Ignore Usability and Search Marketing at Your Own Risk
My submission for this month’s “Just Behave” column in Search Engine Land is out. It’s called Finding The Right Balance Between Search Marketing & User Experience. Yesterday a colleague asked me to find information on software application response times. I responded with some qualifying questions to refine my assistance but what it boiled down was this: the corporate powers wanted to know how much they could fudge things so that an ecommerce software application...
Read MoreFriction between Networking SEOs
Shortly before going in for knee surgery last Monday, I debuted on WebmasterRadioFM. If you hadn’t given it a listen, you can try it here at Usability SEO Queen Kim Krause Berg, of the Cre8asiteforums, discusses friction between networking SEOs and how it leads to create link bait and feeds trolls. As if on cue, someone complained last week that I have no idea what I’m doing because Cre8asiteforums is a PR3. The complaint came in the form of a jibe that I’m too busy being a...
Read MoreFortify Your SEO in One Hour
One quick peek at any place where search engine optimization is discussed illustrates the mountains of information passed along by generations of SEO’s. I used to spend hours into the night while the kids slept figuring out how to push web pages into the maze of search engines. I learned from Internet software QA methodology the value of time and paying attention to small details. This is why testing is valuable and should be done by someone other than those who design and build web...
Read MoreSMX East Give It Up SEO Panel Embargo Lifted
Just a heads up that the “secrets” are out – Give It Up: White Hat Edition This session has SEOs sharing favorite, little-known and powerful techniques that wont get you banned in search engines from trying. Moderator: Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land Speakers: Michael Gray, President, Atlas Web Service Kimberly Krause Berg, Usability Consultant/Owner, UsabilityEffect.com Kate Morris, Search Engine Marketing Manager, RateGenius Tyler Shears, Online Marketing...
Read MoreHow to Add Usability Heuristics into Your SEO Audit
Last July I asked the Community at Cre8asiteforums the following questions in a thread titled “As An Seo/sem Or Web Dev, What Do You Want To Know About Usability?“: “I’m sending you to a search engine marketing conference and I want you to pick up some education usability”. What would you want to know? What would be useful information for you work or business? Is it more about what it is, or how to implement it or a balance of both? The feedback was interesting and...
Read MoreGet Your SEO/M & Usability Groove On
Linkedin has a discussion going called What don’t you trust about SEO (search engine optimization) … and why?. It’s a nightmarish tromp through the minds of those who equate SEO with human sacrifice rituals. To be fair, some of the poor reputation is well deserved. Anyone worth their greed DNA knows that it takes a devil SEO to make potato salad out of cashews. If you’re dreaming of getting rich tomorrow, promising orgasmic results by reading the ebook you wrote...
Read MoreWhat Is SEO These Days?
After reading a funny post in a discussion group about SEO and astrology, I came upon another discussion that wonders What Is Seo These Days? What is SEO is these days and how does PPC fit in and provide benefits to an organic campaign? Is it “dead”? Dependent on the position of the planets? How about the weather? Is search engine optimization voodoo magic? Do we even need SEO anymore? Some of the comments so far: SEO is: 1. Getting pages crawled by SE’s 2. Appearing in...
Read MoreThe Key Ingredient for SEO and Web Design is True Passion
While presenting a class on web site usability in New York for Internet Marketing Ninjas Marketing Training, my husband was in the audience as cheerleader and teacher. I wasn’t connected at first and I could feel it. I wasn’t inspired. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be because the first part was the boring stuff I had to discuss, like business requirements. I said “um” 340 times. However, once I pulled up the screenshot of a web site I’m working on for an...
Read MorePin The Tail on Google’s Donkey
After reading more blog posts on the latest Google outrage against its Toolbar Page Rank (TBPR) score and reading everything from “Danny warned us” to “Matt Cutts has confirmed” to “Nobody cares”, I had this image of the game, “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”. Yesterday, I wrote two blog posts addressed to Google, that I didn’t post. One was called “Do You Think My Blog is Too Fat”, in which I visualized standing in front of...
Read MoreI Never Bought Into Google’s Page Rank Score
I may be a minority squeak in the thunderous outcry from the search engine marketing industry towards Google and their sudden, unexplained mass drop in “PR score” applied to web sites. I never bought into the hype over PR scores. Regardless of all the reasons to jump on the scoring bandwagon as a way to determine web site value, I refused on the grounds that I wanted genuine worth, not forced. There’s many easy ways to take advantage of Google’s methods for deciding...
Read More
