Content is the core of on-site search engine optimization.

• You must provide useful information that people will seek.
• This information should incorporate words and phrases that people will actually use when searching for what you offer.
• Such words or phrases must be specific enough to distinguish your content from others.
• But…these words should also be generally used and understood by your target audience.

Word choice and SEO: striking the right balance

The above guidelines seem rather obvious, but it's often hard to find that sweet spot between a phrase like auto racing—which is so broad it will generate 32,300,000 search results—and a phrase such as "subaqueous auto racing" which generated 0 results at the time I wrote this. (Note: because I've used this phrase repeatedly, this page will probably soon become the 1 result for the term...unless some of you go out and create competing content.)

Here on the Web Development Blog, as you know, I write about topics related to Web development. In an ideal world I'd rank well for the phrase Web development but it's too common. It can also mean different things to different people. I'm a long-time blogger, but I only make a few posts per month so I can't compete with Wikipedia and other major players on such a frequently used term. But if I get more specific, I can do well. Today this blog came in 4th out of 231,000,000 results for web development blog. My old blog (which links to this one) comes in 7th, so for now at least I'm getting two good results for that phrase.

Write first for readers, then for SEO

While robots crawl the Web, they do so to help people.

I didn't get these search results by analyzing my site and stuffing the phrase "Web development blog" every place I could find. I just used the term in the most obvious places: in the section title, the primary menu, and anywhere it naturally fit in the text. If you write for humans (rather than robots) you'll naturally include many of the relevant words and phrases in your text, but you may still need to do a bit of fine-tuning to match your vocabulary to your readers.

When we're writing for the Web, we're usually writing about subjects with which we are very familiar. We may use specialized vocabulary that makes sense to us, but isn't used by our readers. This could include technical terms pertinent to the field, regional terms specific to where we live or even phrases specific to our organization.

In order to make sure that our copy is both easily understood and easily found via search, we need to take a step back and read/edit the content with our readers in mind.

Choosing reader-friendly phrases for SEO—an example from higher education

Colleges, universities and other non-profit organizations all depend on fund-raising to serve their missions. Some organizations call their fundraising departments "Advancement." Others use "Development" or "Philanthropy." Alas those outside the non-profit world, including many potential donors, don't see those terms in the same way as insiders. Someone involved in manufacturing may think of "Development" in terms of product development. A recent graduate may consider "Philanthropy" to be the realm of the rich—and not realize it also includes his/her $25 donation to the annual fund.

Schools that use simpler phrases such as "make a gift for XYZ" or "give to XYZ" make it easier for donors to find their giving pages. For example, if I Google give to Dartmouth, the first result takes me to their Why Give page which also includes a direct link to their online giving page.

Why worry about SEO when we link to Giving (or whatever) from the home page?

If I know that I want to find something on a particular site, I'll just type the address in the url, then use the navigation or on-site search to find what I seek. I'm not everyone. I know many people who will use the Google search bar even when they know a site's address. Dartmouth alumni and friends may very well Google "Give to Dartmouth" rather than going to http://www.dartmouth.edu to look for the Giving link. Thus it's helpful that Dartmouth ranks #1 on that phrase. Organizations that have large sites—common in academia, Dartmouth has more than 300,000 publicly indexed pages—rely heavily on on-site search because they offer so much information.

Taking advantage of long tail search terms

Horses have long tails, so can you.

While a phrase like give to Dartmouth is both specific and direct, we can also get good results from phrases that are more unique. Awhile back, in SEO - keywords do the darndest things I asked if you were getting traffic from unusual words or phrases you didn't expect. My friend Wayne mentioned, via Twitter, that he gets traffic on phrases we might not want to repeat. David commented that he is getting good results for "Long haired guinea pigs."

I just looked at my analytics again and am now getting results on click here, have you tried jargon and rt hacool. These actually appear in my top 10 which surprised me, but these are still logical. I've written posts advising against using click here and against business jargon, and hacool is my Twitter ID. (rt stands for reTweet which means to forward someone's message on Twitter.)

While these and more general phrases such as "Web development blog" or "blog website tutorial" appear among the top 10 phrases bringing traffic to my site, niche-specific phrases make a significant impact. The phrase quantify and visualize twitter search results produced 5 visits from people who spent an average of 16:50 minutes on the site and visited an average of 7.6 pages.

Admittedly, 5 visits isn't many. But when you also get 2 for how to start redesigning your web site, 3 for cool html blog, etc. they start to add up. People visit this site via almost 2,000 keyword combinations (many of which may be variations on a theme). The top phrases may bring hundreds of visits each, but when added together it's the little niche terms that bring in the majority of traffic. The collective success of these individually smaller elements is what is meant by the long tail.

Woohoo! My site has the #1 spot for "subaqueous auto racing"

While niche phrases produce traffic, they still need to be relevant to our content. When Google indexes this page, it may get the #1 spot for "subaqueous auto racing." But placing high in search results is only half the battle. Such results only matter if people are searching on that term AND if I provide useful information on the topic. You and I both know that this article is about word choice and SEO. So if anyone searches that phrase hoping to learn about underwater car racing, they will be sorely disappointed and leave the site. Some marketers like to brag about making the first page of search results, but if the phrase doesn't bring visitors it isn't helping.

When editing copy for SEO it's easy to get wound up worrying about what phrases you should rank for, but if you write for your readers and apply common sense, you'll start to see meaningful results.

SEO Keywords and Phrases Resources

• Fast keyword Research With Google's Wonder Wheel
• Google Adwords Keyword Tool
• Google Webmaster Tools: SEO
• How to Find and Target Long Tail Keywords for More Search Engine Traffic
• Researching Longtail Keywords with Google Adwords
• SEO Advice for Bloggers, Straight from the Horse’s Mouth

heidicool.com is also on Facebook

Need more Web tips? Fan the heidicool.com Facebook page. I'm posting 1 tip/link there per day to offer ongoing advice on Web design, marketing and social media—without overwhelming your Facebook stream.

Postscript: Google works fast!

As of 3:50 p.m. e.d.t today, September 10, 2009, this page did come in at #1 for subaqueous auto racing. Here's the screencapture of the Google results page. I have a Greasemonkey script installed on Firefox that also includes Twitter results. As a result of looking this up I'm now also finding reTweets and links I didn't yet know about.

Everyone these days has been offering advice on how to use Twitter. Sometimes that advice is judgmental. But Twitter is a tool than can be wielded in many different ways. There's no one size fits all solution that works for everyone. Last year most of the Twitter advice I saw was focused on practicalities. Instructions were shared on how to use #hashtags to indicate a topic, using RT to ReTweet, when to DM (direct message), where to find people worth following, etc. There was also plenty of advice on Twitter etiquette, but now that seems to have gone past the Emily Post phase.

Now there seems to be more of an inclination to suggest that Twittering "this way" instead of "that way" is the preferred way to behave in the Twitter social sphere. While there are many rules that polite Tweeters should follow, such as not being insulting, others are more subjective and depend on each user's situation. Who we follow and what we Tweet are two subjects that seem to get people worked up. Today I'd like to focus on the "who to follow" debate and whether or not this is an issue of etiquette.

First a few thoughts on manners

Manners allow us to put others at ease. These "polite" rules are designed to smooth interactions between individuals. They provide us with a framework so that we can behave in a manner that makes people comfortable and doesn't cause embarrassment or discord.

If we follow the rules of manner—within our particularly society—then we can all play nicely in the same sandbox without squabbling over each other's toys or making someone cry. In most circumstances, we can follow the same general rules on Twitter that we would in regular society. We just need to think of parallels found in the outside world and keep in mind that Twitter is global.

The international nature of Twitter means we should be considerate of differing social mores. For example, those of us used to an American confrontational style should keep in mind that this style may be discomfiting to our friends in Asia and the Middle East—where the practice of allowing others to "save face" is more common. Those of us tweeting in English should also consider the differences in American and British variants of the language. Avoiding words that have different meanings across the pond can will help us communicate more clearly and in a manner that won't offend.

Must we follow back?

Assuming we've all agreed to play nicely in the Twitter sandbox, what are the rules when it comes to following? I've had people tell me, "I'm not going to follow X. He doesn't follow back his followers, he just wants to build numbers so I'm not going to follow him." Personally if X provides useful information I don't care if he follows me back or not. If X posts self-indulgent marketing garbage, that's a different story, but I don't think we can judge a Tweeter's value by their following policy alone.

What do you think? Is a user's following policy a question of etiquette or personal preference? Must we follow back everyone who follows us? Should we automatically rebuff those who don't?

Some say following back one's followers is the correct and polite thing to do. They accuse the twitterati who follow few, but are followed by many, of being anti-social Twitter snobs who don't want to engage the community but just want the attention. But is that a fair accusation? Does it apply to everyone?

What would Emily Post say?

To get a better sense of whether this is an issue of etiquette, I'd like to compare following habits to two real world situations.

