Has SEO really changed? Search engine algoholics might say “Yes!” Experienced practitioners might say, “Not really.” Instead of keywords, site architecture, and link development, maybe we should understand aboutness, information scent, and validation.

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Search & Usability

Many search engine optimization professionals have different interpretations of the term search-engine friendly website design. Learn how color affects your SEO efforts and conversions.

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Have you ever gone shopping for a couple items, only to find the checkout lines too long or slow, so you drop your items and leave the store? I have, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It may not happen all that frequently at a brick and mortar, but it does online. A lot. Getting shoppers in the door from search engines is the easy part. Getting them to buy from your online store is the difficult part. Shopping cart dropout rates are a problem many online retailers have to overcome. Every day customers who appear to be ready to make a purchase abandon their carts before completing th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | Search & Usability

Just about every website has some form of navigation. Unfortunately, not every website's navigation is good. Most of the time, a website's navigation is put together by Web designers who know a lot about making pretty websites, but very little about marketing a website or creating a website built for the customer. Just because your navigation is built into the site doesn't mean it's doing the best job of giving your visitors what they want. Navigation can make or break your website's overall performance when it comes to retaining visitors, keeping them engaged and driving them through th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

When search engine optimization (SEO) professionals talk about the searcher experience, they often cast their personal mental models onto the minds of searchers. What is your role in understanding and delivering a successful searcher experience?

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search & Usability

Thomas is the CEO of a major corporation. He had supervised a recent website redesign project, loved the snazzy new look with bells and whistles created by a talented graphics designer - but was calling me to help with a problem. His beautiful new website wasn't getting many visitors! "Why don't people want to visit our lovely website?" Thomas wailed, genuinely puzzled that the results of his intensive efforts weren't as rosy as he had expected. As a strategic SEO consultant, the reasons were glaringly obvious to me... but I had to soften the impact, and gently explain what went wrong. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

Keyword classification is often the missing ingredient in SEO plans. Without understanding the reasons why people search, search engine optimizers will often misinterpret or improperly classify keyword phrases. How do we understand the “why” part of the optimization process?

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

Shari, are you crazy? Search engines don’t have emotions! What does emotional design have to do with SEO? A lot more than you might think.

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

Is it possible for SEO professionals to understand searcher context based purely on keyword research data?

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

For one day during the holiday shopping period in December, customers could not use a well-known retail giant’s website. Heads rolled. Jobs were on the line. Searchers were puzzled. How is it possible, you may wonder, that a website representing a popular brand could experience a day of lost sales during the busiest shopping time of the year? What did they lose, in addition to customer trust and revenue loss? Consider what they did to become that famous brand. Most likely, they have a marketing company that handles everything from print advertising, PPC, sponsorships, social media mark [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

Think you know the web searcher goals and behaviors that are important for long term search engine visibility? Take this quiz and find out.

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

We’ve just experienced another season of roundups in the sports, music and movie industries and throughout it all, I noted interesting things about marketing and human behavior. Super Bowl It began with the TV commercials during the Super Bowl. Usually my favorite part of this final game of champions is watching the new commercials that are made especially for launch during the Super Bowl, but this year, they were so uninspired and boring that I couldn’t wait to get back to the football game. The only brand that stuck in my head later was Volkswagen and that’s because of "Bolt", the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

Taking that first step to genuine SEO awareness can be difficult for SEO professionals as well as information architects and usability professionals. How can we make crossing that bridge easier?

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

The opinions on what makes a form or Web application user friendly may vary but most everyone dislikes Captcha fields. Some Captcha’s are so difficult to decipher they actually increase form and page abandonment. Along with the freedom the Internet provides humans, it is unfortunately humans who also created barriers to our free flow of information. It’s uncanny the amount of search engine marketing money spent to bring people into websites, only to chase them back out because they must prove they are indeed, human. Spam helped create the need for Captcha. To defend ourselves from th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

Want to be better at search engine optimization? What all SEO professionals should know about website usability.

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

No matter where in the world you live, it’s likely you have rituals that you participate in at various times of the year. Website owners have a New Year ritual too. The first item we need to address is updating the copyright year in the footer of our website. Not only does this show that somebody is home maintaining the site but it signals to search engines that life exists there and to keep visiting. [caption id="attachment_106362" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Website Resolutions"][/caption] This, like a new determination to lose weight, could be the first and last resol [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

If the answer to this question is stunned silence, your website could lose long-term search engine visibility. Archiving has always been an important part of the SEO process.

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

Most articles in this column focus on the how’s and why’s of usability, persuasive design and search engine marketing. We sound like a broken record. SEO needs UX. What about the other way around? There’s just as many misconceptions in the usability and user experience design industry towards search marketing and organic SEO. One of their more common fears is on page SEO mucking up user centered design. [caption id="attachment_103780" align="alignright" width="210" caption="Who is open?"][/caption] It takes a bit of time, skills and logic to blend Usability and SEO so they do [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

When creating a search-engine friendly website, do you follow the principles of user-centered design, usage-centered design, or both?

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

Whenever the phrase, "usability and SEO", enter a conversation, there’s a very good chance it goes in one ear and out the other. Corporate management interprets it as "We need more money", and middle management fixes their poker face until they’re free to run to Google to look up the term. Though there is improvement, traditionally the term, "usability and SEO" represent two distinct countries, each with their own culture and belief systems. SEO inhabitants live, eat, breathe and play in the realm of marketing, especially in search engines. Their challenge is to monitor search al [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability