Google Instant Impact on SEO

Instant Impact: Google’s newest search engine advancement with Google Instant may leave an impression on SEO.

When Google implemented its new Instant search results interface, it created a wave of interest and speculation on what impact it will have on SEO and overall ranking and advertising with Google. The new technology streamlined search and made it easier to target any query, but did that make things easier for you to get found in the results page?

When considering the significance of SEO efforts, Google Instant has made it even more important to achieve top ranking on its search results. As its drop down “suggestion box” attempts to predict your search query, a chunk of the advertisement positions gets taken up, pushing the page of results further down. This means that SEO results will be pushed “below the fold,” and unless you commit to your search all the way without stopping short thanks to a successful Google Instant prediction, you will not see many organic search results above the fold. ReelSEO discusses these effects with fine examples.

Furthermore, this means that “CTRs on positions 1 and 2 organically will rise at the expense of positions 3 and 4.” With more impressions appearing through instant rendering, lower CTRs will present a negative impact on SEO. Also, with results changing so quickly, and with our ability to read much quicker than we type, the traditional meta-description “calls to action” should move into the title tags for your pages. Users will definitely spend less time examining results as they scan the more-easily viewable title tags of search results.

Google Instant is also likely to have a major impact on PPC performance since these results get prominent placement in its new page rendering format and since, impressions on websites are set to increase with so many search results rendering and re-rendering as you type. The classic Google search impressions of pressing “enter,” clicking “search,” or selecting a prediction are joined by new criteria for impressions. Now, if a user pauses for 3 seconds or longer as they type a partial keyword, any website appearing in the instant search results gains an impression. A site appearing in the instant results that a user clicks on a result from also gets an impression; same goes for when a user clicks on a refinement of maps or news and such.

For advertisers, this means that sub 3-second impressions will not impact their quality score and in a sense be free as long as the user does not interact with the page and create definite impressions. On the other hand, if Google Instant leads to shorter queries by delivering immediate results, AdWords CPCs may go up for many terms due to a diminished inventory of valuable keywords. Fewer keywords, more bidding, higher prices and lower ROI: all this is good for Google, but not so much for advertisers. Meanwhile, consumers remain unconcerned.

For more on the effects of Google Instant on advertisers and to learn more about what to test and watch for follow this link. But for now, keep in mind the importance of optimizing for shot-tail and long-tail keywords to increase your website impressions and chances of getting a click. Also, always incorporate appealing title and description tags. These tips should help you in the short-run, but do not overlook constant maintenance of your SEO efforts as techniques are ever-changing, especially with lightning quick result technologies such as Google Instant.

Google Instant, An Instant Look

Google Instant: The innovative engine speeds up search by instantly displaying results as you type.

In further enhancing its search-engine, Google has created a faster, more targeted and efficient way to search. With Google Instant, the predictive search technology is accompanied by a real time visualization of the results of your search, showing you results as you type instead of only suggesting keywords for your search.

Google Instant allows you to scan results as they refresh to match each keystroke’s predictions. The instant feedback on your search terms makes it easier to refine your search on the fly. This “instant” approach to finding what you need decreases the amount of time it takes for you to complete a search. The technology minimizes your need to type your full search term or even click “search.”

The Google Instant search feature only works when you are signed into a Google account. As it logs your search history, the technology is able to make smarter predictions to guide your search, even when you don’t know exactly what you are looking for. With the instant results, you can see where your search will take you as you type, instead of having to click search to get there.

If Google Instant is a feature you do not find beneficial and would rather not see results as you type, you may turn it off. However, keep in mind that you don’t lose any of the original functionality with Google Instant. You may still type in your full search terms and hit enter to search like you always have. Google Instant simply brings what you are looking for to you immediately and help you find it on your first attempt.

It is worth noting that the application of Google Instant does not impact the ranking of search results; however, it may have an impact on other aspects of search engine optimization. These issues will be further discussed in the another article.

When ABC's Don't Make Things Easy as 123

It used to be that everything was listed in alphabetical order from A to Z by default, no matter the item, the category or degree of importance. It was believed that alphabetical ordering was inherently important in the organization of lists. While alphabetical sorting is, in fact, beneficial to some lists, it mostly should be avoided.

Sorting items in order of A-Z is mainly beneficial for lists of items that users know the name of. Alphabetical ordering allows users to find what they are looking for pretty quickly in this case. An example of this is a list of the 50 U.S. states. It would be easier to browse this list for a specific name if it were in alphabetical order as opposed to, say, grouping the states in order of population.

Essentially, an A-Z order is best for known-item lists. When users know, for certain, what they are looking for, an alphabetized list will surely facilitate their search. If they have to look at several places in the list, it defeats the purpose of alphabetizing.

So, the first thing to consider is whether users will definitely know what their selection is. If you can answer yes to this question, then an A-Z list works, if not, consider another type of list.

More often than not, users don’t know the name of what they are searching for. As discussed, alphabetizing lists of items under these circumstances is useless. Also, when items have an inherent logic that dictates a different sort order, such as abbreviations for measurements from smallest to largest, using an alphabetical listing hides that logic and diminishes usability. Jakob Nielsen explains the effects of inappropriate alphabetizing with a fine example here.

Essentially, the nature of your information usually will determine a structure to use. At times, A-Z listings will be best for your items, but don’t be lazy in designing a better structure. We all know our ABCs and can put items in proper sequence, accordingly, but with ordinal data such as measurements, ordering in increasing sequence makes more sense. Time lines and geographical location may be useful at times, or even degree of importance or frequency of use.

So, the next time you have a list to compile, work a little harder to create a more useful order to improve its usability.

Web Design for Short-Term Memory Limitations

When creating a website, keep in mind that the human brain is not optimized for abstract thinking and memorization; therefore, your design should be optimized instead for the benefit of short-term memory, not to display abstract features and bits of information. Doing the latter only further impedes a person’s already weak short-term memory bank.

