Here at Web Gnomes, we stay on top of the ever-changing world of Internet Marketing so you don’t have to. We enjoy learning new tricks of the trade and putting them to practice in the work that we do for our esteemed clients. Here is some of the most helpful Internet marketing info we came across this week:
Website Usability 101 for SEO Professionals
Usability is one of my favorite topics. I became involved with usability several years ago when managing a portfolio of web applications. It is amazing what a positive impact usability has on customer satisfaction!
Sometimes, SEO and usability get separated. The point of this article from Search Engine Land by Shari Thurow is that this doesn’t make sense.
Many people believe that SEO is simply optimizing a website for search engines. In reality, SEO is optimizing a website for people who use search engines. ~Shari Thurow
Thurow calls out six “building blocks” of usability:
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Learnability
- Memorability
- Error Prevention and Recovery
- Searcher (User) Satisfaction
We agree that usability is an important part of SEO. This is why we offer a user experience (UX) review as part of our services offering. In the review, we analyze a website according to these building blocks and provide suggestions for improvement.
Usability rocks!!
Five Things Marketing Professionals Should Know About Google+
From our friends at TopRank blog comes this post which is partially a review of Chris Brogan’s latest book about Google+ as well as their own tips about Google+.
Here’s the scoop:
- Author Information in Search Results: One of the coolest features of Google+ and Google search is the author information that is sometimes provided in the search results. Learn about how to make this happen for you!
- Google Plus for Search: Google seems to be favoring search results from Google+. Take advantage of this and post useful information on your Google+ page.
- Where Google+ Fits in the Business Ecosystem: Ultimately, it’s up to you. There are lots of uses for it such as community building, customer service, and referrals. Now’s a good time to start experimenting!
- The Most Important Part of Your Profile: The Introduction: Take some time to get your profile looking just right. This goes both for your personal profile and your business profile.
- Posting to Build Connections: As with the other social media sites, sharing valuable and interesting content is one of the best ways to get noticed.
What to Do When You Need Boring Content to Rank Well in Competitive SERPs – Whiteboard Friday
That is one heck of a title… Anyway, I really enjoyed this week’s SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday. In this video, Rand Fishkin talks about the common dilemma of having the traffic coming to your non-salesy pages and what to do about it. It’s well worth the watch!
Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend!