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It’s a truism, but like them all it’s of course true. Search has transformed our use of the web, and thereby just about everything in modern life.

But that transformation has been slow in getting to my pocket or my belt-clip. A recent survey by the 10 year-old San Francisco-based research firm Media-Screen finds that, although more than 60 percent of U.S. broadband users now own an internet-enabled mobile device, only five percent of them actually use the mobile internet.

When I’m at my desk I get it completely. Key in a word or two in the search box and I’m quickly presented with a whole list of links to which I can go, all of which have some degree of relevance to what I want. On the right hand side of my biggish screen there are the paid-for results too, which can often be just as relevant as anything amongst the so-called “organic” findings. Oh, and I’m sitting down, of course, and usually have time to scroll through my many options.

Out and about on the streets of New York, though, it’s a different story. With my mobile device in hand, I am on the go with limited time, and I’m VERY goal-oriented, not to say impatient with any expanse of information, not matter how interesting it might have seemed to me in a more leisurely setting. My connection is – for now at least – likely to be slow. Altogether it remains an unsatisfying experience – I wouldn’t for instance, try to find a vendor for a pair of chic boots west of Greenwich Avenue. Not via your cellphone screen, anyway.

So the industry is clearly trying to get a handle on this and improve things. The recent flurry of freshly-announced partnerships is some testimony to this. They include market giants like Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and a growing number of more focused search providers including InfoSpace, Fast Search & Transfer, Medio Systems, and JumpTap – and this upsurge in commitment certainly reflects a degree of excitement among both carriers and content companies.

But there’s a kind of blinkered vision at work, signified by the exclusiveness of the deals. T-Mobile has teamed up with Google, offering “web ‘n’ walk”; Verizon Wireless with Medio Systems, offering a Verizon-branded search service; a U.K.-based mobile multimedia company called simply “3″, with Yahoo! offering a mix of content and mobile applications … and there are many more in the mobile pipeline.

But a business model built on forming an alliance with a single search engine carries its own limitations. The Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has decided to do something different. It has created a wholly new mobile search ecosystem comprising more than a dozen engines, directories, and content companies. Each brings its own index and expertise- and the whole caboodle delivers subscribers a well-rounded list of relevant results crafted specifically for high relevancy.

The world-penetrating Finnish mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia, is doing its part too. It’s selling its customers on a comprehensive out-of-the-box mobile search experience that delivers vertical search through a variety of search and content partners. What’s more, Nokia’s approach pays close attention to user’s own context, enabling a mobile search approach for every different category and search situation.

In the end, though, I believe success in this field will come down to neatness of delivery – it reduces to an entirely presentational matter. Consider me on the busy corner of Gansevoort Street and West 4th, squinting at my 2 inch screen, and if you’re a mobile search provider you’ll have to give me a specific answer to my need, not just a range of links to choose from.

If the answer is, “We’re working on it right now”, you’re probably a little too late to make a huge difference this year. Am I raining on your parade when I say such things? If I am, I apologize… but it’s the truth. Let me explain…

Internet business and ecommerce is one of trends. I noted today to a co-worker that across most ecommerce sites I monitor, there are certain times throughout the year where internet users/shoppers tend to ‘unplug’, and traffic to these sites goes down accross the board (about 25% this time around). In turn, business is slow(er). Now, I’m not sure if this is the case across all types of sites, but it’s a definite trend in ecommerce and online shopping. An example of a time where things are consistently slower would be during the summer months. However, there are certain weeks or long weekends during the summer where things go almost totally black. These are generally the holiday weekends of memorial day, 4th of july and labor day which to me, is not suprising at all… People go away to the beach or elsewhere, and rightly so, forget about the internet and how addicted they’ve become to it.

Another obvious trend, and the purpose of this post, is that from labor day on through the holiday season, things really begin to pick up again. That 25% I noted lost during the summer is back in full force, and traffic across most sites looks to be on the verge of moving higher. Which has been a common trend for years now.