1. Do you send holiday cards to everyone who sends one to you? I don't, but I've never made it a practice to send cards. If I did, I'd draw up a list based on my friends and family. I wouldn't include the paint contractors, real estate agents, printers and others who are hoping to do business with me. Nor would I send one to every person with whom I've made an acquaintance. I'd probably have a set budget for cards and a certain allotment of time to spend on them. Thus I'd focus my finite resources on the people I think would be most happy to hear from me during the holidays.

2. Are we expected to attend every event to which we're invited? Must we invite everyone (who invites us) to all of our own events? No. I'm sure most people would like it if we could attend all of their events. But they also understand that our time is limited, we may have conflicting obligations. Similarly they know that we can't invite them to all of our own parties due to costs, space limitations, different interest groups, etc.

There are many reasons we may choose not to accept an invitation, and it is perfectly acceptable to RSVP in the negative without explaining our reasons. Twitter should be no different.

Twitter Snobs: define them by intentional actions rather than follower ratios

Given that I see no moral or societal obligation for users to follow back their followers, that doesn't mean that we don't see bad follower habits on Twitter. But instead of judging a Tweeter as a snob based on his/her follower/followee ratio, what if we thought instead about intentions.

Good Twitter Intentions

Many popular Tweeters, be they actors or tech celebrities follow few but are followed by many. While some have campaigned on podcasts and T. V. to get more followers, many others have not. These people are followed by many simply because many people like the content they produce.

Such Tweeters follow few others for their own reasons. Often they just want to manage their lists so they can focus on the people who produce the content that is of most interest to them. This could mean that they are only following friends, family, peers in their field or anyone else that seems appropriate.

I have no problem with this. The primary value I get from Twitter is the information shared by my fellow Tweeters. Many of these people feel the same way. If we somehow forced these folks to follow us all back in return, then they'd be stuck sifting through over-crowded Twitter streams wasting time trying to find the information they really want. I see no reason to make their lives more difficult just to appease my ego.

Bad Twitter Intentions

Yes there are Twitter snobs. Some people are online to gain followers rather than to gain information. We see these people following hundreds at a time—with a motive of gaining followers—then quickly unfollowing them all to boost their ratio and seem cool. I would consider this to be bad behavior because they initiated the action—to make people follow them—yet had no intention of continuing the relationship or engaging in conversation.

Such people often provide other clues that can help distinguish them as snobs or spammers. They may have an annoyingly polished profile picture, tweet about their follower count repeatedly, identify themselves as some sort of expert (though you are in their field and have never heard of them) and tweet about themselves or their projects without engaging in conversations or retweeting links from regular people.

Collectively their Twitter usage habits show that their goals are not to engage with the community but instead to promote their product, service or ego.

Let's give the popular tweeps a break.

There's nothing wrong with wanting more followers. For those of us who have something to market, it's helpful to build our follower lists. My Tweeting patterns are mostly about sharing ideas and conversations, but if Tweeting can bring more readers to my blog, or help me find clients in need of my Web services, then a larger following will help. That said, I still prefer to use a targeted approach. I seek out people who share interesting insights and ideas and may also find value in what I share. Conversation comes first, marketing second.

I'm not one of the "popular tweeps" but I think many of them share a similar attitude. Instead of judging them on their followee/follower ratios, let's judge them on how they play in our Twitter sandbox overall. I'm not saying you have to start following these people if it doesn't suit your strategy. But if you're snubbing Tweeters because you think they have snubbed you, you may be missing out on people who really aren't as evil or rude as you think.

Heidi's following policy

I follow back most of the people who follow me, but not all. I get 5-25 requests a day, so I visit each, skim their profile and Tweets, then follow back if they don't seem to be spam, aren't on some popularity quest and share a sufficient variety of Tweets to seem interesting. That said, as my numbers build I am becoming a bit more finicky. I'm beginning to look more closely and not follow people whose Tweets are so narrow in focus or so out of my topic range that we're not likely to converse.

More on Twitter following attitudes

• Ari Herzog: Can You Help My Twitter Growing Pains?*
• Ari Herzog: Why My Twitter Train is Stopping*
• Inside the Minds of Twitter Users
• To Follow or Not to Follow; that is the Question
• Twitter Follow Rules - Who To Follow

* My friend Ari recently experimented with different Twitter following strategies. He'd been following few, then tried following all. That became overwhelming so he went back to following fewer than he had originally. These articles walk us through the process and the issues he considered in making his decision.

Genesis: Follow You Follow Me

Somehow I don't think Twitter was what Phil Collins had in mind.

Recently a fellow on LinkedIn asked about developing Web content for lead generation. His company produces equipment used in manufacturing. This equipment is sold through sales representatives who can work with prospective clients to choose the product best suited to their needs. Thus the goal for his Web site is to solicit qualified sales inquiries from prospective customers.

Generating leads is different than generating direct sales.

If you are marketing books, you can sell directly to the customer via the Web. On a site like Amazon I can look at a product description, read some reviews and make up my mind right away. If the book sounds promising and the price is right, I'll click the "add to cart" button and be on my way.

But what if my purchase represents a more significant investment?

What if I'm shopping for a $500,000 machine that goes "bing." This is not the kind of thing I'll blithely add to my online shopping cart. This is the kind of thing I'll research. Based on the (hopefully) thoroughly prepared needs of my organization I'll start my research on the Web looking for product information, recommendations, etc. The information I find on the manufacturer's Web site, via Google and Yahoo News, on Twitter, etc. will help me narrow down my list of potential vendors.

If you happen to market a machine that goes "bing" and have made my short list, then I'll become a qualified sales lead as soon as I fill out your online contact form. At this point it is up to your sales staff to match my needs to the right item in your product line. If all goes well, I'll buy the machine, it will serve my needs, and the next time I visit your site will be to share ideas, tips and tricks on your customer forum or to buy another machine.

The costs of dissatisfaction—what we want to avoid

Alas, not every story has a happy ending. But the level of unhappiness depends on the situation.

If it's spring and I'm ordering herbs from your online catalog, I have certain expectations. I want the plants to arrive healthy and ready for the garden. If the mint plant I ordered turns out to be basil, I'll be disappointed, but I'll probably just end up making pesto and e-mailing you to see about getting the mint.

If I've bought a machine that is supposed to go "bing" but instead goes "ploing," my unhappiness level goes up considerably. If the machine doesn't perform as expected it could frustrate the staff who operates it, produce inferior products that my customers don't want, increase my costs, decrease my revenues, etc. Who will I blame for my unhappiness? I'll blame you, the manufacturer who made the machine. Who will hear about my dissatisfaction? In this age of social media, it could be anyone. Obviously I'd start by seeing if my sales representative could resolve the problem. But if not, a quick grumble on Twitter, Facebook or a blog can ripple through the Internet quite rapidly.

Now everyone's unhappy including your attorney, sales department, media staff, other customers who begin questioning the quality of their machines, etc. This negative turn of events could lead to a return of the product, a lawsuit, bad press, the loss of my future business and the loss of business from other customers.

If you're a legitimate organization interested in generating repeat business, rather than making a quick sale and skipping town, this is obviously a situation you want to avoid.

Preventing unhappiness—qualifying leads on the Web

With big ticket items much of the decision making is done during the sales process, after the lead from your Web site is turned over to your sales representative. As Web marketers we can't do much about that, but what we can do is manage expectations by providing clear and accurate online material on what our products or services can or cannot do. This will help to insure that the leads we pass onto the sales team are from well-informed consumers who have an actual need for our product or service.

Our job, as lead generators, is to make introductions. Just as a matchmaker vets her clients to ensure they are potentially compatible, we want to vet our site visitors to ensure that they:

• Are in the market for a product or service we offer.
• Can afford to purchase the product or service we offer.
• Wish to make a purchase in the near future (they aren't just window shopping).

We also want to educate our potential customers so they can assess us. They will want to know that:

• Our product or service will serve their particular needs.
• We offer the most efficient and cost-effective solution to their situation.
• It won't require undue amounts of modification to do the job.
• Our customer service team will offer ongoing support to help them get the most out of their purchase.
• They can trust in our quality and expertise both now and in the future.

The material on our site should give our visitors the knowledge they need to determine if our offering has the potential to meet their needs. For example, if you are in the market for a Web site, my Web services page will show you the types of services I provide, and my portfolio and this site overall will give you examples of my work. If you want to dig deeper, this blog and my Planning Your Web Site Tutorial will tell you more about my Web philosophy. From this you can learn that I can develop a site that will serve your academic department, small/medium business, blog, etc. so that you can inquire about how I may help you develop a site suited to your goals.

I don't publish pricing, because there are too many variables involved—you can assume that I'll cost more than your nephew who taught himself HTML and less than some giant uber cool design agency. Not listing prices is common in lead generation because customers often have a budget in mind and may exclude a vendor on price alone. If our actual costs are fixed, we could publish prices to let clients make the choice immediately. But if pricing is flexible, it better serves our clients if we can work with them to find a service or product that fits their budget while still serving their end goal.

It's also important that our sites provide enough information to let customers know if we're not the right solution for them. If my services aren't right for you, it's better for you to know that from the start. If you're the Behemoth corporation and you need a new 15,000+ page site that will require a large team to input the content, write custom programming and shoot video it makes perfect sense that you'd be better served by working with a larger firm.

