Usability and Your Web site

There are a number of Web sites that feature really cool design. Others hold a derth of valuable content. But occasionally, despite the advantages of good content of aesthetic finesse, many Web sites are not designed with the end user in mind.

Not surprisingly, the Web site industry is increasingly hiring Usability experts to help tests sites so that the end construction produces user satisfaction and repeat business. This is especially important for e-commerce sites. If it is too hard to order your Metro ticket online, you simply won't do it. If the online shopping cart for your favorite boutique is confusing, you will shop elsewhere. Likewise for informational sites, you want to break up content into logical, easy to follow categories with a home page that provides an overview of your company or organization.

Here are some tips for increasing the end-user satisfaction with your Web site:
1. Outline the Content.
All those outlines you did in grade school will come in handy. This is your way of mapping the content and organizing it. Decide what your "Chapters" will be in your navigation bar - About, Contact, Services, etc. Then, decide what are the main themes of each "Chapter." These will be your sub navigation bar content. For example, under About - there will be a landing page with an overview of the section, there might be a philosophy or mission page, a history page and/or a meet our staff page.

2. Create a Web Site map.
Decide the relevance of the content on your Web site. Larger sites often feature three or four navigation bars - the primary, secondary, footer and header. Draw a map of lines and boxes that indicate how these pages will connect with one another.

3. Keep your navigation bar consistent throughout the site.
Whether you are on the Home page or the About page, keep the primary navigation consistent. It is easy for users to get lost, especially when all ages are equally likely to find your page. Continue to add a Home link in your primary navigation. While younger users are prone to clicking on the company logo, usually placed in the upper left corner, there are still a large number of Web users aged 30+ that are not familiar with this trick.

4. Scavenger Hunt Testing
Make sure any "Make an appointment" or "Shopping Cart" features are easy to use. Before taking your site live, have your grandma, your neighbor, your 10-year-old niece, your brother and your best friend try to use the shopping cart and all other features on your Web site. Make sure none of these people are Web programmers or designers. You want to test with non-savvy or traditional Web users, with older, younger and peer age groups. But most importantly, find some friends or relatives that are part of your target demographic. Use their feedback to improve the functionality of your Web site so that you have fewer adjustments after it goes live.

5. Continue to improve and update your site.
Web sites act differently depending on changes to Explorer, Firefox and Safari, so expect a few glitches when going live. Also, Web sites are expected to change and to be the most current. Keep pace with the technology and with your clients and continue to improve your Web site so that it is always working for you.

For more ideas about how to improve your Web site, contact Marketicity at 618.281.6648 or 314.266.4450.

HTC's New Web Site Premiers

We are excited to announce the sneak-peak premiere of the HTC (Harrisonville Telephone Company) Web site at the Monroe County Fair this week. This Web site, which features dynamic flash features and a video tour guide of the site's primary service pages.

Watch for its online debut in the very near future!

Work Your Web Site

More and more clients are aware of their Web site's SEO, that is it's search engine optimization. Simply, clients want their Web site at the top of a search result.

But I'm alarmingly surprised to find so many companies invested in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or AdWords campaigns as the only method for optimizing the power of a company Web site. A PPC campaign is one way to help boost a Web site's traffic, but it is certainly only a piece of the puzzle. You want your company's Web site to rank organically in a Google or Yahoo! search. So, your Web site needs to be optimized to work for you beyond your PPC campaign.

A lot of a Web site's SEO happens in the back end programming - so you need to trust the company with which you are working. Transparency about Google Analytics and where your PPC campaign dollars are going is key. A lack of transparency in either of these areas should be a red flag.

When a programmer is talking about your Web site's optimization code, these are some of the things you should expect to hear:

1. The description, title and keywords should be programmed for each page.
2. Text should be properly coded in html as a header or paragraph.
3. Your pictures should have names in the code, because Web site crawlers can't read a picture... they read the code.
4. You should have Meta data on your site with keywords.

These are things that are apparent to a programmer, but there are other things that you can easily observe.

1. Your home page should be dense with key words while still being readable.
2. You need some page of your Web site to receive frequent updates.
3. You want to monitor Google Analytics and change key words, news content and PPC campaigns accordingly.
4. You want to interlink to parts of your site within your Web copy, not just in your navigation bars.
5. You want outside sources, such as a twitter, facebook, vendor or client post to be linking to your Web site.
6. You want each of your primary services to have their own page - with titles.
7. Are you registered with Google Maps and Yahoo Maps?
8. A video!

