Navigation blindness

GUUUI - Navigation blindness

Woth a read... about the possible shift from consistent navigation to goal driven navigation.

Funny Cartoons and SEO.

Funny Cartoons and SEO.

A lot of people still seem to think that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is something that can be bolted onto their site as an afterthought. Yes, there are things you can do once your site is developed to help with SEO, but nothing beats developing with SEO in mind to begin with.

Actually, hang on. Stop. I think I'm going about this the wrong way. The above paragraph is true but only because SEO was my starting point, and it's probably not the best starting point. The real starting point is you have a website. Given that you have one, you probably want people to look at it, for one reason or another. You hope that is contains something people want - a product, information, porn, whatever.

How do you get people to look at your website? Well, people use search engines a lot to find what they are looking for on the web. So as well as making sure you have a website and that it contains something people want, you now need to ensure your site is findable. Findability is a much better thing to discuss than SEO. SEO is fast becoming a dirty word - yes I know it's semantics, but ensuring findability seems like a nobler cause than Search Engine Optimisation don't you agree?

So how do you become findable? Well, let's look at BifSniff Cartoons. We had a site that was not findable at all. Very few people were visiting. The first thing we did to improve the site was ensure it was developed to web standards. While web standards themselves do not equal a more findable site, it is easier to develop a more findable site using web standards. You develop leaner, more organised code. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but organised in the right way, this can allow search engines to access your content easier and determine more easily what your page is all about, which in turn means improved chances of your site being returned in results for relevant searches.

What we also did was we spent a bit of time ensuring that the site would be found when people searched for "Irreverent single panel cartoons" because that's what was on our site. And we had some success with this - in fact we got into the top 5 in a Google search for "Irreverent single panel cartoons".

However, nobody was searching for "Irreverent single panel cartoons". So being in the top 5 search results for that term didn't exactly make our site more findable.

So, using tools like Wordtracker and Overture's keyword tool we identified "Funny Cartoons" as a far better option to go for as much more people were searching for 'Funny Cartoons' on search engines. Our mistake was that first time around we incorrectly identified what term people would use when looking for our content. I can't stress that point enough. It's a really common mistake - if you work in a company that makes teapot cosies you might assume people will search for 'teapot cosies' and you might miss the fact they are searching far more for 'stop tea going cold'. If this was the case, you could write an article explaining why tea goes cold and how to stop it using tea cosies - and whaddaya know, you sell tea cosies so everyone's happy.

And this is exactly what we did. The thing about a cartoons site is that although we were adding fresh relevant content weekly, that content was in the form of images which are not easy for search engines to decipher. So we helped by adding more text on the site, adding alt tags and headings to the cartoons and we also began writing articles relevant to funny cartoons and what we do. We also added a new blog to the site where the writer of the cartoons Brendan (or Bif) could muse about whatever he felt like. This meant fresh content of a more decipherable nature for search engines as well as providing more relevant content for visitors and increasing the value of the site as a cartoon resource as Brendan mused about all kinds of cartoon goings on. We immediately doubled our traffic and it's really early days yet.

The point of all this is not to outsmart the search engines, but rather to gear your site toward the content that your target audience are actually looking for. The reason I say this is because there are a lot of tools out there that try to outsmart search engines by reverse engineering how they rank sites and then do all the right things to get a good ranking. Search engines don't like this and constantly come up with new ways to defeat these methods. Now, don't get me wrong, I sneak a peak at those tools and try to use what I learn to my benefit but always remaining conscious to 'stay on the right side of the law' so to speak. And I mean the spirit of the law - not the letter of it.

If you want longevity for your findability efforts the most important points, I believe, are to develop to web standards, research what people want from your site and develop relevant content regularly. After that it's easy enough to fine tune to reap the benefits.

Worth reading:
Search Engine Optimization Tips
How Effective Is Your Keyword Research?
Top Five SEO Design Mistakes
26 steps to 15k a Day

kaleibloscope

kaleibloscope

I don't know why I like this so much... it displays a random selection of blogs on the page visually... snapshots of the pages themselves... only problem is it's a french site so most of the blogs are in French. Anyone know of another resource like this? It seems like a different way for random browsing which I like to do from time to time...

Searching For the Wrong Eyed Jesus

While writing the previous post, I came across a site for a documentary called Searching For the wrong Eyed Jesus, in which Jim White goes on an exploratory road trip in the Southern Bible Belt... Looks well worth watching, like Oh Brother Where Art Thou in real, modern day life and on magic mushrooms.

iTunes affiliates

I joined iTunes Affiliate programme the other day and just got around to having a look at it... just created my first link to a song I think you should go and buy if you don't already have it... I created the link on the Irish Store front, I'm still experimenting, not sure if I need to create links to varius store fronts or what...

Still Waters by Jim White

I've mentioned Jim White before, I bought the album Wrong Eyed Jesus on the basis of the cover... and it was one of the best musical purchases I had made in ages. It's weird americana inspired by the Southern Bible Belt. A strange mix of Christianity and witchcraft... well, just listen to it - it's great.

He's on LuakaBop which is David Byrne's label, I think some of the musicians Tom Waits used on Bone Machine worked on Wrong Eyed Jesus, generally speaking if you like Tom Waits you should check this out.

VW Polo Viral

I'm sure you'll have heard about this VW Polo Viral by now. I had a very quick look around a couple of sites and the official line is that it was created by Lee and Dan, a "creative team working in London" who, according to several sites, claimed "The ad got out accidentally and has spread like wildfire. It wasn't meant for public consumption."
Which is a little hard to swallow because as ad-rag.com points out the ad was on the Lee and Dan website, as confirmed by all the links to the now redundant page on their site..

The New York Post reported

Internet blogs and chatboards speculated that the ad was intentional and sanctioned by Volkswagen as part of a so-called "viral" campaign intended to generate buzz and rapidly spread via the Internet.

but in the same article it states

Volkswagen is planning to take legal action against the masterminds behind a hoax VW commercial depicting a suicide bomber.

and includes quotes from VW denying any involvement.

Earthlink.com pointed out

Consumers, on the other hand, can now wonder whether each supposed hoax is an authorized, but deniable, below-the-radar marketing ploy.

Ad-rag.com spoke to Dan, of Lee and Dan and said that "Lee and Dan are extremly tightlipped about who furnished them with the cash to film this, but they will tell us that they wrote the script and they worked with a Director named Stuart"

Which is extra interesting considering the Guardian said

The mystery deepened after MediaGuardian.co.uk tracked down the makers of the film, who revealed that some distinctively professional techniques had been used: it had been shot on 35mm film, not something an amateur would usually do, and cost £40,000, not a sum an amateur could afford.

However, to wrap up, the Guardian then has a final piece which says Lee and Dan are Lee Ford and Dan Brooks and said "Mr Ford put the cost of the advert at £40,000, but Mr Fryer said the cost was "more like £400"." - I have no idea who Mr Fryer is though, he doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere else in the article!

The same article reports

Volkswagen will not seek damages from the creators of a fake advert that showed a suicide bomber blowing himself up in a VW Polo, after reaching a legal settlement with the pair.

VW has achieved its goal of distancing itself from the spoof ad - which was made by London-based advertising creatives Lee Ford and Dan Brooks for their showreel but was emailed around the world - creating a public relations headache for the German car maker.

The piece also reminds people about the Ford Ka ads, such as the one where the Ka cuts a cats head off and says "Ford distanced itself from the adverts, but they were made by its advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather."

All of which still leaves me wondering about plausible deniability and viral marketing.