Questions and Answers

One of my regular readers sent me a critique.

Your posts are very informative. You ask a lot of good questions, but don't seem to have the answers. - preferred to remain anonymous

Looking over my last few posts, there's something to the critique.
In my own defense, I've got to say I think asking the right questions is the best way to find the answers. That may sound like running to the high ground to some. That is how I think though. Despite training and experience as an analyst in technical work, I've learned my mind is geared right-brain. I'm an intuitive thinker. My Kiersey surveys confirm it.

Some of the questions I've asked were more to point out issues to be aware of, to see how they work out. For example, how Universal Search will affect SERPs and useability issues is open to conjecture at this point. We're just going to have to wait and see.
Many times, answers to questions would only be anecdotal. A case study might help clarify some issues, but realistically every website and business has different goals and requirements. The answers depend upon many issues like:

• The integration of the website in the business process;
• Is the company or website established itself on the Web?;
• The technical skills of the owner?;
  
• Is the website ready to be marketed?;
• What sort of marketing will be efficient within the advertising budget?;
• and many others both more general and more specific.

Case studies can be impressive. I'll probably include a couple at some point. But unless the case study involves very similar circumstances, they're only there for bragging rights.

Her critique is valid. It calls into question my problem-solving abilities; and my presentation of the company on this blog.
She wants to see definitive answers. That's a valid concern for prospective customers, and has come to be expected by consumers from those who purport to be gurus or experts.

Problem solving
Because I'm usually involved in technical problems where the customer doesn't know the terminology much less understand the concepts involved, I've use established methods to document my problem solving efforts.
For clarification of an issue, I'll use Is-Is Not lists. To illustrate the process, I'll use the 5 Why's system. Both methods are easy to understand and intuitive.

In Project Management, the 5 Why's method organizes and documents brainstorming sessions. In marketing, it allows my Customers to think like their Customers - Consumers.
Asked why Consumers should use their products or services, a Customer will go into some depth about the quality of their products and their qualifications to provide their services - but that is rarely why Consumers buy. Consumers buy because their products and services meet a Consumer need or want. Asking 5 Why's usually elicits much more marketable terms and scenarios.

The best part of using these methods is they present topics which can be questioned.
At best, the results build Customer confidence. The give and take of questions becomes a team building exercise. The Customer becomes actively involved in the planning and process. Synergy builds. After all, my Customer is the expert in their field. I'm listening to the best expertise available: my Customer.
Synergy doesn't always happen. But it is always worth a shot.

Conflicting Styles
Because of the wide range of technical expertise in my Customers, I've developed two conflicting styles to present my SEO/SEM efforts.
One, is to just present my conclusions and state the steps necessary to solve the problem. Essentially: Just do it.
Personally, I'm uncomfortable with this style, but it is the only thing that can be done when the Customer's attitude or circumstances demand it. This approach is always problematical.

Marketing a website is not an exact science. It's a process. And involves a little luck.
Luck in this case is defined as where Opportunity meets Preparation. All I can really do is make the site as ready for the Web as possible; which includes offsite marketing as well as page design and content.
For Customers who demand to know exactly when it will all happen, the process is frustrating. The best I can do is present the efforts of me and my team in steps, and emphasize the achievements as they happen.

My preferred approach is to involve the site owner, either directly or through the assigned liason person(s), in the process. I prefer a dialogue between myself and my Customers. This empowers my customers as they learn. It's not possible to discuss everything in depth. I tend to emphasize the steps that the customer can see, just as for those who want a 'Just do it' style.
I've gotten two critiques of this style:
1) All you're doing is teaching your Customers what they need to stop employing you. - A very Australian perspective.;
and 2) You talk (or explain) too much. I tend to write long emails explaining issues and tying many concepts together. If someone wants to know what I'm doing and why, I'll take the time to tell them. I prefer educated Customers.
My preferred style comes from California. It has proven problematical in Australia, especially with small business owners.
This blog is my way of getting my thoughts out. It probably spares my Customers a lot of eye strain.

Do I have all the answers? No. Anyone who pretends to have all the answers is like SEO companies that offer guarantees - best to be avoided.
I'm not going to pretend to be omniscient or clairvoyant. The Web changes constantly. The best anyone can do is try to keep up. That's what keeps the work fascinating and challenging.
Can I support my conclusions? Yes, usually in some depth. In most cases, I can even document my thinking. Some issues are easy: Every site needs SEO. Other issues are open to experiment and conjecture: Is it better to have wide registration or PPC? The answer depends on the company's market position, long-term and short-term goals.
I wonder if I've answered my critical friend.

SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content

SEO Illustrations

After piecing together the post on Universal Search, I decided to take my own advice to see how others had illustrated the SEO/SEM process. It's harder than you think to illustrate a 3-dimensional, really 4-dimensional, process for those who are not at least somewhat familiar with how the dynamic mechanisms of the Web works. I hope these guys don't mind a little link love.
Here is the one that caught my eye first.

The illustration is from RedalKemi.com
That's really not a bad. You can take a look at it if you like. I'm just studying how the process is illustrated.
The diagram clearly illustrates the benchmarks. (Benchmarks is a project management term for issues that must be resolved before continuing with the project.) Time is implied from top to bottom.
There are a few unclear elements. CORE is a neologism from the marketing department. The initials LB and AS stand for Link Building and Automated Submissions, respectively. The website explains the terms and process in some depth, although for clarity the image could be made into a link map. There could be some confusion over whether AS stood for AdSense or Automated Submissions, for example.

This illustration is from the Center for Citizen Media blog.
Obviously, not everyone approves of SEO. I'm not sure which step the author disagrees with most: overaggressive marketers gaming the system or Google closing the loopholes and dinging the sites that break Google's rules.
It can be argued successfully (I can show a couple of examples offhand.) that marketers are creating better content and more timely content. The support for Google comes down almost to prejudice and politics. Will consumers revolt because content is more relevant (more informative and timely)? Is any of this destroying the Web? If you think of the Web as a young mind, then Google's Relevancy efforts are the way a child matures by learning and testing rules.
The philosophical and political arguments can go on and on.

As a marketing tool, this illustration from the Before Your Interview blog is great. Although it appears to be 2-dimensional, it's really linear; more correctly, circular.

