Bigmouthmedia search engine news: usability

Reduce bounce rates through usability and analytics

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

So you have started to optimise your website for search engines, implemented any suggested changes made by your SEO agency and you are ranking highly on the all the major search engines for your target search terms.

You check your site analytics daily (or hourly like the bigmouthmedia analysts) to see how many visitors are landing on your site, what they doing and - most importantly - if they are converting.

You notice that you are attracting a large amount of traffic for a particular search term, but the bounce rate of that page is extremely high (for the sake of this article, let's say 90% as this varies between websites and verticals).

By correctly using an analytics or web traffic package such as Google Analytics, you'll be able check to see which pages on your site have high bounce rates. By utilising such data, it's possible to improve the page from the user's perspective by making it more user friendly. For the purpose of this article, we will use Google Analytics as the example analytics package.

You can view your bounce rate in Google Analytics by logging into your account, selecting Traffic Sources from the left hand menu then 'Keywords'.

However hard you try, you cannot find out why so many users are bouncing off your website when they land on your site.

The first thing you should do in this instance is type in the search term into a search engine on which you appear and find out which page is ranking and attracting traffic. Then visit the page and have a look around.

If you weren't presented with an error 404 page - meaning there are no site issues there - what's the next step? Take a look at is the page itself, and what search term is driving the traffic.

Usability

Analyse the page and put yourself in the shoes of the user: if you landed on this page, would you be happy with what is presented? For this example, a page might be too text heavy or display few images.

When creating optimised pages for search engines, you must also design them for the user, as obtaining the attention of web users is the ultimate goal. Essentially, if the user isn't happy, the user won't convert.

The key to search engine optimisation is establishing the difference between a well-optimised page and a page which is both well-optimised and attractive to users. This is why usability and search engine optimisation go hand-in-hand.

Once you've established what you think could be wrong with the page, the next stage is to act upon it and try and make the page better for the user, while still upholding its search engine friendly aspects.

Images

Provide an image. Images are a prime way to market your site. They give the user a visual understanding of what the page is conveying. Remember to include the all important alt attributes to ensure your site is accessible. There's also the off chance that the image you upload will rank within an image search engine, such as Google Images.

Formatting

Go nuts with formatting. Use:

Bold
Italics
Lists
Headings
Underlining
Alignments, etc.

If you can break down the text on your site so that it's easily digestible, then the user will take more value from the page. Remember that often when people read pages on the internet, they skim and filter out what they don't want to see. In fact, a recent post by usability guru Jakob Nielsen found that most users only have time to read 28% of words on a web page. So if you highlight and format relevant information correctly, they're more likely to return to your site on a regular basis.

For instance, compare the user friendly page on the right with the not-so-friendly one on the left.

Call to Action

Now the user has landed on the page what do they do next? Ensure that you make a call to action that clearly indicates what the user should do. Follow up on what the page is conveying with a strong call to action. If you have the knowhow, you can assign a goal to this call to action and monitor it over time to gain a better understanding of your users.

Self Promotion

If you have a great page that is related to the article the user is reading, offer the user related content: for example, 'you may also be interested in...' or 'why don't you take a look at...' sections. Self promote pages within your site and they will be easier for your readers to find.

Ultimately, the user's attention is the overall goal. Although the search term you are targeting is receiving traffic, it may not be the most suitable one for that page. A large percentage of search engine optimisation is strategic and once you have a better understanding of what your users want, and what your website conveys, your site will be able to perform better in the fields of usability and organic search.

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Jakob Nielsen sees parallels between ethical SEO and usability

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Jakob Nielsen believes there are many similarities between ethical search engine optimisation techniques and usability best practice. In his keynote speech delivered at the User Experience 2007 conference in Barcelona on November 7th, Mr Nielsen stated that the two design attributes of websites were "not identical, but closely aligned" and have triggered the advancement of the next wave of search engine trends.

Nielsen went on to clarify that there many parallels between the two areas of study including 'information architecture' and 'writing for the web' in particular. He stressed that "it's better to be more accurate in the way we describe content".

User Experience 2007 Conference
The User Experience 2007 Conference provides up to six days of full-day tutorials from international experts on topics including Content Usability, Information Architecture and Managing User Experience Strategy. Jakob Nielsen's keynote speech on day four of the conference highlighted the state of usability and what's next for the field.