The reason our brains seem to be so weak in recalling heaps of data is because many of the skills of memory involved in using a computer were not necessary for survival throughout our ancestry. Our ancestral environment did not demand the skills of remembering obscure codes and interpreting abbreviated data in order to survive. The human brain is the same that it was when cavemen roamed the earth. So, in essence, it would not be a bad idea to design your website for a caveman to ensure a web design optimized for short-term memory and consequently a favorable user experience.

Our extremely limited brainpower allows our short-term memory to only hold about seven chunks of information that begin to fade from the brain in about twenty seconds. This is a commonly cited capacity of our brain when relating to abstract thinking. With this fresh in our short-term memory, let us consider other Web design guidelines that our brainpower limitations dictate:

• Response times: In another article, we discussed the importance of shortened response times and, essentially, speedy page loading/service on sites. Response times need to be fast enough so that users don’t forget what it is they are doing while waiting for the next page to load. There is nothing more frustrating than having to click back to a page to remind yourself of what your purpose was and risk forgetting again upon return due to a slow-loading page.
• A website design error that irks just about anybody is not changing the color of visited links so that users can keep track of which sites they have already visited. You can imagine how frustrating it would be to revisit a page you had already been to, especially if you are also dealing with the above-mentioned problem.
• If your site offers a variety of related products, aim at making it easy to compare them. Highlight the important product features and differences and do so in a special comparison view format. This is the preferred method of product comparison. Avoid making customers go back and forth between pages to compare product features.
• Offering help and user assistance features in the context where users need them is also beneficial to the user’s experience. This will prevent them from having to travel to a separate help section, where they would have to waste previous short-term memory capacity memorizing steps before returning to the problem they encountered.

So when it comes down to it, designing a website for a 2010 audience should not result in a website that the brain of a caveman would not understand, since both audiences share the same limited brain capacity.

Web Response Times

Think back to the days when you had to operate on a 56K modem and were forced to wait a while to properly operate a website as a picture slowly appeared in its entirety piece by piece. Frustrating, wasn’t it? Fast download times are important for users. No matter what it is that slows down response time, users will be turned off by the delay.

The two main reasons a website’s responsiveness speed matters is due to human limitations and human aspirations:

• It is not a rare phenomenon that our memory eludes us at times, especially short-term memory. Also, it is increasingly tougher to hold someone’s attention. These factors refer to our human limitations. A slow website download speed adversely affects our memory and attention span and “we simply don’t perform as well if we have to wait and suffer the inevitable decay of information stored in short-term memory.”
• As humans, we like to feel in control of our destiny and doings rather than under the control of another, especially a computer or machine. Once a computer or website delays its response time, we tend to feel like we are not in control or what we aim to accomplish. Also, from a consumer’s perspective, a company that makes patrons wait instead of providing responsive service comes across as either arrogant or incompetent, neither of which is a good perception to put out.

Considering this, it is important to realize that a quick and efficient user experience beats out a glamorous one. Increased speed and efficiency allows a user to engage more with a site by spending their time moving freely and focusing on content instead of waiting. A user’s experience with a site is much more important than all the slogans, advertising or widgets a site takes its sweet time loading.

Jakob Nielsen expands on the notion of website responsiveness by providing a simple breakdown of response-time limits and their respective effects on the user and his experience. He also provides an example from a recent eyetracking study he conducted. The study demonstrated the adverse effects of increased load time on the user’s viewing of the page and its intended promotional focus.

At the end of a user’s experience with a given site, what tends to leave a lasting impression on them is the response time they experienced while navigating the site. The longer a user has to wait to be served by the computer, the more annoyed they will get. It essentially reflects poor service, no matter how fancy of a page you deliver at the end of the load time. So it does not matter if it is simply a large image loading through a 56K modem or a bunch of fancy widgets loading with a high-speed cable modem, increased wait-time is an experience-killer.

In conclusion, to increase your user-friendliness and likeability on the web, get to the users quicker than the slow sites do.

Keyword Analysis Using Google Keyword Tool

When creating a web page or simply writing an article or web log to post on a site, choosing the right keywords makes all the difference in the amount and quality of visitors you receive to your webpage. Using a keyword tool like Google Keyword Tool can help you find the right keywords to use when creating any content. Taking advantage of this free tool will help you reach people who are looking for what you have to offer, whether it is your business’ products or services, or a publication you may be posting. This article will outline the primary use of the Google Keyword Tool, how to use it, along with the benefits.

The primary use of Google’s Keyword Tool is to generate a list of keywords that you may use to effectively draw larger audiences and efficiently target your advertising toward those who are looking for what you offer. Individuals and businesses may use Google's Keyword Tool to discover the statistics behind a list of specific keywords that are used or want to be used. An initial keyword search will reveal the level of advertiser competition for that keyword and its variants, along with a breakdown of the global and local monthly search volumes for each. This information allows you to determine whether the keywords you are using or want to use are bringing in high search volumes and whether advertiser competition for them are high or not. Such information provides a great start in building a successful set of keywords to use in your advertising. If you are unsure of which keywords to use, Google's Keyword Tool is also a great way to acquire a list of additional suggested keywords that may be beneficial.

Now that you know what Google’s Keyword Tool can be used for, it is time to learn how to use it yourself. Once you access the Keyword Tool, you will be prompted to type in a security word as it appears on the screen to continue using the program. You may also have to do this occasionally if your session times out, but you may stay logged in using a Google account. Once the Keyword Tool page is active, you may input any amount of keywords to test. There are a number of keyword tools out there that you may use for this research, but the most accurate and trusted is Google's. Google’s Keyword Tool gives you 100% accurate data on the keywords you search, giving you reliable information to help you decide which keywords you should be targeting.

