This week I wrote my first post for the new Search Bloggers site. In this post I tackled keyword research and how you can decide which keywords are feasible to rank your client site for.

Search Bloggers: Finding the Right Keywords to Target

It often makes far more sense to target less popular long tail keywords where the query space is less competitive. Yet we don’t want to do our clients a disservice by getting them to rank for keywords that nobody searches for. The right balance needs to be struck between search volume (and thus competitiveness) and ranking feasibility. Here are some tips on how to do that.

For State of Search I wrote a short post inspired by a recent research paper I read. The paper quoted other research that shows how a website’s design impacts the credibility of the information it contains.

State of Search: Want to be taken seriously? Start by looking good

The core message we should take away from this is as follows: no matter how good your content is, if your site design sucks you won’t be perceived as a credible source. In short, you need to make sure your site is pretty. Amateurish web design doesn’t work – and now we can quote the research to back that up.

Finding Feasible Keywords / Credible Web Design is a blog post from Barry Adams.

(This article was originally published in the Belfast Telegraph on 11 Nov 2010.)

I had the honour and privilege to be present at yesterday’s Build conference, an annual (web) design conference hosted in Belfast’s Waterfront venue. Organised by local Northern Irish talent Andy McMillan, Build is one of those conferences that provides nourishment for the design-geek’s soul: cool schwag, great talks, and more Mac logos than I was comfortable with. It even boasted a caffeine monitor that kept track of the amount of caffeinated beverages consumed by conference delegates.

From Click To Tap – Keegan Jones & Tim Van Damme
The first talk was by Keegan Jones and Tim Van Damme who both look and talk like stereotypical web geeks. They spoke about design for mobile, specifically mobile apps, and gave some great tips on how to make the best use of limited screen real-estate and what to keep in mind when you embark on your mobile web/app journey.

More Perfect Typography – Tim Brown
This presentation by soft-spoken – but very intense – Tim Brown appeared to be one of those typical design obsessive things, but sometime halfway through the talk it suddenly clicked for me. Tim Brown makes the case that web design should start with a choice of type, as this not only colours the content (try reading a piece of text in Times New Roman, and then in Comic Sans, and see how different you interpret it) but can also help you scale your entire design. By using your chosen font’s optimal size as a starting point and then scaling up with the use of for example the Golden Ratio (1:1.618) you can create a design that somehow fits well and feels right.

The Shape Of Design – Frank Chimero
Where the first talk was done by typical web geeks, Frank Chimero is a typical design geek – tweed jacket, hip tie, and Apple-addicted. His talk was a somewhat rambling affair about the role of a designer and what the perceived and real added value of design is. It all boiled down to that wearing old mantra that we have to be authentic and real and somehow try to ‘tell stories’, whatever that means. Don’t get me wrong, it was an entertaining talk, just not particularly innovative or insightful.

Adding By Leaving Out – Liz Danzico
I didn’t take a lot of notes during this talk which is very appropriate, as Liz Danzico talked about the power of omission. Liz spoke about how silence can have a lot of meaning and how white space is an active element of a design instead of a passive background. While interesting and thought-provoking, the talk lacked concrete advice – which was probably intentional, as Liz likely meant to inspire rather than lecture.

Conquer The Blank Canvas – Meagan Fisher
Meagan Fisher, a self-proclaimed owl-obsessive, laid out her four-step design process in this talk. She seemed a bit nervous on stage (and who wouldn’t be, being stared at by 300+ geeks and nerds) but she really didn’t have any reason to as her talk was probably the most fascinating and insightful one – for me at least. Not only did she gives us a great insight in to how she manages her design process and deals with each facet, her slides were also the most visually astounding. This talk delivered a double-whammy, as Meagan’s design process gave the audience very useful tips and insights and her slides served as a rich source of design inspiration as well.

Due to other obligations I missed the last talk of the day which was Dan Cederholm talking about handcrafted CSS, but as Dan’s reputation precedes him I have no doubt that it was a superb talk.