SEO and the State of Usability
Nielsen's keynote speech effectively outlined the next stage of search engine development for users. Having grown from 'Resource Discovery' engines such as Infoseek and Yahoo!, which focus on information retrieval and keyword matches, we are now in the phase of 'Solution Engines'. Search engines such as Google provide web users with the best, most popular documents based on popularity.

Nielsen predicts that we are currently moving further into an arena where search engine optimisation and usability will go hand in hand to provide more 'Solution Engines' like Ask.com that help users get tasks done and base results on behavioural metrics.

Evolution of Search
The Nielsen Norman Group behind the event in Barcelona is looking at research into 'Auto Search' where search engines monitor behaviour and metrics to provide relevant information in anticipation of the user's need. Jakob also expects further advances into personalisation based on market research. The current difficulty with this technology is user uptake. How can we encourage users to share more information to allow personalisation, and do they want this?

These predictions will raise difficult questions in the SEO community, such as how this can be measured and whether or not it is possible to monitor positions and rankings within personalised searches.

Trends in Usability
With Web 2.0 still a buzz word and Web 3.0 or even 4.0 on the horizon, Nielsen predicts a 'back to basics approach' as website owners realise that simplification and resolution of basic problems is the key to a positive user experience, rather than the bells and whistles that come with participation innovations.

Nielsen underlined this point by demonstrating the changes Google has made to its search engine results pages over time, reducing the level of content, removing a left hand column and continuing to improve basic user experience elements such as page load times - from 0.23 seconds in 1999 to 0.08 seconds in 2007.

Ultimately, Nielsen's keynote address poses an important question: should we look to trends in search engine development and SEO techniques to persuade web owners that simplest is best for website usability and 'findability'?

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Yahoo! launches new version of IM tool

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:00:00 GMT

A new version of the popular Yahoo! Messenger instant messaging (IM) tool has been announced on the application's official blog today.

Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta comes with a new look for its contact list, which allows users to switch between detailed and compact list views, depending on whether they wish to see larger avatar images for their buddies.

A range of new skins and emoticons are also available, including some that are based on submissions to Yahoo!'s Emoticontest competition earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the tool's photo-sharing facility now comes with Flickr integration, while a new media player is now available for use within the application, enabling users to view video clips, photos and maps from around the web in IM windows.

Those who make use of Yahoo! Messenger's voice call service, incoming Phone In or free PC-based calls can now get calls forwarded to other numbers, with the added ability to listen to voicemail messages via an mp3 attached to an automatic email.

The application is available in six new international markets - the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India (in Hindi) and Vietnam - and is available to download from today.

Yahoo! announced on its Messenger Blog last week that a second release of the Mac 3.0 Beta 2 version of the tool is now available, making it compatible with Apple's newly-released Leopard operating system as a result.

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Google announces support of online heath market

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Google has announced plans to support online personal health information in the US.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit, Google's vice president of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer stated that the search engine plans to support the "storage and movement" of electronic health records in the country.

She noted that Google became interested in the idea following the problems caused by paper health records as a result of the recent Hurricane Katrina.

"In that moment, it was too late for us to mobilise. It doesn't make sense to generate this volume of information on paper. It should be something that is digital. People should have control over their own records," she stated.

Ms Mayer added that the project was a "huge endeavour", will require "a lot of breakthroughs in digitisation" and that Google will provide more information in coming months.

Microsoft is also interested in the online healthcare market, having recently purchased Medstory, whose search software is designed for health information.

Earlier this month, Microsoft went a step further, launching an online healthcare service intended to assist patients in monitoring their medical conditions and taking control of their health records.

Named HealthVault, the service will enable users to share and store health records over the internet, collect and organise data relating to a range of medical home devices and seek medical information.

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New search engine for BigStockPhoto.com

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:00:00 GMT

A major player in the stock image market, BigStockPhoto.com, has just announced that it will introduce a "lightening quick" search engine tool.

Designed to improve site navigation, narrow search results and enable users to find their images more quickly, the new search engine technology is set to be the first of a raft of new introductions by the firm.

Listening to feedback from users has been the bedrock of the stock image provider's decision to overhaul its search engine, bringing customer service to the forefront of the company's operations.

Tim Donahue, founder and chief executive officer of BigStockPhoto.com, stated:

"The needs of our users have evolved with the rapid growth of our site. Our incredible library of over 1.2 million stock images provides image buyers with the high-quality image selection they need. Now, with the introduction of our new search engine, we can balance those requirements with the need to deliver efficient and relevant search results."

