There has been intricate relationship between the marketing as well as the computer interface designs. The products and services that we marketeers sell online needs to be presentable. If the products and services selling portal itself is well designed it half way done for us.
Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design
Strive for consistency
consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations
identical terminology should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens
consistent color, layout, capitalization, fonts, and so on should be employed throughout.
Enable frequent users to use shortcuts
to increase the pace of interaction use abbreviations, special keys, hidden commands, and macros
Offer informative feedback
for every user action, the system should respond in some way (in web design, this can be accomplished by DHTML - for example, a button will make a clicking sound or change color when clicked to show the user something has happened)
Design dialogs to yield closure
Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. The informative feedback at the completion of a group of actions shows the user their activity has completed successfully
Offer error prevention and simple error handling
design the form so that users cannot make a serious error; for example, prefer menu selection to form fill-in and do not allow alphabetic characters in numeric entry fields
if users make an error, instructions should be written to detect the error and offer simple, constructive, and specific instructions for recovery
segment long forms and send sections separately so that the user is not penalized by having to fill the form in again - but make sure you inform the user that multiple sections are coming up
Permit easy reversal of actions
Support internal locus of control
Experienced users want to be in charge. Surprising system actions, tedious sequences of data entries, inability or difficulty in obtaining necessary information, and inability to produce the action desired all build anxiety and dissatisfaction
Reduce short-term memory load
A famous study suggests that humans can store only 7 (plus or minus 2) pieces of information in their short term memory. You can reduce short term memory load by designing screens where options are clearly visible, or using pull-down menus and icons
Prevent Errors - The third principle is to prevent errors whenever possible. Steps can be taken to design so that errors are less likely to occur, using methods such as organizing screens and menus functionally, designing screens to be distinctive and making it difficult for users to commit irreversible actions. Expect users to make errors, try to anticipate where they will go wrong and design with those actions in mind.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Top 10 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Do's and Don'ts
Strategic Ranking’s Top Ten “Do’s and Don'ts" when optimizing your website for the major search engines are listed below.
10. DON’T use remote search engine submission programs
Remote submission programs are no longer the traffic generators they once were. These days, they mostly submit to free-for-all link pages. Most major search engines block (do not accept) submissions from these programs. Submitting your website to the search engines manually will reap the best results. Make sure you read the submission guidelines of each search engine carefully before manually submitting your web pages. It’s best to let certain crawler-based search engines (like Google) find and index your web pages on their own.
9. DON’T “keyword stuff” your meta tags
The days of cramming irrelevant keywords in meta tags and the text of web pages are gone. Well, at least the days where this practice is helpful to your search engine rankings is in the past. Use “relevant” keywords in meta tags sparingly—do not repeat them over and over again. Because of past abuses, many of the major search engines no longer give weight to meta tags. If the search engines find you using irrelevant keywords or stuffing keywords in your meta tags, they will penalize you for it.
8. DON’T participate in free-for-all link exchange programs or link farms
Yes, it’s a good idea to have a lot of links pointing to your site, but the search engines only like relevant links. If they find sites that have nothing in common with the content on your website linked to your site, they will lower your relevancy rating; thus lowering your overall ranking on their search results pages.
7. DON’T use doorway pages
In the past, spammers built “doorway” pages for the sole purpose of ranking high in the search engine listings. These pages would consist of a string of irrelevant keyword terms and links pointing back to their original site. If you use gateway pages, make sure that they are content-rich information pages that are relevant to the main topic of your original site.
6. DON’T use hidden links or text of any kind
The most common method of hiding irrelevant links or text is using the same text color as your background so that the text is “hidden” from the users view. The search engines will penalize you if they think you are attempting to hide text of any kind.
5. DO take care in the choice and placement of relevant keywords
Although, keywords are no longer the only factor determining a site’s rankings, selecting the right keywords or keyword phrases is key to generating traffic to your site. You need to choose keywords that people are actually using in order for your prospective visitors to find your website. Once defined, include those keyword phrases in your title tags, meta description, meta keyword tags and throughout the text of your website for optimal search engine rankings.
4. DO validate your code
Search engine crawlers like “clean” code. They are able to scan accurate code much faster and easier without stumbling over erroneous tags and other errors. It can be extremely beneficial to validate your website code before publishing—it will produce better indexing results. The W3C has excellent code validation tools.
3. DO submit your site to directories
Submitting your site to reputable online directories will help your rankings with the major search engines. This includes primary directories like DMOZ, Yahoo! and About.com as well vertical directories, like FindLaw.com, Realtor.com and Business.com. Make sure you read the submission guidelines of each directory carefully before submitting your web pages. It is also important to ensure that you place your site in the correct category of each directory.