It's intuitive and easy, and allows the presenter to discuss many issues in the process. It's attractive. The bright colored arrows catch the eye. The use of whitespace is good.
Despite the large numbered steps, it's a little unclear where to start. And where to finish. In a way, it deceives the intuition a little. There is less of an attempt to illustrate the details of the process than to allow the presenter and client to discuss the steps.

This illustration is from the Quality Nonsense blog.

Great stuff, huh?
Check out the blog, too. This is not True Confessions - more like a Letterman monologue.

You can quickly see the purpose of this illustration from PRomoting Webs site.

The colors are vibrant. The terms used are familiar. But for my purposes -to illustrate the SEO/SEM process, it's only marginally useful.
This could be an introduction of a Powerpoint presentation. Topics are essentially listed in a creative presentation of an outline.
There's no meaningful timeline. 'Strategy' is a slide title; not a step.

This illustration from Bristol Bath Exeter Plymouth Online web E-marketing gets into more depth. But it's so unclear about the presentation an arrow is required to indicate the flow of time.

That's too plain to really catch the eye. In fact, it's a little hard to follow for the uninitiated. There's no question the presenter means business though.

Now, this is a marketing plan! - from ProBlogger right here in Australia.
That's not an illustration. It's an ambitious plan that states goals. It doesn't say much about how those goals will be achieved. Nor does it illustrate recursive steps. This guy wants it all, and NOW!
Combined with a couple of the other illustrations, it could be very effective. To accomplish those goals though, this guy needs to assemble a team. Wonder if he needs an SEO Consultant?

In the light of the introduction of Universal Search, and presuming the quality of illustration will improve, - none of these illustrations is very impressive. In different circumstances -different clients, where the illustration appears, and style of presentation or presenter, all of them could be effective to explain the process.

This illustration from Inventa Technologies is a little too complicated.
'Development' is really a title. My first thought was to animate it like a roulette wheel. Those small arrows in the center are unnecessary. Some of them are even off-center, too. It's a good list of the initial steps for SEM. It's businesslike (which means the colors could be brighter), but where is the starting point?
The arrows between items seem to indicate each item is a benchmark. They're not. Keyword Selection doesn't have to be done before Site Architecture is done. The list is organized more for the developer than SEO.
I can't escape the feeling this illustration needs animation, and maybe some mouseover effects.

I'm going to finish this little exercise with an illustration I like from the Huntas search engine.
Vibrant earth colors dynamically arranged with energetic lettering, the illustration demands attention.
Overlaying circles suggests topics affects others; and a sequence. To emphasize the sequence, small arrows link around the circles. Although details are missing, the sequencing is accurate. You do have to Optimize a web site before you Submit web pages, for example.
It's a distinctive design, yet businesslike. A student of design will tell you those are Southwestern colors, which have become acceptable throughout the world for business. So the designer kept within the expectations of their audience.
The 2-dimensional design illustrates time effectively. The illustration is intuitively clear and could stand on its own. It requires no presenter or additional text to get its point across.

I hope you've enjoyed my review of some of the design efforts to illustrate the SEO/SEM process. Let me know what you think.

PS If representatives of any of the authors or sites wants their illustration removed, feel free to contact me. I'll remove it instantly along with my comments.

SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content

Google's Universal Search

This is one I saw coming.
I've been telling clients to get out their webcams and post the video to YouTube to help increase the visibility of their business online. Only a couple of clients took me up on the suggestion. It was hard to overcome the poor Internet connectivity in Australia.

Universal Search
Google's default search will be a Universal Search. The SERPs will include videos, images, news, blogs and web pages. - Everything. It's going to change the SEO/SEM services dramatically.
Universal Search is presently only available in the US. As it spreads across the world, Optimization will include more types of media. The competition for top SERP listings is too competitive to avoid.

You see, really Google is more than a single search engine. In fact, it's many search engines. It's surprising how few people actually use the other search listings. Here's a list:

• Blog Search
• Book Search
• Catalogs
• Code Search
• Directory
• Finance
• Images
• Local/Maps
• News
• Patent Search
• Product Search
• Scholar
• Video
• Web Search

Each link on the list represents a search engine within Google. Until now, you had to find and use the other search engines. Universal Search, already implemented in the US, will mean all of these search engines will provide SERPs.
If you want just websites and webpages, you'll have to specify that option.

For example, one of the most useful is the Images search. Sometimes, trying to illustrate a website in meaningful ways -something other than pretty girls and other fluff- can be difficult. A quick run through the Images search can give you an idea how others have tackled the problem.
Google News is not comprehensive, but it does provide very recent, relevant information.
For example, I try to stay on top of web developments. I have a weekly email alert on the News search about SEO in Australia.

How will Universal Search affect SEO?
Most websites in Australia are static. The wildfire of SEO services indicates the majority of those sites are not optimized, or even structured. (You gotta wonder what those folks were studying in Web Design classes?)
A few gurus have put out the opinion that for a site to appear high in a Universal Search, the site is going to have to incorporate more universal elements: blogs, images, documents, videos, etc. Naming conventions for these elements will become significant. "img100016.jpg" will be replaced with "black-shoes-look-great.jpg". Because images have their own search engine at Google, it isn't inconceivable that the name of an image could become as significant as a URL.
That presents a problem for a market where business is only beginning to realize the potential of the Web. (Most of my clients are already in the 21st century, I'm happy to say.)

Connectivity still an issue
Some people simply responded: "I can't watch YouTube. Why should I think my customers will?" - And they were right.
Finally, Internet connectivity is improving in Australia. Consumers have become aware of the "Fraudband" -ADSL 256 mbps and below- offerings and ignoring them. Improving does not mean fully implemented. Telstra's rollout of ADSL2 and ADSL2+ is still "aspirational" over the next 9 months. Fraudband is still being sold.
("Aspirational" was Howard's latest way of saying "non-core promises". It's a little like selling opportunity in a multilevel marketing scheme...Howard lost the last election, btw.)