Filters used by BigStockPhoto.com to narrow search options include: resolution, image format, popular images and vertical or horizontal orientation.

"This is just the first of many steps we're taking to dramatically improve BigStockPhoto's user experience," explained Mr Donahue.

Established in 2004, BigStockPhoto.com is a royalty-free stock image provider, supplying images to a range of people including journalists, illustrators, designers, marketers and publishers.

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Charities are struggling with a successful online presence - can Google help?

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:00:00 GMT

E-consultancy's second annual UK Charity Website Benchmarks report raises questions about the effectiveness of charities' online presence. The study highlights that charities still have a long way to go to exploit the full potential of the internet to their advantage.

Analysing 120 websites in total, the report evaluates the following seven benchmark metrics: Usability, Accessibility, Communication, Transparency, Responsiveness, Integration and Housekeeping (including search engine optimisation). Social media activities and environmental factors have also been taken into consideration for the first time reflecting the increased importance of these parameters.

The bottom line of the study accentuates that UK charities are still not using the power of the internet effectively and there is huge room for improvement. While organisations generally score well in usability and communication categories, the study found that most websites are lacking transparency and accessibility. Interestingly, the average Google PageRank of 5.62 suggests that websites have a good level of SEO. The top charity sites assessed are Cancer Research UK, WaterAid and the Royal National Institute for Deaf People.

On this note, it is not surprising to hear that Google is taking the bull by the horns by launching various programmes in an attempt to assist non profit organisations use technology more effectively. Google has been engaging in discussions with non profits and recently announced that their Education Edition of Google Apps, which is free for educational institutions, would also be made available to non profit organisations. The programme includes a suite of communication, collaboration and publishing tools and the option to integrate with existing IT systems or third party solutions.

Additionally, Google Earth, Google's virtual globe software, launched an initiative giving organisations access to a variety of tools to make the 3D application available for their purposes. By tailoring maps and satellite images to their stories, charities and other non-profit groups have the option to incorporate valuable geographic context into their websites.

In this way, Google is helping charities and other NPOs to cut costs and improve their IT processes and online presence. On the other hand, the cutting-edge internet giant can take pride in itself for supporting a great variety of good causes. The result: a win-win situation for all parties involved.

It remains to be seen if Google's NPO support efforts hit the spot. The next UK Charity Website Benchmark report will surely be able to shed some light on this question.

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Green Cross Code: how to choose a good domain name

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:00:00 GMT

The Green Cross Code is a motto created by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) to increase awareness of pedestrian road safety in Britain. If you set your mind back to the 1970s, when the campaign originally started, you will remember the image of two little hedgehogs attempting to cross the road.

The campaign was built up on the motto:

STOP,
LOOK
and LISTEN

Although this motto was originally implemented to encourage pedestrians (mainly children) to cross the road safely, this article will take its main values and apply them to the process of buying a domain name for your website.

Before you get your credit card out and register your details for your new domain, ask yourself a few questions before purchasing the domain name.

STOP

Q: Does the domain name provide an accurate suggestion of the nature of your business?

This factor is often overlooked when buying a domain name; marketing your business as a brand and product combination can be beneficial. Prudential Health Insurance is a prime example - their domain name is www.pruhealth.co.uk, which contains an abbreviation of Prudential's name as well as a general overview of what the service offers in the word 'health'.

LOOK

Q: Is this domain name easy for users to remember and find?

Everyone wants a short and snappy domain name. Unfortunately all 676 possible two-letter sequences have been registered. This is the same case for digits: all 1296 combinations have been taken already. And while the COM registrar now states we must use three-digits, not two anymore, all 17,576 possible three-letter sequences have been registered too!

But if your heart was set on a short domain name, it's not the end of the world. The length isn't always what makes it hard to remember. Simply choose a domain name that represents your brand and your business.

But length does matter slightly when direct traffic comes into play. For example, www.this-is-my-business-website-and-i-offer-product-x.com wouldn't be an ideal domain for direct type-in traffic. So consider the following factors:

Does this domain name cover the main product or service that my company offers?
Does this domain benefit my company's brand protection and, by registering it, will my competitors still be able to achieve for my domain name?
Does this domain name have legal or trademark implications?

These are just some the questions you need to ask yourself before registering a domain name.