While these talks form the core of the Build conference, they only take up one day of what is an elaborate and highly entertaining week full of activities including workshops, a pub quiz, lectures, and even a film showing at Queen’s Film Theatre.

All in all I can say that Build is a conference every self-respecting (web) designer should try to attend. Some speakers have already been confirmed for the 2011 edition, and if you are at all involved in web design I highly recommend you try to be there.

Build Conference – a must-attend for web designers is a blog post from Barry Adams.

On the most recent edition of the Barcamp Belfast conference I did a 20-minute talk about the mistakes some web developers make when building search engine friendly websites. Much of the content in that talk came from a blog post I did for State of Search about the same topic – SEO for Web Developers. Below are the slides:

Presentation: SEO for Web Developers is a blog post from Barry Adams.

About nine months ago I was facing a sizeable site migration project at my employer at the time, and I was tasked with mapping out the best way of handling this migration to minimise the impact on our search engine rankings.

I wrote a post summarising my research into the SEO aspects of a site migration, and I feel the time has come to look back at the migration and the lessons we learned from it.

The site migration was a two-step process – we updated the design and we added new sections with fresh content. We decided to follow the recommendations outlined in my site migration blog post pretty much to the letter:

Content: We phased in the new content one batch of pages at a time. We put a couple of new pages live, linked to them from the homepage, and waited for them to be indexed & cached. Then we put the next batch of new pages online.

Design: The design changes were implemented gradually as well. The old and new designs weren’t radically different, it was more a tweaked & modernised version of the old design, so we felt it would be fine to have the old and new designs co-exist on the site for a while.

We first did a Google Website Optimiser A/B test to make sure the new design yielded at the very least a similar conversion rate. When this was confirmed, we migrated pages to the new design one at a time. The URLs all remained the same so we didn’t have to do any 301-redirects.

We used the Duplicate Content tool to ensure the HTML code and content of our key pages with high SERP rankings matched at least 90% in the old and new designs, so we wouldn’t get hit with a ranking penalty when we put the new version up.

When a page was updated with the new design, we waited for it to be indexed & cached in Google and checked how its SERP rankings were affected.

The end result was a site with a fresh design and new sections added, with minimal impact on SERP rankings. We did see some fluctuations in rankings but these fell well within the normal daily and weekly ranking variations.

We also noted that the new content started ranking fairly soon for relevant keywords, despite no direct links coming in to those pages. This is most likely due to the incoming link value generated across the rest of the site, spilling over to the new content.

It was a long and labour-intensive process, and in hindsight I’m not sure it would have impacted the rankings massively if we just switched the site over in one go. But as organic search generates a significant portion of the sites traffic and revenue, it was definitely better to be safe.

Site Migration SEO Concerns – The Results is a blog post from Barry Adams.

I’ve written before about website clickflow and content optimised for the sales funnel. I want to expand a bit on how you can turn visitors in to customers with strong calls-to-action.

A call-to-action is a button, phrase or link that tells your website’s visitors what to do next. That ‘Buy Now‘ button, those ‘Click here to read more‘ links, that ‘Register for a free trial‘ banner… they’re all calls-to-action.

Your website needs calls-to-action (abbreviated: CTA) to help turn visitors into customers. Internet users rarely take the time to thoroughly read text or contemplate a website’s purpose – they are used to surfing quickly and with purpose.

It’s therefore very important that you make it instantly evident what you want your website’s visitors to do when they come to your site. Do you want them to buy a product? Tell them. Do you want them to subscribe to your newsletter? Make it clear.

Here are some tips for effective calls-to-action:

• Short and concise - make it instantly clear what the action is you want a user to perform. Don’t elaborate too much but get to the point.
   
• Self-evident - a CTA that makes a user think is a bad CTA. Users need to know instantly what is required of them, so make sure your CTA is totally self-evident.
   
• Bigger is better - I’m not encouraging you to turn your whole web page into one big red CLICK HERE button, but don’t be too shy using big buttons either. Often webdesigners err on the side of caution, so don’t be afraid to try bigger buttons.
   