Google may delay the Universal Search rollout for Australia
It may be a good business decision for Google to hold off on providing the Australian market with Universal Search. Large areas of the country, even metropolitan areas, may not have the bandwidth to explore the links.
Google commands nearly 80% of all search traffic in Australia. If a large portion of the Web community cannot click on the SERPs from Universal Search ("USERP"s?), Google could lose its primacy.
The Australian market only represents 1% of the world's Internet population, but it is a rich, competitive and -most importantly- growing market for PPC advertising. Google has only had its regional facilities running for about a year. Yahoo Australia (Yahoo7) offers a much more reliable regional PPC service, and doesn't carry the negative baggage of Google.
The decision for Google will come down to ROI, I imagine. Is the growing Australian market valuable enough not to risk the losses from Universal Search?

Aspirational ADSL
Telstra and other large providers are lowering prices and increasing speeds. Sometimes so quietly you can hardly hear the moss move. Telstra will let customers upgrade to faster speeds free, but the person has to ask for the upgrade. Sometimes the new plan cost less than the fraudband! On the ground, most consumers aren't aware of the situation -yet.
The majority of Australian consumers can now see YouTube videos, use VoIP, and even watch some TV on the Web.
Telstra and Optus are filling TV screens with ads offering a wireless router with ADSL. The "networked home". Great idea. It's been working fine in New Zealand for more than 4 years. Relatively few Australian households enjoy the benefits of a networked home.
(Please forgive the obvious cynicism. It's unavoidable. Australians have been retarded for so long by their government and the large telcos.

A practical run through
Take images as an example. Run a quick search on any topic in Google Images. You'll quickly see that many images were named by software. The name may be from a digital camera, or from the website where the image was purchased.
In the world of Universal Search, that's a missed opportunity. The name of the image may become as powerful an optimization tool as the URL is today. In the Image Search, the name of the image is comparable to the URL of the page; possibly even the page title. It remains to be seen how important to Optimization ALT and TITLE tags will be. Will they be a part of the web page? - or will they be incorporated into the Relevancy calculations for an image?
It's easy to see that ALT tags could become much more important. Those web designers who used the ALT tag to stuff keywords into a document are going have to rethink their (key)words.
Image quality and file size will become more important.
Evenless relevant images will be important for building links. Initially at least, it's not hard to see many sites will fill with images. The practice might come to be called "image bombing", where a site crowds as many images as possible onto its pages to increase its visibility. At least initially, it will improve rankings and conversion rates. How this practice will work out in the long run is yet to be seen.
Hopefully, web designers will press relevant illustrations of business processes; and better product pictures. If not the Web Designers, the SEO people will, I assure you.

Illustrators' Renaissance
Universal Search could drive a renaissance of vector graphics in place of bitmaps. The size of the image file will not just an issue for page download times.
A blotchy image will drive away visitors. Images with good contrast and composition look better in thumbnails appearing next to the link in the search results.

How many web designers have howled into the dark night about having to explain complicated business functions in text, knowing full well that most of the viewers will scan over the page (and never read the well-crafted words)? Good illustrations, animations, and videos that illustrate business processes and services will have a renaissance of sorts. These creative concoctions will have full ranking with web pages and blog articles.

Blogs and Blog articles
Blogs have been the lost hinterland in Australia. Sometimes I think the Outback has a better reputation than blogs.
As it was with Internet access only a few years ago, blog numbers are dominated by large business, national media, universities and TAFEs. Young people are blogging on the social networking sites, of course. Many sites offer free blogging. There are a few blogs set up as ecommerce sites. But few Australians are in the blogosphere.
Citizen journalism here is hindered by restrictive and capricious laws. The concept of slander in Australia is restrictive. It doesn't matter if someone is telling the truth, if the content damages the reputation of the subject, the author is liable for slander.
This is not the United States.

Blogs and blog articles will have to be SEO'd to the same level as web pages under Universal Search. This opens up opportunities for businesses to drive traffic to their websites.
It depends on the editorial policy of the blog, and its goals.
Small and medium sized businesses can demonstrate expertise, build professional reputation, and even have a little fun with blogging. If a blog is too commercial, some blogging sites (e.g., Blogger) will remove access to the blog.
Business blogs can contain anecdotes from Customer service, for example; or outlandish uses for their products; even personal stories about holidays and parties. There is no law that says a business blog has to be all business.
With Universal Search, all these articles will have much more significance.

It's not all that new, really
When you think about it, Universal Search is not a new concept. Google and other search engines have always counted links from YouTube videos, blogs, and their other search engines in the Relevancy calculation. Universal Search is only making that fact obvious.
In doing so, Google is giving those who use the Web community an advantage - and encouraging others to become more community minded. Google is taking a leadership position in defining the relevancy of a website (or blog).
Google's commitment to Relevancy is laudable. My gut reaction is to applaud, in fact. But my head makes me look again at what it may mean to business.

The comments in this article are based on a well-established assumption: That search users will choose from the first 1- 3 or 4-6 of the SERPs. With many new media represented in the SERPs, will that assumption hold true? There will be images, blog articles, and videos mixed in with web pages. Will that cause natural search results to become increasingly irrelevant to business?
If so, will the PPC (Sponsored Links) become far more important and expensive?

Google is taking a leadership role in defining the Web community and Relevance, as it always has. But is Universal Search is a gamble in many ways.

SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content

The 5 Whys

Go to Ask (formerly Ask Jeeves) and type in "Why call a cable installer?"
The first thing you see is the sponsored links. The sponsored links give the following reasons:

• Install Broadband: Same day or its free
• Telephone systems installation and maintenance for all businesses
• TV Installations (7 days): Plasma, LCD, Home theater installs; Flat rate Sydney (and a phone number)

Yet if you ask a cable installer why someone will call them, they'll tell you about their qualifications; the quality of their work; the quality of their tools and materials.
Why does someone call a cable installer?

• Because they want their broadband working for more rooms of their house.
  
• they want a new phone installed;
  
• they want their present phones to work better;
  
• they want a new television or home theater installed.
• Or there is a service broker who wants you to put your job up for cable installers to bid.
  

They don't call a cable installer because he has great qualifications or uses good tools and materials. If you look down the page at the search results, you'll see a lot of DYI kits, places to buy cabling supplies, and cable installer horror stories.
Only one cable installer for every two pages or so. Other than the Sponsored Links, there isn't one cable installer on the first page of results.