Once you have generated a list of keywords along with the corresponding data, you may begin to analyze your options. The first column will list your keyword along with its relevant variants and additional keywords Google suggests you consider based on your search. The second column will display the level of competition for that keyword, while the third and fourth columns show the global and local average monthly search volumes for each keyword, respectively. The last column is also helpful in case what you are offering is seasonal. The Local Search Trends column shows a bar graph that indicates the search volume for each keyword during each month of the year. The previous Keyword Tool interface – which can be accessed by the link provided in the upper right hand corner of the current Keyword Tool page – is a more simplified version that allows you to show or hide certain columns of data that you may or may not be interested in analyzing. If you decide that the newer version is better for you, simply click back to the new Keyword Tool interface using the link provided in the upper left hand corner of the page.

The information above is meant to give you a quick overview and basic instructions on how to use Google’s Keyword Tool to discover data on keywords you are using or want to use and to help you with suggesting additional keywords. No matter what you are conducting SEO for, knowing which keywords to target needs to be Step One. Keywords are essentially the building blocks of successful SEO. Proper keyword targeting will increase the traffic and conversion rate to your website. There are many ways to successfully apply keywords in optimizing your website for high traffic and conversion rates, but the purpose of this article is to simply show you how to get started. For more information on how to use Google's Keyword Tool, visit eHow.

Optimizing Videos on Youtube

Did you know that you could get to number 1 on Google by optimizing videos for high ranking in YouTube? Read on to find out more and to learn how to achieve this yourself.

As a video file sharing website, YouTube has become the primary source of video distribution for people all over the world. The volume of searches for videos that occur in YouTube rival that of popular search engines that we use for every other search. Considering these facts, it would be a good idea to start producing and optimizing videos for SEO results. Certainly you already optimize web page content and vigorously market it for improved rankings on Google and other search engines, but you may not have considered doing so with videos. The written web already poses massive competition in SEO, while video optimizing remains a relatively new concept, thus making it an easier task to achieve higher rankings. Also, achieving top spots in YouTube often results in equally high rank positions in Google’s universal search results.

When you begin to optimize videos for SEO within YouTube, keep in mind how its algorithm works in ranking videos within its search results. The key signals that YouTube relies on when ranking videos within its search results are:

• The text provided in the title and description of the video;
• The number of views the video has;
• The recent trending of the video (essentially the recent increase in popularity);
• Its overall ratings.

Garry Przyklenk at Search Engine Watch does a great job of analyzing the influence of these factors on videos and their relative YouTube search results rankings. It goes to show that videos in YouTube that are not even optimized at all can gain top ranking in search results, even in Google. Realizing this to be the case begs one to imagine the results a video can achieve if it was optimized in YouTube for specific keywords.

Follow these tips and techniques to achieve similarly high search result rankings in YouTube for your own videos:

Video Title: YouTube allows 99 characters for your video’s title text. Be sure to optimize your title text with the keywords you want to target and rank for, but do not ignore branding and descriptive text. If what you are optimizing for is already secured at the top spot by another agent, continue to optimize it for second or third placement since search results on YouTube suggest other related videos which also get plenty views.

Video Description: YouTube allows 5,000 characters for your video’s description text. This gives you plenty of space to write as much about your video as you would like. Be sure to include the keywords you are targeting and also use the space to request people to rank your video, since video ratings and views are factors in your search rankings within YouTube and consequently Google. Sharing and embedding your video will also be beneficial.

Video Tags: Using tags is useful for the search terms you use in your title text and description. Including names and branding will also help your video get recognized by relevant searches.

Broadcasting and sharing options:

Privacy: Make sure that your video’s setting is set to public so it is available for searches.

Comments: It is advisable that you enable comments on your YouTube videos as this will allow users to talk about your video, your brand or your message, thus generating optimum discussion and allowing word about your video to spread.

Video Responses: Allowing video responses may help boost views since they automatically link to your original.

Ratings: Allowing ratings is a must since they have a direct impact on your rankings as a key part of the YouTube search results algorithm.

Embedding: Enabling embedding allows people to share your video on blogs and social media websites. These help boost views and extend your video to new audiences outside of YouTube so it is advisable to enable it.

Syndication: This is yet another way to boost your views and help your videos rank higher on YouTube and Google. Enable syndication as well.

Following the above mentioned tips and strategies is sure to help you gain increased rankings on YouTube for your video and consequently on Google. Increased viewership is important, and since YouTube considers a video “viewed” after eight seconds of runtime, be sure to produce a video that will draw viewers in past that threshold. Embedding and social media sharing is a great way to achieve maximum views, so don’t be shy to ask others to do so, whether you do so personally, in the video or in your video description. There are many strategies to get your videos viewed by all. These are just a few thoughts to help you get started. Just think of optimizing your video for SEO on YouTube as you would optimize your typical web content. Seeding your videos, distributing links, promoting viewership through Google AdWords and even creating a series of interrelated videos are all methods that can help. With viewership, ratings will come as well, but be sure to encourage others to rank your video by asking for it.

Hopefully this article has helped you realize the benefits awaiting you in optimizing videos for SEO on YouTube. If web content optimization was getting too competitive to gain from, be sure to try optimizing for video. Marketing with video will surely earn you a top spot on YouTube and it may lead to a top spot on Google as well.

Web Usability Improvement Strategies

What are some of the most offensive mistakes website designers make that chase users away? What can businesses do to improve the usability of their website? This article will cover some of the mistakes to avoid and simple strategies businesses can use to improve their website's usability.

Top Mistakes

Bad Search - When users want to search for something, they always look for a simple box to type in their search, any other form of search input does not stand out and is sure to frustrate users. Also, search engines that are overly literal and cannot handle typos, plurals, hyphens or other variations of the term the user is searching for greatly reduce usability. Search engines should be able to recognize what a user is trying to look for without the user having to search for the item of interest exactly as the search engine recognizes it.

Not Changing the Color of Visited Links - No one likes to get lost when navigating, and websites that do not change the color of visited links get users lost. With this feature in place, users are able to keep track of where they have been on the site so that they do not unintentionally end up on the same page over and over again. Knowing past and present locations helps users figure out where to go next. With different link colors identifying visited and unvisited links, users can easily track which links they already viewed and determine whether they should avoid it in the future or reference it for revisit.