I'm continuously tweaking my site to better serve the above objectives—and have come up with some new ideas while writing this article—but in the end my site (and yours) must serve the needs of our visitors.

If our Web presence (which may extend beyond our own sites to include social media and news sites) can match qualified parties with the right product or service, while weeding out those who would be better served with something else, then we'll have done our jobs. Our sales team will be one step closer to making a sale that will be satisfactory to both parties.

Content development for matchmaking

This all seems obvious enough but how do we do this? How much information should we provide to entice customers to make an inquiry? If we offer too much information, such as pricing and detailed product specifications might we accidentally turn away customers who would actually be a good match?

That all depends on the product or service we're offering. Each situation is unique, but it all comes down to educating our audience. We have to let them know the core qualities of our offer so they know whether it has the potential to suit them. And we have to let them know where the wiggle room exists in situations like pricing. If there are specific areas or features in which questions may arise, we should use these as opportunities for them to make an inquiry.

College and university admissions Web sites can teach us a lot about this. While university Web sites, as a whole, tend to offer information on almost anything you would want to know about a school, the admissions sites are aimed specifically at recruitment. As we all know, a university education is very expensive. It also requires a time commitment. You'll not only pay a lot to go school, but you'll be living there for at least four years. What you experience in those four years will affect the rest of your life, so picking the right school is one of the most important purchasing decisions most of us will ever make.

Admission sites usually provide a good overview of campus life and academics, but they know we can't make an application decision based on student quotes, course listings and pretty pictures alone. They're also quite aware that they're in the matchmaking business, they want to attract students who will benefit from what they have to offer and they want to accept students who will add value to the school through their research, leadership, volunteerism, personality, etc.

To help students through the process, schools may:

• Ask students to join a mailing list so they can get updates from the university.
• Publish calendars of regional events where students can meet admissions counselors in their hometown.
• Invite students for campus open houses where they can spend a weekend on campus with a current student.
• Blog about the admissions process and what to expect.
• Showcase the availability of financial aid to show that the school is more affordable than tuition would indicate.
• Arrange for them to interview with alumni.
• Help them connect with a sports coach or professor in their field of interest.

These are all opportunities that allow the school to connect with—and help guide—the potential student, just as a sales representative might guide a prospective customer. Each place this information is shown—on the Web—creates a lead generating moment in which the student is given the opportunity to connect online or in person with someone who can answer questions and provide more in depth information.

Admissions officers are well aware of the factors a student considers when choosing a school so they focus on the core factors as areas to generate leads on their Web sites.

But similar information is available in the corporate world. If you're developing content to generate leads, talk to your sales representatives. They can show you what factors apply to your product or service. They may also be able to introduce you to current customers who can give you insights into how they made their purchasing decisions.

Happy endings: educated site visitors are more likely to buy

You may send out e-mails and brochures, but your Web site is online 24 hours a day all year long. For many customers your site is the first impression they'll have of your organization, product or service. If you give them the information they need and offer convenient points for them to make contact you'll have started them off with a good impression and you'll provide your sales/admissions/recruitment team with leads who've already expressed a sincere interest in your product or service.

This will make it easier for the sales representative to match the prospect with the best product or service for his/her needs and make the actual sale. If the sale is made and the match turns out to be well-made then our long-term benefits are greater than the one sale alone. Most of us want repeat business. If we're making heavy equipment we want to sell more of it to our current customers. If they're happy with our products and service they will buy more. If we're a university we want the relationship with our students to continue past graduation. We look to alumni to become donors, volunteers and good will ambassadors for our schools.

We can't achieve all of that with a Web site alone, but we can use our sites to lay the foundation upon which the rest of the relationship is built. If we're generating leads, we're not selling widgets. We're making introductions that could lead to long-term relationships.

What's your story?

Do you have a lead generation story you would like to share? What's worked for your site? If you have tips or best practices, please feel free to share them in the comments below.

Related Marketing Articles

• MKTG 101: Web Content Should Serve Visitor Needs
• Copy Writing: Long vs. Short, Does it Matter?
• Don’t build your Web site in a vacuum

Edu Blogger Scholarship Update

I didn't win the top prize, but I did win one of the two smaller blogging scholarships. Thank you all for you support and kudos to fellow Ohio blog, The Old College Try for the winning entry.

Monday I started redesigning a site that I'd first built in 2003. Tuesday I received today's mission from Problogger's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project: "Write a list post." Somewhere in my brain these thoughts collided, so today I thought I'd share some of the core issues I consider when working on a redesign project.

Why do you want to redesign your Web site?

Hint: The answer is not "because the old site is old and boring and I'm sick of looking at it. I want something new." A lot of site owners use this line of reasoning, but we have to keep in mind that we're designing sites for our visitors, not ourselves. If you're thinking about redesigning a site, take stock of the old one.

Look at your site analytics and read your visitor feedback to gauge what is or isn't working. As Cameron Moll wrote in 2005, Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign, so it is up to you determine which changes will enhance your site and which are change for the mere sake of change.

Web site goals

You've heard me wax forth about goals in my Planning Your Web Site Tutorial, so you already know that you have to set specific goals to develop content and measure results. Presumably you did that when you first built the site. But things change over time. Does your original goal still apply? Or is it time to focus on something else? For the site I'm working on now, the goal remains the same, but the scope has expanded. The site was developed to market one product. Now the company has 9 products in 3 product lines. These lines have related, but slightly different target audiences. So while the site still has a goal to sell widgets, it must now be adapted to appeal to a broader audience.

That site had, and continues to have, a clear objective. Such objectives are easy to determine for small commercial sites. For others it is more difficult. Most of us want our sites to do it all: sell more widgets, increase brand recognition, make coffee, etc. But if we try to tackle too much we'll never develop a clear vision. Instead try to focus on one primary objective. What do you want the site to accomplish this year? Is this the same objective you had originally or have situations changed in such a way that you should now focus on something else?

Let's say you're the chair of the philosophy department at University X. You have an interest in applying philosophical thinking to real-world scenarios and want to add more interdisciplinary classes—covering topics such as cognition and intellectual property. Doing so will require more faculty—and the funding to hire them. To make a case for this you must demonstrate a demand for these courses, a demand that can be shown if there is an increase in the number of students taking philosophy classes or, better yet, selecting philosophy as their major.

You have several weighty goals for the department, but if you establish student recruitment as the primary goal of your Web site, you are one step closer to achieving the rest.

Content: What information must you provide to support your goal?

Given that you already have a site, you may have existing content that will also serve your goal. That said it can be distracting to sort through what exists and what doesn't. Instead come up with a new outline based on the new goal. You can then use that to determine what old content to keep or revise, what content to create anew, and how the content should be organized.

For our philosophy site we can consider our recruitment goal by asking the following types of questions. What do students need to know about philosophy to decide if it is right for them? What are the features of the program? What benefits will it provide? What are the requirements?

Students must be given sufficient information to determine if the subject is right for them or not. Philosophy seems vague and esoteric to many, so the site should define the topic, the skill sets used in studying it and the benefits gained from its study. In our current economy, when many choose a major based on how it will help them find a job, it's also helpful to show the practical value of studying philosophy.

I majored in Philosophy because I found it intriguing. I'm the kind of nerd who liked the story problems in algebra; I see the world as a series of puzzles. The study of philosophy gave me a new approach to solving these puzzles, a framework through which I could approach problem solving from a variety of vantage points. I later discovered that this type of critical thinking applies as much to marketing and Web design as it does to hypothetical questions of ethics and meaning.

Prospective students and their parents may not yet know this. My parents supported my choice as they were already strong supporters of a classic liberal arts education. But they had friends who weren't. Vocal friends who asked things like "What are you going to do with a degree in philosophy, sit on a mountain top dispensing wisdom?

In this day and age it's not enough to show that philosophy builds critical thinking skills that can be applied to all aspects of life. People are more skeptical about spending money on a degree that doesn't seem as practical as one in business or engineering. To counter such obstacles you'll need to show exactly how the philosophical method can be applied to the real world. Examples of logical fallacies used in advertising, or ethical questions regarding file-sharing, help demonstrate how the specific reasoning skills learned in the study of philosophy can be applied in real life.

Whether your goal is to share information or sell more widgets, it's important to think about the audience. What information do they require to make the choice to do what you wish them to do? Get into their heads, consider the goal from their perspective, do market research, then apply what you've learned to developing your content.

Content formats: how can we most effectively convey this information?

These days people are anxious to add video and interactivity to their sites to show that they are keeping up with the latest technologies. But video isn't appropriate for everything. Think about the content first and let that help you determine its format. Will you be including a list of available philosophy classes and course descriptions on the site? How would you present that? Would you show a video of Professor Smith reading the course descriptions? Or would you present the information as text? I'd go with text.

How is a philosophy class different than one in math or history? Would it help students to see a class in action? Perhaps this is the time to videotape Professor Smith. If he's known for leading dynamic class discussions, ask him if he'd let you video tape a few seminars. This allows you to share his expertise and knowledge with the public while also letting prospective students see what a philosophy class is like.

