WordPress Font Fun,

>> The Super-Awesome-Mega-Optimal

Guide to Links, p. 20
>> p. 9

>> Google Analytics and Editorial Impact

>> Managing Website Redesigns
>> E-commerce Software in Action
PLUS: Top 50 Resources for
Design Inspiration

MAY
APRIL2010
2010
$6.99 US $7.99 CANADA
MARKETING CHAMPION:
Craig C.

COMPANY:

Online Travel Service

EMAIL ACHIEVEMENT:
Even though Craig’s company was
seeing some steady growth, he knew
he needed to find new and innovative
ways to reach customers and entice
prospects if he wanted to continue
to drive healthy sales.
Enter mobile marketing. Although Craig
had never rolled out a mobile market-
ing campaign before, he knew that this
approach was one of the best ways to
reach people where they “live”. Know-
ing that most people are reading and
downloading content on their mobile
devices, Craig set forth a marketing
campaign that played right into how
people want to receive product news,
or hear about promotions or upcoming
events — on their mobile device.
By adapting his marketing campaign
to the ease and portability of hand-
helds and cell phones, Craig saw a 9%
increase in sales. That’s the kind of
mobility he likes to see.
Think you’re ready to become a
Marketing Champion?
Visit Yesmail.com
It’s time to mobilize your marketing
Does the idea of making your marketing emails “mobile-friendly” scare you so much
you think it’d be easier to revert back to stone tablets and chisels? Don’t be afraid.
Designing or adapting your campaigns for a mobile format isn’t that daunting at
all — and the mere thought of it shouldn’t prevent marketers from traveling to
the not-really-so-foreign world of mobile marketing campaigns.
Mobile communications have become a key component of today’s marketing
scene — don’t be left out. It’s time to enhance your email program to market to
the ever-growing numbers of mobile users — introduce mobile messaging into your
marketing mix by extending current promotions with mobile-only offers. Encourage
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26 Cover Story

SEO in a Social Media World

Social media is the hottest trend on the Web. Users are flocking to these sites;
sharing information and even searching for content. As social networking
evolves, search engines are taking notice, too — and techniques for generating
traffic and branding are increasingly intersecting in both mediums.

9 WordPress Font Fun Departments

Want to differentiate your WordPress site from the rest? Try having some
fun with font replacement plugins. 6 ‘Net Briefs: Ultra-fast
Internet, Online Video’s
12 E-commerce Software in Action Next Challenge, YouTube
Captions, Real-time
Online retail is poised for growth. To get the most out of your enterprise,
Indexing, Location-based
consider focusing on key areas of improvement and the software that can
marketing.
help turn profits.

12 14 Google Analytics and Editorial Impact

8 Mobile Minute: Apple
Cracks Down on Developers,
Palm Falls Behind, Mobile
Creating quality content is paramount to many business’ online success.
make sure you’re getting the most bang for your editorial buck.
Revenue on the Rise.
18 Top 50: Design Resources
32 Five Outdated SEO Tactics 20 SEO Corner: The Super-
Search engine optimization (SEO) has changed over the years. Ken Lyons Awesome-Mega-Optimal
points out some old tactics to avoid, and their current alternatives. Guide to Links
22 Conversion Cache:
34 Climbing the Ranks with Optimized Creating Influence and Trust
Press Releases in a Place of Uncertainty
32 Online press releases provide content, generate links and increase visibil-
ity. Michelle Wicmandy returns to show how optimized press releases can
43 Website Magazine
Resource Center
have even bigger impacts on SEO.
45 Website Magazine
36 Holistic Website Development Success Corner
Today’s websites encompass a vast range of features and functions. De- 48 Commentary: Is Your Web
veloping a site with a holistic plan will ensure a polished finished product. Business a House of Cards?

40 Managing Website Redesigns

Navigation, user-friendliness and multimedia have all entered the redesign
mix. It can be a complex undertaking, unless you have a good plan.

42 42 The Cost of Hosting

What are you paying for Web hosting? And what are you getting?

2 | | MAY 2010
✐
F R O M T H E E D I TO R With Peter Prestipino

Inside the Online World The Magazine for Website Success

The practice of search engine optimization (SEO) has served Web
professionals well over the past decade. But there is a new darling 4179 W. Irving Park Rd., Chicago, IL 60641
Toll Free: 1.800.817.1518
in the Web world and she goes by the name of social media. She International: 1-773-628-2779
is sexy, alluring and draws the attention of hundreds of millions of Fax: 1-773-272-0920
admirers. But should you shun SEO entirely and make a full switch
to social? Maybe. But you will need to bring along all of the SEO PUBLISHER:
techniques and tactics you’ve learned and mastered over the years Susan Whitehurst
to make social media really work for your enterprise. And, you susan@websitemagazine.com
won’t be alone when you get there.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
Forrester is predicting a significant rise in Internet marketing by those in Peter Prestipino
the B2B space. In fact, it’s predicting spend will almost double over the peter@websitemagazine.com
Visit these next five years — from $2.3 billion in 2009 to $4.8 billion in 2014. Much
SENIOR EDITOR:
upcoming of that will be invested in social media marketing. So, taking the medium
Mike Phillips
industry seriously will greatly benefit your business. Those Web enterprises and
mike@websitemagazine.com
trade shows: entrepreneurs that understand the balance between SEO and social media
will be those receiving the most traffic from search engines and social ASSOCIATE EDITOR:
Search Marketing networks, and exposure from those that make the greatest impact on busi- Linc Wonham
Expo (SMX)
ness — the consumer. linc@websitemagazine.com
April 8-9
Toronto, Canada The feature story in Website Magazine’s May issue, “SEO in a Social Media
*CONTRIBUTORS:
World” offers a practical glimpse into the techniques and tactics Web en-
Tim Ash
PubCon South terprises can employ today to improve search engine positioning and attract
Pete Hollier
April 13-15, 2010 new users through social media, simultaneously.
Lars Johansson
Dallas, TX Once again, an incredible lineup of articles and information briefs Ken Lyons
from some of the Web’s leading minds fill this issue. In addition to our Dante A. Monteverde
ad:tech
stellar contributor columns (Tim Ash and Conversion Cache, and Dante Michelle M. Wicmandy
April 20-23
San Francisco, CA Monteverde’s SEO Corner), this month’s absolute must-read list includes
ART DIRECTOR:
Michelle Wicmandy on Press Release Distribution, Ken Lyons on Out-
Web 2.0 Expo dated SEO Tactics, and Lars Johansson on Assessing Editorial Impact with Jesse Erbach
jesse@websitemagazine.com
May 3-6 Google Analytics. Other articles not to miss include E-commerce Software
San Francisco, CA in Action, Managing Site Redesigns and the first article from our new PRODUCTION MANAGER:
Associate Editor, Linc Wonham, on The True Cost of Hosting. Janet Crouch
Conversion
Conference Enjoy this issue of Website Magazine and remember to share your sto- www.grafikadesign.net

May 4-5 ries of ’Net success online at WebsiteMagazine.com.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT/ADVERTISING:
San Jose, CA
Best Web Wishes, Troy Pickett
troy@websitemagazine.com

Kelly Springer
kspringer@websitemagazine.com
Peter Prestipino — Editor-in-Chief, Website Magazine
Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com

Website Magazine, Volume 5, May 2010, (ISSN# 1942-0633) is

Visit Website Magazine’s
Resource Center today by
Website Magazine Resource Center
While there is plenty of information in the print edition of Website
Magazine and on our daily weblog, we realize sometimes you
want to dig a little deeper. For this reason, the Website Magazine
Resource Center is now available online. Visitors will find vendor
whitepapers, webinars and even feature articles from past
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published 4 times per year in February, May, August and
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4 | | MAY 2010
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 High-speed Chase
After weeks of hyping “a significant announcement that will forever change
the Internet”, Cisco disclosed details of an upgrade to its routing system that
will provide download speeds unlike anything we’ve ever experienced.
Cisco estimated that the CRS-3 Carrier Routing System would be
available within the calendar year, boasting that it will have the capacity to
stream every motion picture ever made in less than four minutes, as well as
make it possible for the entire population of China to make a video call at the
same time. For now, businesses and consumers will simply have to wait
and see if Cisco delivers on its promise, but the announcement itself was
more proof of video’s infectious influence on the future of the Internet.
“Video brings the Internet to life,” said Cisco CEO John Chambers. “You
are moving from a messaging platform to a video platform.”
Recent examples of Cisco’s growing interest in the video business include
developing its own video technologies and acquiring companies like Flip video device-
maker Pure Digital. Google and the FCC are also each separately planning their own ultra
high-speed Internet initiatives aimed at the explosive growth and untapped potential of
streaming video.
John Chambers
Cisco CEO
How it all — or who — “will forever change the Internet” remains to be seen, but stay tuned.

A Bite Out of the Boom?

The latest hard data pertaining to the online video boom contained some mixed messages in comScore’s
January 2010 rankings, showing a 119-percent increase in overall views from a year ago but a 2.5 percent
drop from the previous month. Hulu, which had crossed the one billion-views threshold for the first time in
December 2009, fell to 903 million views in January—good for 2.8 percent of the shares.
That ranked them second, well behind leader YouTube at 39.5 percent but well ahead of Microsoft Sites
(491 million views), Yahoo! Sites (435 million), Viacom (361 million), Fox Interactive (293 million), Turner Network
(283 million), AOL (241 million), Vevo (226 million) and CBS Interactive (217 million). When broken down by
unique viewers, however, Hulu ranked only fifth, virtually neck and neck with Viacom—which
pulled two of the most popular shows from Hulu’s site after 21 months because it was
dissatisfied with “the current economic model.” For nearly two years, Hulu
served as a co-host for online video of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show
with Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report.
Viacom is the first to pull content from Hulu’s one-stop online video portal
in favor of its own free streaming video, indicating it would reconsider if Hulu
was willing to change its business model. Hulu, which is contemplating $5 fees
for older episodes of television shows, will serve as a referral engine for the two
shows unless the two sides get something else worked out. The March and April
rankings may be rather telling to the future of the whole online video landscape.

6 | | MAY 2010
 America's
YouTube Captions Riskiest Online Cities
to Open New Doors
Norton released a report
For Ken Harrenstein, a hearing-impaired software engineer at in March, 2010, revealing 1.) Seattle, WA
Google, the news that YouTube is adding captions to all of its those cities most succepti-
videos couldn’t have been bigger.
ble to cyber crime — which 2.) Boston, MA
cost Americans more
“This is huge,” he said. “It’s what I’ve dreamed of for years.” than $560 million in 2009. 3.) Washington, D.C.
The impact on businesses utilizing videos for marketing Few things sidetrack
purposes may also be huge, as they will likely get another av- e-commerce like cyber 4.) San Francisco, CA
crime threats. This is a good
enue into Google’s search index. Harrenstein, a graduate of MIT,
reminder for e-commerce
5.) Raleigh, NC
announced the new auto-caption software for YouTube, say-
professionals (especially in 6.) Atlanta, GA
ing that he often missed lectures as a student because he the below cities) to ensure
couldn’t understand them. With the use of the auto-captions, a consumers that their 7.) Minneapolis, MN
student can now find a videotaped lecture on YouTube and information is secure —
search for keywords, landing at the exact moment in the lec-
through privacy policies, 8.) Denver, CO
security badges and a full
ture when the professor used those words. description of all measures 9.) Austin, TX
Used as a marketing tool as well as a learning tool, it will be you take — including data
interesting to see what YouTube’s new integration of captions encryption — to protect 10.) Portland, OR
does to the way businesses use streaming video. sensitive information.

