Mar 11 2008
Usability and the utility, not the design, determine the success or failure of a web-site.
read more about the principles of effective website design
Point #1 the golden rule – “don’t make your users think”
Mar 10 2008
I just discovered this great website ColorsOnTheWeb.com . They have a tool for picking colors that was developed over eight years ago. It has definitely stood the test of time. You pick the colors, the tool will determine matching colors for your selection. I tried it and it appears to come up with a wonderful array of colors, not only for hue, but also saturation and tint and shade variations. This is can be a great time saver to determine the colors quickly in your style sheets (CSS) for heading tags, links; hover and active.
I can spend a lot of time tweaking colors in PhotoShop, it is almost amazing that photoshop does not do this for you automatically. Below is a screen shot of this FREE tool, note the make a donation box in the right hand corner? It is a good idea to donate something if you like or use the tool. Who knows the more you donate the better the tool.
Mar 06 2008
Grab this swicki from eurekster.com
I just created my personal swicki on eurekster.com, this is fun click on one of the keyword above and see where it takes you (you will need your back button to come back) or type in your favorite search term. If you have a website create your own search portal around any topic. According to the website
“Rather than returning millions of results like a generic search engine, swickis learn from the search behavior of a community of enthusiasts and experts, making it easy for you to quickly find what you’re looking for within a particular topic. Another way of becoming a part of a community and it is FREE!
Of course they come in different flavors, add video, “Video swickis let you browse and watch the most popular videos within a particular topic.” Build your own or grab one that has already been made.
Try it out, http://www.eurekster.com/ , if you need help let me know!!
Share my swicki with others here http://sem-seo-ssm-swicki.eurekster.com
I can invite others to grab by swicki for posting on their websites and blogs: http://www.eurekster.com/swickibuilder/share.aspx?swicki=sem-seo-ssm
Feb 29 2008
SMXWest 2008
These are my notes from SMXWest 2008. Much of it is in shorthand. But if I did not do it in this fashion I would never get it out. I compare it to when you are in school and you needed to borrow a classmates notes. If you feel I got something wrong or it needs more definition please comment.
During the conference they had an open WiFi (provided by SEOMoz.org) and many participants had their computers open and were taking notes, others were chatting on IM, some were surfing the web, checking email; I think they call it multi tasking. I made a conscious decision that during the sessions I would not have access to my computer and that I would write my notes. This could be a generational thing, but for me personally I get distracted and do not get the full benefit.
Day One
Keynote Speech by Danny Sullivan
Search 3.0, Search 4.0 & Beyond
What was/is Search 2.0?
The keywords “miserable failure” – who pops up #1 and Google kills it.
What is Search 3.0?
Vertical search (what does that mean)
Blended search, universal search, invisible tabs
Vertical results are blended together
Local / Video / News
Ask.com now has a 3 pane or column SERP
Microsoft – LiveSearch LiveScopes
Yahoo – shortcuts to upcoming events now introducing Yahoo! SearchMonkey
Search 4.0
All about what you do personally, this currently is mainly done by Google
Tracking your search history and where you go on the internet to come up with better “personalized” results. Gone are the days when everyone sees the same site rankings
Since, everyone sees things differently therefore it takes in the information from your personalize search page i.e. iGoogle, you can turn personalized search off by logging out of google. You can also add three characters to the end of your search and it will not use personalized tracking. (I have to look through my notes to find the actual characters but I think it was “&pws”. Please don’t quote me on that because I am not sure.
One thing personalized search is missing is the human factor and that is how you are feeling at the moment.
Types of Social Searching:
The joining of SMM and SEO (the WonderTwins as they were referred to at the conference)
Social Media Marketing and SEO:
Time to understand all of this now.
Search 5.0
Two examples:
Regarding the merger of Yahoo and Microsoft:
Yahoo made a search announcement at the conference.
This is about giving the user more control, another form of personalization, add or turn off enhancements
Learn more about it at http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/open.html
This is what Yahoo! claims:
Everyone Wins.Site Owners:
Boost site traffic quality and quantity with visibly differentiated search results through this free program.
