Internet Marketing Articles

Top 10 Websites with the Worst HTML

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Just because a website ranks among the best in the world does not mean it is designed well. Most of the top websites are poorly designed, filled with HTML errors, and fail the W3C HTML validation. Find out which sites are the worst offenders and which are most W3C friendly ones.

What is HTML validation? It is a check to make sure a webpage has correct HTML code, according to the standard set by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Browsers may still display broken non-validating code, but it is considered unreliable; it may not work as expected on non-standard browsers, such as on phones and PDAs, and may potentially cause problems with search engine robots. Valid HTML is more accessible. You can test your own website with the W3C validator here: http://validator.w3.org/

Older websites with cluttered content, such as IGN, CNET, Download.com, and Amazon are the worst offenders and chalk full of HTML errors. Conversely, websites like MSN, Craigslist, Badoo, Wordpress, Mozilla, and Mininova are W3C-friendly and serve as good examples for the web design community. Not only are these HTML valid, they appear to a step closer to the Web 2.0 ideal than the 'worst offenders'.

Top 10 Invalids - The Worst W3C Offending Websites*

WEBSITE	ERRORS
http://www.ign.com/	2870
http://www.cnet.com/	2121
http://www.download.com/	1672
http://www.amazon.com/	1257
http://www.veoh.com/	1020
http://www.alibaba.com/	820
http://www.aol.com/	577
http://www.gamefaqs.com/	478
http://www.hi5.com/	292
http://www.ebay.co.uk/	242

Top 10 Best Valid Websites - W3C Friendly*

WEBSITE	ERRORS
http://www.msn.com/	0
http://www.craigslist.org/	0
http://www.wordpress.com/	0
http://www.badoo.com/	0
http://www.mininova.org/	0
http://www.metroflog.com/	0
http://www.mozilla.com/	0
http://www.pornotube.com/	0
http://www.4shared.com/	1
http://www.miniclip.com/	3

Top 100 Websites and Errors*

RANK	WEBSITE	ERRORS
1	http://www.yahoo.com/	34
2	http://www.google.com/	30
3	http://www.msn.com/	0
4	http://www.youtube.com/	184
5	http://www.live.com/	64
6	http://www.myspace.com/	116
7	http://www.facebook.com/	37
8	http://www.orkut.com	30
9	http://www.hi5.com/	292
10	http://www.rapidshare.com/	122
11	http://www.blogger.com/	10
12	http://www.megaupload.com/	88
13	http://www.friendster.com/	93
14	http://www.microsoft.com/	31
15	http://www.fotolog.com/	96
16	http://www.ebay.com/	158
17	http://www.google.co.uk/	50
18	http://www.flickr.com/	28
19	http://www.imdb.com/	122
20	http://www.amazon.com/	1257
21	http://www.photobucket.com/	120
22	http://www.imageshack.us/	failed
23	http://www.bbc.co.uk/	36
24	http://www.go.com/	146
25	http://www.imagevenue.com/	32
26	http://www.craigslist.org/	0
27	http://www.dailymotion.com/	failed
28	http://www.megarotic.com/	6
29	http://www.youporn.com/	4
30	http://www.passport.net/	67
31	http://www.aol.com/	577
32	http://www.deviantart.com/	80
33	http://www.google.co.in/	47
34	http://www.wordpress.com/	0
35	http://www.adultfriendfinder.com/	209
36	http://www.google.ca/	48
37	http://www.netlog.com/	4
38	http://www.google.com.vn/	43
39	http://geocities.yahoo.com/	33
40	http://badoo.com/	0
41	http://www.veoh.com/	1020
42	http://www.google.co.th/	43
43	http://www.mininova.org/	0
44	http://www.vnexpress.net/	70
45	http://www.ebay.co.uk/	242
46	http://www.adobe.com/	20
47	http://www.sendspace.com/	4
48	http://www.apple.com/	4
49	http://www.xanga.com/	30
50	http://www.badongo.com/	45
51	http://www.metroflog.com/	0
52	http://www.cnn.com/	142
53	http://www.bebo.com/	117
54	http://multiply.com/	11
55	http://www.megavideo.com/	194
56	http://www.digg.com/	61
57	http://www.4shared.com/	1
58	http://www.mediafire.com/	141
59	http://www.download.com/	1672
60	http://www.perfspot.com/	85
61	http://www.icq.com/	136
62	http://www.gamespot.com/	11
63	http://www.depositfiles.com/	47
64	http://www.about.com/	81
65	http://www.theplanet.com/	224
66	http://www.rediff.com/	failed
67	http://www.google.com.ph/	32
68	http://www.google.com.au/	48
69	http://www.invisionfree.com/	4
70	http://www.google.ro/	43
71	http://www.yourfilehost.com/	36
72	http://www.google.com.co/	44
73	http://www.mozilla.com/	0
74	http://sourceforge.net/	5
75	http://www.metacafe.com/	59
76	http://www.zshare.net/	24
77	http://www.soso.com/	26
78	http://www.divx.com/	109
79	http://www.usercash.com/	11
80	http://www.miniclip.com/	3
81	http://www.ign.com/	2870
82	http://www.linkedin.com/	10
83	http://www.comcast.net/	50
84	http://www.imeem.com/	52
85	http://www.alibaba.com/	820
86	http://www.information.com/	35
87	http://www.gamefaqs.com/	478
88	http://www.tagged.com/	32
89	http://www.starware.com/	6
90	http://www.doubleclick.com/	7
91	http://www.24h.com.vn/	failed
92	http://www.pornotube.com/	0
93	http://www.google.com.my/	41
94	http://www.google.com.sg/	41
95	http://www.cnet.com/	2121
96	http://www.ku6.com/	failed
97	http://www.iwiw.hu/	failed
98	http://www.statcounter.com/	48
99	http://www.hp.com/	105
100	http://www.bangbros1.com/	20