It's a good thing Jeeves is retired. Ask doesn't seem to have the answer to "Why call a cable installer?" really. Or do they?

The 5 Why?'s

Ever had a little kid see you doing something and ask, "Whatcha doin'?"
You explain, trying to keep your mind on your work, and the kid says, "Why?"
You put aside something, and patiently explain why you're doing what you're doing; and the kid says, "Why?"
About here you're thinking, "I've got to explain this.", and set aside your work completely to give a long winded answer you hope (emphasis needed) will satisfy the kid's curiosity. - And the kid looks at you and says, "Why?"
This time, you're gonna have to reach. Your answer may take in social issues, politics, and maybe even religion. But those soft young eyes meet yours again with "Why?"
This has become a test of wills and character. Most people just tell the kid to go away. Some enlightened types might realize the kid just wants attention. A hug and a tickle satisfy the real reason for all the questions.

Like the kid, Customers don't want to hear all the answers to Why. They just want their needs fulfilled. Those Sponsored Links are speaking directly to those needs. In fact, they are saying what marketing research tells them is the most likely reason someone calls a cable installer.

• One customer may want broadband installed, and today.
• Another might want a telephone system installed.
• Another wants their new plasma TV running, or a home media center connected.

The Sponsored Links are speaking directly to the Customers' needs. (Let the rest go find what they can in the search results.) Neither the business or the Customer has the time for 5 Why?'s.

Speak to the Why?'s
(All puns intended.)
The authors of these ads are speaking directly to why the Customers they want will call a cable installer.
But take a closer look at the wording, and consider the targeting.
The top and bottom ad are more likely targeted towards home owners or home business. The mention ADSL, same day service, and a list of home entertainment devices.
The one in the center is targeted for business. It says so clearly. And its terminology is more formal, "installation and maintenance." Home owners install; they don't get an installation. And very few home owners worry about maintenance (unless its their garden or divorce.)
Although there is no reason a business wouldn't want a plasma screen installed or same day service, that's usually not the first consideration. The Customer doesn't have to ask why. They see what they want, click on the ad, and it's instant gratification.

What has happened is the authors of the ad asked themselves Why? a few times. There is an old marketing homily that goes: Ask yourself Why 5 times (to understand your Customer)
The authors asked themselves Why? five times to understand the reasons their Customers wanted the service. If you look at the ads, it works pretty well. They don't talk about experience or qualifications. The text talks about the needs and wants of the Customer.

Web pages
More than likely, 1/2 of those ads are linked to a landing page. Google frowns on landing pages. The landing page speaks directly to the content of the ad. Landing pages are optimized to respond to the ad. The page probably has contact information and a form to book a cable installer. At most, contact information is one click away on another page.
There are small differences in a landing page though. A landing page is not permanent information. It's built just to absorb the production from the ad. One of the main reasons for this is to track the efficiency of the ad. Usually, landing page content is duplicated on the main site.
The landing page may be part of the market research. The company may want to know the effectiveness of different wording for the ad; or whether an image ad is more effective.

If one of the company's main services is cable installation however, there's no need for a landing page. The ad link takes them into the website where a page is optimized for the same Customer needs.
The difference is subtle, but important. If the company does cable installation, the page may not speak as clearly to the Customer's needs from the ad. There may be more information about other Customer needs and wants. Or the page may describe the company more than the need expressed in the ad.
This page will answer the question more fully "Why call a cable installer?", but may not be so clear about answering the Customer's needs. (Unfortunately, neither did whoever took over for Jeeves.)
A very valid question is: Why doesn't this page appear in the search results (SERPs)?
The answer to that is gonna have to be for another time, but try the same search "Why call a cable installer?" on Google or Answers.com. Hint: The reason has a lot to do with Relevancy and tagging.
At the end of the day, "Why call a cable installer?" depends on why you are asking, and who (or what search engine) you ask.

SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content

NY law may take away free web services

From the NY Times:

“Should these companies be able to sell or use what’s essentially private data without permission? The easy answer is absolutely not,” said the assemblyman who sponsored the bill, Richard L. Brodsky, a Democrat who has represented part of Westchester County since 1982.

As an online marketer in Australia, my concerns turn quickly to the tools of my trade, and how this legislation may affect the growth of Australia's Internet marketplace.

Site Membership
Nearly every ecommerce site offers some sort of membership option. That's really not what's at issue here.
eCommerce sites offer membership to keep in contact with their customers: to offer specials, personalize and socialize, and to build traffic to their websites. More than anything else, membership allows the company and consumer to build a business relationship.
For the vast majority of businesses on the Web, -and especially businesses that are only online-, it's only realistic. Except for established brands such as Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, Google, and Yahoo, membership is an acknowledgment of an oft-forgotten fact of doing business on the Web: the Web is a direct marketing medium. There is an old business homily that it costs 6 times as much to find a new customer as it does to retain an old one. Staying in contact with your customers helps you build your own brand.
Most businesses on the Web don't sell or share their customers' information, but it's worth checking their Terms and Conditions to be sure.
It's an important distinction.
For the website owner, membership is a means to document their customer base. It adds to the value of the online business. The owners respect their customers' privacy because it is part of the business relationship.

Sharing or Selling Information
The legislation is aimed at those sites that sell, use or share consumer information without informing the consumer. It will require websites to offer consumers obvious ways to opt out of advertising based on their browsing history and Web actions. Users would also have to give explicit permission to companies like Google, Yahoo, and AOL to link the anonymous searching and surfing data from around the Web to information like their name, address or phone number. First blush, that sounds like a good idea. The question is how is the consumer better served?

There is a loss of privacy in responding to any advertising. Consumers are already aware of that fact. It's not news.
Google, Yahoo, and AOL offer services which allow advertisers to better target the interests of consumers. That's arguably a win-win situation for all concerned.

• Consumers get more relevant information when they search on a service or product.
• Advertisers spend fewer advertising dollars to find interested consumers. Less money spent on advertising can mean lower prices to the consumer.
• And the service provider (Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc.) makes money selling the targeting service.
  
• Compared to the costs of targeted conventional advertising, these services are inexpensive and efficient. The lower costs mean smaller companies can compete for the consumer dollar, which keeps larger companies' pricing lower.
  

