There’s this small shop space on my walk in to town, off what we locals would call a twitten but everyone else would describe as an up market alleyway. Can’t be that more than fifty people pass it in a day. Yet optimistic types still rent it out and set up shop; usually in the spring, usually to sell the kind of tat that gives “bric-a-brac” a bad name, and they’re usually gone by the winter.

Last year or the one before it was a second hand bookshop called Bluebells. Bet you can picture it already. Books piled up everywhere: on wobbly shelves, in boxes, on the floor. Hand decorated signs stuck here and there, with no relation to the books stacked around them. Presided over by a friendly shop-keep happy to gossip and pass the time.

A customer couldn’t just go in to the shop and buy a book: all purchases came with the complete quaint Olde Worlde second hand bookshop experience. One of the TV networks was showing a series of Miss Marple Mysteries at the time. Instead of putting the Agatha Christie’s in the shop window under the banner “As Seen on TV” the shop-keep had the Miss Marple books in a pile labelled something like “Non Literary Crime Fiction” towards the back of the store.

The owner of that doomed shop made one of the fundamental mistakes Vincent Flanders identifies in web design: ”Believing people care about you and your web site.”

If the world cared about second hand bookshops our high streets would be flooded with cramped, smelly, confusing piles of rotten pulp fiction. That they’re almost extinct tells you what the world really thinks. But people might care about cheap books that, as far as the big bookstore chains are concerned, are out of print. Especially if you can recommended other similar works they might also like. Customers believe businesses care about them, don’t disappoint them.  

Filed under: Design, SEO by David
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Yeah, I know, it’s been a while since my last post. Where have I been? Joomla, that’s where. Well, not all the time, but the last three weeks.

For those who haven’t travelled that far South, Joomla is a Content Management System (CMS). No, that’s an understatement given the vast range of free and commercial development surrounding the basic Joomla system. It’s a fantastic marketing tool.

The hardest thing to do is sell without coming across as aggressive or overbearing. You know, one of those sites that make unbeliveable claims and are papered with “Buy Now” labels. Too many sites go to the opposite extreme, so subtle in their approach you’d hardly know they are selling anything at all.

Joomla is geared towards establishing a relationship with the visitor, turning anonymous passers-by in to active users and maybe paying customer. The ability to register users means you can get them to tell you what interests them and what they want instead of having to guess. An integrated newsletter feature means you can keep in touch, keep selling the site and your product. Done the right way and the user will even be grateful for your marketing campaign.

 Oh yes, Joomla and it’s like are an incredible marketing tool. And one of their best features is that they are completely free. Cannot be beaten, and I can’t wait for Joomla 1.5.

Filed under: CMS by David
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The way people actually walk across a space, if and when they are able to, is called a ‘desire line’. These impromptu paths can be seen in almost every open public space, worn into the grass, breaking through hedges, scuffed on gravel. Tanya Rabourn describes the negotiation process of incorporating such user preferences into the built environment.

The idea has real implications for the design of web sites. The ease with which a user can get from the point where they entered a site to the item, information or service they want can determine the success or failure of the site. There are webmasters who think to make money by leading their visitors through mazes of advert laden pages, but people simply loose patience and return to the referral site (usually Google) never to return. For webmasters with long term ambitions adapting the navigation system to users desire lines will help bring visitors back time and again.

Most webmasters try to devise the shortest possible line between the page where most visitors touch down, the “frontpage”, and the site’s key resources. Search boxes are also a useful resource, that is where most visitors arrive with a clear idea of what they want to find.

However, there are situations where closing down visitors options will create disillusionment faster than providing room to wander. I’ve just taken on designing a new web site for a beauty salon and spa. The search terms used to find such sites include words like “relaxation”, “pampering” and “luxury”, sadly there is no straight line to luxury. Instead, visitors have to feel free to choose their own directions of travel.

Desire lines are a vital part of my brief, therefore. How am I going to manage that element of user freedom, stay tuned.

Filed under: SEO by David
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I’ve finally got round to getting the comments form up and running as well as sorting out the archives and all the rest of the blog. So if you’ve been dying to tell me I’m an idiot, feel free.

Filed under: Uncategorized by David
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Jason Lee Miller, in his first paragraph, says:-

“A technologically advanced century brings with it more (much more) complicated questions that may or may not be properly addressed by old arguments. Worse, the concept is still hazy in the minds of most, making it that much more difficult to address.”

Let us start with a hazy concept: how the Internet is run is purely a domestic US matter. The flow of information is global and, in our technologically advanced century, how it that flow is controlled is of immediate concern to everyone. Indeed there are loud voices, led by the EU, calling for the US Federal Government to hand control of the Internet over to the UN because of doubts over the future neutrality of US regulation. Imagine the Congressional response to UN regulation of search engines.

Or another hazy concept: government regulation is the fix for any possible problem. Political control over the flow of information, opinions and debate, otherwise known as tyranny, is the oldest argument of all. It has never worked out well.