Location,
Location,
Location
Two announcements from Facebook, one
officially released and the other to be made at
the f8 developer conference at the end of April,
indicate perhaps the strongest push yet by the
social network for smaller-business advertising
dollars. First came news of an alliance with
business optimization software provider Omni-
ture, aimed at helping companies more easily
integrate Facebook as a marketing channel
through “relevant conversations” with its more than 400 million active users.
Then came the widely reported but unconfirmed news that Facebook will reveal
the arrival of location as a status update available to users. This move will open
the doors even wider for local advertisers, and be a direct challenge to Google
for small-business ad revenue. It will also very likely rankle millions of users
concerned about their privacy, which Facebook has so famously done before.

MAY 2010 | | 7
 mobile minute

is Losing
Ground — Quickly
Palm reported a $22 million
loss in its third-quarter
earnings; stemming from
users' distaste for its
operating system and the
devices on which they run.
Palm sold just 408,000
smartphones in the
quarter. Compare that to
the iPhone, of which Apple Apple
sold 8.7 million units in the
same quarter. Palm's stock Tightens
price plummeted on the
news and now stands well the Reins
below 70 percent of its year-to-date on App Developers
high mark, as of this writing.
Apple drew the line for developers by changing some rules and banning
thousands of apps deemed to have adult-themed content; which happened
MOBILE APP to be some of the most downloaded apps in the store. “At the end of the day,
DOWNLOADS, Apple has a brand to maintain,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray.
“And the bottom line is they want that image to be squeaky clean.”
REVENUES SET Some developers find themselves left in the cold. One developer of the
TO SOAR racy apps, Fred Clarke, claims to have lost all 50 of his products on the app
store. "It's very hard to go from making a good living to zero," he told The New
According to a study by wireless York Times.
consultant Chetan Sharma, mobile Apple also put the clamps on so-called "cookie-cutter apps," such as
app downloads are set to increase those that amount to little more than RSS feeds or virtual business cards. And
to 50 billion by 2012, up from 7 billion again, many developers, even entire businesses, suddenly find themselves
last year. Revenue from these apps without a product. Those companies that offered apps on the cheap were able
(including advertising, downloads to do so because they were doing little more than pulling websites' feeds or
publishing a mobile-optimized Web page through an app. Not anymore.
and virtual goods) is predicted to
On the other end of the spectrum is Google’s open Android system,
hit $17.5 billion, up from $4.1 billion.
which should see a nice influx of developers cut off from Apple.
The study also found that North
Apple also recently announced that developers cannot use geo-location
American consumers pay more per
solely to target advertisements to app users. Google, on the other hand, is
app — an average of $1.09 compared working with developers to do just that. As it stands, the two app providers
to $0.80 for European consumers. have never been further apart. Look forward to a bare-knuckled brawl in one
of the fastest growing sectors in the industry.

8 | | MAY 2010
 Font Fun
According to WordPress’
official download counter,
the open-source blogging
software has been down-
loaded more than 6.6 million
times, as of this writing.
Chances are, if you are running
WordPress, your site has a
lot in common with some
other sites out there. And that
raises an important question:
How do you make your site
stand out from the crowd?
One way, without labor-
intensive hacks, is by altering
your website’s fonts.
If the default font in your
WordPress installation is
leaving you uninspired, and
the concept of tweaking CSS
files seems a bit too daunting,
try the following WordPress
plugins to dress up your
design and have some fun.
Five Sites for
FREE Fonts:
dafont.com
urbanfonts.com
acidfonts.com
fontstock.net
fontspace.com
with WordPress
Facelift Image Replacement (FLIR): FLIR for WordPress implements Facelift
Image Replacement (FLIR) by Cory Mawhorter. It is in rapid development and at this time
almost completely configurable from the admin panel. Several freeware fonts are provided
with FLIR for WordPress. The plugin is SEO-friendly and only renders the image in the
browser if JavaScript is enabled. HTML/XHTML code remains unchanged, leaving your
head tags readable by search engines and the page readable by those without JavaScript.
http://bit.ly/cCdvNe
AnyFont: AnyFont allows for the use of any truetype or opentype font for post titles, menu
items or anywhere else you want to use a custom font in your theme design. The plugin sup-
ports both PHP4 @ GD or PHP5 & Imagick or GD. A TinyMCE button has been added to the
post/page editor in version 0.9, which allows you to insert some AnyFont-styled text into your
posts and pages, too. http://bit.ly/bQCzQN
WP-Cufon: This plugin makes the process of implementing Cufon (an image replacement
technique) into your WordPress blog an absolute breeze. Simply convert your font files and up-
load them into the plugins directory and you’re done. WordPress admins can even enable ob-
jects they want to replace in the WordPress Administration Menu. WP-Cufon is useful for both
image replacement (e.g. replacing a logo with text) and SEO. http://bit.ly/dnttud
All-in-One Cufon: With All-in-One Cufon, you can replace standard fonts with whatever
font you desire. The plugin automatically detects uploaded fonts, offers a preview of uploaded
fonts, detection of the fontFamily parameter and provides an option to enable only those fonts
you really want to use. http://bit.ly/9Kh64r
AnyFont in Action: Above is a screenshot of the Notepad Theme for WordPress, showing the top and
sidebar menus after enabling menu replacements in AnyFont.
Font Burner Control Panel: Add any of the 1,000+ free fonts available on the Font Burner
website (fontburner.com) directly to your WordPress theme. Find a font you like and simply
enter the name into this plugin and your weblog headlines will be instantly transformed. This
plugin is a great option if you’re seeking richer typography but do not know how to use sifr or
Flash. http://bit.ly/c2FPg2
Typekit Fonts: This plugin allows for the embedding and use of Typekit fonts in your WP
or WP MY website without having to edit the theme. Typekit offers a service that allows
you to select from a range of hundreds of high quality fonts for your WordPress installation.
The fonts are applied using the font-face standard, so they are standards compliant, fully li-
censed and accessible. To use this plugin you need to sign up with Typekit, install this plu-
gin and then either configure some Typekit selectors or define your own CSS rules.
http://bit.ly/9hLgWW
MAY 2010 | | 9
A ccountant / Tax Services · Advertising Agency · Amusement / Recre

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E-Commerce
Software in Action
By Peter Prestipino, Editor-in-Chief
Despite the economic
downturn that has affected
everyone from Madison
Avenue to Main Street, the
state of the e-commerce
industry (despite a noticeable
dip in transactions and sales)
has remained strong, thanks
to continued improvements in
technology. Internet retailers
that have adopted “best of
breed” solutions are expecting
big profits in the coming years.
12 | |
Online retail in both the U.S. and Western
Europe is poised for serious growth over
the next five years, according to two new
forecasts by Forrester Research Inc. U.S.
online retail will grow at a 10 percent
compound annual growth rate (CAGR)
over the next five years to reach nearly
$249 billion by 2014.
It can sometimes seem as though
there are as many vendors of e-commerce
software as there are merchants on the
Web. So, understanding the solutions
available and the top-tier providers in
their respective areas will spur you into
action and help you come to a decision
that will positively impact the bottom
line of your retail endeavor on the Web.
What follows are several areas for e-com-
merce improvements and enhancements
for your website, and some vendors who
are leading the charge.
Product Placement: Savvy e-com-
merce Web professionals understand that
MAY 2010
to succeed online they need to occupy as
much virtual shelf space as possible.
ChannelAdvisor supports the mission of
Internet retail marketers by offering an
on-demand software solution that auto-
mates the often labor-intensive manual
functions related to distributing products
across multiple channels (particularly use-
ful for merchants with hundreds of thou-
sands of SKU’s). The software optimizes
campaigns to drive shoppers to products
and convert browsers into buyers. Chan-
nelAdvisor works with premium market-
places and search and shopping services as
eBay, Amazon, Overstock, Shopping.com,
Nextag and, of course, Google, Yahoo!
and Bing.
Hard Data: Many people in the e-com-
merce business make decisions that are
not based on empirical data. As you can
imagine, that can be a big mistake. The
Web offers an opportunity to gather data
in real time and make informed decisions