This, my friends, is the power of the holiday season online and the reason why you should be ready for it, today. So, I ask again… are you pepared?

It is during these slow summer months (and early spring) that all serious ecommerce site owners should be gearing up for this wave of traffic, which happens to be full of qualified buyers. It’s the perfect time to be making changes to your site, adding functionality, and tracking the results. Putting such tasks off until after summer is not a good idea. Technically, your site should be set and ready to sell in full force by mid September or so. The goal of every ecommerce site should be to outperform the year before. If you’ve been working on getting more traffic to you URL over the last year, that should indeed do the trick, but only to a degree.

What many people do not realize about doing business online is that a lot of sites sell, in spite of their efforts. What do I mean by that? Well, even though you might be doing some decent business online, chances are, you could be doing more. Getting more traffic is only one part of that equation… Another very important part is making site improvements which include things like testing usability, adding functionality via the back end (better shipping functionality, more streamlined checkout process, etc), making tweaks to the user-interface to draw more attention to important areas, implementing effective calls-to-action, etc… Have you been doing all of these things this summer?

Unfortunately, a large percentage of people seeling online have not been. Their only focus is ‘more traffic’. Like I said, more traffic will bring more business, but only to the degree of your overall conversion percentage. By increasing the effectiveness of your site at turning conversions, you’re also exponentially increasing the amount of success your site can see. Because not only are you now getting more traffic, you are converting at a higher rate than ever before. The result in eventual sales could very well be dramatic and push your site to an entire new level. And such is the beauty of ecommerce.

I often refer to building an ecommerce site as starting out with a small snowball on top of a very large hill that is called “Money Spent Online”. The amount of money spent online across the globe will only rise and in doing so, our snowy hill will indefinitely grow into a mountain the size of Everest, or bigger. It’s on top of this pile we place our newly formed snowball (or ecom site) and start it rolling down the hill. The further it rolls, the bigger it gets. But, The more sticky we make the snowball, the quicker it attracts more snow unto itself and the faster it grows. Putting up an effective ecommerce site that is search engine friendly while also providing value to your customers, is truely a ‘snowball’. Unless major mistakes are made via customer service, order fulfillment, etc… the snowball WILL grow. This is true strictly because the market for your product online will increase over time (in general) as will the saturation of your site within the search engines. This formula leads to definite growth. But at what rate will it grow? Well, that is entirely up to you and your efforts. Sitting there, ‘watching and leaving things as is’ will show you a very slow growth rate, but growth nontheless. However, it’s the little extra things you do to increase your conversion rates that will cause your ecommerce site to really start ‘snowballing’ into more sales and conversions. By making such changes, not only will you provide a better overall experience to your users, but your business will grow at a rate exponentially faster than if your only tactic is to increase traffic and hope people buy.

So… if you didn’t get on it this year and your site isn’t better than it was last year, be sure to take this into account for the next holiday season. Because one thing is for sure: Next year there will be more people buying online than there are this year, and your potential to capture more sales will only be higher. Take advantage of that fact as soon as you can and as often as you can.

I’ve noticed a trend lately that I find to be pretty interesting… As technology improves and the masses buy better computers and more up-to-date monitors, we as web developers make a decision to either grow with the masses or stay safe and design to strict low resolution standards. For anyone unaware of what I’m talking about, Jennifer Krynin at About.com does a nice write up on the subject in “A New Resolution”

So, how does this relate to advertising? The trend I’ve noticed is interesting to me because many High Traffic news sites and other high traffic sites looking to monetize their freely given content seem to be bucking the trend of upgrading with the times… Instead of making the decision to design for a higher resolution, they are sticking with their fixed width sites built for a minimum 800 X 600 user and using the extra space outside the right and/or left borders for advertising and branding. I’ve noticed this happening for a little while now, and the trend seems to be growing.

