Why it's vital to write with search in mind

In my world things hunt in packs. I'll get a question from a client one day about a particular topic, something new that I've not needed to brief a client on before, and then within four or five days the same thing will have come up on a couple more occasions with other people. 

(As an aside, there are all sorts of theories for this phenomenon. One of them is the Law of Attraction.) 

Anyway, the latest one to crop up in almost every conversation I'm having at the moment is the need to write web copy with search in mind. From a technical perspective this plays out in the way you structure the code of your website to make it easy for Google and other search engines to index your site correctly.

But my topic for today is the thought processes involved in ensuring that your copy doesn't try to reinvent the language that people will use when searching for a subject. 

Webreality's working on a major project at present with a very big client with a huge team of content editors working on a large number of sites with thousands of content pages. In helping them migrate to a new content strategy where much of the content served will derive dynamically from their new site's search technology, the biggest challenge we will face is coaching their users to think first and foremost about how a piece of content will be found before they even start adding it via the content management system.

Gerry McGovern has written on this topic and has some excellent real life anecdotes that illustrate the need to write as users think rather in a way that fits the self-image of the publishing organisation. One of his most memorable posts on the subject is here. "Climate change" is the official terminology of most governments, but most people search for "global warming." Airlines used to prefer "low fares" until it became evident from Google's data that customers search for "cheap flights."

And it was one of Gerry's recent posts that brought the topic back into focus in the light of the current swine flu outbreak. The EU have been trying to "re-brand" swine flu as "novel flu virus." Now, we know that bureaucracies tend to expend a lot of energy in trying to change the way people think, but ponder the irresponsibility in the web age of trying to change the name of a virus that threatens the world after the world has universally adopted a particular name for the virus. A good way to prevent your citizens finding the latest information about how to reduce the pandemic risk. 

Gerry sums it up with, "Search is the greatest laboratory of human behavior that has ever existed. When words such as "swine flu" go wild on the Web, you must use those words because otherwise you will not be found. If you are not found then you are not useful."

Trash the splash

You own a shop. You want it to look "cool". So what do you do? It's obvious, isn't it? You hire a big, burly bloke, dress him in a cool outfit, stand him at the door with his arms folded, and tell him that when anyone arrives at the door they have to ask him very nicely if they can come in before he moves aside. Even if it's raining and they're in a hurry.

THAT'S the real world equivalent of the website splash page.

I hoped I'd never have to rant about them again.

Then, last week, I heard a designer (not one of Webreality's...) banging on about how "cool" Flash splash pages are.

Dude, it's 2009! And no-one says "dude" any more! Or uses splash pages.

Does Google have one? Does Amazon have one? Does Ebay have one? Does YouTube have one? Does Facebook have one? Does Twitter have one? (Think I've made the point.)

Great web design is rarely "cool". It just works. Quickly.

Moral of the story - if you want a website that works for your target users, use a web designer. Not a designer who does websites!

Cynthia loves thespiraltree.com

Message received by Sarah at thespiraltree.com:

"Sarah,

I have to tell you that your site is one of the most beautiful and calming that I have ever visited. The "spirals" of your tree are elegant and yet soothing and your choice of pictures, along with the layout, is just so welcoming. It was fun to just wind around and explore.

Cynthia"

Video poised to permeate the web

From mediapost.com:

"Video is poised to permeate the Web in a way that goes far beyond YouTube's user-generated clips."

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=98807

Privacy and Google's "behavioural ads"

Web users are impatient and time is short. Google has always strived for relevance in the search results and ads that it serves in response to a search term. No-one complains when an individual website serves up relevant content when we visit - see youtube.com as a good example. Google's allowing users to see and edit their profiles.

So what's the problem with Google's new behavioural ads?

This is the web at its best - intelligently serving relevant content to users.

Socitm 2009 UK council website review shows "stagnation"

Thanks to headstar.com for this news update:

""A picture of stagnation" is painted by many of the reviewer comments from this year's 'Better connected 2009' review of UK council websites by the local government Society of IT Management (Socitm), published this month.

Despite finding a steady overall improvement in the quality of UK local authority websites, the review says a range of website management issues must be addressed by councils if sites are to offer fully developed 'self-service' options to citizens.

Self-service will be vital if councils are to become more efficient and save money by reducing telephone and face-to-face service provision in tough economic times, it concludes.

The survey ranks all sites as either 'standard', 'transactional' for more interactive and better-developed sites, and 'excellent' for those that meet high criteria across all areas of review.

Eight councils have achieved an 'excellent' ranking in 2009: Allerdale, Barking and Dagenham, Bristol, East Sussex, North East Derbyshire, Salford, South Tyneside and Surrey.

This compares with five excellent councils last year and just one the previous year. However, levels of satisfaction recorded among people visiting council websites are some 10% lower than in 2008, the report finds, detecting just "marginal improvements against most criteria" since the previous year."

A brief review of the top sites cited in this report shows that Jersey and Guernsey's govermental sites have a long way to go to compete at this level. Gauntlet's down - Jersey's on the case! 

Usability testing endorsed

Great de-brief meeting with a Jersey-based client last week who's just completed a programme of usability testing with Webreality's guidance on a web portal and a set of proprietary web applications.

They want to stay anonymous at present, so no direct quotes from them, but our lead contact said he was a "testing convert." The results of the testing produced valuable design and layout changes that dramatically improved first time task completion in the second round of testing. The commercial benefits will be tangible.