immediately, based on that information. By
testing variations of landing pages, product
descriptions, search results and buy-flows,
SiteSpect allows marketers to fine-tune
every aspect of their website on a segment-
by-segment basis. Optimizing marketing
effectiveness through A/B testing, multi-
variate testing and behavioral targeting of-
fers the ability to tweak nearly every
element on a website (particularly useful
for merchants) on a case-by-case basis.
Mobile E-commerce: Shopping cart
software vendor Volusion took a rather
bold step into the mobile world recently
with its launch of Volusion mCommerce;
a way for its customers to optimize their
online stores for consumers who are
smartphone-shopping. Volusion customers
(including small retailers that typically
do not have access to mobile- optimiza-
tion capabilities) can enable a setting
in their store’s administration panel.
Shoppers who navigate to any Volusion-
powered site using an iPhone will auto-
matically have access to the mobile-
optimized version.
In an age where mobile devices are
nearing ubiquity, choosing an e-com-
merce software solution that does not
offer some level of mobile compatibility
could dampen sales. “Volusion mCom-
merce allows my customers to view my
site in a convenient, snapshot version,”
said Andrea Bridges of RepeatPosses-
sions.com. “The popularity of Twitter and
other social media platforms is proving
that time and space are limited, and peo-
ple are expecting the kind of simplified in-
terface Volusion is providing. Volusion
mCommerce makes shopping more con-
venient for my customers and will provide
me with a revenue boost.”
User Experience: One of the key con-
cerns for e-commerce developers is how
end-user experience is impacted. Since
small modifications can result in big
changes, on-demand Web application ex-
perience management solutions provided
by the likes of Gomez help businesses en-
sure the most seamless of Web experi-
ences for e-commerce shoppers. Recently,
Gomez released an upgraded platform
that measures the response time of both
mobile and Web applications. The load
testing solution tests how mobile sites, ap-
E-Commerce
Statistics to Share
plications and infrastructure (thanks in
Launch a new e-commerce venture today
part to its acquisition by Compuware) re-
and you might be met with some skepticism
spond under peak traffic conditions and
then measure the mobile end-user expe- by friends, colleagues and investors. Fear not;
rience. “As applications are increasingly e-commerce isn’t a trend but now a way of
built from multiple third-party compo- life. In the U.S., Web shopping will account for
nents and accessed via an expanding 8 percent of total sales by 2014. More impor-
choice of browsers and mobile devices, tantly, 53 percent of total retail sales in the
preventing and resolving Web perform- U.S. will be influenced by e-commerce, as
ance problems becomes exponentially consumers increasingly use the Internet to
greater and more time-consuming,” said research products before purchasing.
Imad Mouline, CTO, Gomez division.
“The upgraded Gomez platform ad-
dresses all these issues, helping busi-
nesses spend less time troubleshooting
and more time delivering great Web and
mobile experiences.”
Private Sale @ Totsy
A new trend in e-commerce offers big prom-
Reviews and Testimonials: Few ises for retailers and even bigger savings for
things spark sales more than positive user
shoppers. It is called the “Private Sale” or
reviews of your products and services.
“Exclusive Sale” model and represents a new
Founded in 2005, Austin, Texas-based
Bazaarvoice provides a hosted social com- way of buying and selling on the ‘Net. What is
merce application for featuring user-gen- unique about the model (initially spawned by
erated content such as ratings, reviews, French-owned Vente-Privee.com seven years
answers and stories to manufacturer and ago) is that user access to products on these
retailer sites. These reviews are intended sites is restricted (or private, by invitation only).
to help jumpstart word-of-mouth and The private nature creates a sense of exclusiv-
viral marketing and big companies have ity for shoppers and ultimately helps merchants
taken notice. Brooks Brothers, for exam- move high-end inventory in a discreet but well-
ple, introduced the ratings and reviews branded, exclusive boutique-style environment.
solution from Bazaarvoice in October
The private sale model has recently been
2009, and encourages its shoppers to re-
formally introduced into the U.S. at Totsy.com, a
view the products they purchase. The re-
view solicitation e-mail, which typically private sale website dedicated to moms and
goes out one week after a purchase online moms-to-be. Totsy features products on its
or in a store, has the highest open rate of site from toys to car seats for a limited time (just
all e-mails sent by the company. Brooks a few days) and typically at 40-70 percent off
Brothers plans to bring relevant star rat- the traditional price. The technology is also quite
ings and review content into its spring simple, requiring nothing more than some
catalog and upcoming e-mail campaigns. marketing savvy and good connections.
Brooks Brothers also plans to inte-
grate Bazaarvoice Ratings & Re-
views into future social networking
and mobile shopping initiatives.
Much more goes into success
with e-commerce than simply
choosing the right shopping cart
and merchant account provider. As
you can see, there are many e-com-
merce solutions available on the
market that go beyond supporting
marketing endeavors, but create a
clear and distinct separation from
you and your competition.
MAY 2010 | | 13
Evaluate Editorial Impact
Using Google Analytics
By Lars Johansson
Many editors feel that once content has been created and
uploaded, their job is done. That’s not true. If you don’t meas-
ure, you can’t analyze. If you don’t analyze, you can’t improve.
And the easiest way to analyze is by implementing Google
Analytics. It's free, so there is no excuse not to use it. And,
yes, it works for intranets, too.
Using Web analytics, you can measure the effectiveness
of content. It is possible to measure how well the content is
performing even for purely informational websites, includ-
ing intranets, that are not supported by advertising or prod-
uct sales.
One of the first things you need to do — a step that is
easy to miss — is to make sure you filter out writers and ed-
itors from your statistics. Otherwise, your data will be
bloated and inaccurate. Do this by filtering individual or a
range of IP addresses within your analytics account.
You are not allowed to store personally identifiable in-
formation (such as social security numbers or names) in
Google Analytics. You may, however, store data that can
group visitors together in different clusters. For intranets,
that may be categories such as divisions and departments.
For websites, it could be consumers and businesses.
By using custom variables to group visitors together, you
14 | | MAY 2010
will be able to analyze how different groups of visitors
behave. From there, content can be optimized to best fit
its target audience.
Keep in mind that file downloads are not automatically
tracked by Google Analytics. For example, if you want to
track PDF downloads, you need to trigger a virtual page
view when a visitor is clicking on links to them.
Six measurements to maximize impact.
There are many different key performance indicators (KPIs)
that can be measured. Those best to track varies from com-
pany to company, and site to site. If you feel uncertain, talk
to a Web analytics consultant.
Too many pages and don’t know where to start? Priori-
tize what pages to optimize by looking at such indicators as
bounce rate, read rate, $-index (monetary or goal-value con-
tribution) and satisfaction. Also check page-view volume
(which will tell you something about impact) and number
of entrances (which shows how relevant the bounce rate is).
Some of those metrics, however, require additional config-
uration and JavaScript code on your website.
Below are six KPIs to measure and analyze to make sure
your website’s content is meeting your business objectives.
1. Readings per writer and writer impact
Find out how many times a particular writer’s articles are
being read, the number of conversions taking place as a
Continued on page 16
Continued from page 14
result of those articles, how long those visits lasted (best
measured in intervals — use the Length of Visit report
under Visitor Loyalty), and more. This is done by seg-
menting and creating reports based on a custom variable,
as described below.
How to measure it: Start by editing the tracking script on
your website that is used by Google Analytics.
• Trigger a page-level custom variable after a certain num-
ber of seconds on a page.
• Base the timer on a reasonable amount of time it takes
to read an article.
• Add the name of the writer to a custom variable and the
URL + “(read)” in _trackPageview(). This will result in
the writer’s name being tied to the page and the page
being marked as “read.”
• In “Top Content” you'll have two entries for article1
that look like this: “/article1/index.php” and
“/article1/index.php (read)”. You can filter the Top Con-
tent report by “(read)” to see how many times different
articles have been read.
• If you only want to look at articles by a specific writer,
use an advanced segment based on the custom variable
containing the writer’s name.
Keep in mind that triggering an extra page view, as will
be done above, will affect other metrics such as number of
page views, page views/visit and bounce rate.
2. Page impact
By configuring goals, you can find out how frequently, and
during which visits a certain page was viewed and led to goal
completions, and the total goal value for those visits. How
well have those visits performed com-
pared to other visits?
How to measure it: Create an ad-
vanced segment including only visits
during which a specific page, or a cer-
tain group of pages has been viewed.
3. Satisfaction
Measuring visitor satisfaction per
writer and page adds an important di-
mension to your analysis. Imagine if
you could find out how satisfied read-
ers of specific writers are? You can.
How to measure it: There are two
ways. You can incorporate the possi-
bility to give a rating for an individual
page, or you can trigger a survey after
the user has completed certain actions,
spent a certain amount of time on the
site, or left the site. The key is to store
the grade in Google Analytics. By com-
bining behavioral and attitudinal data
in Google Analytics, you will be able
to see how frequently certain pages or
16 | | MAY 2010
writers have been involved in high- and low-satisfaction vis-
its. Survey data can be stored as custom variables or virtual
page views, depending on what works best for you.
4. Time spent writing vs. reading
This measurement can show if there are pages that readers
spend less time reading than the writers and editors spend
creating. It is particularly valuable for intranets or websites
with low traffic. If you spend a lot of time on an article and
few people read it, you’ve either failed at marketing the ar-
ticle or it’s simply not appealing to readers. Besides learning
what content works best, this KPI will let you know how
well writers are spending their time.
How to measure it: This requires a CMS hack. The com-
pany I work for built a simple plug-in for EPiServer (a .Net
Web Content Management System) showing how much
time has been spent editing individual pages and groups of
pages. You may be able to build something similar in your
own CMS.
Caveat: It will paint the true picture only if all writing is
done directly in the CMS.
5. Unread pages
Pages need to generate at least one page view to be included
in Google Analytics. Pages with no views will not be listed.
If you do not track unread pages, you cannot accurately
measure the average amount of page views per article or the
average amount of readings per article. Both of those metrics
are valuable to evaluate content. This may not be an issue for
everyone, but for websites containing thousands of pages,
it’s not always the case that every single page has been
viewed at least once during any given time period.
How to measure it: To find pages that did not generate a
single page view or reading, you need to match a list of pages
from your CMS with page-view data from Google Analytics.
I recommend using Excellent Analytics, a free plug-in for
Microsoft Excel, when combining data from Google Ana-
lytics with data from other systems. You can download it for
free from: http://excellentanalytics.com/.
6. Cost per reading
Some organizations have goals stating that writers need to
produce a certain amount of articles per week. I believe that
it is more important to measure the impact of a writer’s arti-
cles, rather than sheer volume of articles created.
How to measure it: Cost per reading = writer cost/number
of times the writer’s articles have been read.
Better articles should generate more readings. Writers
should strive to achieve a low cost per reading and a high
satisfaction score.
Lars Johansson works for Mark Red (www.markred.se,)a
Google Analytics Authorized Consultant (GAAC) and Google
Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant (WOAC). He blogs
about web analytics and testing at www.WebAnalysts.Info.
50
When it comes to your
Web design, where
TO P DESIGN RESOURCES

WEBSITES
1.
2.
3.
cssbeauty.com
cssdrive.com
thefwa.com
cssbeauty.com

do you (or your 4. thebestdesigns.com

designers) look for 5. cssvault.com
Perhaps the best way to get in- 6. unmatchedstyle.com
inspiration? Chances
spired for a specific design project 7. designmeltdown.com
are good that it’s most is to look outside of the sites you
often the websites of 8. designshack.co.uk
visit most and even further beyond
your competitors. your comfort zone toward all that
9. webcreme.com
While that’s certainly is good and exciting in “creative” 10. cssheaven.com cssvault.com

one way to do some being developed today. 11. cssremix.com

valuable benchmark- So where do you look for that 12. bestwebgallery.com
ing, you wouldn’t kind of guidance and insight? 13. cssmania.com
want to create a Developing a list of sites to 14. patterntap.com
knock-off of someone help Website Magazine readers find 15. csselite.com
else’s work, right? something as abstract as design 16. cssclip.com
inspiration is challenging, if not 17. designbombs.com
completely impossible to do fairly or objectively. Awesome
18. siteinspire.net
design is everywhere and originates from every corner of the
Web. What might be downright edgy and exciting to one 19. edustyle.net edustyle.net

person, however, can be the exact opposite of what others 20. styleboost.com
think is attractive. 21. genuinestyle.net
There is no single answer (much less 50), so assembling 22. css-website.com
a list of sources for Web design inspiration is ultimately up 23. cssbased.com
to you, the designer, or someone responsible for overseeing 24. mostinspired.com
design. (Read about managing redesign on page 34). How- 25. stylegala.com
ever, keeping tabs on trends is far easier when you know 26. css-design-yorkshire.com
where to start looking. So, let’s consider this month’s Top 50
27. my3w.org
list an excellent starting point.
What we found most interesting when aggregating these 28. cssimport.com
online resources is the number of those specializing in Cas- 29. w3csites.com
styleboost.com
cading Style Sheets (CSS), indicating that a formal shift to- 30. screenalicious.com
ward separating style and design from content is complete. 31. cssimpress.com
Another interesting thing about design trends is that 32. dark-i.com
they are quickly duplicated — once you see it one place, 33. screenfluent.com
you are bound to see it pretty much everywhere else soon 34. designbygrid.com
after. Drop shadows — awesome, but everywhere. Big, bold 35. cssburst.com
graphics in the headers? Been there, done that. If you’re feel-
36. cssheroes.com
ing frustrated trying to find something new, fear not. Visit a
few of the sites listed here and you will quickly be able to for- 37. inspirationking.com
mulate your own opinion on what current Web designers 38. cssflavor.com
think Internet professionals want. 39. csstux.com
Mashing up that analysis with your own competitive de- 40. csscollection.com
inspirationking.com
sign benchmarks and intuition will you give the best chance 41. nicestylesheet.com
possible of finding the design that meets your own desires, 42. dezinspiration.com
while balancing the needs of your website visitors. 43. cssartillery.com
44. stylecrunch.com
45. makebetterwebsites.com
ABOUT THIS RANKED DATA
46. cssliquid.com
Website Magazine’s Top 50 rankings are a measure of a website’s popularity. Ranks 47. cssline.com
are calculated using a proprietary method that focuses on average daily unique vis-
itors and page views over a specified period of time, as reported by multiple data 48. onepixelarmy.com
sources. The website with the highest combination of factors is ranked in the first 49. cssdump.com
position. Conducting research, making formal comparisons and talking to existing
clients and users before making any purchase decisions is always recommended. 50. styletheweb.com