*Websites listed are from the top 100 popular websites. Source: Alexa. The home page of each site was used for each validation test. Tested in October 2007.

20 Free Ebay PowerSeller Secrets

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Do you sell on Ebay? If so, this may your opportunity to take your business to the next level: to increase sales and operate more efficiently. This advice comes direct from Ebay PowerSellers, the best in the business. Avoid their mistakes and adopt these twenty tips into your Ebay business; you'll be glad you did.

1. Raise your shipping fee.
Make sure you don't just charge for the shipping postage, but for your 'handling' fees as well. This may include packaging materials such as labels, envelopes, and bubble wrap, as well as your time to prepare and drop the package off at the post office. Make sure your minimum shipping & handling is $1 beyond your actual shipping, and hopefully a few bucks more than that.

2. Use stealth postage.
Print your shipping labels without showing any shipping costs. Labels printed from PayPal and other services will do this for you. If a customer ever complains about your profits from shipping, simply respond and explain your S&H fee includes both shipping AND handling. The handling includes the cost of packaging materials and time. If all your Ebay listings have this basic shipping & handling disclaimer, then you should never get a complaint.

3. Don't waste money on ad embellishments.
Don't pay extra for featured, bold, or any other flair. Gallery is the only option that may be useful in some cases, depending on what items you sell. Most people find your listings by keyword searches. Embellishments generally do not seem to increase traffic. Remember that the 'add ons' are where most companies make their profit. You want to use this strategy when selling to your customers, but not when buying listings from Ebay.

4. Lower your PayPal rate.
If you receive more than $3,000 per month in PayPal funds you can qualify for a lower merchant % rate. Rates are subject to change, but it may take you from 3.1% to 2.7%. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_fees-rate-about

5. Set your minimum selling price.
Anything you list on Ebay has a certain overhead and below a certain price, selling is no longer worth it to you. This should take everything into consideration- your time, utility costs, office equipment, software, ISP fees, workspace rent, and more. Some sellers set a general, all-items minimum selling price at $5, $10, or $20. Figure out your minimum price and stick to it. It is also important to calculate your monthly sales break even point. You want to make sure your business is worthwhile and meets your basic minimum goals, especially if put a lot of energy into it.

6. Use bundles.
Using low priced items bundled together is an effective strategy to pass savings on to a customer, yet maintain your minimum selling price. This bundling strategy occurs frequently in retail stores - like 8 pairs of socks - and in grocery stores - 10 hotdogs - and big box stores, like Costco: 2 packs of cereal. Selling these items individually would not be worth it. However, bundling allows you to sell for a higher price while giving a customer a feeling of savings through the bulk purchase- even though they are probably buying more than the customer really needs.