Opt-out vs Opt-in

David Hallerman, a senior analyst at eMarketer points out:
"While transparency about marketer intent will lead some portion of consumers to opt-out, those who say 'yes' will be more valuable, since their willingness to trade Web site tracking in exchange for more relevant ads will clearly signal their preference."

The genie may already be out of the bottle. Data collection by online ad companies is already widespread. Consumers and advertisers have come to expect Web companies to produce ads based on copious consumer data, and all have come to expect the level of service and responsiveness tracking allows.
Most web companies oppose any legislation which appears regressive in this sense. Interestingly, Microsoft favors legislation about online privacy and advertising practices. Microsoft has lobbied federal lawmakers to establish regulations include all sorts of companies that serve ads around the Web, not just those that show ads based on users’ behavior.
It's sad to say, but this is Microsoft again taking a side against entrepreneurism and new business, and in support of monopoly practices. Microsoft has been under fire many times for intrusive marketing that abuses customer information.

Opt-in Lists
There are numerous Opt-in newsletters and email lists across the Web. In exchange for valuable information, games or contests, consumers are requested to provide contact information and requested to indicate their areas of interest. Some of these surveys are internal marketing research. More commonly the information is sold to email list vendors, who in turn offer the interest-based lists to businesses to market their products and services.
For businesses, these lists are invaluable but not cheap. At one time, email lists were the most efficient means of marketing on the Web - providing approximately a 14% click-thru rate (CTR). Arguably, SEO has supplanted email lists as the most efficient use of advertising dollars.
Since the purpose of the lists are transparent in the Terms of Use, this legislation doesn't seem to affect Opt-in lists.

Compromise
There is no question that business will intrude beyond the boundaries of the expectation of privacy, if allowed. Consumers have a right to privacy. The question that will remain moot is to what degree each of these principles will apply. Ideas and perceptions change quickly.
Billboards and neon signs were once seen as intrusions on privacy. The signs are intrusive, but they don't report back. CCTV cameras are all over the UK. Cameras do report back. But they add to the perception of safety and security. Most UK residents have become accustomed to CCTV in a relatively short time.
On a personal level, do I have the right to tell my neighbor not to install a CCTV security system if s/he can see into my yard? - or did my neighbor just increase my own security?
In a complex society, there are always compromises to be made.

Advertising proponents argue that no harm has been shown by behavioral targeting or third-party advertising. That idea is worth investigating further. The idea is hardly proven at this point. Advertisers speak to their own self interest when they say the rush to regulate the Internet is really unnecessary.
The Web has changed. It has become a medium for business in order to fund itself. Online advertising is the fuel that drives Internet business. If the fuel dries up, the engine stops.

Privacy and the Law
Legislators and the legal system are given the power to curtail human and civil rights as part of the social contract of government. That social contract presupposes that these laws will conform to the 'common weal' of the people. Laws which blatantly disregard the common weal, such as the Howard government's AWA laws, can result in a change of government and the law.
If services such as Google, Yahoo, and AOL are transparent about their use of search tracking in their Terms of Use, does the responsibility rest with the consumer? -or at what point do these actions call into play the role of government to protect its citizens?
Google alone represents about 80% of the searches from Australia. That speaks either to the quality of their service, or indicates a huge threat to Australian society. If that threat is real, then how real is the threat from social networking sites? -and, for that matter, government tracking through filtering?

Internationalism and Australia
Although this legislation is proposed in New York state, it will affect the way business is done on the Web throughout the world.
Australia has struggled to come to terms with its own Privacy Act and Copyright laws revisions. The recent revisions to Copyright Law forced Google to threaten publicly to remove all Australian sites from its indexes. Australia was compared to Communist China over filtering and the reporting requirements for ISPs. Over 150 exemptions to the revision quickly followed.
How these issues will shake out remains to be seen. Legal scholars have not come to terms with changing business models on the Web.
Under the Howard government, an Internet-phobic attitude affected the perceptions and use of the Web.
Australia represents a good study in how a developing legal system deals with the forces of an information economy. If the laws are based on archaic reasoning, or influenced too heavily by cashed-up special interests (as in the case of the Australian copyright revisions), the effects spread much wider than the national jurisdiction.

Social Networking sites
Perhaps the most influential marketing force in Australia today are the social networking sites. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and YouTube are in the news daily. These sites present prescient privacy issues since so much individual information is put there by users.
How can a law prevent advertisers from collecting data based on the use of their services if so much information is available on social networking sites? Will social networking be curtailed by this legislation? It could be. That would raise an immense furor that will not help the reasonable debate on privacy.
Kim Weatherall at LawFont:

Meanwhile, over at MySpace, it has emerged that over 29,000 registered sex offenders have profiles on the website, which is four times as many cited by the company only two months ago. (The total number of MySpace users numbers around 180 million.)
The idea of registered sex offenders interacting on MySpace is of course worrying, given that your online persona may be very different from your real one.
But also giving pause is the fact that MySpace was pressured to release this information in response to the demands of a group of attorneys general, as well as the fact that MySpace has already, without the involvement of government, used its own database on users to remove about 7,000 profiles of sex offenders. I do not mean to treat the issue of sex offenders lightly — but it does call into question the roles of industry, the government, and regulation in the world of social networking.(emphasis added)

The driving force of the legislation in New York is a straw man argument. The straw figure is constructed, as usual, of shallow reasoning and fear. There are legitimate concerns, but real legislative leadership and understanding is necessary before legislation is tabled. Good law is not driven by anecdotal evidence. It is based on reality.
These are not simple issues, and they will not be resolved quickly. But it is important to distinguish the legal and socially acceptable marketing practices from those in question - without presuming that because something is questioned it is wrong, or should be made illegal.

Addendum: Recent events speak to these issues. Soon to come.

SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content

Web Design 101 - Second Period

It didn't take long to get a response to this:

I am, by my own admission, a lousy web designer.

"Well, what kind of web designer are you then? The stuff in that article about Wired didn't sound very professional. It sounded like a bunch of techie BS to me."
-- Fair enough.

I'm a technical web designer. I pay attention to things like above the fold, easy navigation, hot spots, and how the visitor's eyes will move down the page to get information. Which, of course, means I often use templates - which I hate. I hate templates for the same reason I hate modern cars. They all look the same to me.