18 | | MAY 2010
 SEO CORNER With Dante A. Monteverde
THE
SUPER-AWESOME-MEGA-OPTIMAL
GUIDE to Links for Traffic and Search Engine Exposure
You have no traffic, and you
You may have used some
know it. Let’s change that. of the strategies, channels
and tactics discussed in
SEO Corner to acquire new links (and visitors) but I’ll bet
Dante A. Monteverde your website you haven’t tried them all. If you have tried them
is a search strategist all but are still not getting traffic (or as much as you want)
specializing in Search you need to revisit each and every one, and do so frequently.
Engine Optimization. The one true secret of link building is that the best link
He founded has yet to be discovered. So staying on top of new traffic
SpiderBait.com in sources, distribution models and publicity opportunities
1996 and has more will feed your website links that result in traffic and expo-
than 13 years of sure well into the future.
SEO experience.
Contact Dante at
Public Relations: Press releases don’t get enough credit
dante@spiderbait.com.
as a means to drive website traffic, links and exposure for
your websites and their underlying businesses. Services
such as PRWeb, BusinessWire, PR.com, and PRNewswire
are proven ways to get in front of not just the media but
other website owners looking for content to feature on their
sites (which means more links). While there is no guaran-
tee that coughing up the often exorbitant fees to these
providers will result in actual or immediate media expo-
sure, you will be surprised at the speed at which you will
acquire inbound links.
Classifieds: You might also be surprised at the amount of
visitors that will come to your site based solely on classified
advertising — free or paid. Some of the best sites available in
Things to Avoid When Link Building
There always seems to be a longer list of “don’ts” than “do’s” but
knowing what will get you penalized and staying far away from
those practices will prove useful. Avoiding link farms and off-topic
links, not relying too heavily on reciprocal links and paid links
(at least those that are noticeable — i.e. stay away from companies
offering these services) is sound, sane and safe advice.
20 | | MAY 2010
the classified industry include craigslist, Oodle, USFreeAds,
Backpage and Kijii but local newspapers are also a good way
to get some attention, especially if you are working on a local
or regional level. The best part about using classified adver-
tising to drive traffic is that the cost is often far lower than
other promotional methods, if not completely free. But it’s
not just the broad-scope classified sites that can generate at-
tention. There are hundreds if not thousands of classifieds in
every industry, providing an exceedingly targeted opportu-
nity to generate new links of some notable quality.
Video: Another opportunity to gain exposure, and get links
and traffic, is through the use of online video. While there
are financial and time commitments to creating video, going
viral can help get your website to a tipping point far faster
than any other online channel. YouTube is by far the king of
video sites, but there are hundreds of others including Vimeo,
Blip.tv, Viddler, 5min, Dailymotion.com, and MetaCafe. Are
you distributing your videos to these outlets? Are you mon-
itoring your videos’ success or failure, and watching the per-
formance of others in these channels to see what’s getting
noticed or ignored? If not, you need to be.
If video is a serious consideration for your website, plac-
ing your content exclusively on YouTube is a good bet. Cre-
ate a YouTube channel (even if you don’t have video content
yet) and “friend” related users and “favorite” quality videos.
The link from the YouTube Channel to your website is a
do-follow link.
Content Development: The information age requires
that you produce ... information. Take up a campaign to
write content for others by reaching out to bloggers who
cover related topics (find some guest blogging prospects at
BlogCatalog.com). There are many exceptional article di-
rectories where you will be able to submit your content in-
cluding EzineArticles.com, Buzzle.com, GoArticles.com,
IdeaMarketers.com, ArticleAlley.com and Amazines.com.
These are just a few of the more well known directories but
there are hundreds of others. Another very valuable oppor-
tunity is through Google Knol. Because any link from
Google is worth getting, create content for a Knol and in-
clude some links — they too, are do-follow.

Getting Social: Social media has changed the way we connect
with others and promote our products and services on the Web.
From social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Orkut,
Bebo and hi5 to microblogging services like Twitter, Plurk and
Plazes — even social bookmarking services such as Delicious,
Digg, Stumbleupon, Mixx, Reddit and others — “social” presents
wonderful opportunities to chart the course of memes and dis-
cussions, and are widely known as effective ways to create huge
streams of website traffic and, ultimately, inbound links.
Directories: DMOZ and the Yahoo! Directory are two excep-
tional places to attempt to acquire links to your website, but there
can be incredibly long wait times (DMOZ) and high prices
(Yahoo!) to get included. Consider some alternatives including
Business.com, BestofTheWeb.com, GoGuides.com, JoeAnt, Rub-
berStamped.org, Skaffe.com, SiteSnoop.com, Gimpsy.com, IPL.org
and MassiveLinks.com.
Things to Remember When
Link Building
Nothing is more important to your success on popular
search engine results pages than the number and qual-
ity of inbound links. Remember as you start a link build-
ing campaign, that links marked “nofollow” will not pass
any value or increase the Google Page Rank of the site’s
page being linked to. You may also want to alternate
the anchor text of incoming links so they look as natural
as possible – include different keywords and link to
different pages on your site. As always, target links from
diverse IP’s, ones that are topically relevant, authoritative
and trustworthy.
data tree™
MAY 2010 | | 21
 CONVERSION CACHE With Tim Ash

Creating Influence and Trust

in a Place of Uncertainty
Many marketing
Dr. Robert Cialdini, president of Authority and expertise must be established before you
professionals believe Influence At Work (InfluenceAt- ask someone to act. Otherwise, you become a blowhard and
that, because the Work.com), is regarded as the self-promoter. You can either borrow authority from others,
world’s highest authority on per- or present them with your expertise.
Internet is a new suasion and influence. His books In order to be credible, you must demonstrate knowledge
medium, new rules have sold millions of copies, and and trustworthiness. No one can beat you as a communica-
and techniques must some of his most important find- tor if you have these two elements. That means that you must
Tim Ash is the CEO ings are entirely applicable to the present information in an unbiased way.
of SiteTuners.com, be invented.They are online marketing environment. But how do you establish trust if there is no time to build
a landing page mistaken. Many What Cialdini was able to trustworthy interactions? How do you produce instant cred-
optimization firm that formulate through his work are ibility? There is a very good method for doing just that.
timeless principles
offers conversion several principles of universal
apply to online Before the most compelling portion of your argu-
consulting, full-service persuasion that operate across
ment, mention the weakness and drawbacks of your
guaranteed-improve- marketing but have all cultures and circumstances.
product or service.
ment tests, and You can think of these as auto- — Robert Cialdini
software tools to
largely been ignored.
matic compliance mechanisms
improve conversion.
You read that correctly — accentuate the negative.
that, once set into motion, are
He is the chairperson very difficult to resist. Using this tactic because it:
of ConversionConfer- According to Dr. Cialdini, the six universal principles of 1) Shows your knowledge of both the pros and cons of a
ence.com and a persuasion are: particular product or service, and
frequent speaker at Reciprocation — People tend to return a favor. Give to get: 2) Establishes your trustworthiness, because you are will-
top Internet marketing small unsolicited gifts results in outsized return obligation ing to show the negative.
conferences. Tim is the being placed on the receiver. Unlike most online marketers, don’t wait until the end of
author of the best-
Scarcity — If I can’t have it, I want it. Perceived scarcity will your pitch, press release or blog post to mention your weak-
selling book Landing
generate more demand. ness. State it early. Otherwise, your strongest argument is
Page Optimization.
Authority — If an expert says it, it must be true. People tend “bouncing off of walls of disbelief.”
to obey authority figures, or even just those with the trap- Consider these time-tested and strong headlines:
pings of authority. • Avis: We’re #2, so we try harder.
Consistency — If people publicly take even a small stand on • Loreal: We are expensive, but you're worth it.
an idea or goal, they are more likely to honor that commit- In both of these examples, a negative is mentioned up-
ment. They will get behind their stated beliefs with action. front, but used to ultimately accentuate the positive. In Avis’
Consensus — People will look for “social proof” of the sim- case, their number two ranking in the industry is forcing
ilarities of others’ actions under the same circumstances. them to focus on serving the customer better. Loreal is
Liking — People are easily persuaded by people they like going to cost you, but they only want to deliver the best to
and are attracted to. the consumer.
Research from psycholinguistics indicates that for practi-
Some of these principles are especially important under
cal purposes “but” means “take the info I just told you
conditions of uncertainty, which should be of particular in-
and put it away; focus instead on what I am going to tell
terest to Internet marketers. The Internet is a sweeping, ever-
you next.”
changing communications network that creates uncertainty in
Just change the sequence of the words you use, and mul-
its wake.
tiply your profits.
Authority Consensus
When people are uncertain, they don’t look inside of When people are uncertain, they don’t look inside of
themselves. They look outside, to the counsel of themselves. They look outside, to the counsel of
legitimate experts. legitimate experts.
— Robert Cialdini — Robert Cialdini

22 | | MAY 2010
 We see it all the time — your role models are your peers.
Much to the chagrin of many parents, the biggest influence
on most teenagers is their circle of close friends. It almost
doesn’t matter what your tribes are, and all of us informally
belong to many. BMW owners, iPhone users and Burning Man
devotees are much more likely to tune in to the behavior of
like-minded people.
Two important aspects of such “social proof” are especially
important:
• The Many others
• Comparable others
The Many implies that something is a “hit” or leader in
your specific community or tribe. Once trends take off, the
momentum of the leaders makes them very hard to overtake.
Any objective evidence of leadership within a particular tribe
or subgroup is very important.
Comparability is a sense of how similar someone is to one-
self. For example, I will not be influenced nearly as much by
the actions of others with whom I do not identify. So, the closer
the marketing is aligned with my specific circumstances and
relationships, the better.
In a landmark study, Dr. Cialdini changed the messaging
on hotel bathroom signs, across three different price points
ranging from inexpensive to luxury brands. The signs asked
guests to hang up their towels after use if they did not want
them washed, and to leave them on the floor if they wanted
fresh towels.
Each request was identical, except for the type of messag-
ing used in the headline.
• “Recycle and do it for environment” — this was the standard
control and resulted in 38-percent compliance from guests.
This was followed by one of the following two headlines.
• “Cooperate and join us” — this resulted in a lower, 36-per-
cent compliance because it was perceived as a self-serving re-
quest on the part of the hotel to save on operating expenses.
You can’t claim partnership, you must earn partnership.
• “The majority of guests are reusing towels at least once
during their stay” — this appeal to The Many portion of
the consensus principle resulted in a much-improved 46-
percent compliance score.
But how do you create a sense of comparability in this set-
ting, when anonymous and random people stay at the hotel?
What possible kinship of comparability can there be among
them to further turbo-charge results? As it turns out, even a ten-
uous kind of kinship is enough. The next headline tested was:
• “The majority of people who stayed in this room are reusing
towels at least once during their stay” — this combination
of The Many with Comparable resulted in a stunning 54-
percent compliance rate.
The use of appropriate testimonials is critical. And the tes-
timonials should not come just from experts but also from
peers. They should also change in order depending on the tar-
get audience. Lead with the most comparable circumstances.
The Internet is a place of uncertainty for many people. It
evolves quickly, and often the sheer number of choices
can be overwhelming. Create authority and trust in this envi-
ronment and you will be able to influence action — under
any circumstances.
MAY 2010 | | 23
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AND MIKE PHILLIPS, SENIOR EDITOR

Web professionals’ interest in

search engine optimization (SEO)
is matched in intensity only by
the excitement surrounding social
media. The end result of these two
Internet marketing endeavors is
nearly the same: website traffic and
brand exposure — not to mention
stronger customer relationships.