• Contrasting colours - Blue buttons on a blue background don’t really stand out much. Use contrasting colours, like bright red, neon green, or eyebleeding orange. This makes buttons and links stand out more from the regular content.
   
• Persuade - What works better: “Buy Now” or “Buy Now and get a 10% Discount”? That’s right, the 10% discount. Spice up your CTAs with extra benefits such as discounts, free samples, bonuses or limited time offers.
   
• Above the Fold - if you put your CTAs low on your webpage, changes are most users won’t see it as they have to scroll down the page to get there. Make sure you have a strong CTA high up on the page so visitors see it right away, then repeat the CTA lower on the page for those users who do take the time to read on and scroll down.
   
• Experiment - don’t be afraid to try out different CTAs on different pages on your website to see which one works best. You can also run tests with services like Google Website Optimizer to find the best call-to-action. As with many things on the web, continuous testing results in continuous improvement.

Implement strong calls-to-action throughout your website and you’ll have a more effective site that converts more visitors into customers.

If you want to read more about effective CTAs, read this great article from Smashing Magazine: Call to Action buttons: Examples and Best Practices

Use Strong Calls-To-Action To Increase Conversion is a blog post from Barry Adams.

So you’re thinking of redoing your existing website, or perhaps you don’t have a site yet and want to set one up. One of the first questions that you’ll face is whether to build and maintain your website in-house, or to hire an external agency to do it for you. What approach works best depends on many factors.

Do It Yourself

Building a website yourself by hand is a pretty daunting task. You need a solid grasp of HTML, CSS and possibly JavaScript and other languages. Additionally you need to be familiar with the basic concepts of web design if you want your site to look at least vaguely professional.

If you have the time and appropriate skills, building a website by hand is the cheapest and most flexible option. All you need is a good web host and off you go. Most of us however won’t have the necessary skills to build a functional and decent-looking website.

Do It Yourself, Advantages:

• Cheap
• Total control over your site
• The sky’s the limit

Do It Yourself, Disadvantages:

• Solid HTML and CSS skills are absolutely necessary
• It’ll consume a lot of your time

Web Publishing / Content Management Systems

With the abundance of user-friendly web publishing software available online these days it’s a tempting choice to use one of these and build a website yourself. Systems like WordPress, Squarespace and Wix make it look easy to design and build your own website in a matter of minutes. (Many webhosting companies also offer easy-to-use web content management systems, but these often turn out to be very basic systems that won’t get you very far.)

The uncomfortable truth however is that everyone can build a website with these tools, but building a good website takes a lot of time and effort.

Web publishing systems can help make it easier for you by providing design templates, easy layout options, and intuitive admin functions, but in the end you’ll still have to invest a lot of your time, and potentially money, to get the most out of it.

Every easy-to-use web publishing systems has its limits and constraints, usually necessary to ensure it remains accessible to non-techie users. You’ll also be forced to work with the design elements the tool provides you with, which can mean your site looks similar to other websites out there. A way around this is to have a unique design made for you. This doesn’t have to be an expensive option – unique WordPress designs for example can be had for a few hundred dollars or less.

Web Publishing, Advantages:

• Easy to set up
• Easy to use (mostly)
• Professional design templates are widely available
• With plugins you can add all kinds of functionality to many web publishing systems

Web Publishing, Disadvantages:

• Not all systems are free to use
• A truly unique design will probably cost you money
• Each system has its limitations in terms of flexibility and functionality
• Getting to know your tool and building a good site will take time

Hire an External Web Agency

If your pockets are deep enough and/or your time limited, hiring an external agency to build your website for you is a viable option. But don’t just hire any agency – shop around and compare. Many agencies are barely more than a programmer and a salesman working out of someone’s basement, and they won’t be able to deliver proper long-term service and support.

When looking for a web agency to outsource your website to, keep the following things in mind:

Does the agency have an excellent website? For web agencies their own website should be a prime demonstration of their skills. It needs to be as good as they can make it. If you’re not blown away by their own site, they may not have the necessary capabilities to build a truly great website for you.