Above the Fold
The Above the Fold concept grew out of studies of visitor behavior. About 60% of visitors to a website never click down the page. They scan what appears in their browser window, if that's not what they want, they move on quickly.
Let me take a random example from the Web. This is the Oklahoma Bar Association website.

That's what appears in the browser. It's what is 'above the fold.' If the visitor clicks on the scrollbar on the right, they'll see:
Unless the person needs something specific from the Oklahoma Bar Association, and knows it should be there, less than 30% of visitors will ever see that second fold.
That means less than 15% of visitors to this site will ever what is on the two folds below, too.
Above the fold, you have to identify yourself, say or show something of interest, and offer visitors somewhere to go - or you've lost them.

Hot Spots
Take another look at the first page of this site. It's an attractive page: businesslike, and appealing. There is some energy to the presentation. That's important.

(Note: My apologies to regular readers. I'd intended to put this graphic in place initially, but had misplaced the software.-PD)

Where do your eyes go first? and then? And how does your attention move down the page?
If you're like me, they went momentarily to the logo in the upper left, then quickly to the colored navigation on the right. A quick scan of that list -maybe the first 3 or 4 items- then across to the navigation on the left. A slightly longer scan there, then a look at the article headlines. - And back to the colored navigation on the right!
The Hot Spot on that page is the flashy navigation on the right. It draws attention from everything else. The eyes keep going back there no matter what you're looking for.
If what the visitor is looking for isn't on the navigation, they might find the Quick Links drop down or the Search bar.
The movement of the eye is probably more easily seen in the reduced image.

Navigation
The Navigation is in the colored areas. The eyes are drawn to those colored areas, even though the site uses text links. And there's a little stickiness. See the last link on the right? Every other link is capitalized except 'my okbar'. Personalization.

That's actually the 'Tips' page. Take a look at the homepage for a second.
Where do your eyes go? Again, right to that navigation on the right. But they quickly shot over to the Mock Trials article, didn't they?
There is no second fold here. All you see if you scroll down is the footer with a the copyright and contact info. This page is designed completely above the fold. Did you notice there is a new link on the right to quickly look up a case? Probably not until I mentioned it. You'd have to be a member of the site to use it because it requires an ID and Pin number. Again, stickiness through personalization.
This whole page is navigation really. It moves you quickly to where (is assumed) you want to go.

All of these concepts are technical aspects of web design. This is hardly an award-winning creative site, but it is a very good design for useability.

Color
One key aspect that is often overlooked is color.
Imagine picking a color combination for a plumber. You might ask the customer what their favorite colors are; but will probably prove fruitless. Most people will say either blue or green, which doesn't tell you much.
You might try to consider the meanings of color. What can you say about the company using color? Or, more professionally: What does the visitor want to see?

One technical method is to turn a color wheel. Choosing appealing color combinations from a color wheel is easy. Just look for combinations at muliples of 30 degrees.
Adjacent colors harmonize. Colors separated by another color are contrasting colors. You may also see these referred to as complementary. Red and Green are contrasting colors. The more transitional colors separating two colors, the greater the contrast. Colors that are directly opposite from one another clash.
The there is the limitation of 216 web-safe colors.
In the end, the web designer usually has to prototype a few pages with different color schemes, although none of the examples will probably satisfy the eye of the discriminating plumber.

If a designer wants to be a little New Age about it, they might apply the principles of Feng Shui to the colors and patterns. (Maybe another time...)

What meaning do the colors on the Oklahoma Bar Association pages convey? There aren't many: grey, crimson, black and white.
This should have been an easy one for the designer. In this case, a combination of color confers the meaning. Grey and crimson are colors associated with learned academics, graduation, and scholarship around the world. These colors could even be taken from the traditional formal robes of the legal profession.
The swish of crimson on the right mimics the drape of crimson underrobes.
Keeping the text black on a white background maintains the business like appearance. Can you imagine the text in blue? It would be inappropriate, maybe even garish.
If a little more energy were needed, the colors of the text might be alternated between black and dark grey. But that sort of distinction is unnecessary here.

Individual colors convey meaning, too.
Grey is a neutral, balanced color. It is a conservative color. It is the color of formality, even mourning.
Red is power. Business people wear red ties. Celebrities and VIPs (very important people) walk the red carpet.
The combination confers a subtle message beyond the traditions.
And these colors are not overused. There is a lot of white space, indicating openness - something the legal profession always strives for, but fails because of the arcane nature of their training.

Gestalt
The Gestalt of the web pages indicated here is consistent. It is reinforced by the symbol of the legal profession: the scales of justice in the logo position. There are four Gestalt designs. Which of these applies to the web pages illustrated above?

These concepts:

• Similarity
• Proximity
• Continuity
• Closure
• and All Together Now

..are psychologically hard wired into our brains. The interpretation of these patterns bridges cultures and racial divides. When the information on a web page (or any other document) doesn't respect these principles, it is seen as awkward or distasteful.
The same sort of gut level reaction is invoked when a website adheres too closely to one of the Gestalts. Consider the dark interfaces of many gaming sites. In an attempt to convey Continuity, the sites often evoke Closure and too much 'togetherness' (All Together Now). These interfaces seem to drain energy from the viewer. (For example, take the 'All Together Now' pattern and fill the remaining squares with black.)

Images
Images are a part of every website. The old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words is only true on the web for the visitor, not the search engine, -- but still holds true.

Logos just don't cut it. There are few really memorable logos anymore. Logos are often stylized to keep them simple because most people will remember vivid abstractions. Other than traditional icons though, most logos have lost their meaning.
Images of people in some sort of activity are best. Visitors identify with the people and the activity in an image far better than telling the story in text.
Animated images can be easily overdone. Unless the animation is necessary to illustrate steps in a process or provides interactivity, they're usually best to avoid. Animated images just to provide movement make the web page look like an intrusive ad. The animation can quickly draw attention from the important information.
As a trainer, I've trained people to make animations in Photoshop and Flash. I always caution everyone not to rely on them. For one thing, to date no search engine can read either format.
How do you place images on a page? - Refer to the Gestalt section above.