A few examples:

Here we see sportsillustrated.cnn.com taking advantage of the extra screen space and utilizing it to further push the brand Miller Lite wants to portray. In the top banner advertisment you’ll notice a grainy wood background behind the images and text… this wood background is then used vertically along the left and right borders to further seer that image into people minds. I’ve also noticed SI doing this when banner ads go up for movies. The latest example I saw was for the movie “Invincible”. Unfortunately, I wasn’t bright enough to get a screen shot of it at the time…

In this example we see MSNBC doing much of the same, except this site is fixed to the left and only has space to do so outside the right border. But again, notice they are using the ‘outside the width ad’ to compliment an ad that exists within the fixed width site. This reinforces the ad and brand a great deal.

So there we see two example of the trend I’m talking about… I hope to add more to this post as I find them. Have you seen anything similar to this? If you do happen to come across an example, take a screen shot and send it on over. It would be much appreciated.

What are your opinions on such a tactic? Is it worth the extra ad revenue to give this the new found real-estate? Would it be more effective to design to a higher resolution and utilize the extra space within the borders? Or is this a reactionary tactic taken by these big name sites because a) re-designing is a huge task and b) they are fearful that by increasing the design parameters they are not taking into consideration all of their users. Maybe this is just a happy medium for now…

Either way, I find it very interesting and a potentially powerful way the give their advertisers a value added service and an extra branding push.

technorati tags: white space ads | fixed width advertising | online marketing | off border ads

Each time a new site comes in the door for ecommerce development, I’ll be informed as to whether or not they are going to sign up with our SEO services. Regardless, I always involve myself in the development of all new sites to ensure proper usability, design and scalability for the future. But when clients simply sign up for ecommerce development I am hands off in many ways. One task inparticular that I do not participate in, is Information Architecture. That tends to be left in the hands of the client.

Suprisingly, it’s a little known fact that the better one structures their information via logic, segmentation AND naming, the better they will perform in the SERP’s based on those segments and names (assuming the site is built to be search engine friendly). I can’t tell you how many times I see unknowing clients categorizing their product inventory and assigning the most vague category names to represent their catalog offerings. Even worse is when they are interested in SEO services and refuse to budge on how the site will be set up, in this regard.

If all I have to work with on your gift site are two categories entitled “For Him” and “For Her”, you’re really not giving me much to work with, are you? From a search engine standpoint, what does “For Him” describe? Is that the phrase you’re targeting for high rankings? I sure hope not. But in truth, that’s what’s happening. “For Him” is what will appear in the title tag, “For Him” is what will appear in the navigation anchor text, “For Him” is what will appear in the heading… and so on. So from a search engine’s perspective (which is that of a text only view), the page in question is all about “For Him”.

But what is “For Him”? How about getting a little more specific..? Maybe set up category levels with the top levels being “Gifts for Men” & “Gifts for Women”, then break down the types of gifts the site offers for each. Under “Gifts for Men” you could add sub-categories that include “Sports Gifts”, “Graduation Gifts”, “Retirement Gifts”, and any number of logical descriptions and segmentations of your product offering, which also happen to be GOOD KEYWORDS.

High rankings not enough to get you to change your ways? Then do it for your users (who we should always think of first, anyway). If we’ve learned anything it’s that the majority of web shoppers aren’t all that savvy and need help navigating a site anyway. Setting up logical, descriptive categories and levels based on descriptive keywords will help aide the user in finding what they are looking for.

So, tip for the day… If you sell organic bedroom products and one category of your inventory happens to be organic mattresses, instead of following the initial instinct of naming that category “mattresses”, name it “organic mattresses”. This is much more on target with what the site is actually offering and will pay instant dividends with improved conversions and higher rankings down the road. Otherwise, you might as well sell regular mattresses and live in SERP oblivion.