It takes several months to fully optimize a Web site, and it is a constant work in progress. Much in the manner of a public relations campaign, you need to be consistently monitoring, adjusting and updating to match the ever-changing standards for Web site grading.

If you have questions about your Web site's optimization, contact Marketicity today at 618.281.6648.

More and More Targeted

During the weekend, I caught a brief discussion on 90.7 KWMU about the tailored advertising developed for XBox users. With more than 40 million XBox owners, according to Microsoft, ads are being streamed for 30 seconds before the start of an online game or between levels. Much in the manner of many YouTube or online video posts, watching the ad is not optional ... if you want to play the game or watch the video. Unlike the video posts, Microsoft is collecting a range of demographic information for its online users, so that ads can be highly targeted towards an advertisers target audience. This is Microsoft's advertising info page with the reasons why one should opt for XBox advertising: Microsoft XBox Advertising.

Already, Facebook and Google are well known for such similar targeting techniques. Today, I read a blog about a 63-year-old, male Facebook user who generally ignored all the marketing efforts on Facebook in pursuit of his own entertainment with his friend community. However, he was struck by a group of female Facebook users dedicated to removing their birth year from their Facebook accounts. Why? The ladies were tired of the wrinkle cream and weight loss ads. I admit to ignoring the ads, but my office co-hort complains about the inundation of wedding ads on Facebook since she changed her status from single to engaged.

Even the digital press has made print more targetable. On a recent print-house tour, I saw an ag-based magazine with a client that had three different ads for the inside cover, depending on the subscribers demographic information. So, the corn farmer would receive an ad pertinent to his crop and the dairy farmer would receive an pertinent to his. Think about what your magazine subscriptions would look like if, say Vogue, knew your household income. Guaranteed mine would be much thinner without those Chanel and Versace ads.

With advertising becoming more and more targeted and with an increasing number of forums to reach customers, effective advertising is becoming more affordable to most businesses. The best plan when constructing a marketing plan is to consider your budget, your target audience and all the media platforms available. While I've heard some say radio or print is dead, I completely disagree. I think savvy marketers straddle both the old and new media worlds and hand-pick the most targeted and cost-effective venues for promoting their business.

Standing out in the advertising arena is still hard, but at least advertisers can negotiate more bang for their buck.

How Much Does Twitter Matter?

The July 3-9, 2009 St. Louis Business Journal's The Pulse section asked: "Have the protests in Iran changed your attitude toward Twitter?" The result was that 51% had better things to do, 29% still don't get what the fuss is about and 18% love being connected through Twitter.

I'll be honest. I was an initial skeptic of Twitter, and I recommend its use conservatively with clients. Why? Twitter is a Web site driver. I prefer to think of it as a news feed or connector. In general, I don't find Twitter a relevant forum for general, personal conversation, but it is a great forum to connect new visitors to a blog or Web site, to post updates or to find other industry-related blogs or Web sites pertinent to your business, personal or non-profit objectives.

In general, I don't find Twitter an effective tool for businesses providing a very local niche service. If you are a senior living community in Southern Illinois, it doesn't really help to have someone in Thailand connecting to your Web site and more than likely the visitor from Indiana is also not a viable prospect. Twitter does a great job of expanding a Web site's reach and visitors, but a business Web site also needs those hits to be relevant. A community-based business needs a community-focused social media marketing plan.

However, a marketing company, for instance, can provide a service to companies across the nation and sometimes beyond. In this case, it makes sense to promote a Web site and company news on Twitter, which provides an increased chance of attracting new customers from a wide range of new locations that would otherwise be very expensive to reach.

For larger companies, Twitter can also be a nice instant-message tool. Why not use regular instant messaging? Twitter allows you to have a public transcript when attempting to solve customer service issues; it gives enhanced meaning to Live Chat. Further, this style of customer-service conversation gives a company the opportunity to transform negative commentary into positive branding.

In short, Twitter is best rated for what it is -- a connector. And, a connector is only as good as the connection it makes. So, what sort of connections does your company need? Answer this question, and you will have a fair assessment of how much Twitter matters to your business.