If you are as much of an analytics nut as I am, then the video below is for you. It features Dr Matthew Hindman, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Arizona State University discussing online analytics. Dr. Hindman uses a variety of data from Hitwise to go very deep into the true analytics and much further than a basic web report.

From the overview, "Using three years of daily Web traffic data, and new models adapted from financial mathematics, this talk examines large-scale variation in Web traffic. These data show that Web traffic is highly heteroskedastic, with smaller sites having orders of magnitude more variation in the relative number of visitors they receive. These consistent patterns allow us to provide reasonable estimates of how likely it is Google will still be the most visited US site a year from now".

(more…)

As I surf the Web, I come across countless Web sites that use one of the following methods to invoke a javascript function when someone clicks a link:

<a href="javascript:somefunction()">Click to invoke somefunction</a>

or

<a href="#" onclick="somefunction()">Click to invoke somefunction</a>

Unfortunately, these types of links are completely unusable for anyone with javascript disabled (and, for that matter, the second example is completely useless to people that can’t “click” the links, such as people using older handheld devices). Even worse, the second example can be extremely annoying, as it focuses the screen back to the top of the Web page when you click it. (more…)

As I process more and more business cards over at my new startup, one thing I’ve noticed on (unfortunately) a regular basis are companies who haven’t setup their domain names properly. The company domain name works when you type the full “www.companyname.com” but if you only type “companyname.com” you get nothing. The errors range from a server error to a dns error.

For most hosts it takes only a minute to get the non-www domain working. Check out the search results on Google for information on how to set it up for your particular host. Even domain name providers like GoDaddy have instructions on setting up the non-www version.

Don’t lose traffic and more importantly potential customers because of something so simple!

I stumbled across a neat tool to be used during Web site development the other day. The tool uses javascript to examine the page and presents you with an overlay report of the accessibility issues in the page. The tool was developed by and is available from Accessify. It’s called the “Quick Page Accessibility Test.” Installing the app is as simple as dragging it to your Favorites/Bookmarks bar. Then, whenever you visit a page, you can click on the bookmark and the accessibility tester will pop over the page you’re viewing (complete with context overlays).

Anyway, after I installed the application and tested one of my pages, I came across an accessibility warning I had never encountered before. The warning message looked something like “This appears to be a list of links. Perhaps this should be marked up with ARIA landmark role ‘Navigation’.” I had never heard of ARIA landmark roles, so I ran off to try to do some research on the subject. About all I was able to find in my first attempt were some abstracts from the W3C. (more…)

Editor’s note: Below is a recap of the “Small Business Technology Summit - Search Engine Marketing Strategies” panel at the Small Business Technology Summit held in NYC.

Speaker: Harry Brooks, Network Solutions

Providing guidance to the community about how to use SEM.

Five basic steps:

1. Build Content - SEO
2. Build Backlinks - SEO
3. Launch Your Pay-per-Click Campaign
4. Analyze Your Results
5. Repeat

YellowPages is right where they want, when the customer wants it. Very successful ROI.

Build Content - Identify Profitable Keywords

(more…)

You’ve conducted the interviews - enlightening weren’t they? It’s now time to put all that information that’s in your head down on paper, and pull it all together into a complete picture.

This article follows on from our previous article which gave tips on how to conduct the interviews themselves. Here we give you some possible techniques to use whilst analysing your interviews, helping mould your results into something tangible.

Form your findings into a narration

After interviews you’ll find that you’ve lots of interesting thoughts and ideas bouncing around your head, but probably in no clear structure. The results will be much easier to understand and convey to others if they are ordered into a clear narration.

(more…)

Several popular websites have let their homepages be customised by users. New web technologies have made it possible to add slicker customisation interfaces so more sites are allowing users to customise their pages. But, should you do the same? Will it make your website better for users or will it make it unnecessarily complicated? Will users even want this feature on your site?

Types of customisation

Currently websites offer a variety of customisation methods, allowing users to:

(more…)

Online video is big business nowadays. Websites dedicated to video like Youtube, BBC iPlayer and 4oD have taken off in a big way, and an increasing number of websites are introducing video content to keep users engaged. This spread of online videos is in no small part due to the ever improving connection speeds - 90% of internet connections in the UK are through broadband (source: UK Statistics Authority). However, if you’re considering introducing video content to your site or looking to make the best of your existing video content, you must put the user experience at the forefront of your proposition. Here are some guidelines to enhance the usability of online video:

It’s a video…

The first step to getting your users to play the video is letting them know that it is in fact a video and not an image or text. Obvious as this may seem, it’s particularly important on websites where users aren’t expecting to see video content. When using a still as a thumbnail, provide a big, clear play button in the middle of it to show that it’s a video. If it’s a link, you can still use a play button in line with the link text to differentiate it from a regular link.

The MSN video site has an unmissable play button in the middle of the still.

The BBC effectively indicates links that lead to videos or audio files.

Descriptive title & summary

Set users’ expectations as to what’s in the video, what its purpose is and why they should spend their time watching it. Convey the essence by providing videos with descriptive titles that contain keywords. You must use relevant keywords which are good for search engine optimisation (SEO) as well as usability, as these are likely to be the terms people are typing in searches. Offer a summary of selling points to persuade users to watch it. This summary should be no more than a couple of lines or bullet points so it’s quick and easy for the eye to scan.

(more…)

Recently, I have found myself more and more frustrated and dumbfounded by the sheer lack of attention people seem to pay to their own writing. There are certainly circumstances under which I can understand using poor grammar.

However, over the last few months, I have encountered poor grammar in almost all situations from almost all types of people. I have seen sloppy, unedited writing in commercial marketing. I have seen and heard poor spelling and speech in professional situations and official communiques from various white-collar managers.

(more…)

Online communities (facilitated by Web 2.0) have become very important over the past few years - not only to niche communities, but now to mainstream brands. Social networking is about human connection and links between people. The reasons why people join groups and social networks are typically that groups can:

• Provide encouragement and support
• Establish identity with others and fulfil the need to feel included
• Provide the outlet for some people to establish their need for recognition, social status, control and/or leadership
• Alternatively, provide the necessary control over aspects of lives for those who don’t want to be leaders (e.g. Weight Watchers)
• Help establish friends, relationships and the opportunity to interact with others

Historically group membership has served an evolutionary survival function - put simply, there’s safety in numbers

There’s been much research into group psychology but not so much about how this applies to a marketer trying to monetise an online community or introduce one to their brand. Here are some interesting phenomena about groups designed to help a brand owner capitalise on networks and the social phenomena:

(more…)