Why people hate the Google Analytics 4 user interface
Marketers have a lot of legit complaints about the GA4 UI. Here, we investigate the problems they've been experiencing.
Topic: Usability
Stop the silo madness! Effective site architecture for SEO and findability
Content silos negatively affect both the browsing and searching experience which often results in lost sales.
How Does Color Usage Affect SEO & Conversions?
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.
Website Usability 101 For SEO Professionals
Want to be better at search engine optimization? What all SEO professionals should know about website usability.
SEO Smackdown: Information Architecture vs. Technical Architecture
Why do SEO professionals believe that technical architecture is more important than information architecture (IA)?
Findability, SEO, And The Searcher Experience
Do you know the key components of a positive searcher experience? Usability and findability are crucial...but there are other critical elements.
Keywords, Text Links & Navigation Design
What is the best approach to utilizing keywords in site navigation? Balance is the key to successful keyword placement in a search-engine friendly website.
We’re All Different. Why Aren’t Our Search Options?
Our online activity is about to be spread over more and more devices. This opens up some interesting implications for UI design. More and more, we’ll be launching queries from more places that will have different environmental challenges. For example:
Information Architects Are From Venus, SEOs Are From Mars
An SEO professional's spin on information architecture can lead website owners down the wrong path. Learn 3 mistakes to avoid when creating an effective IA.
Irony: You Need A Map To Find Google Street View On The iPhone
We came to a strange realization on Friday at SEL headquarters: Google Street View is terribly unintuitive on the iPhone. As Danny Sullivan suggested, you practically need a map to find it. For those of you with an iPhone or iPod Touch who know how to use Street View already, move along — there’s nothing […]
How Much Detail Do Product Detail Pages Need?
Can an ecommerce store’s product detail pages bog a visitor down in too much detail? Can you provide the wrong information and leave people with unanswered questions? My friend and occasional client Michael runs Greek For Me, an apparel store for Greek fraternities and sororities. He recently asked me for usability consulting to help him […]
SMX East 2009 Day One Live Blogging
Day one of the SMX East 2009 show is just about done. Here is some of the live blogging coverage from the day. If I missed any, please comment below with those I missed. Amazing PPC Tactics, BruceClay.com Duplicate Content on Google, Bing & Yahoo, WebProNews Live: Actionable PPC Insights From Analytics Data, Search Engine […]
SEO And The Scent Of Information
To truly understand web searcher behavior, search engine optimization professionals should know how searchers locate and follow the scent of information.
The Dark Side Of Usability: When Business Goals & User Goals Collide
We’ve all experienced it at some point; the sneaking suspicion that those we’ve chosen to trust may not be entirely worthy. Take web sites, for example. We visit a web site, look around and like what it has to offer. We want to believe that the site—and the company behind it—has our best interests at […]
Optimizing For Re-finding Search Behavior
Re-finding search behavior is common in web search, image search, and video search. What is it, and how can you make it easy for searchers to re-find your content?
Search Behavior: The 4th Building Block Of Search Engine Optimization
SEO is actually optimizing a website for people who use search engines, both web search engines and site search engines. The key ingredient has always been searchers -- their characteristics and behaviors.
Hey Usability Professionals: Get With The SEO Program
For over 10 years, I have been trying to convince my clients, colleagues, friends, family, and my 2 cats that SEO and website usability go hand in hand, that they are intricately related. And I have even chastised colleagues and clients for not considering users during the optimization process. I have seen many of my […]
SEO Vs. Web Site Architecture
If you ask web professionals what their interpretation of the phrase information architecture is, you will get a wide variety of responses. A search engine optimization (SEO) professional might launch into some grand scheme about indexation and PageRank sculpting. A web developer usually views information architecture in terms of fields in a database—how each field […]
Google Offers A Peek Into Its Internal Eye-Tracking Studies
There’s an interesting post today on the Official Google Blog that gives a glimpse inside the company’s usability and eye-tracking studies — tests that help Google determine what their search results pages should look like. The image above, for example, shows how users interact with a standard results page with 10 links. The deeper colors […]
Live Search Adds Malware Warnings To Search Results
MSN’s Live Search has announced the addition of malware warnings to their search results pages. In doing so, Live Search joins Google and Yahoo in taking a proactive stance against potentially dangerous sites; Google began adding malware warnings in early 2007. Yahoo added SearchScan alerts in May of this year. The Live Search implementation is […]
The Most Dreaded Keyword Phrase
In website usability, one of the hardest obstacles to overcome is the mentality of “This is what I would do.” Whenever we hear Person A (or B or C or D, etc.) say this phrase, it means that Person A is not focused on users. It means that Person A is superimposing his or her […]
Yahoo Modifies Search Monkey Layout
Yahoo has announced that they have changed the Search Monkey enhanced results template to a new layout. Here is a before and after shot:
The Inmates Are Running The Search Engine Asylum
For search engine marketers and clients to communicate effectively, they must utilize a shared, common vocabulary. Some search engine marketing terms and concepts are easy to explain, such as query terms, commonly referred to as keywords or keyword phrases. And some concepts require a little more clarification. For example, it might take me weeks or […]
Visual Search The Future? Spare Me The Eye Candy
About two years ago, I wrote an article called Why Search Sucks & You Won’t Fix It The Way You Think. In it, I explained various ways people have tried to make search "visual" and why those have largely failed. That’s mainly because "list view" or "10 blue links" still works for lots of search […]
Are We In-House SEO Experts? Not Really… And Here’s Why
When you hear the phrase “in-house SEO expert” or “in-house SEO,” certain things immediately flash to mind. There’s the glamour bits built around the perceptions fostered from hearing of six-figure salaries, or direct involvement in big projects and depth of contact many in-house search marketers seem to have within the executive workings of their companies. […]
Understanding Search Usability
The term “search usability” is widely misunderstood throughout a variety of industries: Web design/development, search engine marketing (SEM), online advertising, information sciences, human-computer interface (HCI), and usability industries. Even the term “usability” is misunderstood by search professionals. Every time I hear an SEO professional claim that his or her firm implements web site usability best […]
iPhone’s Perceived Usability Contributing To Massive Consumer Demand
iPhone skeptics take note: The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that the iPhone has sparked massive consumer interest and may enable AT&T to capture other carriers’ customers. According to an M:Metrics survey cited in the article: Two-thirds of mobile-phone users who are interested in purchasing the iPhone aren’t AT&T customers but would be willing […]
Taking Care Of Business By Taking Care Of The Customer: Five Tips For Local Search
Keep the needs of consumers at the forefront. In my last couple “Locals Only” columns, I’ve mentioned the importance of this in passing, and this month I’m dedicating this space to expanding on this notion and offering specific tips. Much of what is said and written about the emergence and growth of local search focuses […]
Google Adds RSS Snippets To Personalized Home Page
Google Personalized Home Page Adds Expand & Collapse Per Post at the Search Engine Roundtable is where I discussed how Google has added RSS snippets to the Google personalized home page. Google has added these plus signs, next to each RSS title, if clicked, it will open up and show you a snippet of the […]