Posts Tagged ‘Usability’

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Yesterday we rolled out a a brand new design for EMP. Aside from the design improvements (the first in three years) we added a lot of customization that will benefit us and hopefully make for a better usability experience for all of you. We’re still tinkering with some things, fixing broken links, etc. so be patient.

One of the biggest changes we’ve made is moving (EMP) E-Marketing Performance back to our company domain. As of now, www.eMarketingPerformance.com redirects to www.PolePositionMarketing.com/emp, it’s new permanent home. All the redirects are in place but if you’ve linked to this blog recently and you would like to go back and change the URL of the link, that would be greatly appreciated!

We’ve removed all the Google ads and fully integrated the PPM navigation bar into the blog for easy access back to the money site! Of course, now we just got to start posting some fresh content. Oh, and the sight is lightning fast.

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• Web Usability: As Few Clicks As Possible
• How to Manage Problems You Can’t Fix
• How to be Successful in Social Media: Be Yourself
• Agency + Client = Superhero Link Building Team
• Achieving Balance in a Social World
• 5 Ways to Make Money from Blogging
• An Embarrassment Of Dead Link Riches
• How to Get Content and Earn Credibility with Old News

• Feel Great Naked: Confidence Boosters for Getting Personal
• Do You Know Your Visitors? 5 Points to Consider
• Content Strategy: Key Elements To Grab Online Readers Attention
• Site Navigation and Usability: Easy Tips for Happy Users
• Tips on Content Centered Link Building
• 5 Recommended Ways to Build Your Opt-In List
• Are Internal Links Weighted the Same as External Links by Google?

Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be headed over to the Grand Sierra Resort here in Reno, NV to participate in the Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference. I’ll be a judge for the Web Site Design Team. Yeah, I know, I’m not a designer, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to provide a good perspective from my knowledge of website usability.

The event will be held between 11:30 AM and 4:30 PM. Lucky for me lunch is provided!

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8. 25 Ways to DESIGN Your Way to Higher Conversions
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10. A Little Favicon Goes a Long, Long Way

Reading

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There is no better way to create an infinite amount of duplicate content on your site than to force session IDs onto each visitor. Typically, session IDs are used for tracking a single visitor’s navigation path through the site, including the adding or removing products from the shopping cart. They are great for tracking purposes, but really, really bad for search engines and inbound linking.

Ok, first of all, that’s a bad URL shown above, but aside from that, tacked on at the end there is the session ID. Both URLs pull the same page pulled open via a different browsing session. The bad stuff happens if the session IDs also get attached when the search engines come for a visit.

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Search engine spiders can be very forgiving with a lot of duplicate content issues. I’ve found that, given enough time, the engines learn when two websites or web pages are complete duplicates of the other. Once they figure that out then they basically understand that a link to one is a link to the other, etc. One version will ultimately be dropped from the index in favor of the other.

There are two basic problems with this. First, it all takes time. Until the search engines figure out which dupes should be “merged” you’re essentially splitting link flow. Two inbound links, one to each version, produce only have the power than two links both pointing to a single version.

The second problem is that you leave it to the search engines to decide which pages or site should be dropped from the index. When you let the search engines decide, you lose essential control.

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Registering multiple domain names is, and should be, common practice for businesses wishing to protect their brands. I discussed buying alternative domain names earlier this week, but I wanted to address it again, this time from the context of duplicate content issues which may arise if you don’t set up your new domain names properly.

Domain Name Redirects

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Last month I posted some of my thoughts and theories on duplicate content where I explained the different types of duplicate content that the search engines find. I wanted to expand a bit on the in-site duplicate content that we often see with various websites. I’ll take these one at a time over the course of the next few days or weeks, depending on how often I post.

www. vs. no www.

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I remember when favicons first started to appear, it was like, hey, how cool is that. But now they are so common that I hardly notice them anymore. Well, no, that’s not exactly true. I do notice them, and like them, it’s just that I’m not surprised to see them anymore. But I AM surprised when I don’t see them.

Ok, let’s back up. What is a favicon?

If you’re reading this post from emarketingperformance.com then you need to do no more than look up to the address bar. If you’re reading this through a feed reader I’ll go ahead and throw a screen capture for you:

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