Do you want to include educational resources on ethics or logic that will teach students about the field while also enticing their interest? Perhaps you could create a blog or discussion forum in which you pose questions so that readers can respond.

If you think carefully about the information you wish to share and what site visitors should do with it, you'll soon find yourself choosing content formats that are far more appropriate than some talking head yammering at a camera.

Organization/navigation

Once you've come up with a list of the content, and content formats, you will need to support your specific goal, you can organize it into an outline or site map that will guide you in organizing the content and navigational structure of the site. As before try not to look too much to your old site for guidance at first. Instead look at your outline with fresh eyes. Put yourself in the mind of your target audience, and see which content items form logical content clusters.

Then, when your new outline is complete, compare it to the old site. Is the new structure completely different? Or are there only slight variations? This will help you determine whether your revised site will need a new menu system or just some minor adjustments. Also look at your site analytics. Are there pages on the current site that are important but don't get enough traffic? Are those pages hard to find? Is the content less than compelling? Will your new outline make it easier for visitors to find and view these pages?

Whether our new site will be redesigned entirely, or modified slightly, we can learn a lot from the statistics for our old site. They can show us the pathways visitors use to get to specific pages, the amount of time people spend on pages, and which pages they are likely to use as exits from our site. If certain pathways are often used we can try to maintain them so that we don't break anything that is currently working well.

The pages our visitors spend the most time on are typically the most important. If they're not on your new site outline, you may wish to add them. Are there important pages (to you) on the old site that visitors don't spend time viewing? Do these pages support your new goal? If so consider how you can make these easier to find and improve the content so they provide more value to visitors.

Technology/code

Ideally your old site was built in W3C standards compliant HTML using semantic mark-up. If so it will make it far easier to re-use any of the old content you intend to keep. If not, here is your opportunity to clean things up. Whether you are making significant design changes or minor alterations this project will probably involve edits to every page. Given that, it's a good chance to make some changes.

Did your old site use a table-based layout? Did you use bolded paragraph elements instead of headers? If so, try recoding your site using CSS and semantic mark-up. This will both clean up your code (so you're not stuck trying to make sense of all those old nested tables) and help with search engine optimization (SEO).

Also consider how technology has changed and what new options are available through your hosting provider. For example I used to use SSI (server-side includes) to include repeating elements such as headers, menus and footers. I'm now using PHP which also makes it easier to create unique page titles based on my page headers. If your content will include new features such as videos and interactivity, research the best methods for presenting these. Perhaps a content management system or blogging software would help. For my project I'm using WordPress. This makes it easier for me to group items by category and generate RSS feeds and will allow the client to post event and product announcements.

Your needs will vary, but if you take the time now to determine what the best practices are for the features you'll require, you'll find that the site is easier to rebuild and maintain.

Graphic Design

People assume that a redesign means a change in the visual look and feel of the site. But how much you change depends on your goals. Does the current look support your corporate identity and brand? Does it work with the new goal? Does it support the navigational scheme of the new site plan? Do visitors like it? If so, a dramatic change may not be necessary, it may in fact cause confusion. If this is the case you may want to just tweak things here and there to support the new structure.

On the other hand, if you've changed your logo, the old design doesn't serve the new goals or if your site looks like it was built by someone's 10 year old nephew, then yes, change is in order. Let the new goal and your brand identity lead the way.

I take a fairly minimalist approach to design. I don't want flashy graphics and images to compete with the message. Instead I want them to augment the message. But the header image on the site I'm redesigning focuses on only one product. Now that there are more products I'm changing the header graphics and color scheme to better reflect the theme of the full product line. For example, if my site had originally been about grapes, I might have had pictures of grapes and vineyards on the site. But if the company now sells a variety of fruits, my imagery must reflect that.

There's neither time nor space here to fully discuss design theory, but as you work on your new design concepts, keep your visitors in mind. Your favorite color may be hot pink, but your site is meant for your visitors so choose color schemes and readable typography that make it easy for them.

Marketing

Build your new site with marketing in mind. Properly marked-up code, and the use of keywords in your content (especially headers) will improve SEO, thus making your site more easily found in the future. Avoid technology choices, such as using Flash for your entire site, that don't support SEO, page linking, bookmarking, cross-browser compatibility, etc.

Compare your new site plan to the old. Try to keep the old file structure intact as much as possible. If your site has been around for awhile, then others are already linking to your pages and those pages are ranked in Google and other search engines. You don't want to lose what you've already established, so if you can avoid moving old pages, that will help. If you must move or delete old pages, then use 301 redirects to guide visitors seamlessly to the new pages.

When you launch the new site, consider this an opportunity to re-connect with your visitors. If appropriate, poll your visitors before and after the redesign process to get their input. People hate change but they like to feel included. It's impossible to design a site that will appeal to everyone, but if you have access to user input, it will help you design a site best suited to your audience.

When the site is ready, you might also send an e-mail, announcing the launch to your existing user base. Some people will praise you, some will opt-out, and some will complain. Respond to the complaints in a timely and thoughtful manner. You may have annoyed them with your changes, but you've also started a conversation with someone who cares enough about your site, product or service to voice their opinion. Keep them onboard by responding to their issues.

As with any Web development project, there are far more details to consider, but I hope these have provided you with a good starting point for your next redesign. If you focus on the goals and the needs of your site visitors you'll be well on your way.

Web Design and Development Resources

• 10 Tips to a Successful Web site Redesign
• Daniel Burka on Iterative Design (video)
• The Definitive Guide to Semantic Web Markup for Blogs
• Understanding Web Design
• Usability First: Web site design

Edu Blogger Scholarship Update

Thanks to everyone who read Learning for fun and adventure: online education comes in many flavors. Through your support I made it to the finals! If you're interested in higher education and related topics, you may want to peruse the blogs of the other finalists. You'll find some good reads there. (Which means I've got some stiff competition.)

When I wrote about the goals, history and move of the Web Development Blog, I mentioned that the move would present some marketing challenges. Specifically I wondered how long it would take to transition readers to the new location so that readership would equal, then surpass the levels I had on the old site. In conversations I've had with many of you both online and in the real world I've promised to share my progress. It's now been just over a month since the Web Development Blog moved to it's new home, so today I thought I'd update you on the progress I've made so far and the strategies I've employed.

Where are we at now? How do readership levels here compare to those on the old site?

While I'm not going to share exact numbers, you can see from the following table that readership for the first month is now equal to 20% of readership at the old location. I'd love to tell you that I'd hit 100% already, but I think reaching 20% in one month is actually pretty good. I'm currently attaining numbers I didn't reach until 17 months after originally launching the Web Development Blog at the old location.

The new site has 2 advantages compared to the original launch. 1) It has several years of content, so over time search traffic will grow. 2) The old site links to the new from several pages so readers of the old blog will be able to easily find the new one. These factors will continue to contribute to readership growth over the months to come.

The new site has the same disadvantage as the old one. I don't blog as often as many bloggers do. Each new entry provides new opportunities to gain traffic. This will be the fourth entry posted since the transition. Increasing my posting frequency (while maintaining quality) is probably the number one thing I could do to grow readership more swiftly. Alas, I have Web sites to build (though if you need a Web site or consultation I am happy to take on new clients), advice to give, and a special project I'm working on, so my goal for the time being will be to try to post once per week. If I can change that to something more frequent, I will.

How are visitors finding the site?

The following table shows the top 10 traffic sources for both the old and the new sites. While there are some overlaps between the two, there are also some differences. Sites such as StumbleUpon and blahblahtech.com that are sending more traffic to the old site do so because they have several pages that link to different entries on the old site. If I write more entries here, that will appeal to users of those sites, then they will start sending traffic to the new site as well.

You'll also notice that the new site is getting 2 types of Google traffic. Organic traffic is coming from people using Google search. Referral traffic is mostly likely coming from Google Reader and from the RSS feeds. I'm using Feedburner for RSS and Google now owns that.

Additionally, the new site is getting traffic from sites that weren't sending much traffic to the old site. This is partly due to happenstance and partly due to my marketing endeavors.

Marketing tactics that seem to be working.

Given my other projects I can only devote so much time to marketing the blog, thus I try to focus on the strategies that will be most effective. Here are a few tactics I've employed in the past month.

Blog Commenting

As I've mentioned on several occasions, leaving relevant comments on other blogs is a great way to generate traffic and forge connections with fellow bloggers. Some companies hire staff who spend all day scouring the Web to find blogs and comment upon them. Often these are the types of spammy or irrelevant comments that I must delete from my own blog, so I don't take the same approach. Instead I comment organically.

I'm subscribed to many Web development and marketing blogs that I read or skim on a regular basis. Additionally friends send links to interesting blog entries on Twitter, FriendFeed, StumbleUpon, etc. If I happen to read a blog entry that interests me, AND if I have something to say that I think will add value to that blog's readers, then I will make a comment on the post. When I do that, my name will typically link back here to the blog. If I've already written an entry on the same topic, I can also include a link to that entry within the comment.