7. Save money on packaging supplies.
If you're creative, you can find cheap or free sources of packaging materials. For instance, packing peanuts can be found for free if you ask around industrial places or furniture stores. If you are a UPS member, you can get free shipping tape. You can often get unmarked boxes for free if you ask around stores in malls or office supply stores. Some Ebay sellers use the free USPS priority mail boxes and turn them inside out in order to ship via another service. Not only does this look unprofessional and take extra time, but it's illegal, according to USPS. Look around and you will find either free or affordable solutions.

8. Take good digital photos of your items.
You don't have to have an expensive camera to take good digital photos, but just a basic knowledge of photography. Do a Google search and you will find a quick list. This usually includes using a tripod, making sure the lighting is good (bright and diffused - no harsh shadows, such as natural light), and making sure the background is white or solid- with no distracting objects in the frame. If you photograph small items, you may consider buying a cheap light box or light tent for $100 or less. You can find these on Ebay, of course.

9. Lure people to your Ebay store.
Listing fees in your store is a fraction of the cost as a regular listing. So, if you place links or banners in your regular listings that encourage viewing your store items then that could help increase store sales.

10. Use automated feedback.
Sellers used to spend hours keeping track of feedback. If you use Selling Manager Pro, you can use automated feedback in bulk. After a quick setup, you may never have to spend time leaving feedback again. It can either be set so you automatically leave positive feedback after each auction or only when you receive positive feedback. If you ever get neutral or negative feedback, you have an option to deal with it manually.

11. Automate email messages to customers.
When a customer makes an order you can have emails automatically sent from you to them. Services like Ebay's Selling Manager Pro do this. The email can either be an invoice for them to pay, or, if already paid, it can just acknowledge their order and offer additional products, encouraging repeat business. Automating these emails is a great time saver and an effective marketing tool.

12. Promote repeat business.
Repeat business is the best. It's far more efficient to sell more products to the same customers than to seek out new ones. Even if you have to alter your business practice to create 'add-on' products specifically to sell to your existing customers, then do so! No one is more likely to buy from you than your existing happy customer.

13. Offer bulk purchase incentives.
People like getting discounts. In reality, they may be paying an arm and a leg but if they 'feel' like they're saving, then they're happy. And if your customer is happy, then you're happy. By offering price breaks on lots of items in the same order, it may encourage people to buy more to 'save more' and increase your sales. You can also offer free shipping or give a free gift after a customer buys a certain number of items.

14. Never miss a marketing opportunity.
Every point of contact you have with a customer should promote your products. If you send an email, for example, always include your URL to view more products. When you ship a package, enclose a flier that shows more products and encourages visiting your store or website. To make it effective you have to give them a reason to buy. Try enclosing a coupon for 25% off their next purchase - expiring in 5 days, for example, to convey a feeling of urgency. People don't like missing opportunities, so if you propose a sale on additional items, always have a deadline. Try also stamping your URL on the outside of the packages or typing on the shipping label as part of your address. You never know- someone who handles the package may be curious to visit your site. Or, the package may sit in an office and someone may walk by it and later choose to visit your URL. There is no restriction for mailing a little 'advertisement' and a lot of hands carry and view that package.

15. Use flat rate priority shipping from USPS.
Flat rate priority shipping is a pretty good deal for either domestic or flat rate global priority (for international orders). The flat rate envelopes (cheap) should not be confused with the regular priority envelopes (expensive).

16. Choose a store name that uses keywords.
Your Ebay store pages will get indexed by search engines and if keyword optimized, you should get more search traffic to your store. So, when you choose your Ebay username and Ebay Store name, use a keyword or two as a part of your name. Then, use the same keyword within an H1 tag, in bold, in italic, and in your text description. Using the basic SEO principles for your Ebay store pages and about me page will help it get more traffic from search engines.