2. DO establish relevant links from authoritative sites
Today’s search engines place an enormous amount of importance on the number of websites that link to yours. It’s not just about the number of links, it’s about the quality of those links as well. Search engines look at the context of the incoming links—the relevancy of the content of the two sites. Search engines also look at the significance of the site linking to yours. For example, your site will get a higher ranking if CNN.com or Fortune.com link to it as opposed to your Uncle Mike’s neighbor’s personal home page.
And the number 1 search engine optimization “DO” is…
1. DO create up-to-date content-rich pages that provide useful information
Creating content-rich web pages that contain useful information will not only help you with your search engine rankings, it will also please your visitors. After all, isn’t your audience looking for information? If your site does not provide valuable relevant content, your visitors will leave. They won’t likely come back either. Web-crawlers will visit your site more frequently as will your visitors if your content is updated regularly. So, if you want your web pages ranked well in the search engine listings, the most significant thing you can do is to provide ample valuable content.
as i read it on strategic-ranking.com
10. DON’T use remote search engine submission programs
Remote submission programs are no longer the traffic generators they once were. These days, they mostly submit to free-for-all link pages. Most major search engines block (do not accept) submissions from these programs. Submitting your website to the search engines manually will reap the best results. Make sure you read the submission guidelines of each search engine carefully before manually submitting your web pages. It’s best to let certain crawler-based search engines (like Google) find and index your web pages on their own.
9. DON’T “keyword stuff” your meta tags
The days of cramming irrelevant keywords in meta tags and the text of web pages are gone. Well, at least the days where this practice is helpful to your search engine rankings is in the past. Use “relevant” keywords in meta tags sparingly—do not repeat them over and over again. Because of past abuses, many of the major search engines no longer give weight to meta tags. If the search engines find you using irrelevant keywords or stuffing keywords in your meta tags, they will penalize you for it.
8. DON’T participate in free-for-all link exchange programs or link farms
Yes, it’s a good idea to have a lot of links pointing to your site, but the search engines only like relevant links. If they find sites that have nothing in common with the content on your website linked to your site, they will lower your relevancy rating; thus lowering your overall ranking on their search results pages.
7. DON’T use doorway pages
In the past, spammers built “doorway” pages for the sole purpose of ranking high in the search engine listings. These pages would consist of a string of irrelevant keyword terms and links pointing back to their original site. If you use gateway pages, make sure that they are content-rich information pages that are relevant to the main topic of your original site.
6. DON’T use hidden links or text of any kind
The most common method of hiding irrelevant links or text is using the same text color as your background so that the text is “hidden” from the users view. The search engines will penalize you if they think you are attempting to hide text of any kind.
5. DO take care in the choice and placement of relevant keywords
Although, keywords are no longer the only factor determining a site’s rankings, selecting the right keywords or keyword phrases is key to generating traffic to your site. You need to choose keywords that people are actually using in order for your prospective visitors to find your website. Once defined, include those keyword phrases in your title tags, meta description, meta keyword tags and throughout the text of your website for optimal search engine rankings.
4. DO validate your code
Search engine crawlers like “clean” code. They are able to scan accurate code much faster and easier without stumbling over erroneous tags and other errors. It can be extremely beneficial to validate your website code before publishing—it will produce better indexing results. The W3C has excellent code validation tools.
3. DO submit your site to directories
Submitting your site to reputable online directories will help your rankings with the major search engines. This includes primary directories like DMOZ, Yahoo! and About.com as well vertical directories, like FindLaw.com, Realtor.com and Business.com. Make sure you read the submission guidelines of each directory carefully before submitting your web pages. It is also important to ensure that you place your site in the correct category of each directory.
2. DO establish relevant links from authoritative sites
Today’s search engines place an enormous amount of importance on the number of websites that link to yours. It’s not just about the number of links, it’s about the quality of those links as well. Search engines look at the context of the incoming links—the relevancy of the content of the two sites. Search engines also look at the significance of the site linking to yours. For example, your site will get a higher ranking if CNN.com or Fortune.com link to it as opposed to your Uncle Mike’s neighbor’s personal home page.
And the number 1 search engine optimization “DO” is…
1. DO create up-to-date content-rich pages that provide useful information
Creating content-rich web pages that contain useful information will not only help you with your search engine rankings, it will also please your visitors. After all, isn’t your audience looking for information? If your site does not provide valuable relevant content, your visitors will leave. They won’t likely come back either. Web-crawlers will visit your site more frequently as will your visitors if your content is updated regularly. So, if you want your web pages ranked well in the search engine listings, the most significant thing you can do is to provide ample valuable content.
as i read it on strategic-ranking.com
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) vs. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)is an integral part of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which make the SEM complete. SEO is the most cost effective process of the search engine marketing. SEO and SEM are almost confused as they are the same, even most of the so called "online marketing expert" fail to keep the entity presence of the individual terms and found using both terms as same.