Do they use a lot of technical jargon? Abundant use of web-speak may be a means of hiding their lack of expertise. You want an agency that speaks your language and can communicate their ideas to you in a straight-forward manner.

Does their offer match their price? As in all industries with web agencies you often get what you pay for, but sometimes an agency might take advantage of a new client’s lack of online experience. Don’t commit to a website costing tens of thousands of dollars until you’re totally sure they’re the right people for the job.

Do they offer good (and affordable) support? Building a website isn’t the end of the process, you’ll need proper support from the agency to keep the site up-to-date and error-free. Ensure that the support they deliver after the new website is live is part of the contract, and don’t let them charge huge maintenance fees either. If you’re paying more each year in maintenance cost than your website originally cost, you’re being ripped off.

External Agency, Advantages:

• All the hard work is done for you
• A good agency can supplement your own ideas and come up with even better concepts
• Your website will be unique and (hopefully) effective

External Agency, Disadvantages:

• It’s the most expensive option – by far
• You run the risk of being stuck with a mediocre agency and an under-performing website

Building a Website – Do It Yourself or Hire a 3rd Party? is a blog post from Barry Adams.

I often come across websites that feature abundant images. I don’t mean the images used in a website’s design, but the images that are a part of a website’s content. Sometimes it seems the whole content of a site is captured in images. This may work fine for sites that feature art or photography, but for most websites this doesn’t work.

An image may be worth a thousand words, but on the Internet words still rule as the foundation of good content. You can use images to support your written content, but you can’t use them to replace it.

Images are of course necessary. You can write several pages worth of descriptions of your product, but a single image will usually do much more to show your customers what you’re offering. But that image of your product shouldn’t replace your sales copy. It’s there to augment it, to supplement your written description. You still need words to describe your product’s and company’s advantages over your competitors.

Here are some best practices for using images on your website:

• Images don’t replace written content, they supplement and augment your copy.
• Don’t make your images too big. If the pictures you use on your site are too large they will drown your text and draw too much attention.
• Don’t make your images too small either. If a picture is too small it’ll be overlooked and you’ll lose the image’s impact.
• Let your text wrap around your images so that your images become an integrated part of your content. This ensures your visitors will absorb both the written content and the images.
• Don’t put written content in your images. Search engines don’t see images on your site, so any words you put in an image will be overlooked. Exceptions to this rule are images that perform an action when a user clicks on them, like a download- or submit-button.
• Use alt tags to give images descriptive text. These alt tags are what search engines see instead of the images. You can put relevant keywords in an image’s alt tag and thus help your site rank better in search engines.
• Use title tags to give your images appropriate tooltips. In an image’s title tag you can put additional written content that will show up as a tooltip when a user hovers over your image with their mouse pointer. Sometimes this can help you clarify or strengthen an image’s purpose.

Proper use of images on your website will enhance your site’s content and will ensure your users will have a positive experience on your site.

Best Practices for Using Images on your Website is a blog post from Barry Adams.

Pretty much everyone has a mobile phone these days. Mobile phones have grown into much more than just a way for people to call each other. Over the years mobile phones have become personal devices capable of delivering a wide range of interactive services, from music and movies to route navigation and surfing the web.

That’s why it’s a good idea to keep an eye on mobile developments and to prepare your website for mobile viewing. As more and more people buy web-enabled phones like the iPhone and G1, it’s more likely your website will be viewed on a visitor’s mobile device. Your standard website probably won’t function well on a mobile phone, so you need to make a special, mobile-ready version of your site.

Google, MSN and Yahoo all have mobile versions of their sites, as do Amazon and Ebay. More and more companies are developing mobile versions of their websites, as they realize that’s where the future of web browsing is heading.

There are a few considerations to keep in mind when developing a mobile version of your website:

• Mobile screens are much smaller. The average mobile resolution is 340×200 pixels (compared to 1024×768 and up for PC screens). This severely limits the amount of space you get to work with.
• Mobile data connections are slow and relatively expensive. Every byte of data sent to a mobile device can cost a mobile user money and makes your site slower to load.
• Keyboard functionality is limited on most mobile devices. While smartphones with full keyboards are becoming more common, most mobile phones don’t have a full keyboard and typing out words is often a somewhat laborious process.