26 | | MAY 2010
 HOW DO
While SEO tends to be more technical (at least it is perceived
to be so), social media optimization (SMO) leans more toward YOU
developing a process to establish quality relationships where
trust and confidence are the aim. It can be argued, however, COMPARE
that the techniques and tactics employed in each practice are (TO GOOGLE)?
universal and interchangeable. It is difficult to deny that a
tremendous opportunity for profit exists when we employ (or In early March, Google released its own SEO

at least think about) common SEO best practices and apply Report Card, an effort to provide the com-

them within our social media world. pany’s product teams with ideas on how they
could improve their products’ pages using ac-
To make the most of the current Web landscape, a formal plan is required — one cepted optimization techniques. The project
that provides an understanding of the audience to which you are marketing your
products and services, takes into account the quality and quantity of content you looked at the main pages of 100 different
will need, and establishes measurable goals for the benefit of your business. Google products, measuring them across a
If the horizon from whence you work looks bleak when it comes to either SEO or
SMO, fear not — you’re about to rocket your website into a new stratosphere on the dozen common optimization categories. So
Internet planet. It comes down to this: SEO in a social media world provides you an how did Google fare? All things considered,
opportunity to make a more meaningful impact on existing users and prospects than they could do better. The report card indicated
either practice alone, making your enterprise more genuine and providing the ability
to explore channels that may have previously seemed walled, inaccessible and alien. that Google needs some serious work on its
search result presentation (title tag format
SEO FAILINGS
Most websites struggle with SEO, and it is not just the Internet mom-and-pops. and length, description meta tag use, and site
SEO technology and service provider Conductor (which calls the likes of NetFlix, links), its URLs and redirection, and even its
Progressive Insurance and other notable names as clients) released a research report on-page optimization practices including the
(Natural Search Trends of the Fortune 500) in mid-February that detailed search vis-
ibility and optimization effectiveness of Fortune 500 companies. How did they fare? use of <h1> tags and alt text. Google did
Not so well. More than half of the companies had almost no natural search visibil- receive some “satisfactory” grades on many
ity with their targeted keywords, defined as not ranking within the top 100 natural
practices. The “optimization” suggestions
search results. Sound similar to your own troubles? Only two percent of the do-
mains surveyed (those associated with the actual companies) showed a significant were intended to not only help search
number of their keyword terms in the top results. engines understand the content of our pages
The problem is not only that these companies and others are failing in the com-
plex world of SEO. They are now simultaneously seduced by the promise of riches, better, but also to improve our users’ experi-
popularity and consumer endearment from participating in the social media world. ence when visiting our sites. Simple steps
The worst part for Web professionals is that regular Web users are turning a blind eye
such as fixing 404s and broken links, simpli-
to corporate social media and its real-time nature. Online marketing firm OneUp-
Web’s recent eye-tracking study revealed some interesting findings about real-time fying URL choice, and providing easier-to-
and perhaps, in many respects, the impact that “social” has on search results. Of the understand titles and snippets for our pages
participants in the study, 73 percent had never heard of real-time results, and only a
quarter of the consumers cared for the real-time results, compared to 47 percent of the can benefit both users and search engines.

MAY 2010 | | 27

HELPFUL SEO
RESEARCH
Website Magazine periodically publishes spe-
cial reports on a variety of subject matter im-
portant to your Internet success. As you might
imagine, studies on search engine optimiza-
tion often receive the most attention. Over the
past few months, our editors have addressed
important questions in the field of SEO includ-
ing Website Size, Alt Text, and Keyword Rich-
ness in domain names, sub-domains, folders
and page names. Here’s what we learned:
WEBSITE SIZE: The size of a website (the
number of pages) does not have any direct
bearing on how well a website ranks for a
particular search term. http://bit.ly/9CxcQA
ALT TEXT: Providing alternate text to images
is an important part of on-page optimization,
but more importantly provides an opportunity
to be in line with accessibility standards.
http://bit.ly/4xpROB
KEYWORD RICHNESS: The Cross-engine
keyword richness inquiry indicated that those
responsible for SEO should definitely name
folders, not focus on page naming, consider
keywords in subdomains and opt for key-
words in their domains. http://bit.ly/5LoFCB
28 | | MAY 2010
“information foragers.” Couple that with recent news that social media may have
peaked and you have a perfect storm that is sure to upset the balance of promotions
on the World Wide Web. It’s not off base to think that most consumers have no idea
that social is making its way into search. The solution is to make our brands as con-
sistent and value-added as possible — wherever consumers interact with it.
So how do we apply the SEO principles that we know work for generating com-
petitive first-page rankings to social media, and vice-versa? In short, it comes down
to how content is developed and shared.
But first it’s necessary to discuss the basics of getting social with SEO. A com-
mon and damaging misconception is that SEO is separate from the marketing strat-
egy of a business. In reality, integrating SEO into existing business practices is
essential these days, and if you plan on achieving any level of success you will need
a formal plan.
TAKE THE RIGHT APPROACH
Just as you wouldn’t get in a taxi without knowing your destination, you would not
want to promote and position your website (or its underlying business) without a
formal strategy. When it comes to SEO and SMO, reaching your objectives requires
that as much attention be paid to the content you provide as to how the broader
community will interact with it. Since it is the content that people will ultimately
discover and share first, if you are publishing the wrong type of content, you will
arrive at the wrong destination.
Content Development
Developing content-based promotions for our current or prospective audiences re-
quires being familiar with their behavior, those users’ preferences and how they will
share and publish content within their own network and among the social graph
they have established. One way is to use social media monitoring software, like that
provided by Radian6, to stay on top of conversations and the influencers who
initiate them.
But you don’t need to be a creative genius to come up with innovative ideas for
content. Many top e-commerce websites rely strongly on leveraging user-generated
content. Amazon.com is an excellent example. Notice how strongly they leverage
user-generated product reviews and recommendations, allowing them to display
unique content for nearly every product, on an ongoing basis. Somewhat similar to
expert product reviews, but at the category level, are buyer’s guides — informative,
unique articles designed to educate potential buyers about particular product cat-
egories or industries.
What about informational and service-oriented websites? Nothing works bet-
ter than an education or information section. Simply add a section to an existing
website and publish unique and linkable content related to your company or the
industry it serves.
You will find when creating content that its eventual success does not always rely
on the quality of the content, but how it is presented — offering it to users in cre-
ative, interesting ways. For this, you will need to take the time to brainstorm. Think
of ways that you could change your users’ experiences that would be so interesting
or helpful that others would want to link to your website, and/or share that content
with their networks. For example, if your website sold pet toys, perhaps you could
create a fun tool that would determine a pet’s personality, display a personality analy-
sis, and recommend toys based on that. Or, a humorous video of a pet playing with
a popular toy could be embedded on a social network, sent via a Twitter update
and posted on YouTube — complete with a description of the product and a link
where it can be purchased, of course.
HAS “SOCIAL”
But it’s not just the quality of content, it’s increasingly the quantity (as well as
its frequency) that matters. A study of 2,168 HubSpot customers shows businesses
that published at least 5 blog articles in the last 7 days draw 6.9 times more organic
PEAKED?
search traffic and 1.12 times more referral traffic than those who don’t blog at all.
This finding coincides with common sense: out of large chunks of business-relevant It cannot be argued that social media is the
content (one post per weekday), blog readers will likely find something engaging Web’s hottest trend. But is this trend really a
and proceed to learn more about a company. They might even share that content
with their peers. fad? New data from Compete.com shows
As important as it is that content resonates with a Web audience, it won’t mean that every major social network on the Web
much if that content does not in some way satisfy the objectives of an enterprise.
lost unique visitors from January to February
Those objectives can differ greatly per industry or by the type of site that you own
or operate, but they are routinely website traffic, brand exposure, inbound link gen- 2010. A look at the numbers:
eration or actual leads and sales. While companies have historically been reliant on
SEO to drive marketing or sales, social media requires a different tack. So, alterna- ■ Facebook.com: -4.32%
tive objectives and measurements apply.
■ MySpace.com: -11.52%
Multi-channel SMO ■ Twitter.com: -9.63%
The role of SEO in a social media effort is to directly influence discovery of social
communities or content via search. For example, search for a popular brand term ■ LinkedIn.com: -8.3%
today and it is likely you will find YouTube channels, Twitter accounts and Facebook
Fan Pages on the first page of search results where negative reviews, complaints Of course, the number of participants on
and brand squatters once ruled that real estate.
What this means is that to succeed with SEO in a social media world, we need these networks is still too high to ignore. But
to think long and hard about how to distribute content and create a tactical ap- it would be wise to remember that social
proach to user sharing. While you can foster the sharing process with tools like
media is there to serve businesses, not
ShareThis or AddThis, many companies are turning to Facebook Connect and
Google Friend Connect to take their communities (as well as the inevitable shar- the other way around.
ing that goes on with the right content) to a different level. These solutions, while
still new, are being widely adopted and present a noteworthy opportunity to shore
up support within an existing network. But what about outside of your own site —
how do you ensure that your message is shared across your social graph in a way
that is consistent with the original meaning and intent?
Social community platform Awareness Networks launched some intriguing
multi-channel publishing features on its platform which puts content directly on so-
cial media channels like Facebook, Twitter and others without the manual legwork.
Often, publishers have great content to share but it needs to be managed like a cor-
porate asset. For example, who can access certain social media channels and what
kind of content can or should go there? In essence, companies looking to optimize
social marketing channels face significant control issues surrounding brand image
and messaging across multiple channels.
But perhaps the biggest problem with SMO is measuring the effectiveness of
multiple platforms. Efforts tend to become an ROI “black hole” with no empirical
data to make informed business decisions. Therefore, it’s critical that businesses set
a formal plan and utilize even the most basic of analytics to measure how each plat-
form is performing. Should Twitter, for example, outperform Facebook in terms of
generating traffic and increasing time-on-site, then efforts and perhaps budget
should be shifted accordingly. However, this would not mean that Facebook should
be abandoned. Social media is a moving target — only by watching closely will you
know when it’s time to step up efforts on a different channel.

MAY 2010 | | 29
A DIGG
RENAISSANCE?
Digg.com was one of the original sharing
sites, offering users the ability to post and
share stories with the community. It could
also deliver a deluge of traffic — if you knew
how to game the system and with a little luck.
Falling on hard times in recent years, Digg is
going a different direction.
Hoping to become a pioneer in “content
curation,” Digg plans to provide personal
home pages for every user, to help filter,
rank and sort shared content from across the
Web - including from Facebook and Twitter.
As more information is shared at a breakneck
pace, many users find themselves steeped
in information overload. Digg hopes that by
providing a system to help the most impor-
tant and relevant stories rise to the top for
individual users (their original goal many
years ago), users will come back.
Digg has years
of experience in the
social networking and content
sharing business, so keep an
eye on these developments for
new opportunities.
30 | | MAY 2010
Keyword Optimization
One of SEO’s most tried and true practices is the use of keywords to help search en-
gines index content. And it’s no different in the social media space. Profile descrip-
tions and content, as well as updates to networks, should include keywords and
phrases that are directly related to the content a user can expect to find after click-
ing a link, or reading the rest of the update. However, this is not to suggest that up-
dates are to be keyword-stuffed. Remember that social media is intended to appeal
to humans. That means using keywords mixed with a conversational tone to appeal
to both search spiders and people. Anchor text in links must use keywords as well
— both those links pointing to your website and to other social profiles.
Most popular keyword tools will provide information on what users are search-
ing for, but why reinvent the wheel? SEMRush provides content marketers valuable
insights into the keyword visibility (organic and paid) for any website. HowSocia-
ble is a useful tool to quickly gauge the social presence of a particular keyword or
brand name but there are others (of varying levels) such as PostRank, Trackur, So-
cial Mention, TechrigySM2 and even Google Alerts to understand the depth of pres-
ence for social media campaigns.
It could prove to be immensely valuable to know for what terms and content the
competition is optimizing. Gathering that data (whether manually or through a
service) at the start of any optimization process becomes integral not just to SEO
efforts but also to SMO campaigns.
Generating Links
SEO’s golden child is the incoming link. While one might not think of SMO as
a legitimate link-building strategy, the opportunity is most certainly there. Start
by linking all of your business’ social profiles together, and to your website. This
will help your brand dominate the search results pages for a branded search, as
well as give users immediate options as to where they would like to connect with
your business.
But the best opportunity for generating links is in your content. Social is built
on sharing and that means sharing links. While, at this time, links originating from
social profiles is not weighted heavily by search engines, that will likely change. The
simple fact is that users are spending more time on social media and, as a result, ob-
taining more information from these sources. A bonus is that, invariably, high-qual-
ity social content will generate links to your website from outside the
social world, too. You can bet that just about every blogger, PR firm
and news source is plugged in to social media — and they
are looking for content to publish, and to link to from their
own sites.
By involving SEO insight in a social media marketing
effort and vice-versa, marketers, public relations profes-
sionals and advertisers can extend the value of their
promotional investment. Well-optimized social media
content marketing efforts can attract new network par-
ticipants via search and through social networks, and
facilitate links to websites directly and indirectly. The
greatest benefit marketers and advertisers enjoy by thinking
SEO when starting social media campaigns is that content
exists — and is shared — long after campaigns have ended.
pub
OUTDATED
5
SEO TACTICS
AND 5 ALTERNATIVES
BY KEN LYONS

