Balancing Search Marketing & User Experience: Why Bother?
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 could roll out into “production” even though it wasn’t ready to effectively respond to customers. Could this be a problem and if yes, who says so? Selling Customer Experience Most online...
Read MoreOpportunity: Three Deep Discounted UX/SEO Services
It’s time to run some specials again! This time I created three custom site reviews designed for different goals and budgets. Homepage Only Usability Review – $125 Discover how your most important web page is performing by investing in this very affordable review. If your conversions are not what you expect, sometimes the problem starts with your homepage. If your homepage is performing fairly well, what else can you do to enhance your customers’ experience? Do you need a little...
Read MoreBlended Usability and SEO Practices a Hit
Just when I was seriously considering not writing articles for other publications for awhile, something happened. I wrote an article that poured out in one take for Search Engine Land’s newly renamed “Search and Usability” column and delivered it way past my deadline. Turns out, it was a hit. I’d been pondering lately how hard it can be to describe what online marketers and web site designers and developers do for a living. Ask 10 of us what we do and you’ll get...
Read MoreAds Rile Google? Bah. What about we Humans?
This caught my attention. Google May Penalize Your Site for Having Too Many Ads published in SearchEngineWatch states Google is looking at penalizing ad heavy sites that make it difficult for people to find good content on web pages, Matt Cutts, head of Google’s web spam team, said yesterday at PubCon during his keynote session. The key point Google appears to want to make is that anything that prevents people from reading content concerns them. The article goes on to say, Google has...
Read MoreFive Easy Ways to Improve Your Homepage
It’s easy to overlook important information that your website visitors may need when they first arrive to your homepage. While landing pages are helpful in guiding searchers to your site, eventually even these folks will find themselves on your homepage. Everyone has the same basic questions. These questions revolve around Who, Where, What, When, Why and How. Answering them is fun, and not as obvious as you might believe. Using them as guides for credibility, trust, persuasiveness and...
Read MoreHow Your Small Business Can Perform User Testing
I like watching people use web sites. Their likes, dislikes, environment, habits, expectations, and abilities to perform online tasks are all unique. Sometimes I think I’ll spend my retirement sitting in a shopping mall doing user testing, for fun. I was interviewed by the famous Ralph Wilson who has long been dedicated to small businesses. In this video, he wanted to know how a small business can do affordable user testing, how to do it and why it...
Read MoreTreat Yourself to the Affordable Online Media Boot Camp
Nothing beats affordable training with reputable teachers and that’s just what’s coming up on November 3, 2011 at the Online Media Boot Camp. Held in the historical Valley Forge area outside Philadelphia, in King of Prussia, PA, you’ll be treated to a day of sessions offered by three lively ladies who love to teach. Liana Evans, Kim Krause Berg and Sarah Doheny are ready to help you learn new skills or update your present knowledge on: Search engine optimization Conversions...
Read MoreWebcast: How User Centered Web Design Techniques Enhance Online Marketing
The recorded version of How User Centered Web Design Techniques Enhance Online Marketing is live and available to listen to anytime for free. Presenter: Kim Krause Berg, UX Manager, LiBeck Integrated Marketing Slideshare version or Listen to original recorded...
Read MoreFree Webcast on Usability and Search Engine Marketing
I’m about to try something new and I’m very excited! Having attended several webinars and webcasts presented by my industry peers, I was invited to do one myself for the American Marketing Association. You Are Invited! How User Centered Web Design Techniques Enhance Online Marketing How User Centered Web Design Techniques Enhance Online Marketing is completely free. I’ll do a 40 minute training with slides that contain how-to, tools and book recommendations, followed by...
Read MoreSearch Engines Are Like Home Delivery Trucks
While thinking about recent news surrounding the latest algorithm changes Google made and pondering something Matt Cutts has been saying about search, a picture came to my mind of a Google person arriving at my house delivering search results all packaged up for just me. The only thing missing was a little card. Perhaps someday search will be so intimately tuned in to us that such a personalized delivery of information will be possible. Of course, to do this, we’ll give up our privacy...
Read MoreDoes it Pay to Bring in Usability and User Testing?
Dr. Susan Weinschenk is one of my most favorite teachers in the Human Factors/UX world. In the video below, which is a very cool animation, she gets down to brass tacks with The ROI of User Experience with Dr. Susan Weinschenk. It’s worth five minutes of your time, especially when she gets into the...
Read MoreUX and SEO Blog and Web Finds
I’m an information junkie with a gigantic range of topics I follow – some of which might surprise you, so I don’t share THAT. Here are some of my recommended reads because they impressed me and taught me something new. By the way, did you know that if you press on a BlueJay’s blue wing, the color disappears? That’s because they have no pigment in their feathers and the blue is the play of light on their wings. In no particular order: LOVED this! It’s a 25...
Read MoreHow to Give Your Web Site The Special Stuff for Success
I love to write for the Just Behave usability and seo column at Search Engine Land. Every month we have a deadline and each time I hit a brick wall with no idea what to write about. And then…the stuff just comes. Today’s article is called It’s A Fatal Mistake To Copy Successful Web Sites, I relate a true experience. During the Q & A part of a session at a search marketing conference in which I spoke, someone asked why we don’t all just copy Amazon’s web site. ...
Read MoreInformation Architecture Session Held at SES New York
As web site development requires intricate skills and knowledge of ever-changing technical skills, the traditional session on Site Architecture at the Search Engine Strategies conferences continues to inspire the audience. I will be joined by Adam Audette, Shari Thurow and Kristjan Mar Hauksson on Tuesday, March 23, in New York city to present Successful Information Architecture (previously known as Successful Site Architecture). In addition to the (outdated) description below, we cover...
Read MoreUsability 14-Point Checklist for Success is SEMMY Finalist
The article I wrote last year for Website Magazine made the SEMMY Finals in the Design and Usability category. It’s time now for readers to vote on the 4 articles chosen by judges. The article is Everyday Usability – 14-Point Checklist for Success User behaviors change and evolve and it’s up to website owners to adapt. Constant attention must be given to how users and search engines interact with your site to ensure that you not only attract visitors, but give them reasons to come...
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