Non-Scannable Text - Having a wall of text is a big turn off for users. It is never appealing to come across a big chunk of text that a user cannot easily skim through. To avoid this pitfall in website design, use simple tricks such as:

• Headings
• Subheads
• Bullet lists
• Highlighted keywords
• Short paragraphs
• Easy language that sounds personable rather than professional

It is important to make your website as easy on the eyes as possible.

Anything That Looks Like An Advertisement - Websites that try to attract the user's attention with flashing text and images or animations actually achieve the opposite. Users tend to ignore anything that looks like it is trying to advertise information. When someone is on your website, they are there with a purpose and anything that attempts to get in the way of that will be ignored.

Design Convention Violation - When people design websites with the hope of creating a unique and different design that will stand out among the rest, they actually end up hurting the usability of their site. Consistency is one of the most powerful usability principles: when things always behave the same, users don't have to worry about what will happen. Knowing this, it is obvious that a website that appears out of the ordinary will make the user uncomfortable. When users are not comfortable and do not feel like they are in control of the website, they tend to not like it, and no one wants to continue with something they do not like.

Not Answering User's Questions - Once again, users visit websites with a purpose, a goal, and hope to achieve that goal. When websites clutter the page with information irrelevant to the content presented or with information that resembles useless fluff, users tend to get frustrated. When it becomes nearly impossible to find the specifications a user is looking for, usability is diminished significantly. If you are selling products, for example, be sure to list prices; or if you are describing items, be sure to include specifications. In other words, get to the point and make sure you provide the user with the information they may be looking for.

Improvement Strategies

Following are some strategies to incorporate in building any website. They will definitely help improve the usability of your website and enhance the experience users have navigating your website, which will in turn improve the value of the website.

Be sure to mention who you are and what you do

• A one-sentence tag line will go a long way in summarizing your identity.
• Title your page appropriately with your name to gain good search engine recognition. Using words like "the" or "welcome to" in your title will alphabetize your website under "T" and "W," respectively.
• Create a clear and concise "About Us" page containing all relevant information.

Make it easy for users to find what they need

• Emphasize a clear starting point for the main functions of your website.
• Offer a search box that is easy to locate on the site and large enough to fit searches without obscuring parts of the user's search text.

Use images, graphics and decorations wisely

• Users tend to ignore anything that looks overly fancy. Elaborate illustrations and designs come across as advertisements that users tend to avoid. Avoid clouding your site's important content with unnecessary imagery.
• When using images, keep it simple and use real-life images to portray real people in real situations that will help connect the topic and business to the real world.

These are some of the tips that you can use to improve the usability of any site. As long as you avoid the top mistakes of website design with regards to usability and try to improve the usability of your site with the suggested strategies, users will have a positive experience visiting your site over and over again.

Jakob Nielson's Alertbox. Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design.. Accessed May 25, 2010. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html


Jakob Nielson's Alertbox. Top Ten Guidelines for Home Page Usability.. Accessed May 25, 2010. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020512.html

Introduction to Web Usability

Web usability is important for the success of any website. Understanding how to improve the usability of your website and decreasing error rates will help you create a successful online presence.

What is Web Usability?

Web usability is an approach for making websites easier to use, learn and remember without any special training. Web usability is defined by five quality components:

Learnability: First-time users' ability to learn how to accomplish basic tasks.

Efficiency: The ease with which users can perform tasks once they have learned the design.

Memorability: A user's ability to remember the functionality of the website after not using it for a period of time.

Errors: The amount of errors users encounter while navigating a website and the degree of significance of these errors.

Satisfaction: The satisfaction you get from using a website.

Why is Web Usability Important?

For any website, usability is important because it can determine the success or failure of the website. If a home page is difficult to navigate or understand, users will tend to leave before even navigating further. A website that is hard to read, will typically turn away users. Websites with too many errors may frustrate users and prevent use of the website. Upon leaving a website, users will look for an easier, more user-friendly website to use. Therefore, it is very important to make your website easy to understand and use in order to succeed with your online goals.

Remember the first law of e-commerce: "If users cannot find the product, they cannot buy it either" (Usability 101).

Improvement Rate of Web Usability

Formal usability metrics of about 262 websites showed a 17% improvement in the last decade (from 2000 to 2010) on failure rates (not being able to proficiently use a website). Website conversion rates doubled during this same time period from an average of 1% to 2%. Looking at the improvement rate of web usability over a long-term period, on average web usability improves by 6% a year (Progress in Usability).

What this all means is that web usability is in the infancy stage and has a long way to go until we reach a period where websites are very easy to use.

Jakob Nielson's Alertbox. Usability 101. Introduction to Usability. Accessed May 25, 2010. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html


Jakob Nielson's Alertbox. Progress in Usability: Fast or Slow?. Accessed May 25, 2010. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/usability-progress-rate.html

How To Optimize Product Pages

Every page of a website is unique and requires unique descriptions, content, and tags. How do you optimize a website that is like a shopping cart and is generated through new products? Most shopping carts and web software’s that automatically generate the Meta descriptions are somewhat limited on optimization. These carts or software’s will generally take your default websites Meta description, but this is not how to optimize a product page. Each product is unique; it might have a unique audience, feature, or characteristic, and therefore should be optimized individually.

To start off, each product page should have unique content. It is not recommended to have a default content that is automatically generated for all product pages. Search engine crawlers don’t like to see the same content throughout the website. Since each product should be different, the content, along with any Meta tags and descriptions should be different. It is best practice to optimize the product page for the products name. Since consumers become accustomed to products by their name they learn to search by them as well.

To start optimizing a product page you should start with the title tags. The title tag should contain the products name along with the category that describes it and the company name. The product name should also be characterized by a H1 style. All Meta descriptions and keywords should contain the products name in it as well. The content or description of the product should be around 150 to 300 characters in length and should describe the functions and uses of the product. Photos are videos are very helpful both for the user end and for SEO. Photos that display the product should be used along with alt and title tags to describe the photos. One of the most helpful things to have on the page is a video of the product. People love to watch videos of products and web crawlers love to read the videos code. Keeping both of these audiences longer on your site is a reason to add videos to your product pages.