17. Schedule your listings to end at a peak time.
The timing of your listing is important, because in the final few hours before its end, it becomes increasingly more visible and prominent to visitors. This narrow window of time is when your item is most likely to sell. It may take some research and experimentation to find the peak time for your auction to end. Tools like Turbo Lister allow you to easily control when each auction starts and ends. Even though it costs a few cents extra to schedule (postponing an auction's start), having a listing end at a peak time is definitely worth it. To help find an ideal time, we can first eliminate when you don't want your listing to end. Assuming the majority of your buyers will be in the U.S., we can first assume you don't want your auction to end anytime between 11am or 8am, since the majority of people will be asleep. Further, you might ask yourself if your type of item would be used for work or personal use only. If for personal, it might be worth considering that during a lunch break or near the end of a workday (5pm), or mid-evening may be an appropriate time to list such an item. For professional work-related items, perhaps it less likely that someone may search for these items in the evenings, but more during working hours. If you have a store, you may also view statistics to see what day of the week and what time of day most people visit your store. Experience as a Powerseller has shown that Sunday afternoon through Thursday are the best days. And 11am to 8pm PST tends to be the most effective time ranges. Avoid holiday mornings and afternoons, as many people sleep in and usually go shopping and are away from computers in the afternoon.

18. Fill your listing title with keywords.
Use all the space allowed with meaningful keywords and avoid the use of empty words like 'awesome', having ALL CAPS, or using too many exclamation marks!!! Try adding misspellings in your title. It might increase traffic in some cases.

19. Use photos directly from the manufacturer.
It saves time to copy and use a photo from the manufacturer's website and it looks professional. In most cases the manufacturer encourages use of their official photos as it helps their products get represented accurately and professionally. However, always be conscious of copyright laws and read any image use agreements posted. Taking images from other Ebay sellers is not recommended.

20. Put your website URL in your About Me page.
Ebay rules allow you to link to a website from your About Me page as a way to provide more product or company information to the prospective buyer. Make the URL bold and prominent and you should see a slight increase in traffic to your website. The more you sell directly from your own website, the better. Even if all you have for ecommerce is the free PayPal checkout buttons, it is still preferred to selling through Ebay. You can save money by selling directly (fewer fees) and benefit by establishing a more direct relationship with the customer.

About the Author:
Trent Mueller is an internet marketing professional, SEO/SEM specialist, and former Ebay PowerSeller; he manages various websites, including www.turbophoto.com, and resides in Portland, Oregon, USA.

5 Ways to Increase Website Traffic for Free

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:00:00 GMT

1. Submit to Google Base (Froogle)

If you sell products or services, Google Base is fertile ground for free marketing. If you’re selling widgets, for instance, you can add them to Google Base and it will then show up in the Google’s product search and link directly to your website. You may also submit services listings.

Adding items is fairly simple- just prepare an Excel spreadsheet with the proper header categories- examples and templates are provided. Basic product/service info, such as title, description, price, an image, and link to your website is offered on the page. Traffic from these listings may not be high, but it’s free and may potentially attract new customers to your website.

www.google.com/base - Google Base
www.google.com/prdhp - Google Product Search

2. Add to free directories and wikis

Look for directories/wikis with the highest Google Page Rank (PR) either on the home page or on the specific page your listing will appear. Also, the more specifically targeted the directory content is to your website, the better. For example, if you sell photography, try to find and get listed in a photography directory. If promoting a massage therapy website, find and list in any health and wellness-related directories. If the directory appears overly ‘spammy’ then it may be better to avoid. There is no proof that search engines penalize websites for being included in these seedy sites, but it certainly is a waste of time, as there are endless amounts of these directories.

The main reason for listing in directories is not for the traffic from the directories. Hardly anyone actually uses these directories. It is more about the incoming links. The higher the PR is on the website linking to you, the more value the incoming link will give to your website. The more quality incoming links you have, the higher PR you may have on your website. The higher the PR, the higher your website will be shown in the search engine results pages, or SERPs. The higher rank your search listings are, the more search traffic you will receive. And the more traffic you receive, the more likely you are to make sales and make more money. Yes, indirectly, the goal of adding to directories is to increase your traffic and make money.

When you submit information to directories, make sure you use an alternate email address, as many will make you agree to their terms of use, which frees them to send you lots of spam and distribute your email address to other companies.

