A Design Problem : A Design Solution

Last week a plan to migrate Snap2SEO's blog page from Blogger.com to our domain www.snap2seo.com was hatched. Originally, the blog was set up at Blogger while the domain was being developed, now that the site is complete, it's time to forward the vision and establish a blog in the domain.
Snap2seo domain is written in html, which is Google preferred and this translated to achieving a top rank quickly. On release, I see new HTML sites leap over Wordpress and other CMS sites, to establish themselves on 1st page, so the HTML is the best option for the front end, but not the blog.
The aims of the blog were:
1. Attach the blog to the domain to give Google constant activity on the domain
2. The Snap2SEO blog solution will act as a template for client sites, so the working blog can't be dependant on coding knowledge. The client needs to be able to write a text or word file and when they save it into their website file, the code separates it and feeds the pieces into the right areas of the html code to create new posts previews, new post pages, links to older posts in the sidebar and it needs to generate new pages when the post list grows beyond the bounds of a single page. The code needs to handle the placement of images too.

So you can see it was a large task. Brainstorming ensued. Our resolution: The components of a blog are heavily automated and in an HTML environment the automation would be driven by Javascript or JQuery. When a site that is driven by Javascript meets a browser that has turned off its Javascript, it still needs to function. Highly unlikely with so many dependant parts, so a HTML blog wasn't looking like the answer to the blog at the end of our meeting.

A PHP driven design was explored as a better option. We could code the php from scratch, the code integrates with HTML seamlessly and offers us the automation we require, but in the interest of time we'd rather not re-invent the wheel. Wordpress is built on php, it's a blogging platform, so at Snap2 SEO we've decided to integrate a Wordpress blog backend into a HTML frontend and style it so as to be visually seamless. A simple Wordpress theme gives us a readymade layout which can be shaved down to take on the Snap2 SEO HTML navigation system and styles.

Rollout for our project is 4 weeks, so I'll keep you posted until then on Blogger.com.

Weighing more than 100kb? Your website needs to be on a diet.

Remember, usability studies show people don't read on the web. So what am I doing right now, you might ask? What we mean is that users approaching a business website looking for a particular product or service have a different consideration for their time than what they would have if they sat down to their favourite blog. It's about CONTEXT.
"When it comes to copy, short is too long. It must be ultra-short" says the leader of User-Experience, Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group
Lengthy pages don't work on the web and work even less for websites that are called to the phone.

Images read quicker than text. I've suggested you limit images in previous posts to keep the overall website super light, they slow download and if your landing page isn't formed in 3 seconds half your visitors will opt out of your website. The goal of image compression is to achieve a super small size,  in the tens of kbs or less, if quality allows. I see websites from leading developers with each image on their site over 200kb regularly, and consequently their websites weigh in the MBs. Ridiculous! A huge waste of resources, while they look spectacular, half the audience won't wait for these websites to download.

The quality of images sends messages to your visitors about your professionalism, so choose images carefully. Simple, easy to understand forms are needed by scanning readers who have no time for ambiguous messages and complicated detail. Never use images that have been ripped off another site, Google will frown on your site if it includes plagiarised content. Any professional website developer would insist on using licensed photography, either from a stock provider or a professional photographer.

Ban The Ugly Blue Hyperlink!

Links must be easily identified and their look should be consistent throughout the document, but does a hyperlink have to be default blue and underlined? Please, these days readers expect interactivity everywhere. Opponents of the ugly, eye stabbing, flow destroying blue hyperlink say any element given emphasis to stand out on the page is expected to be linked. Let me example what I'm saying right here: hyperlinks don't have to be blue or underlined. Any element can be given emphasis to attract a reader's attention and today's readers test for interactivity, looking for small clues like the hand cursor to indicate the presence of a hyperlinked element. The upside of this user behaviour for web designers is that links can be within the colour scheme of the website and therefore harmonious to their surrounds and the readers flow inside the document.

Older UX checklists advise to limit hyperlinks so as not to distract the reader, but the value of hyperlinks to Google's understanding of your website is well known by SEO strategists. Many of the top ranking SEO companies have over 1000 links on their websites. In the past the links have contributed to the authority of the website and it's credibility, but Google warns that things have changed and link farming is frowned upon. So, websites risk being demoted by Google in future if the links are found to be pointless. Still, sites with heaps of links are achieving a higher page authority right now until Google starts to implement the new algorithm, so Snap2's link building schedule looks to steadily add quality links to websites. Both inbound and outbound links are of value, the most 'link juice' coming from inbound links from quality sites.