It is absolutely true to say that Google is just another flatfooted corporation. It will compromise its values without much hesitation for increased profits, hence its abortive deal with China. A growing networks of acquisitions, partnerships and affiliations, will further complicate the corporate decision making process. Things are no better or worse at Microsoft’s MSN, Yahoo, or any of the other search engines.

Though we can’t rely on market forces to automatically correct bias, look at the mainstream US media in the build-up to the invasion of Iraq, the global nature of the Internet gives some hope. The Internet makes it as easy to look up the news on the BBC as Fox, as simple to read Le Monde as the Washington Post, as hard to avoid alternative viewpoints as to find unquestioning support. Search engines have helped that process more than hindered it, can anyone be as sure of government control.

The great problem with any form of regulation is the implication of uniformity. In a system where all the search engines produce much the same results results there would be need for only one search engine. In a system where page ranking has to be approved by Congress it would be harder to find divergent opinions. The most telling line in Miller’s article comes after the discussion of Pasquale and Bracha’s call for a Federal Search Commission: “(the authors) were unable to detail how, exactly, this would be done.”

Most importantly greater US regulation would break the global Internet. It’s not just the regimes opposed to President Bush’s foreign policy who’d baulk at US regulation of the flow of information. Any democratic country would have some soul searching to do before acquiescing to regulation of such a vital part of public debate. The loss of global Internet would be a stiff price for trying to fix something that really isn’t broken.

Filed under: Political Internet by David
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A surprising number of webmasters simply reject any approach from a site with a lower page rank than their’s. I can understand the thinking behind such decisions. The need to avoid being defined as a link farm limits space in directories and traditionally a higher page ranking gives added value to a back link.

So a motorcycle repair shop with a rank of 4 may turn down a property development site with a rank of 1 in favour of an ice-cream manufacturer at level 3 and an estate agent with a page ranking of 2. Complimentary exchanges are being shut out in favour of a higher page ranking, but an obsession with levelling may be short sighted.

Remember: the object of S.E.O. is to appear higher in the results for searches on the keywords that describe your business. That is not the same as page rank, which is a popularity vote. Traditionally ranking played a role in sorting among the relevant results to a search but a new phrase has entered the S.E.O. lexicon: organic linking.

Search engines are obsessed with returning useful information, that’s what keeps the punters coming back. When someone searches for motorcycle repairs they want to get a list of business that do repairs on motorcycles. If the choice is between:

• A repair shop whose links are all with other motorcycle garages, motorcycle part suppliers, motorcycle training courses, with a page rank of 1
• A 4 ranked business whose links include ice-cream makers, estate agents, etc.

The higher ranked site may come out lower in the lists than the more focused marketer, because they’re more likely to be the right answer to the punter’s search.

Filed under: SEO by David
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Seriously, it’s got out of hand. Last night Google interrupted a fantasy date with Jessica Rabbit to ban my site for of an inappropriate link to The Walt Disney Company.

It didn’t start out like that. Google used to be my “go to” problem solver. When my system threw up some indecipherable error message, straight into Google it would go. Most of my online shopping trips began on Google (not Froogle. What is that, some kind of idiot cousin or something?).

That was all before Search Engine Optimisation entered my vocabulary and nightmares. Crossing over from Google the beneficent finder of treasures to Google the maker or breaker of my business has been a harsh experience. Sifting SEO blogs and websites for useful tips feels like panning for gold. 

• Put the keywords you want found in the contents and heading, but not too often. 
• Put the sidebar on the right, even though it looks wrong, so the Googlebot can get straight to the content.
• Avoid Flash, javascript, or anything fun.
• Swap links with your friends, provided they have the right content and haven’t linked to all their friends.
• Hang on to the long tail of the search for dear life.

SEO may help my business climb the greasy pole, but I’d rather go out with Jessica Rabbit than wait in for the Googlebot.

David

Filed under: SEO by David
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Blogs are the new year resolutions of Internet life. Literally so in the case of bigwetfish, the company hosting this site. A ‘tired and emotional’ post on New Years Eve then an apology in March, and after that all is silence. Some blogs undoubtedly get lost in the press of busy lives, but I don’t believe that’s the main reason why silence overcomes so many bloggers.

I’ve been fascinated by the trend where guest bloggers are invited to take the strain of writing. A blog isn’t like a course of lectures where a visiting academic can give new perspective on a theme. Blogs are personal thoughts: the best draw on an author’s experience and life. Imagine inviting someone in to think for you.

It was that last thought which penetrated my skepticism. When advising on an adwords campaign my advice is: “go where the audience are already looking.” Nothing kills the will to write more surely than knowing nobody is reading. So to keep my spirit up you’ll find me taking mental health breaks on other blogs, but I’m going to pack an attitude for the trip.

Filed under: Uncategorized by David
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