Expectations and Surprise
Websites, more than individual pages, have to conform to visitors expectations. A business site has to have a logo and a title bar - even if the title of the page isn't in the title bar. The logo should be a link back to the homepage. Navigation from every page should be clear from every page on the site.
That doesn't mean every page has to be the same. In fact for many reasons including SEO, every page shouldn't be too similar. But too many changes may make for unwelcome surprises that confuse visitors.
Small surprises are acceptable. Take another look at the illustrations of the Oklahoma Bar Association website. The homepage has the logo and title bar, with a quick login to reference material. The internal pages change slightly. These pages have additional navigation hints on the left and breadcrumbs at the top.
If there were a general rule for changing the look and feel of a website, it might be to limit such changes to navigation.
Changes in color -for text, title bar, or background- to distinguish different parts of a website have to be done with caution. Colors convey different meanings. And no one can predict how different browsers or monitors will display some colors.

You are what you publish
What kind of web designer am I? A technical web designer. One who applies these principles and ideas above somewhat resentfully to my work. I pay attention to the goals of SEO and SEM when I design a site.
I told an SEO client recently: "I can tell you the reason for every word on (your) website." I had to hold my tongue from saying it would bore him to death if I did.
There is a great deal more that can be done with web design.
Web design has only begun to explore the dimensions of Web 2.0, for example. It's exciting for me to contemplate producing websites that are more interactive; more like desktop applications or games. For now, we are stuck with the business letterhead model.
But the expectations of users and customers will have to grow and change. It's already happening in places like the US and UK. Australia may follow suit soon, as real broadband speeds become more commonplace.

SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content

Economic Times for SEO

Why does the state of the economy have to do with SEO and SEM? - Everything.
SEO is only the first step towards SEM. Marketers are often compared to guerrilla fighters. "Guerrilla marketing" was a buzzword for marketing online marketing a few years ago.
Mao spoke eloquently and in depth about the role of a guerrilla in society: "The guerrilla in the population is like a fish in a river. If the water is foul, the fish dies. If the water is good for the fish, the fish flourishes."
It's very much the same for marketers. Marketers flourish when the economy is healthy.

Not enough people realize the financial engineering that has created the boom economy in Australia is based on the building industry and real estate market. Most Australians point proudly to the resources boom, but it is just a spike that contributes big numbers. Mining doesn't affect the whole economy anywhere near as much as housing. Mining and resources sales are powerful forces in the regions near the mines.
The resources sector contributes to a healthy balance of payments. One of the indicators of Australia's inflated economy is that the balance of payments is not healthy. The boom has produced an import-driven market where local producers are being priced out of the market. Where is this inflation-driving money coming from?
The long term drought hasn't helped, but market forces could, arguably, have absorbed the drought factor if the import market weren't controlling prices.

Is it a bubble?
The housing boom -government-subsidized building and real estate sales- has created the boom economy. The country has become drunk and addicted to credit. Home ownership is the basis of credit. A home owner can always get a credit card. It's an assumption that homes will always increase in price, and many factors can be quoted to support it.
The family income of the average Australian household is leveraged by credit to 160% (1.6 times the annual income.) That's an average.
On the ground, I know two households who have leveraged their annual income by more than 200% by manipulating credit. Despite all the howling about long hours and job stress, both these couples only worked half a year.
By separating their individual incomes and each working only half a year, they pick up another form of income: government subsidies. One partner applies for broad liberal payments based on their income, easily ignoring the contributions of the other partner. They get even greater leverage by letting the government pay off the credit cards and mortgage.
It's a bubble that has to burst someday. Or does it?
Laberal commentator Ian Martin spelled out the government's attitude before the last federal election. It's an attitude reflected persistently in the press and popular opinion.
There is an Aussie saying: "It's past a joke."
All parties involved seem locked into this scheme, if by nothing else then by the perceptions and attitudes across the country.
There are payments for every stage in life. Most are not means tested. For example, every new mother gets $4000 for giving birth, no matter what the household income.

How does this affect SEO/SEM?
I'll be discussing this issue at length in the next few articles. One factor is that Australia has not experienced a dot-com boom. Most of the country simply didn't have adequate Internet access when the dot-com boom roared through the US, UK, and Europe.
Google wisely only opened offices in Australia two years ago. New amendments to copyright law inordinately influenced by record company activism nearly drove them out in Jan 2007. Google threatened publicly to refuse to index Australian websites. Over 150 exclusions to the law allow a still-tenuous Google presence. Yet Google represents 80% of searches from Australia.
How the changing economic times will affect web design and marketing companies remains to be seen. SEO and SEM may be the means to open the door for Australian small and medium sized business to experience the power of marketing on the Web - to fulfill the lost promise of the web to allow small companies compete in an open market.
The proliferation of SEO companies certainly indicates a need vacuum being filled. It's more a vacuum caused by bad web design and poor access to the Net than an entrepreneurial push though. As online business owners become more savvy, that will change.
I imagine that will be when the SEO companies shake out the chaff, too.

SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content

Hackers and the 30%

In the dim dark days long past, web design was not a profession.
In the beginning, before the advent of public search engines, the Web population was made up of the top 30% or so of the best educated and best paid in the US. People joined the 'Internet Revolution' to see what these future great minds were thinking and saying.
In those days, a hacker was more of a Robin Hood than a Darth Vader. 'Hacking' was a sport, sorta. It meant breaking into someplace just because you could. Hackers didn't take things. They usually left something to say they'd been there. A dark rose on a chemistry professor's desk, for example.
The Net was more humorous than commercial.
One of the most popular downloads was a tutorial on picking locks - not on a site called Burglary.com -but on the MIT site.

As books emerged predicting the introduction of HTML 3.2 (the current version is 4.x), Web Designer became a profession. A dot-com was just another domain. (Not for long though.)
The debate raged for years about whether the Web should allow business sites.
A lot of people didn't think it should. But the push into the new medium was inexorable. After all, the Web was populated with the most cashed up consumers in the country!

Web pages were often long. Hyperlinks moved the reader from one part to the other instantly. Philosophers rambled on for hours -in text- about how hyperlinks were creating a new mindset. A 3-dimensional concept of information: a Revolution in expression. Text and images aligned themselves analogically to the thinking processes of the human mind.
Some web designers became architects of the Revolution. They designed information to be understood in quick reference and depth.

