said he was racing at high speed and there was no way I’d see him. I’ve often heard that Danny is “always running at these things” during an SES event.

Maybe Jim Banks should get a hammock on the island of Cyprus for Danny Sullivan too.