Other aspects of the product page that are very helpful are placing a comment section to generate new content. A comment section can be good for two reasons. One, it provides people feedback and information about the product, and secondly it is a free way of generating new content on the page which helps out in your SEO initiatives. Another way to improve your product page is by incorporating sharing buttons that allow users to share the webpage with their favorite sites.

Treating each product page like you home page, as far as optimization, load time, unique content, etc. are concerned, will help your overall online advertising efforts. Having just a picture and a short description is so last year, it’s time to beef up those product pages and get them optimized for today’s Internet users.

Importance of E-Commerce

Thinking about streamlining your business operation? Having a company website is the first task, but where do you go from there? You have your products and services highlighted and maybe even more detail like the size of your party rental or supply supplies. However, is it important to provide an e-commerce system for shoppers to rent your products or purchase your products online? Some people argue against it saying it reveals your prices to competitors or don’t get customers to call in to talk to a representative. But think about the last time you shopped online for something. How did you feel about seeing that price there, or an option to purchase online? Providing a method for customers to purchase your products or services at their own convenience is essential for gaining their trust and increasing sales.

Specifically for the party rentals or party supplies industry where a lot of business owners tend to be part-time workers or have other jobs, it is crucial to implement an e-commerce system where customers can find the company website and purchase your products or services without you being there. One area a lot of companies have tried to reduce their operational time on is answering phone calls from price shoppers. This takes up a great deal of time for any business employee, or agent. By reducing the time spent on this task, people can focus on more important functions, like improving operations, increasing sales, and growing. For the moonwalk rental industry, having an online payment system also helps reduce the hassle of cash transactions and issues regarding deposits or payments. An online payment system can ensure a rental event is schedules and paid for, all that is left is the delivery personnel to show up at the event and setup the product.

Two of the most popular payment systems that are out there, which a lot of companies are using, are PayPal and Google Checkout. PayPal and Google Checkout are two free and trusted sources that accept all types of credit card and debit card transactions. With both of these systems, it is fairly easy to get the code and integrate it into your website. It is still highly recommended that you have a website programmer or someone with experience do this task. PayPal and Google Checkout will simply create an account for you where your customers’ transactions will lead. All you have to do to get the money is simply withdraw it from that account to your banking account. The cost of these systems will amount to about 2-3% of the transaction amount. The cost system depends on how much monthly sales you do.

Blogging and It's Implications

Blogs have created a buzz for numerous reasons like an outlet for news and information, a public forum for participation, search engine optimization, as well as education and training purposes. Blogs serve countless purposes and depending on how the blogger uses it, blogs can be very effective for an organization. Microsoft guru Robert Scoble talks about how blogging can be used and should be used by organizations to improve their lines of communication (Spring, 2006). He says blogging can substantially improve SEO ranking for some long phrase keywords or unorthodox keywords that you normally would not optimize your site for. A survey discovered that about “94% of bloggers reported seeing measurable SEO benefits from blogging within 12 months” (Odden, 2010). The most cited benefit of blogging for SEO related purposes were to attrach inbound links from other web sites. This creates a community and establishes visibility for your organization as well as getting feedback and commentary about any new products, ideas, or events.

Some good uses for blogs include highlighting new products or services to your general public. Incorporating social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Myspace with your blog can only help to increase your reader group. A blog can function as a good channel for feedback or commentary from your consumers on their ideas of your new products or services. This can help save you potential time and resources with a product or idea that might not be very successful. However, since blogs are a public forum you should be cautious of what you do make available for everyone. You don’t want someone taking your ideas or innovations and using them against you.

Have a lot of employees, distributors, or partners you work with? Find it difficult to communicate your news with them? Blogs can work out to your benefit by creating a forum for you and your peers to deliver news to all the members at once. It also allows for feedback so you don’t have to waste time in a meeting anymore. You can gain feedback about your business model or operation and use it to help improve your services. Blogs can be used for both internal and external purposes, it’s just figuring out how to use them and incorporate them effectively that is key.

Specifically for party rentals or entertainment companies, blogs can be productive by creating a buzz about your company and marking your brand more visible online. Consumers are always looking for online sources to gain information before they shop. Especially party planners and coordinators that are looking for best practices and tips on making their party work. Having an informative blog that helps educate your target market will improve your company’s perception and increase sales. Some party planning and event planning companies use a blog style website because it can create a participative and committed loyal customer base that helps you as a company improve your products and services.

Spring, Natasha (2010) "The impact of blogging: real or imagined? Microsoft blogging guru Robert Scoble talks about what the technology means for companies and how they can use blogs to their advantage". Communication World. FindArticles.com. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_3_23/ai_n26855783/

Odden, Lee (2010) “Survey Results: Impact of blogging on search engine optimization” Online Marketing Blog. http://www.toprankblog.com/2010/01/survey-seo-blogging/

Prioritizing Lists

On too many websites, there is an overabundance of features vying for the user’s attention. Too many colors, animations, blinking texts and graphics tend to annoy users by blending everything into each other. If everything on a page is equally outstanding, nothing stands out. The same goes for everything being equally dull.

As a designer, you want to advise and guide users to the most important or most promising choices. As Jakob Nielsen points out, “the goal is to give users more of what they need. And easier access to what they need.”

Prioritization is essentially accomplished in two ways:

• Listing items that users are most likely to want on top or made to stand out;
• Highlighting new items on the homepage and also featuring a link to hot topics that may be buried deep within the site on the homepage.

Using prioritization will essentially guide users to the most important and most promising content on any given site. This is not to say that user’s will not be free to go anywhere they please; prioritization will merely point towards the more prominent content.