Add to this directory:
www.killerstartups.com

Add to wikis (editable content):
www.aboutus.org
en.wikipedia.org

Here are some nice lists of directory sites:
www.avivadirectory.com/strongest-directories
www.autho-rity.com/Internet/Web_Directories
www.best-web-directories.com/free-directories.htm
www.forest-cafe.org/free-directory-list.php

3. Write press releases and submit everywhere

Write press releases and send to the media these social bookmarking/news sites (the more the merrier), and submit to as many media contacts as you can find. This will help increase links to your site.

It is recommended you place the original release on your own website and make sure it is SEO friendly with a comprehensive list of your press releases. For an example, click here: www.turbophoto.com/Stock-Photo-News

Depending on the marketing strategy of your business, you might consider translating your releases to extend your global reach. Here are a few social news sites that seem to be gaining in popularity:

www.meneame.net - Spanish
www.yigg.de - German

Submit to any media in your industry- both for print magazines or websites. If you are not sure what media are in your industry, you can first check the Yahoo! directory. Then you can go to a bookstore, such as Barnes & Noble, and ask for a list of the magazines they carry in your industry. Borders did not provide such a list, but Barnes & Noble did- many of which are prominent magazines, but could not be found online.

Plus, send to these free PR submission websites. Note that it can be tricky to navigate through the site to avoid the fees and actually submit for free, but it actually works.

Recommend submitting press releases to:

secure.prleap.com
www.i-newswire.com/submit_free.php
www.pr.com/press-releases
www.pr-inside.com
www.pressbox.co.uk

Unfortunately, other PR submission sites require a fee, despite claiming to be free. Avoid these fee-based scam sites: prfree.com, console.prweb.com, pr-inside.com, free-press-release-center.info.

For more information on free PR sites, this person made a nice directory: www.emeraldcoastentrepreneur.com

4. Write articles and distribute them everywhere

Also, you can write articles, such as what you are reading right now. Sure, I enjoy writing and sharing valuable tips with you, but the main reason for me writing this article is to gain incoming links and drive traffic. You can do it too, and you should! It’s free and an easy way to get a massive amount of incoming links.

You should also add an RSS feed to allow other websites to easily syndicate your content. Make sure you include links to your own website in any article or press release you write (not just at the end), otherwise it can be a partially wasted effort if your URL isn’t included.

If you don’t know how to build a SEO and RSS friendly webpages to hold your original articles, I recommend either reading an RSS tutorial such as this: (www.mnot.net/rss/tutorial ), or just use free WordPress software (www.wordpress.org). Just download it and follow the directions to install on your server. Then do a search for ‘SEO Wordpress’ and you can learn how to change your permalinks so you will get more return on your efforts (more traffic).

Submit articles to:

www.ezinearticles.com
www.goarticles.com
www.articlegeek.com
www.isnare.com
www.articlecity.com

There are many more, but some require absolutely original content (no other postings allowed on any other websites). It may be better to get credit for your own original article, by posting it on your own website.

Remember to post regularly to popular social news and bookmarking sites.

Submit both articles and press releases to:

www.Digg.com
www.Newsvine.com
www.Myjeeves.ask.com
www.Simpy.com
www.Reddit.com
www.Netscape.com
www.Technorati.com
www.del.icio.us
www.Stumbleupon.com

5. Post to Craigslist

Post your products and services on www.craigslist.org. It is a very high traffic website and you can post every day if you want. If you're creative, you can find an appropriate place for most anything you sell- you can even customize your listing for each location too.

www.Craigslist.org

5 Essential Tips for Great SEO

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:00:00 GMT

1. Choose Keywords Carefully

Research and select your keywords carefully, using the following keyword tools. Researching keywords is like doing police detective work- there are several methods to glean data, but they each only give you small pieces of the puzzle. It can be a time-consuming effort to sort through the information, but quite worthwhile.

a. Google’s Keyword Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

b. Overture’s (Yahoo! Search Marketing) Keyword Selector Tool:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

c. Manual research of competitor websites - Try doing manual research, by simply going to each of your competitors’ websites, analyzing their keywords, and trying to notice any consistent patterns in their keywords and how they rank for those keyword searches.

d. Yahoo! Search Marketing (Overture) and Google AdWords CPC campaign summaries - If you do cost-per-click (CPC) advertising through Yahoo! or Google, its interface gives you another means for calculating the popularity of keyword phrases- it will tell you how many people search for the keywords you add.