In the past it was easier to

achieve high search engine
rankings by “gaming” the
system with questionable SEO
tactics. But as search engines
have evolved, many suspect
SEO practices have been
rendered useless. However,
if you visit any SEO forum or
upstart SEO blog, you will see
many of these outdated tactics
still endorsed as legitimate
techniques. In an attempt to end
the misinformation, below are
five popular, yet outdated SEO
tactics that no longer work —
and some legitimate alternatives.

32 | | MAY 2010
1 KEYWORD
STUFFING
In the late 1990s, search engines were unsophisticated. The
more frequently a keyword appeared in a page’s content, the
better it ranked. This practice of “keyword stuffing” was an easy
way to manipulate search rankings. Since then, search engines
and their algorithms have matured.
What to do instead:
Stuffing pages with keywords can have a negative impact; as
Google actively imposes penalties on gamed content. So if you
want your keywords to have maximum impact, it’s far better
(and safer) to employ legitimate SEO practices, such as:
• Creating content for people, not search engines
• Making sure keywords are present in prominent regions of
your Web page; such as headers, subheads, title tags and
meta description snippets
• Structuring a website so that important keyword pages are
high up in the site architecture and easily found by both
search engines and people
2
BLOG COMMENT
SPAMMING
Many search marketers and webmasters still aggressively drop
links in blog comments as their primary link building strate-
gies. This outdated SEO tactic is better known as blog comment
spamming. To address the abuse, Google introduced nofollow
link tags (a signal to search engine spiders to ignore a link) and
is known to devalue links in blog comments.
What to do instead:
Rather than comment spam, try producing something of value.
Creating well-written, engaging and thought-provoking con-
tent is one of the best ways to attract quality links, naturally.
Good content often generates editorial links — naturally oc-
curring links from other blogs and news sources that search
engines value far more than comments in blog posts.
3
SEARCH ENGINE
SUBMISSION
I’m still amazed by how many companies offer search engine
submission as a service. I’m equally amazed by how many
professional Web developers and designers still believe that
submitting to search engines is necessary. It is not. Google’s abil-
ity to discover and index new content is so advanced that search
engine submission is obsolete. So, paying a company for a
search engine submission service is a waste of money.
What to do instead:
To ensure that your new website gets discovered quickly,
get links. This can be as quick and easy as dropping a link to
your website on a social media platform. For example, if you
have a Twitter account, tweet a link to your new website or
add it as your profile link. Twitter is crawled by search engines
constantly; so a link to your new site will be discovered
quickly. To increase your chances of getting found, use a site
like Ping.fm, which offers the ability to post a message and
link to dozens of social media sites simultaneously.
4
META TAG
OPTIMIZATION
There was a time when meta tags (snippets of information
embedded in the <HEAD> area of a page’s code) played a large
role in influencing search engine rankings. This was particu-
larly true of the “meta keywords” attribute; a common way
for site owners to reinforce terms important to their websites.
However, unscrupulous site owners and SEOs abused the
meta keywords attribute by including misleading terms en-
tirely unrelated to their content.
What to do instead:
These days, Google is on record as saying they pay no atten-
tion to the meta keywords tag. So, the era of keyword stuffing
meta tags for impact is officially dead. If your objective is to op-
timize a website or blog pages to rank for more keywords, try
using category and tag systems to better label and organize your
website content. Actively tagging your posts and pages is one of
the most effective ways to enhance functionality, usability and
overall “searchability.”
5
LINK
EXCHANGES
Exchanging links or reciprocal linking is a popular method
of building links. Website owners exchange inbound links
with one another in an attempt to improve site rankings and
traffic. Reciprocal links in moderation are not really an issue;
as interlinking is glue that binds the Web. The trouble oc-
curs when website owners actively engage in link exchange
schemes to intentionally influence rankings — which Google
deems a violation.
What to do instead:
Rather than participating in link exchange schemes, offer testi-
monials to business vendors you work with. Providing testi-
monials is an easy way to get a link to your website in return for
writing something favorable and sincere about a vendor.
SEO, like any other industry, undergoes changes as it
evolves. Be sure to avoid the outdated techniques mentioned
here. Not only will your website suffer in rankings (to the sat-
isfaction of your competition), but even worse — your site
might be penalized for banned tactics.
Ken Lyons is Senior Marketing Manager at WordStream, a key-
word research tool provider for discovering profitable SEO key-
words. He is a frequent contributor to the WordStream Internet
Marketing Blog.
MAY 2010 | | 33
CLIMBING
UP THE RANKS WITH
OPTIMIZED PRESS RELEASES
By Michelle M. Wicmandy Want publicity? Submit an optimized press release, say today’s leading
online PR experts. Whether you’re targeting journalists, consumers or all of
the above, an optimized press release can create endless possibilities for
your business.
Unlike traditional press releases that for years were
limited to providing news for the media, general
business announcements have gained acceptance in
a world in which we can reach millions of Internet
users directly.
Online press releases are appropriate for almost
any occasion, says Joan Stewart, president of The
Publicity Hound, and can be powerful tools for
growing a company or establishing a brand. Exe-
cuted properly, the optimized press release can open
doors that no business owner can afford to ignore.
Before looking for
The Big Picture
help in writing and While SEO press releases are written to be ranked by
search engines, people must be able to understand
distributing the them, warns Mickie Kennedy, president and founder
of eReleases.com and SEOPressRelease.com. Thus,
release, define the respect your audience and always present your busi-
ness professionally. If you get 10,000 search engine
intended goal and visitors to view an optimized press release that reads
determine how to like a search engine tactic, you will damage your
business’ credibility.
measure success. Creating an effective optimized release requires
an understanding of public relations writing and the
Developing a public ability to enhance it with SEO-specific keywords. An
online PR professional can provide these services as
relations strategy well as managing the distribution and any other
facets of your campaign, or you may choose to try
will depend on the parts of the process yourself. Be advised, though,
quality of content that poorly managed publicity is not necessarily bet-
ter than no publicity at all.
and your dedication Optimization techniques include adding tech-
nical elements to your website and seasoning the
to PR efforts. copy with keywords. Including photos and other
34 | | MAY 2010
graphical elements not only creates interest but also
grows traffic when using captions and naming pic-
tures in a keyword-friendly convention. In addition,
adding keywords to anchor text links, along with
embedding audio and/or video features in releases
is helpful.
Understand that the optimized release doubles
as a Web page. “In fact,” adds Sharon Dotson, pres-
ident of Bayou City PR, “companies with no budget
for a website can still get top search engine place-
ment with an optimized online press release.”
Make the Commitment
Before looking for help in writing and distributing
the release, define the intended goal and determine
how to measure success. Developing a public rela-
tions strategy will depend on the quality of content
and your dedication to PR efforts. An effective pub-
lic relations campaign requires a schedule for press
release distribution, an evaluation process and then
adjusting the messages accordingly. According to
Kennedy, a company will generally see a return
when submitting quality content and committing to
four or more releases annually.
“Services such as ours,” says Michael Schwartz,
CEO of WebWire, “offer low pricing to encourage
multiple submissions of similar press releases con-
taining consistent messages that are packaged dif-
ferently. For example, many customers participated
in the Haiti relief efforts by submitting releases. It
was an effective coat-tail technique to get into read-
ers’ consciousness.”
To achieve the best results, adds Schwartz, press
releases should be submitted before Wednesday of
the traditional business week. When distributing re-
leases later in the week, WebWire offers a “spon-
sored link” product called WebRelease that provides
ranking with Google and/or Yahoo! search early the
following week.
Ask the Right Questions
When shopping for a marketing or public relations
firm to create optimized press releases for your busi-
ness, experts agree that writing samples are the best
way to judge prospects.
“Every PR or marketing firm will share winning
results and testimonials,” explains Kennedy. “If a
firm has 500 clients and 20 get real results, you see
the problem that anecdotal results and testimonials
will provide. The perception created is that the com-
pany does a great job while the reality is that 96 per-
cent of its clients don’t achieve great results.”
Read sample releases created for actual clients to
ensure a balance of keyword optimization and read-
ability. Stewart also suggests asking the following
questions:
• Does your price include keyword research?
• What is the fee for writing, and is there a sepa-
rate fee for online distribution?
• Is there an additional fee for sending the release
to targeted media outlets and bloggers?
• How many revisions does the price include?
• What’s your turnaround time?
• What clients have hired you to write press re-
leases and what are their phone numbers?
• Can you tell me about success stories those
clients have had as a result of releases you
wrote for them? (If they tell you, call those
clients yourself and ask for a reference.
Were they satisfied with the release? If not,
why not? If yes, what happened as a result of
the release?)
• What is the fee? (Most reliable services
charge $150 and higher for writing a press
release.)
Reap the Rewards
Well-written releases offer many advan-
tages, from attracting a wider variety of
audiences to improving search rankings.
Writing informational copy rather than
promotional content, for instance, will
attract both journalists and consumers.
In addition, optimized press releases will
stay online forever, continuously pulling
traffic and providing leads when em-
ploying the right keywords to attract the
right target audience.
“An optimized release goes directly to
the target audience,” says Dotson. “End
users obtain relevant information without
the filter of traditional print and electronic media.
In addition, the optimized release will help build a
website’s page rank and relevance. Search engine
ranking improves since these optimized press re-
leases link back to a company’s website due to rele-
vant keywords strategically embedded in the copy.”
Therefore, Stewart adds, it is wise to create vari-
ations of the same release by altering the keywords
to attract multiple audiences. Each release, then, will
achieve better rankings for each search phrase rather
than using a single release that targets everyone.
“And to achieve maximum return on invest-
ment,” she says, “remember to add a clear call to
action telling readers what to do next — visit a
website, call a telephone number, send an E-mail,
look at a catalog, go to a sales page or request a
free sample.”
What to Watch Out For
There used to be a vetting process by the media, says
Kennedy, but today the decision-makers are the
users who have access to and can scrutinize an over-
abundance of information. Hence, it’s easier than
ever to make your information available, but more
competitive than ever to win over an audience. Very
little distinguishes your information from everything
else available online.
Distorted traffic statistics can pose another ob-
stacle. Many free services heavily stream RSS feeds
that automatically create “hits” when RSS readers
update their feeds. Therefore, the number of hits
from people perusing releases is generally lower
than the value reported.
Another challenge includes the anecdotal or
temporary impact on search engine rankings re-
sulting from backlinks to your website from the
press release provider’s website. Kennedy advises
that most SEO firms find these results only last
about two weeks. Another hurdle can be avoided
by using specific, long-tail keyword phrases such as
“black patent-leather pumps” when trying to
achieve page-one search engine rankings, instead
of using highly competitive, short-tail phrases such
as “women’s shoes.”
When optimized press releases are well-written
and provide quality content, they can be a very pow-
erful vehicle for any company. Even a sole propri-
etorship can look like a big business by leveraging
optimized press releases correctly. Although there
are no guarantees, writing and submitting an opti-
mized press release can create new, long-lasting op-
portunities for your business.
Michelle M. Wicmandy is the Director of Marketing for
Southeast Media, a marketing communications firm,
and specializes in mobile and e-mail marketing.
MAY 2010 | | 35
 Holistic Web Site
Development and Promotion By Pete Hollier