This means your mobile website has to conform to totally different parameters than your regular, PC-viewable website:

1. Streamline your content to get to the point as quickly as possible. Eliminate marketing fluff from your copy and focus on the core issues. This keeps your content short and makes it easier to absorb through a mobile device.
2. Minimize the use of graphics as much as you can. No graphics at all is optimal, though you may want to put a small corporate logo on your mobile site. Every image file means more data to be downloaded to the mobile device, which slows down the use of your mobile site and takes up valuable screen space.
3. List your links below your content. Don’t put your links in fancy navigation trees, as mobile users probably won’t be able to navigate them adequately. Instead put relevant links to other pages on your mobile site below your content in an ordered list.
4. Optimize the user experience to eliminate as much user input as possible. Don’t make mobile users fill in long forms (which should be avoided anyway). Don’t make them click on a link six times to get to the meat of your content. Mobile users are limited on time and effort, so you want to make using your site as easy and accessible as you can.

There are several ways of implementing a mobile site. You can ask your website developer to create a separate mobile version that only users of mobile devices will see. If you use WordPress, you can install a plugin like MobilePress to make your blog mobile friendly. The W3 Consortium has a mobile web initiative that sets standards for mobile websites. And with a Google search you can easily find mobile website templates and services that make it very easy to create a solid mobile version of your website.

Mobile is the future, and by making your website mobile ready now, you’ll be ahead of the curve.

Is Your Website Mobile-Ready? is a blog post from Barry Adams.

A common issue I encounter on many websites, both on new small business sites and big corporate websites, is inadequate navigation.

This often happens when those that designed and implemented the site’s navigation lost sight of its true purpose: to help users find their way through the website.

Sometimes the navigation is rendered in Flash or JavaScript, ensuring that it won’t work properly in all browsers and that search engines won’t be able to use the navigation to find all the pages on your website. This will cause all kinds of long term problems with your site’s visibility in search engines and usability for visitors.

When you decide on the navigation of your website you need to keep its purpose in mind. Navigation is meant to be used by visitors to find content on your site. Here are some tips on creating a good navigation structure for your site:

• The navigation on your site need to be clear and visible. If you hide your navigation among other loud design elements, users won’t be able to find it right away.
• Keep the list of items short and use submenus to divide your content into logical structures. If you have a lot of content spread over many different pages, think hard about a good, sensible structure that results in short lists of navigation items.
• Consider the order of your navigation items. What are the most important pages you want your visitors to see? Put those higher in the navigation. If you have content you feel is critical for your users to see, don’t hide it deep in your navigation tree but give it a prominent place.
• Use plain HTML for your navigation. Don’t hide your navigation in slick JavaScript or Flash-applications. It’s OK to use images and mouse-overs, as long as you can accomplish it with plain HTML and CSS. If you insist on JavaScript or Flash, know that a percentage of your site’s visitors won’t be able to use it properly.
• Indicate the current page. Users always need to know where they are on your site. You can accomplish this by indicating in your navigation what the current page is. You can use highlighted text, a different background, or any other visual way of indicating where the user is in your overall site navigation.
• Don’t hide pages from your navigation. Every page on your site should be a part of your navigation structure. If you really want to hide a page from the regular site navigation, ask yourself what that page’s purpose is and why you really want to hide it.
• Your site’s navigation alone isn’t sufficient. Also link to the content on your site from within the text. When you do this, try to use the same link names as in your navigation structure, so that users won’t be confused as to where they’re going when they click on that link.

Always keep in mind that navigation exists to help your users find what they’re looking for. It should never be a hindrance. It’s OK to sacrifice the ‘cool’-factor. First and foremost your website’s navigation needs to do its job properly.

If you have a tip of your own for creating great website navigation, please leave a comment!

Keep Your Navigation Simple is a blog post from Barry Adams.