Searchers:A more relevant and efficient search experience with deep links, product reviews, prices, photos and more from preferred sites.
Get more information from http://www.ysearchblog.com
Different sites will provide search information, they feel there will be an open playing field for everyone not jus the Yahoo! Properties
Next I will share my notes from additional sessions.
Feb 27 2008
Hear I am dusting off my blog, and I really mean dust it off (phewwwww) I am currently at SMX West and once again getting the shot in the arm (ouch) to get back to work with my blog. Once I get the itch I write, but then life gets in my way.
My review, SMX has done a great job of knowing what people want to hear. The keynote speaches so far have been right on. Danny Sullivan spoke on the first day about where search is going (always a good topic) and he did have a lot of relevant information, web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 …. infinity. What does it all mean. I think we are all struggling, and no one so far has the answer. The big buz is blended search, personalized search, yes just get noticed, (lift up your petti-coat). Mixing everything, from maps, images, videos, books, blogs condensed into one page and we don’t want to look like Costco.
One of the moderators Vannessa Fox, has a website VannessaFoxNude.com, having the word nude in her url you can imagine the ’great’ hits she must be getting. But truly that is what it is all about bearing our souls to each other, and doing in anonimously?
Here I am with a new a shot in the arm, the orignial Google Addict once again learning how to position my search engine marketing. I am getting to old for this? Hopefully you will read more, but wait I can’t stop now, I had a long conversation with a group of eBay boys (and they were cute) about how my experience with eBay has disolved. I started with eBay 8+ years ago when it was truly a community and I expressed to them how I feel eBay has lost that true communtiy feeling and that I miss it. There were a group of us with cottage industries that just got swallowed away by the “POWER SELLERS”. ebay truly was one of the first social networks, that went wrong. What are your thoughts?
Sep 06 2007
I refuse to begin my blog post with “I haven’t written in my blog for a long time blah blah blah”. Obviously writing in my blog is not my forte. I always have great ideas and don’t seem to follow through. Today I am so moved to write about 301 redirects. This is not a post about how to do 301 redirects, believe me there are many of those out there. What I want to relate is the importance, the freak out factor and the search engine affect involved when one goes through the 301 redirect process, making a domain change or file change on their website.
When one gains ranking for a major keyword term, you never want to lose it. I am always checking Google to see how I or my clients rank for certain terms. As usual we go up, down but tend to stay in a pretty stable placement if we continue to update our sites and stay ahead of the competition.
Just recently I had a client that for one reason or another had to change their domain name for legal reasons, they shall remain unnamed. I walked this particular client through what needed to be done, so that they did not lose page rank or get dinged for duplicate content. We went through the painful process of implementing the 301 redirect on the site. Everything was working great, Google had not made the update but the redirect was working. Then the Google bomb drops!!!
Phone call, from client “I am on page 7 for my XXX keyword, so much for your 301redirect”. In the SEO business you either have clients that are thrilled with you or irate with you. In my humblest voice I told them not to worry that Google was making their adjustments and they would retain their old ranking when the dust settles. Maybe not #1 but, it would slowly work it’s way back up. Client “we will see, it was fun while it lasted, …. I have to go to an appointment.” –click– That was a week ago at most.
Today I did a quick look see and guess what, there they were, not #1 (as they had been) but #3. I just love this business!! Did I say “told you so”? It was tempting, my next suggestion to them, was to put up a blog posting or update a page using those precious keywords.
One thing SEO has taught me is how to take abuse politely and with wise patience. I will not allow Google to control my life; only my keywords.
Jun 21 2007
I finally did it, I bit the bullet and bought Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 Master Collection. I have always been so resistant to purchasing each new software version. I actually have a mantra, “only every other year”. I also in the past have resisted purchasing Suites because I always found there were only a few programs that I use all the time. This is “Sweet” is truly a Cadillac (or a Toyota). With all the new interactive functions with websites my older versions of Flash etc. are proving to cost me more time and money. I have not installed the new software, just made the purchase and I feel like a little kid in a candy shop.