LISTEN

By the term "listen", we mean listen to your peers and your business motto. Does your domain name sound appealing or is it a bit of a mouthful? Asking your friends and family their opinion may also aid you in your decision. Remember, your family and friends are more than likely to be the kind of person that will visit your site and potentially be a conversion, so their opinions definitely matter.

Etymologies
Another approach for a great domain is through the use of etymologies. An etymology is the study of the history of words - the moment at which they entered a particular language, what source they came from and how their form and meaning have changed over the course of time. Most big name brands and corporation website names have come from etymologies. Some of the biggest ones are as follows:

Microsoft - created by Bill Gates to represent the company that was focusing on microcomputer software. The name originally contained a separating hyphen before a re-brand in 1987.

Waitrose - Large UK supermarket chain named after the original founders, Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor.

One company whose etymological name stands out is Lycos. The name Lycos comes from Lycosidae, the family of wolf spiders. When you relate that definition to Lycos as a search engine and the fact that search engines use spiders to crawl the web, the name gains a whole new meaning.

Lessons learned
Go with your gut instinct! If people didn't act on their instincts, we'd be without many of today's best brand names.

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Accessible podcasts aid search engine optimisation (SEO)

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Unless you've been a hermit over the last few years, you'll be completely aware of what a podcast is and what it does. But for clairification: a podcast is a portmanteau of Apple's "iPod" and "broadcasting", and is basically a method of publishing files on the internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically by subscription, usually at no cost.

In layman's terms, a podcast is an audio file - usually a mp3 or mp4 - that users can download and access from a computer, portable media player or hand-held mobile device.

Podcasts are often syndicated through RSS, which allows users to be shown the most recent podcast updates and additions to a collection. A popular aggregator for news, podcasts and blogs is Google Reader.

Essentially, providing an accessible alternative to a podcast can aid your search engine optimisation campaign, making it more accessible for users with disabilities.

How to make your podcast accessible

Now that you have recorded your podcast, in order to make your podcast accessible to users with a disabilities, such as those with impaired hearing, it is recommended by the W3C in their accessibility guidelines that you create a transcript of your podcast.

A transcript is a written record (usually typewritten) of recorded speech.

Now that you have a fully accessible transcript of your podcast, you can use it towards maximising your search engine optimisation campaign.

How does having a transcript of a podcast aid search engine optimisation?

Search engines cannot listen to podcasts - they are not that developed (yet). In order for a search engine to extract any value from a podcast, it must be provided with an accessible alternative to the audio file. By providing this transcript, the search engines can view and understand what is being conveyed in the podcast. This additional content will be highly beneficial to your search engine optimisation campaign

Conclusion

Ultimately, providing an accessible alternative to your podcast will not only benefit your search engine optimisation campaign, it will also allow users with disabilities to access the full value of your site.

Podcasts do not yet have markers that allow you to easily jump to certain points within the podcast. By providing this in a podcast transcript, you can easily mark-up headers and times which would then allow the user to quickly jump to the area of the podcast in which they are most interested. The likelihood is that this feature will be introduced in the future as the technology of podcasts develops.

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Ask launches new search site

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Ask.com are getting ready to launch their new search site. And while analysts are said to be impressed by their range of fresh features, many are asking: will the site 'wow' consumers enough to take it above its competitors?

Many believe it will. Greg Sterling, founder of consultancy Sterling Market Intelligence, said he was impressed with the organization and design of the new Ask site, while Charlene Li of Forrester Research said it beats Google's new interface "hands down" and is thus certain to grab notice.

And notice is what they're after - even if it's not exactly new notice. While Doug Leeds, vice president of product management at Ask, doesn't expect the site to attract a huge number of new users, the goal is to have the current 25 million unique U.S. visitors and 50 million worldwide visitors become more frequent, loyal Ask users instead of using the site only occasionally, as is the current case.

Ask will now feature a new interface design and re-engineering, with a simple homepage default, customizable backgrounds, new video search powered by Blinkx and the option to view video previews, play music clips and enlarge images quickly and more easily than many other search sites. Moreover, search results will be based on the user's location, and information on local businesses and events can even be saved into a folder to enable easy sharing with others.

However, the most prominent change is the incorporation of all types of search onto one page: the results page will be divided into three sections, granting its new name, 'Ask 3D'. The left side of the page will include the general search box, which can expand and narrow down results, while the right side will offer a customized search option. For example, a search for a particular movie will return video trailers, targeted film news and local show times based on the location of the user. And lastly, the centre section of the search page will contain Smart Answers, which display the most likely results that preview the page.