Remember, a large percentage of the keywords a site should target can be accounted for through the logical structuring of information via categories and product naming. Why scramble to target those keywords later on and through other means when it can be effictively taken care of before the site is even built?

technorati tags: seo | information architecture | ecommerce seo

Over the years we’ve come to know Google and its user interface pretty well. And much like when you look at the face of your best friend (in my case, Tim), 20 years after they’ve been your best friend, Google always seems to look the same. But being avid Google users we know better than that (things HAVE changed), even though we’re fooled by our own perception and become oblivious. Just as Tim has aged and made certain changes to his look and life, so has Google. The additions and/or subtractions are often subtle and blend in well, but they are changes nonetheless.

Changes are made to serve a purpose. The purpose is almost always an answer to the question, “How can we make things better?”

As this concept applies to Tim… maybe his changes were made in an attempt to more effectively pick up chicks? He may have asked himself, “How can i make the ladies want me… more than they already do?” a tough question for Tim, I know… but still a valid one.

In the early 90′s, as a young teenager, Tim may have punched a hole in his left ear to sport an odd colored stone studded earring, stocked up on an assortment of champion sweatshirts in all colors and bought a bunch of pairs of SKIDS *ryan cringes*… Why? because studies showed back then that if you wore those sweatshirts, SKIDS and had a funny looking earring in one ear, girls might be more attracted to you. What studies am I referencing here? None in particular. But the social experience of life is much like an everyday experiment, especially at that young age when we’re looking for as much acceptance as possible (much like Google today). As Tim grew, he would make changes to his wardrobe, hairstyle, diction, etc. Each time Tim made a tweak and annouced it to the world, he would be perceptive of the feedback given…

“How did that change effect my life?”

Did the girls begin to flock to Tim like Charlie Murphy at a Rick James after-party? Or did it have the opposite effect? Reactions to Tim’s personal tweaks were duely noted, and over time he has modified his life and look according to social feedback. As a result, Tim now has a beautiful fiance and is no longer worried about what the ladies think (yeah right). Would he have gotten that result without the constant experimentation? Who knows… But even so, Tim still makes changes today whether he realizes it or not, and probably on a regular basis.

“But why the focus on Tim… I thought we were talking about Google?”

Oh yeah, Google. Let’s bring it back to that… Throughout its short history, Google has been doing the same thing as Tim has (as any good business should). Google makes changes both small scale and large then listens to feedback, tracks behavior and constantly strives to enhance the overall user experience. Since the degree to which something can be enhanced is infinite, this is a truely never ending process, as I mentioned above with Tim. With the spirit of change (for the better) in mind, let’s take a look back at what Google was, what it is today, and what other changes those bright folks over at the ‘plex’ are experimenting with now.

For a look back at overall UI change, there’s no reason to re-invent the wheel here. The folks over at outer-court.com have already done an excellent job at chronicling Google from 1997 – 2006. Have a look at that blog post post and when you’re done, come on back to see what UI changes are being made to Google listings (not the UI in general) today.

Today’s changes:

Over the last year or so many search marketer’s have been reporting different changes in the Google listings interface. These changes tend to show up sporadically and only a few of them have really stuck, to date. Regardless, it’s a good idea to note these changes as it provides us with some insight into the concerns of Google and how they are trying to improve themselves.

Image 1: Here we see an entirely new layout which could be considered a MAJOR change to the Google UI. In it Google has taken the text links that were above the search box and moved them to the left side of the page. This is a clear attempt to re-locate Google’s ‘other’ services into the path of the users eye.

To see this UI in action one either has to do some javascript tricks which are outlined here, or catch Google on a day where they’ve put this into play. Otherwise, the average user will not be seeing the above listing UI.

Image 2: Here is a UI changed that has actually stuck but is only seen for a very select few websites. Notice the 4 extra links below the natural listing.

To me, this is huge for any website that can acheive such a listing. It effectively pushes the user to a specific section of the website instead of relying on the user to navigate their way to that section. I get questioned at least once a week on how this listing phenomenon occurrs. Some industry experts claim that to see this, a site has to be considered an authority in their niche. But I’m not a believer in that at all. Although I agree some sort of trust must be established with Google to acheive these results, I do not believe it is an authority thing. Instead it’s my belief that a well structured site with some brand recognition can acheive this. The listing above is in fact a client and I can assure you they are not an authority on cookies. Instead, the site has been logically categorized and David’s Cookies has high brand recognition as their products are sold in retail outlets across the US. But getting back to the point, this is a UI addition worth some further discussion. It is a GREAT asset to have for any site.