The SEO Value of a Blogger Blog

Why Blog
Google's last Algorithm released in October puts emphasis on quality content. Rank, they said, would benefit from constant activity on your domain, but the quality of the activity was also important and Google would be looking to reward industry thought leaders making real contributions to the net, not just churning it out for the sake of appearances.

What to Blog With
If you have a Wordpress site your template probably has a blog page set up in the matching styles of your site. If you're in the market for a HTML site, and HTML is Google preferred, request the creation of a blog page from your developers. It needs to be part of the main navigation. It's best for SEO that the blog be a part of your domain, but while your blog is being knocked up you can create an account at Blogger.com and start blogging.  Google is smart enough to work out the blog is a part of your assets and Blogger is a Google product after all, so activity on a Blogger blog will still be of some value and content can be migrated over to your domain blog when its ready.  Snap2 SEO can retrofit existing html sites with blogs in the styles of your site if you don't yet have one.
 To set up a blog in Blogger you'll need a gmail account to use as your login, so if you haven't already, it's time to create an account with Google Plus. Through Google Plus you'll have access to gmail and YouTube, and a host of other useful tools. Then go to Blogger.com and create a new account using your gmail login.
In the set up of your account with Blogger you'll mention your domain link, but for extra punch, try to  create a hyperlink to your domain in the body of your posts. This can be more difficult than you think, because you don't want your content to appear contrived, your goal is quality writing worth reading. When the blog migrates to your domain, this extra hyperlink in your posts won't be necessary.

How Often to Blog
The minimum recommendation for blogging to have an effect on rank is once per week. The more activity you can muster through posts and people liking, sharing and following your posts, the better for rank. The blog page itself will start to rank, so in essence it becomes a landing page for visitors and from your blog they can explore your site easily and make contact with you.

There are challenges ahead, business needs to change tack

Cold Callers come at you from many angles: email, phone calls and texting, door to door, junk mail and in your social media. What can you do about it? It's never going to stop. It's not a sign of the times, it's always been. Telemarketers used to use the phone book to get your phone number, now they have digital avenues for contact too, but I sometimes wonder about the effectiveness of these old methods. Some of them seem so expensive to run for such a little return on investment.
Of course there are cheap methods and expensive methods in Cold Call and any strategy that involves human labour costs in Australia is not cheap, but for the hope of a sale some companies still gamble in door to door cold calls.

The statistics are telling us that online shopping is booming and Australians with Smart phones are researching the product and the company they're buying from online before purchasing and furthermore they are doing the buying on their devices. The marketplace has changed and business needs to change tack to move with their customer. Today, the retail outlet has become a place to inspect the real product, not necessarily the buying point of the product. The buyer comes home to find the fairest price and buys it online.

The digital age gives the customer all the power to make an informed decision and get the best price.

Should I even consider the Cold Call offer?
SEO of your site will get your site visible to more than just new customers. Are you prepared? As soon as you start to show in a Google search you'll be contacted by everybody, take it as a sign that you're becoming visible. It's not just scammers contacting you, it's genuine business too.
I'm receiving phone calls from the Police, the Fire Brigade and a stream of other businesses offering me advertising space in their print media, but I also get suspect SEO deals on a daily basis.

The availability of information on the internet makes weeding out the bad guys pretty easy to do.
If I buy, I buy online after I've thoroughly checked out the product and the supplier. You not only have access to their website, but you have access to their reputation through Google + and Directories which allow customers to leave reviews. To find a company's directories run a search on the company's name. Other than their website, you'll get their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter links in the search return if they're advertising through social media, but even a non-digital business has a Yellow Pages and a True Local profile these days. Be smart, dig down beyond the first 5 reviews and you'll start to see who the business really is. The reviews may be organised chronologically and a brand new business may have either performed really well at the outset, or the proprietor may have sequestered friends and family to make up entries. Go beyond these.
Lets be fair, I'll forgive one or two bad reviews, but what I look out for is a number of bad reviews all suggesting the same problem. I also look out for a response from the proprietor to the bad review. Is he belligerent and demeaning to those who question his performance or does he explain factors that the customer was unaware of and say he will amend this poor state of affairs in future?

When I buy online I prefer to use Paypal because the purchase is insured against Fraud when both parties are Paypal members. The ease and safety of online shopping coupled with the availability of information about the product and the business means that I don't even have to leave my house.


To wrap up: Online Campaigns offer convenience for the customer and offer a better Return On Investment (ROI) for the advertiser than old fashioned Cold Call. Provide all the information the customer requires to research your product and your business online, give customer support through your social media and reviews, and provide a safe avenue for transaction. With these in place online sales become much more likely.