Some ways to guide users with prioritization include, but are not limited to:

• Editorially selecting the most important stories or items and giving them better headlines or more visible placement much like newspapers do;
• Placing best-selling products at the top of search listings, as this is what most customers are looking for. It means nothing to a customer that items be organized according to internal attributes such as SKU/Item numbers or even that they be in alphabetical order.
• Guiding users to areas of the site that have high activity with links on the homepage. This will simplify user experience and keep them posted on hot topics.
• Feature popular or high rated contributors’ material.
• Highlight the most popular items in a list that is sorted by another criterion.
• Mark new items with a small, but noticeable “NEW” icon. This is not necessary on pages where new items are constantly uploaded.

These suggestions are meant to be tips on how to effectively guide users on your site toward more prominent information. Make sure not to overwhelm users by highlighting every item or bore them by not featuring any featured items. Allow them to surf freely, but point them towards the new or hot-topic information. This will surely improve usability.

Writing for Online Readers: Using Numerals

After conducting eye-tracking studies, Jakob Nielsen discovered how users read various elements of a website. Among the findings, an interesting discovery was the effect numerals had on users’ wandering eyes as they scan through or browse a webpage. Even if they were lost in a pile of words, numerical digits attracted readers’ eyes enough that they stopped scanning and focused their attention of the digits.

Digits tend to be more attractive to readers than words because they tend to represent facts, which readers typically look for when they read on the web. Digits are also a more compact version of representing information, which is preferred over wordy descriptions.

How the effect of digits works is that their shapes stand out significantly among words, especially with a group of digits. This allows one’s peripheral vision to pick up on the uncommon figures before the reader even focuses their vision on it. This enhances the scannability of a page.

Aside from being more attractive to readers, digits also help improve a site and its content’s usability and credibility. E-commerce shoppers, whether they are shopping or just doing research, typically are looking for a particular piece of information or even just the gist of a page. Using digits instead of words to represent numbers significantly improves the usability of the page for shoppers.

Customers often look for specific facts of a product or service, such as products’ size and weight or a service’s cost or specifications. These are all bits of information that are best represented as numerals. Even if users are not scanning for data, presenting facts in a manner that stands out visually enhances credibility of a page with useful information.

The important thing to remember in online writing is that readers are prone to scanning pages and texts. When everything starts looking the same, information tends to get lost in the jumble of words. Therefore, if you have a numerical fact to represent, do so with digits rather than words, you will be sure to grab the reader’s attention.

Web-Based Reading: Content on the Web

It is hard to get someone to focus online attention to reading content in detail. Most people browse the internet just as the action word describes: they browse or scan through content. Therefore, it is important to focus web writing efforts on creating concise, objective and scannable text.

Rarely do people thoroughly read through web page content word-for-word (only 16% of test users) according to studies by Jakob Nielsen. Instead, they scan over the page, picking out words and sentences that may strike an interest. Almost 80% of test users always scanned new pages they came across; therefore, it is important for web pages to be designed with scannable text.

Some ways to incorporate scannable text into the web page include:

• Using highlighted keywords. This can be achieved with bolded text, italicized text, colored text or even hyperlinked text.
• Writing meaningful, rather than clever, subheadings.
• Using bulleted lists.
• Including one idea per paragraph. People will skip the remainder of a paragraph if the first few words or sentences don’t capture their interest.
• Using the “inverted pyramid” style of writing that introduces the most important information first before going into the detailed discussion of background info.
• Use fewer words than you do in conventional writing (half or less).

Of critical importance in web writing is credibility. Web users appreciate increased credibility regarding the information presented to them in web writing with the use of high-quality graphics, good writing and links to outbound sources where information was gleaned from.

At the other end of the spectrum, web readers absolutely hate promotional writing. If you make boastful, subjective claims in your writing, you will surely turn off readers with your content. Web users usually look for objective facts rather than subjective opinions, so focus on concrete facts. Also, exaggerated writing has an adverse effect on credibility.

Jakob Nielsen measures the effects of improved web writing styles to compare to the base, control condition of promotional writing. He charts the details of the style, respective content and results to display the effects when compared to one another. In order of usability improvement measured against promotional writing (0% as the control condition), objective language (27%), a scannable layout (47%) and concise text (58%) performed considerably better. Even more impressive was that when the three improved writing styles were combined, the usability improvement was 124%.

These are all suggested methods of improvement for writing for the web. Incorporating any one of these styles or using any combination of them may improve usability. Use them to improve the content on your website or even in articles you may write to help in your link-building efforts.

Headline Usability - Creating Concise and Information Headlines

Creating concise and informative headlines can go a long way in improving usability of your webpage.

Whether you present links to articles on your homepage or have an archived section of news and feature articles, ensuring headline usability is a must. Doing so gives readers and even casual visitors to your site a pleasantly quick and informative glimpse into what you have to offer without having to click through pages they may not be interested in.

Headline usability is essentially achieved with precise communication in a handful of words. As hard as it is to write concise, scan-able and objective content for the Web, it is even harder to write headlines for the content.

In writing headlines, following a set of guidelines, as set out by Jakob Nielsen, may help in creating concise and informative headlines that maximize usability. Headlines must be:

• Short (because people don’t read much online);
• Rich in information (clearly summarizing the target article);
• Front-loaded with the most important keywords (because users often scan only the beginning of list items);
• Understandable out of context (because headlines often appear without articles, as in search engine results); and
• Predictable, so users know whether they will like the full article before they click (because people don’t return to sites that promise more than they deliver).

The most important thing to remember about writing headlines is to be concise and informative. Each word used should be meaningful. This allows you to create a headline that will communicate to the reader a proper idea of what the article is about without forcing them to click through to find out. Optimum headline usability will limit, if not eliminate, wasted clicks for users as they will be able to tell which articles they would be interested in reading from the headline itself.

Keep in mind that people’s attention span is not very long and their tolerance for vague and misleading information is low. So when you go to create a headline, keep it short and sweet; clear-cut; concise and informative. Jakob Nielsen even recommends visiting reputable sources such as BBC News to get an idea of how to achieve remarkable headline usability. You may discover how BBC editors create such excellent headlines and apply their discipline to the headlines you create.