Image 3: This UI change was pointed out to me today by Rand at SEOmoz. Rand mentions “onebox” results and that he first started seeing them in October of 2005. I reproduced the search using ‘new york to seattle’ and received the following results. In them you will notice two input boxes for dates of travel and 5 links to the major player in the travel industry today.

You may also notice that the main link entitled ‘Flight from New York, NY to Seattle/Tacoma, WA’ is a direct link to an expedia search for flights. One must wonder what type of deal Expedia has in place with Google (if any). That link is CERTAINLY beneficial to Expedia, much more so than the 5 links below the text boxes.

Image 4: In this example we see a drop down box replacing the text links across the top of the search box. In the spirit of the changes made in Image #1, this is just another way to display the same information.

*Added 10/20/06*

Image 5: Here we have a search for ‘back pain’. Notice the 8 links which are meant for the user to filter the search down further (treatment, symptons, etc).

Even more interesting, when one of these links is clicked to, the search query modifies itself with the more: function. I have yet to research this function and understand fully what is happening here but I will continue to update this post with any information I find. *added* We have found that this function (more:) is a labeling feature offered through the Google Co-op. A relatively unheralded service offering from Google that allows users to create specialized search for their chosen topic.

END OF EXAMPLES

It just goes to show that even Google is unsure of how to layout their own information. So when you’re agonizing through the decision making process of what to put and where, think back to Google and understand that even the largest companies aren’t completely sure what to do.

Which is all the more reason to TEST, TEST, then TEST again!

Testing is exactly what Google is doing here, just like Tim was doing when he made that fatefull decision to pierce his left ear. Google will test each of these UI tweaks and take in the feedback. Changes that are well received or improve the overall user experience may stay, and the others probably will not. But the information pulled from making them is invaluable.

Now… I know there are tons of other UI changes that Google has made over the years to listings as well as their own site layout… So if there is anyone out there with screen shots of something new or old, send it on over and we’ll expand our list.

When it comes to Internet Solutions, Big is No Longer Better

If you are doing business on the Internet you soon learn that the only constant is change. For a long time, companies that were making big investments in their e-commerce infrastructures only felt comfortable dealing with big established companies. They felt that there was too much at stake to take a chance with smaller vendors who offer more customized solutions.

This attitude is now changing. Companies are slowly realizing that a large entrenched provider may not provide the best solutions. Yes, standardized solutions work but because they have been designed to meet the needs of a broad range of companies, without really focusing on the specific needs of any one client.

This is what happened with Essential Apparel (www.essentialapparel.com) a big online provider of women’s and men’s underwear and active wear. They started out using a big enterprise solution called Market Live (www.marketlive.com) but soon discovered that the company which was reluctant to use unified code in their site was not providing them with the bottom line results they needed.

So essential turned to Tribeca (NYC)-based E-commerce Partners, a shop that has earned a reputation as an effective marketing street fighter for its clients. With their eye on the company’s bottom line, E-commerce partners re-designed the Essential Apparel site to make it much more search engine friendly, thereby boosting rankings and significantly increasing traffic to the site. They also added enhanced e-commerce functionalities to the site.

But the key to providing the best solution for Essential Apparel and the reason they dumped Market Live for a small more active provider, is to benefit from the ongoing attention of an experienced, flexible, knowledgeable e-commerce specialist. Search engines change algorithms and companies who want the best ROI on their websites need to work with vendors who are willing to make the extra effort to provide customized, high end solutions.