Sharing Links on Twitter

I use http://twitterfeed.com/ to automatically Tweet new blog entries as they are posted. Since these automated Tweets compose but a small fraction of my overall Tweets this isn't considered spam. (It would be if I only used Twitter to promote my content.) I also share links to specific blog entries in response to questions people ask on Twitter.

For instance if someone asks "What is SEO?" I can Tweet something like "SEO is a method to make sites more findable via search engines. Learn more at http://www.heidicool.com/blog/2007/07/13/an-introduction-to-search-engine-optimization-seo-part-1/." If the Tweet is more than 140 characters I can substitute a tinyURL for the full link. As with blog comments, I only do this if the blog entry I'm sharing answers their question in a useful way.

Luckily I've been writing this blog for several years now, so I actually have quite a few blog entries that pertain to questions I see on Twitter. If I've not already written on the topic, the question may inspire a new entry, so it's a good way for me to get ideas too.

Promotion via Facebook

Technically Facebook is still on my to-do list. I need to create a new Facebook page for the blog, perhaps a new Web Development Group or both—anyone have a preference? I have, however been using the Facebook application, RSS-Connect to publish the RSS feed of my most recent blog posts to my own Facebook page. While I updated the application to use the new feed, I think the real reason it is generating more traffic is because of the recent changes Facebook made to all of our pages. This feed is simply more visible now than it was before. I also announced the blog move in one status message, but I don't know that this generated hordes of traffic.

Featuring the blog and answering questions on LinkedIn

LinkedIn's WordPress and Blog Link applications make it easy to share your RSS feeds to your LinkedIn profile. I'm also using the Blog Link application to publish my Google Reader Share links there. Additionally I've included a link to the blog in my profile. These are all things one can easily set-up in a few minutes. But LinkedIn's Answers area is what is probably making the biggest impact.

I started answering questions on LinkedIn Answers for the usual reason, to enhance my reputation and profile. When you answer questions on LinkedIn, the person posting the question can select which is the best answer. If yours is selected, that information is added to your profile indicating that you have expertise in the subject area.

It's great for the ego, and the profile, to have an answer selected as the best, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Answering LinkedIn questions is rewarding on a number of levels. LinkedIn gives you a place to write your response and add links to up to 3 sites that augment your answer in some way. Typically I write a fairly comprehensive answer and include links to sites that will offer more details or clarification. If the question pertains to something I've already written about, I can include links to my own supporting materials. By linking to my own entries I can provide more specific information while also promoting my blog. This serves both the person who asked the question and me.

While I've only been answering questions for a few weeks, I have discovered a special trick to earning a best answer: read the question carefully and answer what was asked as accurately and clearly as possible. There's nothing magic about that, but I've seen quite a few answers that don't seem to follow this simple rule.

Last but not least, social media is people, and that includes LinkedIn. In the process of answering questions I've met several interesting people who I've added not only to my LinkedIn network but also to Twitter and Facebook. Conversing with them has given me new insights on different marketing and social media practices as well as ideas for future blog entries. They also have a good sense of humor and are simply fun people to know.

As I employ new strategies or reach new growth milestones, I'll write additional posts monitoring the progress of the blog. In the meantime you can find more tips and ideas in my marketing entries.

More ideas for marketing your blog (or other Web site)

• Commenting before you post a link can be a great online PR tactic
• How to Get Noticed
• How To Market Your Blog in 2007 (also applicable to 2009)
• Is marketing evil?
• SEO tips for websites

Last chance to help Heidi win a blog scholarship!

Today's the last day. Read Learning for fun and adventure: online education comes in many flavors between March 18-30th, and click on the red "Edu Blogger Scholarship" image. Every click made during that time period brings me one step closer to the finals.

p.s. The marketing portion of the Edu Blogger Scholarship has now ended, and I made the finals! Thank you all for your support. You can view the list of finalists, and read their blogs at http://www.onlinecollege.org/. For those of you in higher education, I recommend taking a look, there are some great resources there. Cheers!

Late last night my Twitter friend, @jewelsann announced that she'd just launched the Cantores Cleveland Web site. When I hear someone has launched a new site I typically pay it a visit to see how it turned out. There I discovered that Cantores Cleveland is a local vocal ensemble "devoted to providing an accessible, educational early music experience." Seeing that this was a music site I immediately looked for the audio to see how it was presented. Going to the "Listen" tab, I found a list of five .mp3 files including song titles, track length and file size.

And then I thought, "I wonder if they've considered podcasting." It struck me that podcasting a new song every week, month or other regular interval would be a good way to keep their fans engaged with their music. Or, because they have an educational mission, they could alternate music podcasts with discussion podcasts in which the singers tell stories and explain the history of the early music they perform.

There in the wee hours of the morning my brain had turned to thoughts of content marketing strategies. It was late, so rather than pursue these thoughts I dragged myself to bed, and awoke hours later…thinking about the ways one can use podcasts to provide rich educational content that engages listeners. And by listeners of course I mean our target audience, the people who will enroll in our educational programs, attend our events, support our cause or buy our products.

Podcasts are like product samples delivered regularly to your door.

As you know, the best way to know if you will like something is to try it before you buy it. That's why grocery stores continue to fire up their portable skillets and offer us toothpick-speared bites of low fat chicken sausage in the aisles. It's also why bands like Nine Inch Nails (NIN) give albums away online. In doing so they end up selling more, which in the case of NIN meant topping the Amazon sales charts for 2008.

There are many ways to give away product samples, both online and in the real world, but doing so via podcast gives us two advantages worth considering:

Repetition

Brand recognition is built through repeated exposure to a brand name, product or service. Years ago I had a boss who told me that it takes 16 impressions for a name to stick. (I don't know if 16 still holds true, but we'll stick with that for the point of argument.) In traditional marketing terms this means that each potential customer needs to see 16 ads, media mentions, direct mail pieces or some combination thereof. Online it could mean seeing 16 ads via Google, mentions on Digg or StumbleUpon, etc.

16 doesn't seem like much, but it can take a lot of time and money to get those first 16 exposures one needs to solidify brand recognition. And to maintain recognition one needs to ensure that such exposure continues into the future. Podcasts distributed on a regular periodic basis provide a venue for ongoing exposure.

Automatic Delivery

Some listeners will simply visit your site when they want to hear the latest news, tips, etc. But, if you get visitors to subscribe to your podcast, as I encourage you to subscribe to my blog, you can create a conduit that provides your audience with continual exposure to your brand via regular updates. Every time you produce a new podcast it will be downloaded automatically to iTunes or their podcatcher of choice, automatically reinforcing the connection you've built with the listeners most interested in your organization (a.k.a. your best customers.)

Podcasting Recipe: Inform and Entertain

As I've mentioned before goal driven content should drive technology, not vice versa. I'm not encouraging everyone to run out and start a podcast. For many of you a blog will provide the same advantages of repetition and automatic delivery.

But some of you, both in higher education and industry, have access to information and resources that would be well suited to an audio or video format. Every situation is different, so to illustrate my point here are some examples of podcasts that fill an audience need while also reinforcing branding and other marketing goals.

Boagworld

Boagworld is "the podcast for those involved in designing, developing and running Web sites." I also wrote about this in 2007 in my Boagworld podcast recommendation. As a Boagworld listener I gain new insights and ideas regarding my field of Web development. As a podcast producer, Paul Boag has built up brand name recognition and solidified his reputation as one of the leading Web designers in the world. This undoubtedly helps bring more business to his design firm, Headscape, and also leads to speaking engagements, book sales, and so forth.

Off the Shelf

Librarian Bill Claspy, of Case Western Reserve University's Kelvin Smith Library, created Off the Shelf to expose people to faculty authors from the university. In these half-hour podcasts, Claspy interviews authors about their latest books and their approach to writing so that we, the listeners, gain new insights into the topics within the books while also learning more about the writing process and the personalities behind their work. As an avid reader—who has read some of these author's works—I find it intriguing to hear the story behind the stories. As a writer, who has yet to get far on my first novel—though I can wax forth endlessly here—I also find it helpful to learn about their writing habits and what compels them to get the words from mind to computer.

Disclaimer: I discovered this podcast when I was still working at Case, have come to know some of the authors involved, and have had many e-mail discussions with Bill Claspy about the project. When I first discovered the site, I knew I'd subscribe, but I was also intrigued by the marketing possibilities.

This podcast serves many roles. On an individual basis it provides exposure to the authors, their publishers and their books. For those titles written for a mainstream audience this could garner more sales. The quality of the podcast also reflects well on the university, by showcasing the talented faculty available to students who enroll there, and by supporting the university brand through the repetition of the podcasts. It also serves students who may decide to apply to the school or enroll in an author's class based on what they've heard in the podcast. Thus, in just 30 minutes per episode, Off the Shelf, not only entertains, but also supports a multitude of listener and marketing goals.

Inside Colby: For Students, By Students

The student produced podcast, Inside Colby, offers informal discussions of campus life, programs, surveys, student projects, interviews and other topics offering insight into what life is like at Colby College. Inside Colby truly does what the name suggests, it provides a taste of the Colby experience while also exposing students to new campus opportunities.