Corporate Blogs - How to Structure a Good Home Page

Displaying summaries of many articles on the first page as opposed to presenting each posting’s full content may serve to attract users.

In creating homepage designs for blogs, you typically have two options:

• Posting each article in its entirety on the first page so users can read it all without having to click to an article.
• Providing article summaries on the first page that link to the full content on secondary pages.

When managing a corporate blog, it is important to remember that the number of postings may eventually reach the hundreds or thousands depending on the size of the organization. Clearly, not every posting will fit on a single page. This is where you need article summaries linking to the full post in the archives.

Web Usability Design columnist Jakob Nielsen discusses in detail his findings through an eye-tracking study of how people read the “official” weblogs of corporations. His gaze plots diagram how users read the front page of several corporate blogs.

In short, his study revealed that the blogs featuring full articles on the front page lost the interest of users after the first post, whereas the blogs offering summaries on the homepage were able to attract the user to browse through more, if not all of the article summaries.

Through Nielsen’s study and general experience, corporate blogs fare much better with summaries rather than full articles on their homepage. Article summaries allow blogs to post more in a shorter page-length, thus exposing users to a broad selection of topics.

With more topics available in the same, if not shorter amount of space, users are more likely to find something that interests them. This will entice them to click through to read more, as opposed to abandoning the blog after the first full-length article failed to appeal to them. Few people will actually continue browsing after exhausting their interest on the first posting.

So for the most part, it is best to include summaries on the homepage of your corporate blog, especially if you have a wide product range with many topics to discuss. People are simply not fully interested in everything, but may prefer browsing through to find the one thing they are.

In the case that you do receive regular visitors that are passionate about everything your company does, you may want to post full articles as Nielsen recommends, but this is rare and unlikely. So stick to the summaries and offer a broad sample of articles in hopes of attracting a user’s interest and getting them to read on.

How Your Website is Analyzed

How do search engines work, and how do they decide which website is more relevant for a keyword? These are good questions and to find out the answer to them you must first know how search engines work and how they crawl and analyze websites. There are about two hundred factors that are taken into consideration when deciding how relevant a website is for a keyword and where it should rank. Some of these factors include how fast your website loads, the amount of content on your site, the density of the keyword, amount of pictures, video presence, feeds, meta tags, links, etc. Knowing what factors search engines use can help improve your website score and ranking.

Search engines send out spiders, or crawlers, to go through your website and collect information. You should be able to show up in the search results once these crawlers have gone through your website and indexed it in their database. This usually takes about one to three months. When search engine spiders index your site they usually don’t stay on your website for more than a couple of seconds. These crawlers travel through links to find all of your pages, therefore, it is very important to have good internal linking throughout your site. Crawlers cannot see pictures or color, they can only read and understand text and codes. It is very important to have your website coded correctly so search engine crawlers can read and understand the page. Having outdated or improper coding can contribute to a lower page score.

Some of the easiest ways to optimize your site is by choosing the correct combination of title, header, and Meta description. Each page of your website should be unique, search engines don’t like to see the same content, and will usually penalize you for copying content. Since each page should be different, it should also have different title, header, and Meta descriptions that are unique for the page. Crawlers rank the importance of keywords for a page based on the amount of times it is used, the backlinks to the page, and any off page optimization. It’s good to have a lot of content on your page, but simply putting down a bunch of keywords just to get a high ranking is going to hurt your websites usability. Search engines also take into consideration the amount of different font treatments used. Different font treatments include the style, size, color, whether it’s bold, underlined, italicized, etc. Having too many different font treatments can be bad for your page score, so it’s a good idea to keep it simple and stick with a few font treatments that make sense.

It is also important to have a good proportion of pictures on your website. Search engine crawlers like to see more than just simple text. True, crawlers can’t see pictures, but they can read a pictures tag or description. Having good alt tags can contribute to the keywords importance for the page and thus rank higher in relevance. However, you don’t want to get carried away with pictures. The more pictures you have on your website the longer it will take to load. The speed at which your website loads affects your page score and whether users will stay on your website or not. Search engine crawlers love to see videos, and will usually stay on your website a little longer to read the videos code. Videos also have descriptive text that website crawlers can read. An easy and useful way to add videos to your website is by using YouTube, which Google owns and places more importance for.

Having links on your website are also important because search engine crawlers need a way to bounce through your pages. Usually crawlers will start from your main page, or home page, and from there travel through links to your other pages. Having links to the most important pages of your website are key to getting indexed successfully. You should be careful that links are not broken because crawlers don’t like to see that. Each webpage needs to have a link directing crawlers there or else some of your pages will not get indexed. You can also use tags or descriptions for the links to direct crawlers to look for a specific keyword or phrase when indexing it. One thing that’s recommended is creating a site map for your entire site and placing the link on your home page.

Another thing search engines like to see is new content on websites. Search engines try to distinguish websites that are dynamic and in use from ones that aren’t, and will usually visit your website more frequently if they see you constantly have new content. A way to easily place new content on your website without the hassle of hiring a professional is through user comments. Companies sometimes allow user comments for products, articles, or blogs, because people like to place comments, and companies welcome them because its free content creation. Another way to get new content on your site is through feeds. For instance, if you have an off page blog you manage and want snippets of the postings to show up on your website, than you can have a feed management program like Google’s FeedBurner push the content onto your website. These are fast and easy ways to create tons of content on your website without the need of a professional.

Off page optimization matters as well and complements the work of the on page optimization. Off page optimization includes blog submission, article submission, and backlink creation. The more links you have from other websites directing to yours, the better your page rank will be. However, you should take note that having your link on websites that are spam sites or that use black hat tactics can actually be harmful to your site. If the website on which you have a backlink has a higher page rank than yours and is also relevant to your website, than that backlink would be more beneficial to your overall score. Every little piece of optimization matters in order to get a higher page score and ranking for a keyword. Search engines are just like any other company, they constantly change, and it’s recommended to keep up to date on the things they find important.