The key to this Revolution was how to structure the information.
Page titles reflected the context. Headings set the information into outline form. Each heading was also an anchor that could be addressed via hyperlink, so the reader could move seamlessly through.
Keywords and meta data emerged. They presented the home grown search engines with quick references to the content. No one was willing to commit precious mass storage to comparing the whole content of web pages.
The nascient science of information retrieval traded amongst the gnomes and dwarves of the Net.

New Web Designers were trained to this structure to organize their pages. They have to be educated to it.

Twenty years or more later, new Web Designers have forgotten. Like the stories of ancient religions and societies, the lessons have to be learned again. The story could read like a fantasy novel written during a war. Dark forces sweeping across the World, changing, destroying, and building new places and things - until they burnt themselves out in their glory.
"Google has changed the way the Web does business" is the buzzing headline. It may be more like brushing off old shoes though. The structure is again relevant. In fact, it establishes Relevancy for a web page.
The Web has changed, but gone full circle. It's more egalitarian, and commercial. Instead of the top 30%; there are less than 25% who choose not to have Internet access.
New leaders earn their fortunes by digging up the treasures of the Past. SEO is really just applying the principles established in the beginning to a new Web.

SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content

Green Pee for St Patrick's Day

This is completely off topic, but it's been a long day of research and frustration.
I've always thought of the news as a kind of conversation. As if one writer were talking to another. Looking at one comment then the next, you can find some interesting viewpoints, perspectives, and even a little intuition about what may happen.

St Patrick's Day was this week. So a couple of articles from the Treehugger blog caught my eye.
First was "Global Warming Could Turn Emerald Isle Brown".
Seems the Irish American Climate Project is predicting bog bursts (- The Earth has to release gas in Ireland like everyone else. -) will become more frequent; some of the Emerald Isle will become more like the Mediterreanean (- Bronzed Irish sounds like baked carrot to me. -); and the fabled Irish potato may fail as a commercial crop.
Another potato famine could mean a lot more Irish in New York. - That's good or bad, depending on your ethnic view, I suppose.

The other article from the Treehugger blog was "Drinkpee: Waste = Food DIY Kit and Exhibition on Now in NYC".
This one made me sit up a little. In fact, I made a quick dash to the toilet to relieve my morning coffee.
Pee may soon be too valuable to flush.
Swiss scientists say:

"85-90% of the nitrogen and 50-80% of the phosphorus are concentrated in the urine. These nutrients are desirable in agriculture, but not in waterbodies."

In other words, save your pee. It may feed the world.

The conversation between these two articles made me think someday we may all be urged to come to the Emerald Isle to pee on the potatoes - and the fields and bushes too. The Emerald Isle may shine under a new light (- fluorescent blue?).
All under the slogan: Take a Green Pee for St Patrick's day!

SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content

Web Design 101 - First Period

I am, by my own admission, a lousy web designer.

Why? - Because I hate templates.

The first website I saw was made by Microsoft's FrontPage 97. All you had to do was tell it: Make me a corporate web! - and FrontPage would dutifully generate homepage, about us, products, and services, and contact pages. Poof! A small company was IBM.
The title of the page was in a box at the top, and all the structural tags - H1, H2, etc. - were colored, sized, and decorated for you. In most templates, it even gave you little graphics for unordered lists.
All you had to do was fill in the blanks, and you were a working company on the Web.
It was a raving bore in 94; and it's only more today. (Not a great poet, either, you'll notice.)

One of the first rules of web design is to make your pages look pretty much the same. The idea is that you won't confuse your visitors, and maybe even establish your corporate or personal style.
That was find in those days if your sense of style is either blue jeans or polyester slacks.
Problem was, that layout implied a company had to have Products and Services. Some companies didn't. That alone created a sense of insecurity or desperation.

Design the information to express

I've never been much of one to put things in little boxes. Design should express and enhance, not restrict.

I tend to want to design a website page by page to reflect the present attitude of the company. If it's a small company that just got a new logo done, then let's let it fill half of space above the fold. Why not? This is company just coming into its own.
They're proud of their new logo. It's all over their vans, new business cards and new company literature. Put it out there for the world to see!
They've only got a few services, but those services are needed in their area. Their customers like them. One of them said so right in the middle of the home page.
Just put a list on the side full of links to get more info.

A design like that gets poo-poo'd a lot. Even customers don't like it because they don't think it looks "business-like". (Not that anyone has ever defined "business-like" too well.) It becomes a matter of latent expectations, not perceiving.

Why does a web page have to follow the pattern of a business letter? Why not let it be a presentation right from the homepage? You got a new company, tell the world about it.
You can always add or adjust stuff later.
It has to look like a business letter because customers won't know what to do. Or, It has to look like a business letter because that's what this site looks like. (The one I'd like to be...)

Wired wonders
Wired proposed over a decade ago that we use the web space better. (I lost track of the article or I'd provide a link.)
Web pages only had to show a window into the content. It's what they do anyway. There could be content spread wide and far across thousands of pixels of space. One click, and the viewport shifted to another part of the grandscape.
They were far ahead of their time.

Web pages in those days were constrained by download speeds on 33k and 56k modems. If a webpage had more than 30K of content - images, programming, and HTML - visitors just went somewhere else.
The download time has changed a little with the spread of broadband, but the size limitation for templates still holds them below 60K. And all of it has to fit on a business letter, within two clicks down the sidebar.

The article proposed broad, bold colors. Wide colored channels guided the visitor across the webscape to explore information or make a purchase. The user actually interacted with the page instead of just clicking away.
Changing colors in the viewscape indicated where the visitor was in the process. All the information was contained on the page, so there was no need for flickering screens. The body tag encompassed many pages, really viewports, of the viewscape. If the visitor wanted, they could ramble around without following the colored guide lanes - and take the path less followed.
Using a mouse or the arrow keys, they could go anywhere just like exploring a landscape on Google Earth. Zoom in or out to get their bearings, then off to explore again.
I don't imagine such a site would have a problem with stickiness...

Where does all of this fit into SEO and SEM? That's going to be a topic or two for another time.

The plan in those days long ago was to use Javascript and Java to implement responsiveness and new content on demand. That can still be done, of course, but there are much more exciting options now. (continued later)

SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content