e. Wordtracker – http://www.wordtracker.com/ - Pay $7.73 for 1 day of keyword research.

f. NicheBot - http://www.nichebot.com/

g. FreeFind - http://www.freefind.com/ - If you have a search engine on your site, you should use the search logs as a benchmark before choosing your keywords. If you do not have a search function on your website, you can get one free with FreeFind. When activated, they can automatically email you a report of the top searched words on your site.

h. Google Trends - http://www.google.com/trends - Google Trends is a new development tool that lets you compare general keyword search popularity visually on a graph- they don’t reveal the actual number of searches, however.

i. Good Keywords - http://www.goodkeywords.com/products/gkw/ - Tools such as Good Keywords consolidate some of these useful tools and is completely free.

2. Keep it Simple, but Specific

For best results in the search engines, it is important to keep your keywords consistent and simple. Use only 1 keyword phrase per page, and don’t be too general. For example, if you were selling cell phones, it would probably be a wasted effort to target the word “cell phones” as there are too many competitors, but the phrase “cheap camera cellular phone” is more likely to help you to rank high in search engines. This phrase was searched for 807 times last month, according to Yahoo!.

3. Maintain Consistency

Use the exact same keyword phrase in all of the following page elements:

Use your keyword phrase within:
a. Page title
b. Meta title
c. Meta keywords
d. Meta description
e. Header tags:

f. tags and/or tags
g. tags and/or tags
h. Four times in the body copy
i. At least once in a URL link keyword phrase
j. Make a folder with the keyword phrase as its name; use hyphens – between multiple words.

4. Use Tools to Monitor Your Progress

Various tools exist to check where you stand in search rankings, links, and more. Instead of continually checking manually, try some of the many tools available.

One helpful tool which happens to be free is: http://www.webuildpages.com/cool-seo-tool/

Other pay-based tools exist, such as: Microsoft Submit It and WebTrends’ WebPosition. If your pages are not getting indexed by Google, you may consider making a Google site map. You can generate an XML based site map for free here: http://www.freesitemapgenerator.com.

Also, make sure you have web statistics programs installed on your host server, such as AWstats, Webalizer or other free tools. Google Analytics is an in-depth stats program and is free. Because of the demand, you have to get on a waiting list, but it is worth it: http://www.google.com/analytics/

Alexa can be wildly inaccurate at times, but is still a nice rough guage for traffic rankings: http://www.alexa.com/

5. Learn From Successfully Optimized Sites

The following is a short list of websites that appear to be successful in their search engine optimization efforts.

http://www.acclaimimages.com/
http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/
http://www.seochat.com/
http://www.turbophoto.com/

Though not always as aesthetically pleasing, viewing the winners of Google optimization contests can be a learning experience. Links and information can found on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEO_contest

Good SEO vs Good Web Design

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:00:00 GMT

Can a well-optimized website also be well designed? Perhaps so.

Good text content, consistent keyword usage, and great linking can be a winning combination for a website’s rank in search engines. However, can a well-optimized website also be well designed? And if so, what would it look like? Lets spotlight a few websites as examples...

Eccentris - Great design, poor SEO

Some sites succeed in this balance of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) vs. good Web design, while others fall short. Heavy on the design side, for example, is the following Flash-only website for Eccentris. Costing approximately $100,000 to design (source: Firstborn Multimedia), it is about as visually engaging as you can get, but has no optimization whatsoever: http://www.eccentris.com/splash.htm. The lack of SEO may be perfectly acceptable for some businesses, depending on what their web marketing goals are, but for most, web traffic is just as high of a priority as the design.

At the other end of the spectrum, some link-heavy sites may have perfect optimization, but if SEO is the sole focus, the design may suffer, including its navigation, usability, and credibility. It does not matter how much traffic a site gets if the site is not designed well enough to serve its intended purpose. If the purpose is to sell products, for example, the design must inspire enough confidence in the visitor to buy; otherwise, the website has failed.

Dry Eye Doctor - Poor design, good SEO

The former SEO consulting company, Traffic Power, designed many websites that were heavy on efforts of SEO, but light in their efforts of design, such as the following example: http://www.dry-eye-doctor.com/. Such over-aggressively SEO-focused websites which have overlooked the design have inevitably failed. It should not be a surprise that Traffic Power is no longer in business- a quick Google search on their name will reveal plenty of gossip about their risqué SEO practices.