While communicating with students is the primary mission, the podcast also serves a valuable marketing role. For prospective parents and students, Inside Colby, let's them know what to expect. It reveals the personality behind the Little Ivies reputation and the beautiful campus, showcasing everything from what students wear (casual-outdoorsy-preppy) to the wealth of activities they engage in—whether they're playing lacrosse, taking classes in the blacksmith shop or ghost hunting in the theater.

For alumni, such as yours truly, Inside Colby invokes nostalgia. As I listen to the students discuss the different personalities of the dining halls or hear an interview with a professor I had, I'm immediately transported back to Mayflower Hill, cross-country skiing in the arboretum and eating a Colby 8 (cheeseburger with fried egg) in the campus pub. While Colby's monthly newsletter, Out of the Blue keeps in me in touch with campus happenings, the student podcast puts me on campus—at least in my mind. And, as it should, it also reminds me that I should figure how much I can afford to give come June 3oth, the end of the fiscal year.

Why (or when to use) audio/video rather than text

Podcasts, as we've seen in the above examples come in many forms. The trick is having the resources and the personalities necessary to create an audio or video experience that surpasses what you could provide in text. Podcasts can offer information similar to text, but add a depth of experience that let's us feel we're part of a conversation. They can be informal discussions or instructional lectures, so long as they include content that somehow seems more fitting when heard or viewed than it would in print.

Boagworld, for example, is also a content rich Web site that would be a perfectly suitable resource unto itself. It features blog posts that cover material similar to the podcast (handy for reference) and a discussion forum. The podcast builds on this by offering an hour of entertaining commentary, tips and interviews with industry leaders that I can listen to at my convenience. While I may not have time to keep up with all my blog subscriptions, I can plug my iPod into the car and listen to the repartee between Paul Boag and Marcus Lillington so that I can keep learning while I'm away from my computer.

This portability in time and space is key. I'm an avid reader. My house is overflowing with books while my Google Reader account is hemorrhaging more blog entries than I can ever hope to keep up with. But when I'm not on my couch with a novel or my Macbook Pro, I can still ingest information by learning about the Library of Alexandria via the BBC or getting cooking tips from The Splendid Table.

If you can offer similar information, be it lectures from your academic department, or educational resources related to your products or services, you too can engage listeners—like me—with an interest in what you have to say.

A few more podcasts worth exploring

• The Moth Spellbinding Story Telling
• Messing About in Ships News and views of the maritime industry
• This Week in Tech Leo Laporte and friends discuss all things tech and usually something about Twitter
• Creative Xpert Interviews with designers
• City Club of Cleveland Forum for free speech

Help Heidi win a blog scholarship!

Read Learning for fun and adventure: online education comes in many flavors between March 18-30th, and click on the red "Edu Blogger Scholarship" image. Every click made during that time period brings me one step closer to the finals.

At some point in the past you revamped your site for search engine optimization (SEO). Now it's time to measure your results, and share them with your client or development team. These people come from a variety of backgrounds. Some of the marketers will be perfectly happy to look at your Google Analytics page or stare at your graphs and spreadsheets. Others will quietly gaze at your numbers and wonder (to themselves) what any of this means—and they might not ask you for clarification.

This provides us with a teaching moment that we can use to enhance our SEO in the future. Rather than sending out a dry report or giving a presentation that falls on deaf ears, use this as an opportunity to remind people of what it is you are trying to achieve.

What are we trying to accomplish with SEO?

All we're trying to do with SEO is to make our sites more findable through search engines. The point is to optimize our site content and code in a manner that allows people with some interest in our organization, product, content or services to easily find our site, and the information they seek, when using search engines such as Google or Yahoo.

It's important to remind your team that SEO is not an end goal. It will not get students to apply to your program, buy your widgets or drink your Kool-Aid. But it will bring more traffic—from those with an interest in your stuff—to your site so that your content can encourage them to do those things.

How do we measure SEO?

If our SEO strategy is working we should see an increase in

• traffic from search engines
• time spent on site by search engine visitors
• conversions (search engine visitors attending your events, signing up for your classes, buying your rhinestone studded earmuffs, etc.)

These are the core things to review. To learn more, visit the sites listed at the bottom of this entry.

What's working and what's not

Swim with Sea Turtles while studying marine biology

You've looked at those numbers and everything's gone up. Yay! Or perhaps it hasn't. Boo! How can you tell what's performing well and what needs to be improved? This is where your keywords come into play. If our point is to bring in qualified traffic—people more likely to enroll in our marine ecology program or donate to our new cosmology research center—then that traffic will come from people who have searched on words and phrases related to marine ecology or cosmology.

If what they find on our site matches what they were seeking they are more likely to enroll, donate, etc.

Google analytics, and other such programs provide quantifiable data on key words and phrases used, the number of visits per word or phrase, average time spent on site by those visitors, average number of pages visited, etc. The top 10 phrases for my blog for the past month were:

• tone in writing
• writing tone
• browser testing
• web development blog
• logo
• tone of writing
• social media networking
• add caption to photo in css
• writers tone
• converting word doc to html

I can learn a lot from this (and the rest of the report listing 3,007 words or phrases.) In reviewing this data I'll consider:

Does my site offer the content described in these phrases?

Yes, although my entries about a logo are outdated, the other topics continue to be relevant and I know from past experience that my articles on tone and writing are my most popular pages.

Does my content provide the information users seek?

Yes, they are spending enough time on the pages to read them. If visitors came for 10 seconds and left I would know that they were looking for something different, and that I should reword some things to draw in more relevant traffic and to not waste the time of visitors who clearly want something else.

Are expected terms missing from the list?

No. But if I'd written the definitive post on the eating habits of owls and didn't find any listings for bird, eating, diet, owl, etc. then I'd know I have to edit that article and do some research to determine the most effective key words to include.

Using Wordle word clouds to visualize the results.

I'm the kind of nerd that is perfectly content to spend time poking about in spreadsheets. But 3,007 phrases are still a lot to swallow, and those are just for my little blog. If you have a large university or corporate site your list could be exponentially larger.

Also, people don't all search the same way. They use variations on the same terms. In my list we have 4 variations on writing and tone. If I want to quantify those properly it means merging terms together adding up the combined results etc. How much data you need to quantify depends on your needs, but in many cases you just need to get a sense of which terms are prominent and which are not. This will help your content producers so they can edit their copy to enhance the results in the future.

To get a quicker sense of what's working, I like to copy my results into http://www.wordle.net which let's me create a word cloud of the terms, as shown in the two examples below. Terms showing up more frequently are larger while infrequent terms are smaller. Word clouds can be especially helpful in presentations and reports because they make it easy for readers with varying skill sets to get the point.

In this first example, I copied all phrases that generated 20 or more visits to the site so I could focus on the most frequently used phrases. (This narrowed the list to just a bit over 100). I also removed terms like "of" or "and" so that I could focus on keywords only.

As you can see, "tone" and "writing" show up prominently, as we'd expect from our list. The other words that are easily read are also things I've written about, and it would be easy to notice if a topic I was trying to promote was missing.

Watch for irrelevant results

While it's most important to make sure that our topics show up, it's also important to watch for words we're not trying to promote. If, for example, I saw "Beluga whales" in large letters, and I'd only mentioned them casually in passing it would mean that I was bringing in a lot of people who wanted to learn more about whales. While traffic is good, misguided traffic is not. The people who want to know about whales could care less about my thoughts on Web development so there is no reason for me to waste their time. If that term showed up here I would want to rewrite my article to reduce the number of times I mention Beluga whales.

Fine tuning your word cloud

While this first Wordle word cloud is helpful, it's not overly precise. Some terms, such as "development," are smaller than I might expect. That's because my content wasn't weighted. My analytics report gave me both a list of phrases and the number of times they were used. I pasted in the phrases but not proportionally to their frequency of use. The words that are larger are showing up that way only because they were used in a variety of search phrases. Huh?

"Tone in writing" generated 949 visits in a given time period. "Flash embed script" generated 20. For my Wordle to more accurately reflect the frequency in which these terms were used, I'd need to paste the phrases in as many times as they were used, or in a smaller, but proportional, amount.

To determine how many times to paste in each phrase, I put all the phrases and their frequencies in a spreadsheet similar to the following table. I was only using phrases that brought 20 or more visits so my lowest frequency is 20. If I divide each of my frequencies by a factor of 20, then round the results to a whole number, I come up with a manageable number of phrases to paste.

Phrase Frequency Table

To make my improved Wordle, I pasted "tone writing" in 47 times, "writing tone" 21 times, etc. as indicated by the chart. This rendered an accurate cloud, but "writing" and "tone" were so enormous that you could barely read anything else. To improve readability, I deleted several copies of those phrases so they were still dominant but not so much that you'd need a magnifying glass to read the other words.

This word cloud provides a more accurate representation of the frequency in which these words and phrases bring traffic to the site. When reporting to your client or team you can use such a word cloud to easily show which words are pulling in traffic and which are missing. This visual representation makes it easy for everyone to see what's going on, even those not fond of graphs and spreadsheets.