What does Adobe include? It is marketed as “Design Across Media” and combines all the best of the best if you ask me and I hope that Adobe has not screwed it up. Why do I say that? A few years ago Adobe acquired Macromedia, so now they have a corner on not only the best graphics software but also website design tools. At my finger tips I will have bundleds together graphics and web design tools plus video/animation with After Effects, Premiere, Soundbooth and Encore. What a basket full of goodies, I am hoping it all integrates wonderfully and the learning curve is short or maybe a better way of putting it “pain free”.
A little side note, when I started designing websites, Adobe had just introduced Photoshop3, at that time there was approximately a 12 step (no pun intended) process to performing a drop shadow! People would do drop shadows just to prove their Photoshop skills. Then for web authoring this is one of my favorite stories I used a software program called “HotDog Pro” the help assistant was this little wiener dog , that would bark when you did something. I just Googled “HotDog Pro” and I was happy to see they now have HotDog Professional 7. You might want to check it out at Sausage Tools , the cost is quite a bit less than Adobe.
May 24 2007
Yesterday I wrote about US Search Engine Market Share. Today I received interesting statistics from Net Applications with the SE market share worldwide for April 2007. I know many of you have international based companies and may find this interesting.
Yahoo and Google UK have been battling out the #2 spot, but now it looks like Yahoo is bouncing back. Yahoo gained .4 % in April at 9.87% and Google UK fell .8% to 9.28% after hovering over 10% for three months. Then the giant Google holds #1 at 53.4%, combining Google UK and US they have a whopping 62.7%.
Search Engine Worldwide Market Share for April 2007:
Google 53.4%
Yahoo! 9.9%
Google UK 9.3%
MSN 4.2%
Google Canada 3.5%
Google Adsense 3.2%
Other 16.5%
May 24 2007
Google gained 5% points of search market share in April ’07, handling 55% of the U.S. web search queries, reports Bloomberg News in the SF Chronicle. Market share was stolen from Microsoft.
Google accounted for almost 3.8 billion searches (3.77 to be exact) during the month. This is a 42% gain from a year earlier (reported Nielsen/NetRatings). Even though Microsoft’s number of queries rose by 7.4%, their share of the market fell to 9% (11% a year earlier).
Yahoo on the other hand held on to its market share at 22% in April with 1.5 billion queries. According to Nielsen this is a 28% gain from a year earlier.
Search market share in summary for April ‘07
Google 55%
Yahoo 22%
Microsoft 9%
All others 14%
Oct 18 2006
A few weeks’ ago I was interviewed for an article in the New York Times about being a “self-described Google addict” the title was “Planet Google Wants You“. After my name appeared in this NYT article I received another phone call from a journalist (Ann) who was doing an article on Yahoo! and why they are losing ground to Google.
Being the Google addict that I am, I thought before I communicate with Ann about Yahoo! I should take a peek at what Yahoo! is doing these days.
Interestingly enough I came acoss this digital experience that highlights todays human condition the “Yahoo! Time Capsule , One World, Many Voices”. Per the web site, “for 30 days, from October 10 until November 8, Yahoo! users worldwide can contribute photos, writings, videos, audio even drawings to this electronic anthropology project. This digital data will be gathered and preserved for historical purposes.
In addition to submitting your own content, you can view, read, or hear the images, words, and sounds contributed by users from around the world. And by November 8, you will have helped create a digital legacy of our times, a mosaic of revealing snapshots that will be sealed and entrusted to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings based in Washington D.C., officially taking its place in history.
Lastly per Yahoo!, to thank you for your contribution to the Time Capsule, you’ll be asked to help select how Yahoo! will donate $100,000 to seven global charitable organizations.
Take a spin! It is really fun to look at pictures, listen and read the quotes. I personally was surprised by the number of words written about sadness in ones life and the world. Oh I see, I was in the Sorrow section. Try it out and let me know what you think about the Yahoo! Time Capsule . Hurry it ends on November 8.