Times have changed. The Internet is incredibly
competitive, and the environment in which
businesses compete online is changing at
a rapid pace. Yet many business’ website
development processes remain unchanged
from the turn of the century.
To achieve Web visibility in the current
environment, the website development and
holistic: promotion life cycle must evolve and begin
“Emphasizing the
using a more holistic approach.
importance of the
whole and the Why a Holistic Approach is Necessary
interdependence Consider the following list of disciplines and respective pro-
of its parts.” fessionals required to develop and promote a website in
today’s competitive landscape:
(Dictionary.com)
Web Design / Development:
• Graphic Designers to create a visually appealing website.
• Programmers to ensure that various design and process
elements work together.
• Web usability experts to ensure site visitors are able to
complete tasks intuitively.
• Conversion optimization specialists to ensure maximum
conversion potential by website visitors.
And, of course, we cannot leave out the primary stake-
holders of the project — the business owners and manage-
ment team, including the marketing department and public
relations professionals.
It is this collection of various professionals and the dif-
ferent skill sets they possess that calls for a holistic approach
to website development and promotion. But there’s more.
Each and every one of these stakeholders has specific
needs and requirements that must be supported by the web-
site. Absolutely none of these requirements are individual
entities that do not in some way require the support of other
website design or development elements, or impact these
design and development elements themselves.
This is where the transition to a holistic approach be-
comes so important. The integration of all these various
needs and requirements into the website requires the indi-
vidual elements to support each other, for the common good
of the entire business.
Implementing the Holistic Approach
The implementation of a holistic Web development and pro-
motion project is no different than any other business ini-
tiative. A clear understanding of the business’ objectives is
the primary prerequisite.
Once objectives have been determined, establishing
the budget for the new or redesigned website is the next

Content Developers:
• Writers and copywriters to develop content.
• Photographers and graphic designers to
create appealing visual content.
• Audio and video content developers
due to the increasing popularity of
podcasts and online videos.

Website Marketing:
• Search Engine Optimization profes-
sionals to improve the website’s visi-
bility in organic search results.
• Search Engine Marketers to imple-
ment and manage pay-per-click and
other online advertising channels.
• Social Media Professionals to leverage
the power of social networks,
community sites and other social
media tools.

36 | | MAY 2010

priority. In many cases, due to budgeting constraints, it is at
this stage of the process that prioritization of business ob-
jectives becomes necessary. By this stage, your business
should have a clear understanding of why the project is to
be implemented, what is to be achieved and how much the
company can afford to make the project a reality.
Effective Project Management is the Key
The holistic approach requires strong project management
skills due to the extensive number of professional disciplines
required to complete the project. The first task the project
manager will be required to complete is the identification of
the development and promotion team members.
Team development must be prioritized. The primary
principle of a holistic approach is the identification of what
website elements are required to support the needs of the
various promotional efforts to ensure the site is both highly
visible on the Web and able to fulfill the business’ and web-
site visitors’ needs.
This may appear to be common sense. However, in my
experience, this is often not the process that is taking place.
All too often, the website goes live prematurely. Only then is
the question is asked, “How are we going to promote this
website?” This scenario often creates the need for website
revisions following the perceived completion of the project
— a waste of both time and resources.
Determining Team Requirements
Once the development and promotion teams have been de-
termined, team members must identify the strategies they
plan on implementing within their areas of expertise. Team
members must effectively communicate these plans and out-
line their future requirements to ensure that allowances are
made for the inclusion of their proposed strategies in the
website’s development stage.
The communication of future strategies is critical, and
one of the most overlooked steps in the website’s develop-
ment life cycle. This is the primary reason websites often
need revisions after they have gone live. It not only creates
additional costs to the project, but is also likely to have a
detrimental effect on the website’s performance.
When businesses are faced with a website that under-
performs, the situation often snowballs out of control — by
this stage having spent the budgeted sum and received little
or no ROI.
This usually creates the situation where business man-
agers are resistant to spending additional resources on a
website that has failed to perform to expectations. Yet, if the
additional resources are not found to complete the neces-
sary revisions, the site will never be able to achieve the busi-
ness’ goals and objectives.
Online Collaboration Tools
Holistic website development requires that everybody be on the
same page. Below are five tools to help your businesses collaborate.
Google Apps Marketplace: Recently released, Google Apps features
tools for accounting and finance, calendar and scheduling, productivity and
project management, to name just a few. Along with Google Buzz, these
apps could make for easy collaboration. Developers are working hard, so
expect many more apps in the near future.
37signals: One of the early entries into the collaboration market, 37signals
has a suite of tools designed to help businesses be more productive
and efficient. Their popular Basecamp offering helps manage projects
between coworkers and clients. Highrise tracks contacts and leads;
Campfire offers real-time chat and file sharing, and there’s even an API
for ultimate customization.
MindMeister: Brainstorming is the focus here, by creating collaborative,
online mind maps. In addition to the online offering, mind maps can be
updated and viewed through an iPhone app, E-mail and SMS, and even
offline. MindMeister has won several awards for their service.
Dimdim: Host and attend live meetings where users can give presenta-
tions, share Web pages and desktops, chat with webcams, and more.
Meetings can also be recorded for later reference. Dimdim is in competi-
tion with standards like GoToMeeting and Webex, but happens to be free
for small meetings and very reasonable for larger ones.
Get Satisfaction: A client-facing tool, Get Satisfaction lets businesses
build communities around customer service. Solicit feedback, support
customers and help them support each other. A solution like Get Satisfac-
tion is a good way to control the conversation around your brand — which
can be difficult in a social media world.
— WM Staff
A Holistic Philosophy Summary
The holistic approach to the website development and
promotion life cycle is really nothing more than common
sense. The reason why a holistic methodology has become
so important is the increasingly complex nature of the busi-
ness website.
Gone are the days of the simple brochure website. Busi-
nesses and site visitors have high expectations of what every
online presence should deliver. Ensuring that a website is
capable of meeting these expectations requires the imple-
mentation of a holistic approach to manage the multitude of
website development and promotional requirements.
In 2001, Pete Hollier started an e-commerce consultancy serv-
ice assisting New Zealand businesses to leverage the power of
the Internet. The services evolved to include Search Engine
Optimization in 2003. Pete returned to Canada, and in 2008
started SeoWizardry.ca to offer Search Engine Optimization and
other website performance enhancing services.
MAY 2010 | | 37
 Managing
Website
Redesigns
By Peter Prestipino, Editor-in-Chief
and Mike Phillips, Senior Editor
If the website you own or
manage is not meeting
expectations, it is time to
consider engaging in a
comprehensive redesign
process. While the notion
of undertaking a project
of this magnitude can
seem overwhelming, doing
some benchmarking
and research, reviewing
website analytics and
performance metrics, and
aligning that information
with your objectives will
make the redesign process
much less cumbersome
and result in a more
polished, more effective
final product.
40 | | MAY 2010
While it’s not uncommon to grow tired of how
a website looks, a more logical reason to take on
a redesign project is that the site is not meeting
its objectives. The number or amount of sales
and leads generated is a solid indicator of site
performance but there are others. Is time spent
on site noticeably low? This might be an indi-
cation that the wrong visual impression is being
given to users. Are you receiving feedback about
users’ inability to locate specific content items?
A website’s user-friendliness is a catalyst for
overall performance — so inaccessibility is also
a logical reason to take on a website redesign.
Search engine friendliness (more on that later)
is also a common reason for redesigning a web-
site and is frequently the reason most sites start
the process at all.
A formal redesign process will include a suffi-
cient amount of audience research, taking into
account an organization’s on-site marketing ob-
jectives, developing a wireframe, and establishing
a fixed framework from which design elements
can be applied and implemented in the future.
Audience Research and Benchmarking
While website analytics can tell us a great deal
about how a site is performing now (and where
improvements can be made), it often falls short
when it comes to acquiring qualitative (not
quantitative) data — the information that ma-
chines alone can’t pick up on. Human-powered
solutions like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk can
help gather actionable insights into users’ visual
impressions of a website, the accessibility of any
particular content item, or any other defined cri-
teria. Survey software solutions are also valuable
resources for acquiring existing user opinions
about possible site improvements. Take it a step
further by leveraging services like uTest, a com-
pany providing professional-level software test-
ing services to identify what is working and
what is not, in relation to your Web, mobile or
desktop applications.
Formalizing Marketing Objectives
A website might be the face of your brand online
but it is also the marketing engine. Getting a han-
dle on what you and others within your enter-
prise expect from the site will aid in charting a
course toward creating a final product that meets
the needs of everyone and everything — includ-
ing the bottom line. For example, conducting in-
terviews with the sales and customer service
departments might reveal a need for easier access
to pricing or support information. The business
development team could request that contact and
lead forms be prominent throughout the site and
connected directly to a CRM platform. Discus-
sions with C-level executives might reveal that
press kits, investor information and founder bi-
ographies are essential. As you can see, there are
many marketing objectives so taking all of them
into account at the outset will ensure a final prod-
uct everyone is excited to support.