If you find that it takes too much time to generate the second version of the cloud, the first version is still helpful. You just have to remember that it's not as precise.

An educated Web team is an effective Web team

SEO can be confusing to both clients and other members of your team. A client may have overly optimistic expectations. A writer may not fully understand why you keep pushing them to use key words and phrases. But if you can teach them about SEO basics and give examples of what you are trying to accomplish, you can set realistic goals and ensure that all members of the team contribute to the success of the project.

More articles on measuring SEO

• Are You Measuring SEO Success Correctly?
• How to Measure SEO Success
• Measuring SEO Success: Solve Personalized Search Misperceptions
• Measuring SEO Success With Web Analytics (Good intro for those new to Web analytics)
• Measuring SEO: why rankings are worthless
• What Google's Matt Cutts Sees In 2009

Looking for more educational resources? Check out Learning for fun and adventure: online education comes in many flavors for sites that will entertain your brain.

Heidi thinks the veil between the 'brick and mortar' world and the 'cyber world' becomes more elusive each day.

That's what I wrote as my Facebook status message when I returned home from the Cleveland Social Media Club party on December 10. As the name suggests the Cleveland SMC is "a community for the champions of Social Media and those seeking to learn." (If you live in Northeast Ohio and work with, or are interested in, social media you should join.) What makes this group different from many online communities is the regional nature of it. We're all here so we can actually meet in person. As such they've already had several events, but this was the first one that I attended.

My friends tell me that I'm no longer shy, but I am an introvert, so I have to admit I was just a wee bit nervous. Although I knew a few people in the group—either in person or online—many were unknown, or at best vague cyber-acquaintances. Thus I wasn't sure how well I'd handle the small talk. As it turns out it wasn't a problem. I knew the host, Dave Stack, from the real world, his best friend is friends with one of my best friends, I'd previously met a few folks from a Cleveland bloggers meet-up, and George Nemeth was there and George knows everybody and is more than happy to make introductions. Within no time I felt as at ease as I would have with people I'd known much longer.

I met some great people and look forward to seeing them again at a future event. But I don't have to wait until the next event to continue the conversations. Members of Cleveland SMC can friend each other and converse on that site, but we also post our other profiles there. Since the event I've connected with several of them on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. And thus the conversations continue.

It doesn't matter if/when we meet again face-to-face. It doesn't matter if one person prefers Twitter and another prefers Facebook. Once the connection is made it can be continued on any one or more of the online services available. Cleveland Social Media Club (on Ning) provides an information hub, but it's also enabled us to easily create multiple redundant pathways to one another. Thus, if one service goes down, the connections aren't lost, we still have other channels available.

When a service goes down: the demise of Pownce

While multiple channels are available, Pownce was my social media tool of choice. Alas, in early December, Leah Culver announced that Pownce would be shutting down on December 15.

Pownce was the service that hooked me on social media. It's where I learned that you could forge real connections online. Pownce gave me access not only to my peers but also to leaders in the field. If I went to Pownce with an idea I had about a Web project I wasn't getting feedback from just anybody. I was getting feedback from people in all areas of the business—ranging from the managing director of Octane Interactive, Wayne Smallman, to the lead designer at Digg, Daniel Burka. Pownce was an incredible resource.

Of course, it wasn't all about work. Powncers shared photos, absurd videos and thought-provoking articles while also conversing about everything from politics to bacon. My friends group contained liberals and republicans, atheists and born-agains and people from several different continents and cultures. But we had our geekiness in common, so everyone played nicely together in the sandbox. As we shared media and stories, personal experiences and jokes we got to know each other on many levels, much as one does in the brick and mortar world.

By the time December rolled around we'd become a pretty tight community. Then we heard about the shutdown. As you can imagine, the community reeled. Where would we go? What would we do? Sure we're on Twitter, but how can you discuss global warming or share pierogie recipes in 140 characters? It was clear, the sky was falling and there was very little we could do about it. Or was there?

A community comes together

All gnashing of teeth and wailing aside (and yes there was a lot of that) one of the first things people did was to start announcing where else they could be found. Pownce always made it easy to post our other profile addresses on the site, but now people were indicating where their primary addresses would be. People posted their addresses for Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed. People shared e-mails. One fellow declared that he preferred IM and shared 5 different ways to connect with him that way.

We had this information, we had the ability to download our data, but it was clear that we were scattering into the wind. In my panic, I decided I needed to create a new, possibly temporary home for us, someplace that would still exist after December 15, where we could continue to share our contact information. Given that I was already familiar with Ning, I created Pownce Refugees, a place to keep the community alive after Pownce shutdown.

At the time I really wasn't certain about my long term goals, I just needed something I could launch quickly. I configured the page to use the colors from the Pownce home page, enabled some features that I thought might be useful and spread the word. As I and others started playing with it I added RSS feeds of Pownce mentions on Twitter, the Pownce Exiles Room on FriendFeed, the Pownce Exiles group on Vox, Pownce in the news and so forth. This way I thought we could use this page to keep track of Pownce-related activity elsewhere.

The next thing I did was to start creating groups for Pownce theme days. On Pownce we would often post content related to a day's theme. Thus we had Music Video Monday, Wordle Wednesday, Foto Friday and so forth. It sounds silly, but it was a good way to get new people involved as it gave them ideas on things to post. When you are new to social networking, it can be intimidating, but theme days provided some great starting points.

As I was busy priming the pump with groups and content, people started joining. Then they told other people to join. They spread the word on Twitter and other places, and within no time we had more than 100 members.

100? That's not much, Twitter has 6 million users

100 isn't much (we're now at 139), but it was enough to begin a new community. It was also enough to catch the attention of the Ning staff. As a result of our rapid growth, they featured us on the Ning Blog in an article entitled, Former Pownce members find a new home.

This was actually a fairly major accomplishment as Ning is a rather large enterprise. In April 2008 there were over 230,000 networks on Ning, and they were growing at over 1,000 per day. Only 3-4 are featured on the blog in any given day.

The other good news was our traffic. I created Pownce Refugees on December 1, and installed the analytics on December 6. As of December 15 (Pownce shut-down) we had

• 933 unique visitors
• 1,870 total visits
• 12,836 page views (6.86 pages per visit)

By way of comparison this blog was 20 months old by the time it started generating that level of traffic.

Our traffic sources also told an interesting story.

• 56.2% were direct traffic, meaning members (or others) who already knew the address,
• 40.11% were from referring sites and
• only3.69% were from search engines.

The top referring sites were Pownce, Stumbleupon, Gmail, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook (I'd created a Facebook page for the site), Plurk and Ustream.

Those of you who check stats regularly know that this is atypical. Search engine traffic often plays a much larger role, often times 50% or more. But this was a social media site, marketed through social media to active social media users. It worked well because we (I credit our early adopters for spreading the word) were focused on a very specific niche (Pownce users), who were well-versed in social media tools, and we had a deadline that affected everyone involved.

Where are we now?

Since then we've lost a bit of momentum and probably need to refocus marketing on community building strategies. But traffic is steady and we have a core of regular visitors. As of yesterday we've had a total of:

• 3,000 unique visitors
• 5,193 total visits
• 25,741 page views (4.96 pages per visit)

Traffic sources have shifted slightly. The increase in direct traffic is from membership growth and usage.

• 67.8% are direct traffic
• 27.09% are from referring sites and
• 5.1% are from search engines.

Where will we be next year?

Who knows? The goal was to stay in touch. That seems to be working. In the meantime various members of the community and others are also working to build services with features more akin to the original Pownce. And while the economic climate is gloomy, new services continue to emerge. In another year we could be spending our lunch hours exploring some yet unknown site with yet another funny name.

But what this has shown me is that social media works. In the right situation it can be a very effective marketing tool. But it's the people and the connections between them, that make it so.

* For those 7 of you unfamiliar with the science fiction classic, Soylent Green, there is a classic line towards the end that states, "Soylent Green is people!" Alas, soylent green was also what people ate.

What is the secret of Soylent Green?

Last month, when I wrote about subdomains, I promised to find out more regarding the question of URL length. Site owners had been telling me that their URLs were too long for users to type and that this was keeping people from responding to their direct mail campaigns. Typically the URLs in question were 30-40 characters in length. These don't seem excessively long if you consider that even a short domain name such as www.case.edu takes 12 characters itself. But it did make me wonder if anyone had studied the role URL length plays in direct mail response rates.

In search of the answer I hopped on the Web and began searching. In a utopian marketing world, I would have found some insightful marketing research that would indicate that once an url reaches X characters in length, readers—hesitant to type so much—became less likely to visit the site. Of course, the real world is not so simple, and I found no such data. If I had, it might have included a graph like the one pictured here.

If you think about it, the reason I couldn't find such data is obvious. The length of an URL is but one of several factors a reader considers when deciding whether or not to respond to a direct mail offer. When deciding whether a mailing is potentially useful, recipients, consciously or subconsciously, ask the following questions.

Why did I get this? Is it relevant to me?