The difference between the two can be outlined as follows:
Its important to understand even the hairline difference amid the things to make it happen the way it should be. SEO and SEM should have a clear conception for most of the readers now.
Happy online marketing....
The difference between the two can be outlined as follows:
SEO is more of optimization of your webpages content, keywords, meta definitions, images and anchor tags optimization, articles and blog promotions. Its more of optimization where as SEM has SEO in it as well as the marketing activities indulged in it like paid inclusion and trusted feed programs,Link building, online brand development, adwords and PPC campaigns,social network marketing, e-media marketing.
Its important to understand even the hairline difference amid the things to make it happen the way it should be. SEO and SEM should have a clear conception for most of the readers now.
Happy online marketing....
Friday, January 2, 2009
What Is Internet Marketing Plan?
Whether you're getting ready to launch your website or internet business, or if you've already launched your site, you need an internet marketing plan. As the saying goes, without marketing, something bad happens: nothing! For more detail go to: www.inside-the-minds-of-winner.com.Without marketing, you're not going to make a penny!
In this article, I'll assume that you already have a website setup to market your product or service, and you need to attract and convert customers to your website. I'll also assume that your website is user friendly, with good sales copy and easy to order from.
The first step in marketing is to identify your target customers. Who are your customers? How old are they? What gender are they? What websites do they visit? What do they search for on the search engines when they are looking for your product or service?
When you first start out, you'll have to make educated guesses about much of this information, but as you go on, you'll start to get data you can use to answer the questions more accurately.
Let's assume that you're selling video games. Your prospective customers are probably largely young males. You can be pretty certain that they are visiting other sites about video games, computers and such. As for search terms, they are probably searching for things like "buy video games" or the name of the game they want to buy.
Now that you have a picture of your customer, it's time to get these prospective buyers to visit your site and make a purchase. For more detail go to: www.the-30-minute-marketing-miracle.com.Following are several proven marketing methods that are great methods to start marketing your site with.
Submit a press release about your site. Spend some time writing the release so that it is unique, newsworthy, and not just an ad for your website.
Start a small pay per click search engine advertising campaign. This is an excellent way to get immediate qualified traffic to your site. Start small, and increase your campaign as you track results and know what is working. Google Ad words, Yahoo, Ask, and MSN are all good search engines to advertise with.
Choose several low competition keyword phrases that will bring you quality visitors, and optimize your site for them. Choose the most targeted phrases that you can.
Building links to your website will bring you some traffic, but its main benefit is increased search engine rankings. Free directory submissions are an excellent way to build links to your site - there are hundreds of directories that accept free submissions. Just be patient, as it may take awhile before your submissions are accepted.
Article submissions are another great way to build quality backlines. Write an article related to your industry, or pay a ghost writer to do it for you. You can then submit the article to article sites yourself, or pay someone to do it.
newdesignworld.com/press/story/6872
In this article, I'll assume that you already have a website setup to market your product or service, and you need to attract and convert customers to your website. I'll also assume that your website is user friendly, with good sales copy and easy to order from.
The first step in marketing is to identify your target customers. Who are your customers? How old are they? What gender are they? What websites do they visit? What do they search for on the search engines when they are looking for your product or service?
When you first start out, you'll have to make educated guesses about much of this information, but as you go on, you'll start to get data you can use to answer the questions more accurately.
Let's assume that you're selling video games. Your prospective customers are probably largely young males. You can be pretty certain that they are visiting other sites about video games, computers and such. As for search terms, they are probably searching for things like "buy video games" or the name of the game they want to buy.
Now that you have a picture of your customer, it's time to get these prospective buyers to visit your site and make a purchase. For more detail go to: www.the-30-minute-marketing-miracle.com.Following are several proven marketing methods that are great methods to start marketing your site with.
Submit a press release about your site. Spend some time writing the release so that it is unique, newsworthy, and not just an ad for your website.
Start a small pay per click search engine advertising campaign. This is an excellent way to get immediate qualified traffic to your site. Start small, and increase your campaign as you track results and know what is working. Google Ad words, Yahoo, Ask, and MSN are all good search engines to advertise with.
Choose several low competition keyword phrases that will bring you quality visitors, and optimize your site for them. Choose the most targeted phrases that you can.
Building links to your website will bring you some traffic, but its main benefit is increased search engine rankings. Free directory submissions are an excellent way to build links to your site - there are hundreds of directories that accept free submissions. Just be patient, as it may take awhile before your submissions are accepted.
Article submissions are another great way to build quality backlines. Write an article related to your industry, or pay a ghost writer to do it for you. You can then submit the article to article sites yourself, or pay someone to do it.
newdesignworld.com/press/story/6872
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