There are also some important considera-
tions to make related to search engine opti-
mization (SEO) that must be addressed during
a formal website redesign. For many companies,
SEO tends to be an afterthought and not in-
cluded in the initial planning stages of a web-
We spoke with Pinckney Hugo Group’s
Executive Vice President Aaron Hugo
and Senior Interactive Designer Adam
Jwaskiewics to get their opinions on website
redesign — the criteria, processes and objectives.
Pinckney Hugo Group is a full-service marketing Aaron Hugo

site redesign. At the very least, one should
consider implementing a prioritized site archi-
tecture and a focus on ease of navigation. Mak-
ing sure that:
• pages receiving traffic are placed higher to
the root URL in your site hierarchy
• a sufficient number of pages are cross- or
inter-linked
• top-level pages and pages aggressively being
optimized are focused on conversion
• navigational menus for users are visible to
search engines — through CSS or by having
a text-based navigation menu in the footer of
the page and on a sitemap
• the use of 301 redirects (should the structure
of a site change dramatically) is managed and
monitored closely
“Doing” the Redesign
Before handing over audience research and mar-
keting objectives to your Web designer, it is im-
portant to take into account whether this is really
just a redesign (i.e. a freshen-up) or if an entirely
new software platform will be integrated. Should
it be the latter, understanding the features and
limitations of the selected solution and asking de-
signers and developers for recommendations and
guidance will prove to be extremely useful. For
example, if you are deploying a new content
management system (CMS), ask for input from
your Web designer about the level of complexity
in relation to creating new design themes and
templates, or quiz the developer about challenges
integrating new modules.
The next step in redesigning is often where
most Web professionals immediately jump —
the layout and wireframing. Only when you are
armed with a sufficient amount of benchmark-
ing insights and elements necessary to satisfy
marketing objectives should you start working
with wireframes and layouts. Web-based dia-
gram tools like Gliffy can help layout the struc-
ture of a website and ensure that all the “pieces
of the puzzle” are present before moving on to
actual site wireframing. Some of the most pop-
ular wireframing tools include Mockingbird
(gomockingbird.com), HotGloo (hello.hot-
gloo.com), MockFlow (mockflow.com), and a
personal favorite in Pencil (evolus.vn/pencil/),
a free add-on for Firefox.
Completely redesigning a website every few
years might seem like a daunting task. But stay-
firm that offers traditional services such as print,
radio and television, as well as interactive services.
WM: How long, typically, is it until a
redesign is needed?
AH: If something has changed in the brand, if
there's new positioning or a new message;
that usually forces a Web redesign. But in a lot
of cases it's every three years, depending on
the industry.
AJ: If you’re not doing a little each day or each
month, you’re falling behind quickly.
WM: What are the most-needed
redesign elements of a website?
AH: Right now, over the past year-plus, it’s
complete redesigns. What we're really seeing
is clients asking us to help lead them through a
navigation planning process. It's about really un-
derstanding the way a customer would logically
go through their site. What are the most impor-
tant functions and features of their site?
AJ: The nature in which people use websites
has changed in the last 10 years, such as social
media aspects, sharing, and posting.
With most clients that we're seeing, they
realize design is more than a pretty picture on
a home page. People are really using the Web
differently. So, clients understand a lot of
planning has to happen before developing.
WM: What are some common
redesign mistakes?
AH: Everybody reads just enough to be danger-
ous. They're reading about FLASH, color theory,
whatever. They don't truly do the planning in the
beginning. We've never walked into a meeting
ing fresh in the eyes of your users and relevant
to the employees that support your business is
imperative. Understanding how all users (con-
sumers and employees) use the site, how your
site’s competitors stack up, understanding the
underlying but required marketing objectives
and getting started with the redesign with a
layout and wireframing session will prove to
shorten design and development time and en-
sure that your newly redesigned website make a
difference to your company.
where a client showed
us analytics and gave
us direction to a
redesign. It's one of
the first things we
want to ask them — Adam Jwaskiewics
what’s most needed?
AJ: A lot of times clients are too close to their
products or services. They overcomplicate
things. A client needs to take a step back, and
that's a good reason to hire an agency.
WM: When contracting a redesign,
what questions should a client ask?
AH: A lot has to do with how flexible a company
is. How well will you hold my hand through this
process? If we need to make changes in the
end, if we need to relearn something, will you
be there to help us? Halfway through the
process, if we need to change, how well can that
be accommodated, and is there an upcharge?
AJ: I believe a client should be able to ask
their partner to lead them through the process.
Garbage-in-garbage-out needs to be
eliminated.
WM: Is design more important
than ever?
AH: It’s your window to the world. There are so
many ways now to get in front of your audience.
It’s mission critical.
AJ: It’s important to note that advertising has
moved online, too. As more budget and adver-
tising becomes interactive, you need your pages
to look as professional as possible.

MAY 2010 | | 41
 Pricing Web
Hosting By Linc Wonham, Associate Editor

With today’s emerging technologies and the

increasing demand for a wider range of services,
the Web hosting landscape has exploded into an
array of complex, specialized categories.
“The Web hosting industry has always been driven by evolving
customer needs and advances in technology,” says Reed Cald-
well, founder and CEO of ServInt, a managed hosting provider
that’s experienced its own evolution during 15 years of service.
“As modern Web content has become woven into the fabric of
our daily lives, the hosting industry has adapted to better meet
customers’ high expectations for uptime,
Compare Costs performance, managed services, security
and social responsibility.”
Begin cost comparisons by Which is all good news for anyone
determining your bandwidth shopping for a Web host in today’s heavily
and storage requirements. tilted buyer’s market. Whether you are in
the development stages of a one-person
There are numerous online
startup or you have enjoyed a successful
resources to help you determine Web presence for decades, it never hurts to
your needs, and one of the more take a quick refresher course in the current
detailed sites can be found at costs of Web hosting.
www.numion.com/calculators. Shared hosting is the most affordable
and most popular option, and today’s
fees start at just a few dollars per month. The upside is that
you’ll receive unlimited bandwidth and storage space for little
money. The downside is that you’ll be sharing a server with
others — creating the potential for security issues or lapses
in performance.
But millions of satisfied customers share their Web hosting
services, and there are a staggering amount of reputable, profes-
sional companies from which to choose. There are also dozens
of shared Web hosting review sites, and one of the most helpful
and informative is www.alreadyhosting.com.
“The shared hosting industry is to a point now that com-
panies are just about at the break-even threshold and most of
their money comes from upsells,” says Josh Ewin of Dedicated
Now, a 12-year-old managed dedicated server company. “The
reseller business has grown so much over the past few years
and there are so many Mom and Pop companies that
providers are realizing they have to offer customers more than
just low prices.”
Some shared hosts will offer dedicated IPs and private SSLs
for added security, nudging the monthly fee past the $10 mark
and into the $12-$15 range. If you’re still not comfortable with
the shared-server concept at that price, consider dedicated and
managed hosting, where the host supplies a dedicated server of
which the customer has exclusive use. Dedicated monthly fees
can start as low as $59 per month, but they average closer to
$250-$300 and can top out just above four figures, depending on
the robustness of the network, the quality of the hardware and
the range of services provided.
“You have to look at web hosting as a service the same way
you view transportation as a service,” says Ewin. “There are dif-
ferent price structures for different vehicles, and you can expect
to pay much less to ride in a Geo than you would in a Bentley.
In the last 18 months or so, companies are really realizing the
value of adding in significant management services.”
Yet another option that falls between shared server hosting
and dedicated or managed hosting is Virtual Private Server
(VPS) hosting. This is a form of shared hosting that allows
website operators more control over hardware, software and
access through a private area on the server used only by them.
This is a logical and popular way to transition into dedicated
and shared hosting for a more affordable cost of about $50
to $150 per month, again depending on bandwidth and stor-
age requirements.

Hosting Cost of Basic Plan Cost of Features of

Provider Basic Plan Features Other Plans (RANGE) Other Plans
1&1 $3.99/mo. Beginner plan 10 GB space, Unlimited monthly $4.99/mo. to $19.99/mo. 300 GB space, Unlimited transfer,
transfer, 600 E-mail accounts 4,000 E-mail
Verio $9.95/mo. Basic plan Unlimited space, 6 TB transfer, $19.95/mo. to $29.95/mo. Unlimited space, 12 TB transfer,
100 E-mail 500 E-mail
aPlus $4.98/mo. Business plan 200 GB space, 2,000 GB $5.95/mo. to $34.95/mo. 500 GB space, 5,000 GB transfer,
transfer, 250 E-mail Unlimited E-mail
Hostway $13.95/mo. Starter plan 100 GB space, Unlimited transfer, $19.95/mo. to $89.95/mo. 500 GB space, Unlimited transfer,
500 E-mail 3,000 E-mail
GoDaddy $4.99/mo. Economy plan 10 GB space, 300 GB transfer, $6.99/mo. to $14.99/mo. Unlimited space, Unlimited
100 E-mail transfer, 1,000 E-mail

42 | | MAY 2010
 Website Magazine

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MAY 2010 | | 45
 CHECK OUT
NEXT-GENERATION
SOURCES ON DISPLAY
AT WEB 2.0 EXPO
7Search.com, Inc.
www.7search.com
Pay-per-click search engine for
advertisers and affiliates
Askyourtargetmarket.com
www.askyourtargetmarket.com
Self-service Internet survey software
to conduct targeted market research.
Compendium Blogware
www.compendium.com
Innovative Web-based blogging platform
iContact
www.icontact.com
Leading email marketing services
for small business and non-profits
46 | .com |
Web 2.0 Expo hosts companies building the
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M AY 2010
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SoftLayer | www.softlayer.com
On-demand data center and hosting to empower
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Securing the Cloud and SaaS applications with
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Tableau Software | www.tableausoftware.com
Browser-based analytics and data visualization
Talentica | www.talentica.com
Offshore product development on build-operate
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Screen capture and recording software for multimedia
Topix | www.topix.com
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M AY 2010 | .com | 47
 W E B C O M M E N TA R Y With Peter Prestipino, Editor-in-Chief

Is Your Website a
House of Cards?
On Inspiration & Innovation
It’s a commonly held notion that most small businesses fail within the first few years of their existence.
The Small Business Administration reports that just 66 percent last past the first two years — but that
does not tell the whole story. There is no benefit to discussing the percentage of enterprises that do not
make it if we never address the ways to prevent a failure from happening.

From lack of experience to insufficient capital, there is a long list
of reasons for small business failure. On the World Wide Web,
however, you can be certain that the percentage of failure is far
higher — thanks to a lower cost of “entry” than traditional offline
businesses. A belief has somehow been established (however
wrongly) that anyone can be successful on the Web. The reality is
far different. But the true reasons for online success will open a
whole new world of possibilities.
Membership has its Rewards,
Ownership Offers Riches
As you have probably discovered in your career as a Web profes-
sional, it is uncommon to achieve genuine success (let’s define it
as wealth and/or notoriety) by building a website or service that es-
sentially mimics, is identical in nature, or that ultimately supports
or is reliant on another business entirely. We have all seen “clone”
websites launch to much fanfare, only to ultimately fade away once
users realize there is no significant improvement upon the origi-
nal. Simply put, there is more value in owning a technology than
leveraging someone else’s solution. This is where many of us fall
short in the pursuit of success.
Take a look at leaders in your industry to see this in action.
Would Amazon be an e-commerce leader if it were not for its ex-
pertise in product recommendation technology? Would Google
be a leader in advertising if it didn’t have a mastery of natural
search? It is the technology that truly differentiates us from the
competition, creates opportunity for new business and offers value
to end-users.
However, instead of focusing on innovation in new opportu-
nities and developing unique solutions to existing challenges the
majority of Web professionals take technology shortcuts and focus
instead on “borrowing” inspiration from others. There is clearly
some merit and value in doing so, but the result more often than
not is that hundreds of second-rate technology clones flood the
market behind one industry leader and hundreds of other follow-
ers and hangers-on down the line.
The problem of being a follower or member of someone else’s
community is that your success is, in part, reliant on the success
of others. You could have a huge audience and the most impres-
sive user interface ever developed, but what happens when the
API you are using to support that service closes up shop? Is your
entire business model reliant on the performance of another? If
yes, you have a significant problem on your hands. Your website
is, in no uncertain terms, is a house of cards. It could collapse at
any moment.
The unfair truth is that too often websites generate the atten-
tion of others based not on what has been created or provided, but
rather who has built it and who is using it. When you have both
a unique technology and an audience of some worth, however,
you are on your way to achieving long-term success. To get there
you need a technology — but not just any. You need your own.
The point is, when you take on substantially more risk by in-
vesting in your own technology solution, it carries the potential for
far greater reward than any piggy-backed model of business. If you
had your choice between spending $1,000 on a website that mir-
rored or supported the features of another, or $5,000 for a unique
Web application that you owned outright, which would you
choose? That might depend greatly on a variety of factors. But
count on the fact there will be greater rewards should you choose
the path of innovation, and not inspiration alone.

48 | | MAY 2010
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