However, some are doubtful about the potential success of the project. After all, Ask's main competitor is - you guessed it - Google. And when Google, who hold 50 per cent of the search market, have a say in the matter, the odds are usually in their favour. According to research firm comScore, Ask currently rank fourth behind Yahoo! and Microsoft, but just ahead of AOL, with 5 per cent of the total market share.

Still, others are holding hopeful scepticism on the matter. Barry Parr, a Jupiter analyst, said:

"I don't think this change alone is going to bolt [Ask] into being a top tier player. On the other hand, I think a lot of people are going to find that this is a good experience for them and that it is something they enjoy using."

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Usability: do the Hokey Cokey with your website

Tue, 29 May 2007 12:00:00 GMT

You put your CSS in,
You leave your images out,
You put your images back in,
And shake it all about,
You think about usability
And turn your XHTML inside out,
That's what good web design is all about!

(A short song about usability)

Usability is "a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal."

Considering this defenition, it's possible to come up with a classification of usability that relates specifically to the internet.

First off, our particular tool or other human-made object is clearly a website.

Our particular goal could range from a lead to a sale: the website owner is the goal decider, but for the purpose of this article, we will class our goal as a sale.

Essentially, it's necessary to design your website to be compatible with a number of different browsers in order to make the most of your online campaign. If usability is not considered when you're in the process of designing your website, your online marketing campaign may never reach its full potential.

There are a variety of different browsers available for use with different devices.

5 of the Most Popular Browsers are:

Internet Explorer
Mozilla Firefox
Opera
Netscape
Safari

Internet Explorer is the winner by far, as it is the default browser for the Microsoft Windows platform, holding a 70 per cent share of all PC users. Mozilla Firefox is the next most popular browser with the web development industry, and is fast closing the gap on Internet Explorer's lead - as a recent study by bigmouthmedia revealed.

But what are the four most popular media platforms that use these browsers? It's essential to ask such a question since so many web users employ different types of media to browse the web. If your website is 'usable' on a different media platform, you may be missing out on a large chunk of traffic.

It's obvious that the most popular media device is the PC. The PC is what the internet was designed for and most websites are likely to be PC-friendly. But how well does your website perform in terms of usability for a device other than the PC?

The second most popular media platform for surfing the internet is the mobile phone. Many web designers make the common mistake of not coding their site in XHMTL and CSS. XHTML and CSS can be used to semantically structure a website and, when used correctly, it resembles a hierarchical structure - distinctly different to the tabular structure of HTML - that can be highly beneficial for usability.

Using CSS, you're able to apply different styles to HTML mark-up, depending on the phone. This then adds to your site's usability, as you can efficiently target users that use PCs and mobile phone devices. The mobile phone industry has continued to boom over recent years; and it is predicted that mobile internet surfers will catch up with PC surfers within the next two years. This represents a very large number of users that could potentially translate into a sale.

The third most popular media device is the PDA. A Personal Digital Assistant is another form of hand held device, similar to the mobile phone. PDAs are most commonly used in the business world, and offer handheld personal computer capabilities that allow you to store names and addresses, create spreadsheets and take advantage of wireless technologies.

Because PDAs have wireless capabilities, they are often used to check e-mails and browse the internet. For instance, if you're a businessman with a PDA and you're keen to find transport home after a business meeting, you'll be able to use your PDA to go online and book train tickets, find taxi cab numbers or check plane times. Additionally, if you need to book a hotel in the event of an unexpected overnight stay, the ability to do so is at the tip of your fingers.

The fourth most popular platform to view the internet is the games console. Nintendo and PlayStation consoles, for instance, possess internet capabilities: the Nintendo Wii uses a version of the Opera Web browser called Internet Channel and the Sony PlayStation uses a version of the NetFront browser.

Millions of people worldwide own such games consoles and, because they have internet capabilities, there will be a large number of users who will use such devices to browse the internet. Last week, Sony announced that the Sony PSP will allow users to make face-to-face calls over the internet, after plans were unveiled to release a camera and microphone for the system.

All devices that can be used to browse the internet are potential means of creating a sale, lead or a return visit. Usability plays a large part in any internet marketing campaign and it must be taken into account for all internet capable devices. The wider the saturation of your internet marketing campaign, the greater the number of users you're likely to attract. Therefore, before designing a website, consider how well your site will render across all media platforms.

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