Turbo Photo - Good design, good SEO

Some new website designs such as Turbo Photo's (http://www.turbophoto.com) reflect the latest in strides to achieve a healthy balance between good SEO and good web design. On the technical SEO side, their site features plenty of keyword-based links from the homepage and maintains its keyword consistency well on subsequent pages. Keywords are used within titles, meta tags, header tags (H1, H2, H3), and within tags like and . Body text on the homepage also contains keywords, and keyword links within tags are sprinkled throughout the pages.

On the design side, the Turbo Photo website appears to be visually interesting while bordering on being ‘too busy’ from the keyword content. A photo acts as the dominant element on each page in effort to break up the text and add something visually interesting that stands out the most. These elements attempt to embrace the “rule of thirds” design theory, with the element not dead-center in the middle, but slightly offset at the 1/3 of the page to be more pleasing to the eye.

Though the Turbo Photo homepage is chalk full of content, pockets of white space do exist. Such spaces allow the eyes to ‘breathe’ as a refreshing separation from the page elements. Strong use of color, such as the blue and red in this case, can make elements appear to ‘pop out’, while the use of a neutral color, like gray, reminds us of Turbo Photo’s professional and corporate nature.

Designers should carefully consider such design theories and principles when designing a new site. Design decisions should aim to be aesthetically pleasing, but always purposeful and practical.

The Key to a Good Balance

The key to a successful balance is planning both design and SEO simultaneously- from the ground up. This means that all the keyword phrases should be researched, chosen and integrated into the design in its earliest drafts. If this is not done, a web designer may later be in a dilemma if keywords are to be added that are longer than the design allows, for instance. Such a last minute changes of keywords could also mean changes to the directory structure links across multiple pages, allowing an increased opportunity for error. The best practice is to start with the keywords upfront and try to minimize the changes that occur with those keywords as the web design progresses.

In the competitive marketplace of the Web, both the catching of traffic and the visual presentation of a website is important. Too much emphasis on one and not enough on the other can limit a website’s success, but a healthy blend of good SEO and good design will pave the path for success.

Other Examples

http://www.allaboutvision.com/ - good design, good SEO
http://www.videobabylon.ca/ - decent design, good SEO
http://www.rainbowsymphony.com/index.html - poor design, good SEO

The New Web and Web Marketing

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT

Web 2.0 describes a maturing of the internet- a “new and improved” generation of web sites. Characteristics associated with Web 2.0 include a focus on personalization and interactivity (such as social networking sites and blogs), and technologies such as RSS, XML, Ajax, and web-based applications and services. Popular web sites that exemplify Web 2.0 include wikipedia.com, youtube.com, blogger.com, linkedin.com, facebook.com, digg.com, among many others.

A particular “look and feel” also goes along with the Web 2.0 concept. Sites embrace simplicity, a central layout, larger fonts, and “white space”. The “less is more” motto applies to graphics and colors. There is often less distracting graphics and one bold logo at the top. Colors are used more sparingly, thus appearing more consistent and professional. Subtle gradients and reflections are often used, which I believe was influenced by the innovative designers at Apple Computer.

Marketing Communications professionals must understand Web 2.0 and keep up with the latest technology to market effectively on the Web. Many social websites cater to enormous audiences and are critical media to consider when marketing online to prospective customers. Social networking (such as MySpace and Facebook), blog search sites (Technorati), user-submitted news sites (such as Digg and Reddit), video sharing sites (You Tube and MetaCafe), Wikis (Wikipedia), or photo sharing sites (Flickr) should all be considered as viable web marketing platforms when making an online advertising program.

If the Web 2.0 trend is overlooked in your internet marketing program, you are missing out on a significant marketing opportunity. Getting coverage in the social media networks is free advertising. There is no submission cost- only the cost of labor to write and submit your URLs to various websites. Even Craigslist.org – listed as the 22nd most popular website in the world - is free to post ads on. It has general categories for products and services that are ideal for posting your company’s website links to- and when posted to the appropriate category, such links are not spam or against their terms of use- just an easy way to get free clicks.

For good examples of Web 2.0 site design, visit this page:
http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/current-style.cfm