Google has shown us the way; simple clean layout with just the necessary amount of information to get what you’re looking for equals success online.  Not that this has not been done before, but Google showed us that a company can follow the clean look aesthetic and become hugely successful.  Myriad of websites have caught on and followed the path to a cleaner, more Usability-oriented design.  Now most of the major players on the internet are paying close attention to usability over mere design.  Perhaps it’s time for banner advertisers to take the plunge.

A vast majority of banner advertisements on the internet aim to distract the user from the content of the page with flashy graphics and annoying animations.  Sure, that’s the main purpose of a banner add – get the surfer’s attention and get her to click on the banner, right?  The problem is that most web users have learned to recognize what part of the page is a banner add and what is content, and will simply ignore the advertisement.  Given this scenario, a new strategy needs to germinate in the world of banner advertisement that is more in tune with the Googlesque philosophy of favoring content over visual stimulation.

When looking at a new website, and trying to determine its chances of becoming a success, one should pay close attention to its design.  Invariably, sites that pay more attention to allowing the user to get to the information outperform those that give way to gratuitous design.  Less is more – this is the new model of successful web design.  Does this mean we can do away with web designers altogether? On the contrary, it takes a seasoned and sophisticated designer to present the information in the most clear and readable manner possible.  A successful design will allow the information to shine while offering the viewer a pleasant and fulfilling browsing experience.

Much like makeup should emphasize a woman’s natural beauty, not the makeup artist’s skills, and like spices should mix gently with the inherent flavors of the meal, rather than showing off the skills of the cook, so too should good web design make the information appealing and enjoyable to take in, rather than draw any attention to the designer’s skills.

There will, of course be exceptions, and once in a while it will be necessary to make things pop more.  When designing a site for teenage girls, one would want to apply methods of design that would otherwise be frowned upon.  For the most ecommerce websites with conversion in mind, however, it holds true that a transparent design will deliver better results.

But getting back to our friends in the banner design business, how can they benefit from the philosophy of more is less?  One path that is very popular, is to ignore the shifts in web design trends, and to continue to pump out ads that are more obnoxious, and more distracting, in hopes that with most pages getting cleaner and calmer, the banner will stand out even more.  Well, I will be the first to say, that this strategy is working, although not to the advertisers’ advantage.  Banner ads are becoming easier and easier to spot, and thus to ignore; obviously not the results that banner advertisers are looking for.  So what would Google do?  For a long time now Google has been integrating paid, text-based advertisements into web pages in an unobtrusive manner that actually serves as a useful tool.  Google uses its superior search algorithm to insert just the right type of ad into a page that will be related to the user’s quest for information.  But these aren’t really the same as banner ads.  It doesn’t exactly take a designer or a flash artist to come up with a Google adword box.

For the answer to banner ad dilemma, let’s look to the advertising world outside the web.  In the early days, CocaCola used to give out free awnings and signs to bodega owners that sported their logo.  These were unobtrusive, useful tools for building brand awareness.  There are countless examples of other campaigns that utilized imprinted coffee cups, umbrellas, pens, etc., to build brand awareness.  The method is simple – Get people to know your brand, and associate it with the product or service you provide.

Surprisingly, few banner ad campaigns utilize this philosophy.  A banner can have one simple purpose – build brand recognition.  Try this for your next banner ad campaign.  A clean, concise banner designed to simply associate your logo with the service you provide.  Don’t make it flashy, don’t even put a click here button.  Try to make the banner integrate seamlessly with the site where it is to be published.  Submit this banner to a site that charges per click rather than per impression.  Since you only pay every time someone clicks on the banner, you will get massive amounts of free brand awareness.

I will be the first to admit that his proposition has a very selfish hidden agenda.  Much like many other web users, I hate annoying banner ads, and would like to see them wiped off the face of the World Wide Web.  My only hope is that some banner ad gurus will take this suggestion and turn it into a superior banner ad campaign that succeeds by enhancing our web browsing experience rather than annoying it.  Perhaps it will be so successful that others will follow in their footsteps, until in the distant future, we might experience a web browsing experience that is free of annoying banner ads.