You have a Ph.D. in philosophy and the mailer is telling you how to get an associates degree in 90 days. Since you are not the target audience you will throw the mailer in the bin. But if you are restoring a 1966 Mustang and the mailer is from a parts supplier—specializing in 60's muscle cars—you'll probably take a closer look.

Is it something I need/want/can afford now?

The new Macbook Pro looks great but if your current one is only a year old and serves your needs you may not need to order a new one just yet. On the other hand perhaps you can justify getting a new one by giving the older one to your daughter—who could use a better computer. If so you'll keep reading.

What are the features and benefits?

You've been invited to a conference in your field of interest. Who are the speakers? What is their level of expertise? When is the event? Will it fit in your schedule? What is the cost? Will there be food? If the speakers are well-resepected experts, the event fits your schedule, is reasonably priced and includes lunch, chances are you'll go.

What is the next step?

To respond to the offer, do you call, e-mail, visit a Web site? If the next step is to visit the Web site then you probably will take the mailer over to your computer and type in the address.

If you've made it to the last step in the above process then you've already made a choice. You have decided you are interested in the product or service and want to place your order, RSVP for the event or do whatever else may be appropriate to the offer. So what happens when you sit down at the computer to type in the Web URL? Do you stop typing because the URL is too long? How long would it have to be for you to change your mind and not order the product or service that you've already decided you want?

I don't know the answer to that but I suspect it would be more than 30-40 characters, and would depend on the strength of your original decision. If you've been searching for 6 months trying to find a certain part for your Mustang restoration project—and this supplier has that part—you'll probably be willing to type a lot to complete the order. If you're not as firmly committed then maybe a long address, particularly one with lots of special characters, would dissuade you.

Was it the URL or was it the message?

Let's say that you did change your mind about attending the event. Perhaps you've decided you'd rather catch a movie that day. What really caused you to change your mind? Was the URL impossibly long and too hard to remember? Or was the message not persuasive enough to close the sale?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/books/review/Zerkin-t.html?_r=1&ref=authors is long (70 characters without the http://) and includes non-alpha-numeric characters that make it difficult to remember. If The New York Times were sending out direct mail promoting their book reviews, they probably would send you to the shorter http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books. It would be unusual that any of us would need to create a 70 character URL, even for a very targeted marketing campaign, but if we did, I don't know that it would be a deal breaker.

When you consider how much most of us type every day, 70 characters isn't very much. If the chore of typing 70 characters is enough to deter someone from completing their order, then perhaps they weren't that committed in the first place. If your direct mail campaign isn't sending sufficient traffic to your Web site, then you should also review your message. Was it targeted to the right audience? Did you provide the right information to help your readers make an informed decision? The only way to really know whether the message or the URL is the problem is by testing. Test different urls with the same message, try different messages with similar urls of the same length and so forth. (I'll write about split testing for direct mail in a future article.)

Isn't there any URL length data out there?

There is, but most of it is focused on URL length for search engine optimization, maximum URL length able to be read by certain browsers, etc. For our purposes the most useful number comes from usability expert, Jakob Nielsen, who recommends we use URLs that are less than 75 characters so that they don't break into multiple lines when sent through e-mail.

That was the most quantifiable answer I could find. Many people are researching various aspects of URL length, but without very specific testing it can be hard to determine if URL length or some other factor is the relevant issue. In The impact of domain name length on Web site popularity, Jeremia Froyland analyzed URL length of the top 100 sites as ranked by Alexa. The majority of these sites have short domain names (and thus short URLs) and he concluded that there is a correlation between short URLs and site popularity. But correlation is not the same as causality. The top 100 list includes sites ranging from Yahoo and Google to Apple and Hewlett Packard. Their strong brands would play a greater role in the popularity of their sites than the length of their URLs.

Conclusion

Instinctively we like the idea and ease of short URLs, but URL length is only one of many factors to consider in our Web related marketing strategies.

Learn more about URLs

• I Musta Got Lost: URL Naming Convention
• Naming and Addressing: URIs, URLs, ...
• Talk like a Googler: parts of a url
• URLs week: Principles
• WWW FAQs: What is the maximum length of a URL?

Last week's entry on outbound links spawned a lot of discussion, including the question of whether one should have outbound links open in a new window (or tab depending on the user's browser and preferences). Although many others have already written about this topic, it comes up often enough that I think it is worth discussing. Disclaimer: links that open in a new window or tab—when that wasn't my choice—are a pet peeve of mine, but I will attempt to explore the topic objectively.

What is the intended purpose of having links open in a new window or tab?

Those who recommend having links open in a new window do so with the intention of making it easier for users to return to the original site. Anyone who surfs the Internet knows that it is easy to get lost down a rabbit hole of links. For example, if I provide you with a link to Chuck Palahniuk's Web site, you might:

• follow the link
• peruse the section on author interviews
• read Dennis Widmyer's latest interview with Craig Clevenger
• then decide to add The Contortionist's Handbook to your Amazon shopping cart.

By now, the theory goes, you will have either forgotten where you were before or forgotten how to get back. If I'd set the Chuck Palahniuk link to open in a new window/tab (this is the only link on the page that opens a new window), you could just go back to your original window/tab and you'd be back where you started. Of course if the link opens in the same window, and you are using a current browser such as Firefox, you can simply click the down arrow next to your back button to navigate back through the series of links you just followed.

So which is better? Is it easier for a user to go back to a different window or to just use the back button?

I've always found it easier to use the back button. With one click I can go back and read another interview or I can choose to go all the way back to the original blog. To me that seems far easier than wading through a sea of windows, or looking at an array of tabs to find the one you want. But everyone is different. In researching this article I discovered a Get Satisfaction page in which a user actually requested that links on Pownce open in a new window. Two of the responders agreed that they would prefer new windows, while two others (including Pownce/Digg designer Daniel Burka) disagreed. I saw these differing opinions in many places.

Where does that leave us? Preferences vary, so unless you survey the users of your particular site it may be difficult to determine if your audience likes or dislikes it when a link opens in a new window. Pownce was able to solve the problem by giving users a setting that lets them pick which behavior is the default while they're on Pownce. But that's not an option for most sites and blogs. With that in mind, I think it is most appropriate to leave it in control of the user. If a user wants to open a link in a new window he can do so by right-clicking (Windows) or ctrl-clicking (Mac) the link in question. I often open links in a new tab if I know that I'll want to flip back and forth between them. I just don't want them opening up new tabs spontaneously.

Standards and accessibility issues related to opening links in new windows

If you're in the pro new window camp, I've probably not yet changed your mind. But there are more issues to consider.

W3C HTML and XHTML Recommendations

The traditional way to have a link open in a new window is to include target="_blank" in the link. The target attribute is not included in the recommendations for HTML and XHTML strict, therefore sites using target with a strict doctype won't validate. From what I've gathered target is not included because not all browsers support the attribute, particularly when it comes to browsers running on mobile devices. (This may change in XHTML 2.0 as the attribute may serve new needs as mobile browsers evolve. A valid alternative is to use javascript.

W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG)

According to the WCAG Success Criterion 3.2.5, "Individuals who are unable to detect changes of context or may not realize that the context has changed are likely to become disoriented while navigating a site. For example: individuals who are blind or have low vision may have difficulty knowing when a visual context change has occurred, such as a new window popping up. In this case, warning users of context changes in advance minimizes confusion when the user discovers that the back button no longer behaves as expected." To avoid this confusion they recommend that users should be notified if a link will open in a new window and if possible be given the choice to not have it open in a new window.

Kant's Categorical Imperative: What if everyone did it?

While writing this I kept having a vision of wandering the Internet in a world where every external link opened a new window or tab. In this vision it was only a matter of minutes before there were so many tabs open in my browser that I had to use the left and right arrows to scroll through them. Worse yet, instead of tabs windows began spawning as quickly as Tribbles and suddenly my desktop was impossible to navigate. This made me think of Kant. In his first formulation of the Categorical Imperative he states that one should "act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law." While this idea was meant to deal with issues of morality, it's easy to see how it could be applied to lesser situations such as links opening in new windows. If links always opened in a new windows it would pose significant usability challenges.

Naturally most sites don't open everything in a new window or tab. If they did we'd all be swimming in windows. Instead, most site designers choose to open new windows only in particular circumstances. Some designers do this only for external sites while others reserve the technique for opening up .pdf files. While I'd still prefer that links open in the same window, giving me the choice of whether or not to open them in a new tab, I understand that many may disagree. Most people have committed one way or another with few remaining undecided. But, whatever your preference may be, I hope this discussion will help the next time you're debating where a particular link should open.

Learn more about opening links in pop-up windows or tabs

• Accessible Pop-up Links
• D. Keith Robinson's Gorilla Web Tips: Launching New and Pop-up Windows
• Don't let your web site fall out of the window: opening new browser windows
• How evil is the target attribute?
• New-Window Links in a Standards-Compliant World
• Open New Window Still Has Usability Issues
• The target attribute and opening new windows
• Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design
• WCAG 2.0: H83: Using the target attribute to open a new window on user request and indicating this in link text
• WCAG 2.0: SCR24: Using progressive enhancement to open new windows on user request