Online Website Tracking

So you have your website and you advertise online, now what? Well some things any marketing representative wants to know is where customers find you, what keywords they use, what websites they bounce from, what time of the day they search, what day of the week they search and more. Every bit of information that helps analyze your customers shopping trends will help you make more informed decisions regarding your advertising. So how do you find out about your customers’ shopping trends? By implementing a website tracking system that will provide detailed information about the people that visit your website.

Here is a list of some of the free website tracking software's out there, but the most popular one is Google Analytics.

• AddFreeStats
• FreeStats
• GoldStats
• Google Analytics
• GoStats
• Site Tracker
• StatCounter
• StatSession
• TulipStats
• WebSiteTrafficReport

These are some of the free ones that are offered, however there are plenty more with paid subscriptions to choose from.

Implementing the tracking code into your website is real simple. If you have a web master you will want them to handle this task, but you can do it yourself as well if you don't have a web master. Simply take the tracking code they provide and copy paste it to your websites html code. You should implement it to every webpage you have to analyze how customers use your website and which pages they visit. Once you have the code pasted into your website the tracking software will read that code and start analyzing visits.

Tracking your visitors is a must for any company that has a website. Not knowing where your customers find you from and how they use your website can lead to an unsuccessful online marketing campaign. Understanding which advertisements give you the most referrals and best results also help cut costs from unpromising advertisements that are wasting your money. Once you get an analysis of your customers and their shopping trends you can implement promotions and advertisements that are the most suitable for those days. Knowing which days customers usually shop for your products or services helps you in making decisions about which days to advertise and focus your promotions. In every form of process, whether business, school or other, you must know how your are doing during the process and what results you are getting. Without a formal online tracking system there is really no way for anyone to know the results of their website and online advertisings.

Online Advertising for Beginners

Search Engines

The biggest and most used search engines are Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com. About 70% of people use Google, 16% use yahoo, 9% use Bing and 2% use Ask.com (November 2009 statistics). The most widely used search engine and source for finding any type of company or service is Google. Google lists companies a couple of ways when people do a search. There are organic search results, pay-per-clicks (also known as sponsored searches), map search results, articles and more.

Organic Searches

Organic Searches are the searches you see on the left hand side of Google. These searches are free. Companies do not pay any fee to Google to show up here. However, it is very tricky on how Google lists the companies in order. Google has spiders, which are programs in a sense, that go through the internet, surf all the websites and read the texts that are on the websites. These spiders classify web pages according to their text. If a particular websites text is related to the keyword "jumper rental", than Google classifies it as a webpage people would want to see when searching for "jumper rental". The priority of the list for a specific keyword always changes because people are always writing articles and optimizing their website, so one month a company might be first on the list for a keyword, but 3 months later they might be the 10th company showing up for that same keyword. Search engine optimization is a way to help make a website more relevant to specific keywords. Organic Searches are the most used search results from all the sources because they are the most relevant to what the person is looking for.

Pay Per Click

Pay-per-clicks are the sponsored search results you see on the right side of the results page when you use search engines. Companies pay money to be listed here for their desired keywords. Companies pay every time someone clicks on the advertisement banner. Usually companies see a lot of results from advertising in pay-per-clicks because they pay usually around 0.20 to 0.80 cents per click (depending on how competitive the keyword bidding is). However, keeping track of the keyword performance and optimizing the ads takes up a lot of time and requires the person doing it to have knowledge in pay per click advertising. Usually most people hire a company that does pay-per-click optimization and pay them on a monthly basis to keep track of their keywords and optimize their ads. The cost of doing pay per click depends on how much money you decide to spend on it, but usually it runs in the hundreds of dollars a month. Companies can place a daily or monthly budget so it only spends that much, once the limit is reached the advertisements stop. They say about 10-30% of clicks on the advertisements are fraud, meaning a competitor is sitting their clicking on the advertisements so the company can get charged. Google's pay-per-click program is called Google Adwords. Pay-per-click is usually more expensive on the long run than search engine optimization.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is when someone optimizes their website so Google's spiders will recognize it as important for a specific keyword. This can be done by creating back links (links from other websites/webpage's to your website), articles linking to your website, directory submissions and more. Search engine optimization is kind of like a popularity game. The more websites there are that refer or link back to your website for a specific keyword, for instance "jumper rentals", than Google's spiders think, ok this website is the most important for the keyword "jumper rentals" and therefore, should be the first listed under the organic search results. Companies that usually get listed on the top of search results for a keyword do search engine optimization on a continuous basis. This means they either hire someone or do it themselves. Hiring someone costs around $350-$600 per month to continuously do search engine optimization, but this does not guarantee a company will the listed in the first page.

Online Directories

Online directories differ from search engines in the way that they are more specific to a particular topic. There are probably hundreds of thousands of directories out there, each one for its specific topic or subject. Directories, like party directories, are more helpful to customers looking to find a company or service in a specific location. For instance, someone looking to find a jumper rental company might do a search in a search engine for "jumpers in Glendale", but might come across companies that are located out in Glendale California or Glendale Arizona. Directories, however, usually list companies servicing specific locations and for specific services. Therefore, finding a company or service in your local area through a online directory is easier and usually more informative than using a search engine.

Costs

The cost to be advertised in a directory is usually either free or too expensive. The most widely known directories for party rentals are Yellowpages.com, which is usually too expensive, and also PartyPop, which takes too may steps and is too confusing to find what you're looking for. Party Jump USA is a unique directory because it offers companies advertisements in all of the major online search sources like Yellowpages.com, Google, and Yahoo, but they do so through exclusive advertisings, which in essence gives the company advertising all the customers looking for the directories' specific service in the area their advertising. Party Jump USA's directory does not create competition between companies advertising, so they get the most efficient form of advertising, a competitive advantage over their competition.