During 2007, my firm received hundreds of inquiries for services. The vast majority, perhaps 80% were in the “just make me a website like this one” camp. Many were carrying a previous designers’ handiwork with them in complete wonderment of how such a large investment could fail to produce results. As an design-by-testing developer, this pattern was highly discouraging.

The confusion among businesses about what is required to develop a web business is widespread.

“We just want to find someone to put up a site like our competitors’ ” was a very common request that, to me, is a horrible way to approach the problem. I think it is often a panic reaction to the competitor’s first-mover advantage or to a drop in ones site performance. It is too easy to assume that a snazzy site is also meeting the needs of the customers and reaching full potential. Intuition has its place, but you could be very, very wrong. Even experts get this wrong much of the time. I have evaluated the analytics data from some hot-shot designs and found exit rates over 80% and time-on-site under one minute for most visitors.

Unless you intimately know the market, which most web designers do not, designing “from the hip” is an irresponsible way to spend clients’ money. Every web developer worth their salt should be doing rudimentary testing of a business’ feasibility before heading down a given design path if one could even begin to achieve high conversion rates.

You can, to some extent, predict customers’ movements if you observe through testing and extrapolate the results into the larger design. Observation requires a laboratory, even if it takes the form of analytics on a screen. Lightweight page development with good experimental design can serve that role. While the sample sizes are often too small to achieve “true” statistical validity, even pseudo experiments with repeatable results can help you get into the right quadrant.

Why is it that small to medium businesses have not embraced the value of experimentation in web design and marketing? What has caused companies to embrace the myth of the superstar web designer or the fire and forget web marketing program?

Testing the idea’s potential before spending huge amounts of effort on web development or SEO is critically important, yet rarely done. I received at least 20 requests in 2007 for people wanting to do gift basket websites and at least 20 wanting to sell personalized products (as resellers of the same corporate gifts catalog!) None of these entrepreneurs had even considered the landscape in which they wanted to be painted was full of others doing exactly the same thing and the over-crowded search results pages served as direct evidence.

I am giving much thought to how we might do a better job packaging this story for future clients. I encouarge your ideas in the comments.

Related: conversion rates for some online retailers.

First hope…. roses, poetry, a heartfelt request.
Rejection.
Then, it’s seen with another registrar! Lost!
Alas! it turns up on the doorstep in the rain for a tearful embrace.
Mine forever.

A lesson when using Godaddy backorders. Don’t transfer your credits too soon. This happens to me almost every time.

Managed rights photo shops, such as Getty Images are bound to protect the rights of photographers, illustrators, and videographers in order to preserve the value of their work. Especially in light of an ever increasing level of choice and quality from the very low cost stock photography sites such as istockphoto.com, they are seeking to offer the professional media producer a reliable way to make sure they’re paid each time their work is used in print, online, and elsewhere.

These folks employ a variety of tools, including picscout, to crawl the net looking for unauthorized uses of their work in websites and blogs. Through image recognition and invisible watermark technologies, the crawler seeks out and reports on locations where their photography exists, and then compares the locations to the licenses on file. If a disparity is found, it is reviewed and then action is taken on the website or blog owner. Expensive action sometimes, without a trace of a C&D. I’m certain that at this human-point of the activity there is discretion applied about how to handle it.

For those of us managing dozens or even hundreds of sites, it is very, very easy for an unauthorized image or illustration to make its way into a website. While most have absolutely no intention of defrauding the artist or the stock photography shop, some may find a bill in the mail for hundreds or even thousands of dollars showing spider-finds of photographs on websites. For the hundreds of thousands of sites built upon web templates or the packs of 250,000 images for $99.95 on ebay, you could be tagged at any moment.

As also pointed out on the Signed Media blog, it’s the era of the era of user-created-content.� I have a client using a CMS system to provide websites to over 250 individual users. Other clients edit their sites regularly and post images. These newbie users, despite our best attempts, do not think twice about grabbing an image from another website or from Google Images. Too often, these are images from a managed rights photography shop. We remove the image as soon as we can, scold the site owner, but it’s a formidable task. We have taken “reasonable steps’ as requested by the DMCA procedures to inform users of the policy. I try to tell them it is the site OWNER who will receive the letter/fees, but that doesn’t always help. They see a kitten, they post the kitten, kitten photographer be damned. (more…)

Kim Komando, hostess of the three hour call in radio show covered by 425 radio stations and sender of 5 million email newsletters weekly has recently pushed the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions “starter” program in her publications. As many of you know, I got my start in Yahoo! Store (waaay back in 1997) and have been working hard for Yahoo! store clients since then. The system is a very robust and power packed cart for the entry level merchant.

But,� I encourage new merchants to remembe that just because the platform is easy doesn’t mean selling online is going to be simple.

Basic merchandising and sales 101 apply…..

(more…)

It would seem ludicrous to even consider such a service as this which somehow skipped through my two layers of spam filtering today, but amazingly I talk to people at least once per week who have “gave them a shot” because it “surely can’t hurt anything.” In fact, it can hurt a LOT of things. It can hurt your rank, your perception of online marketing, and simply it can get you banned. Here’s a deconstruction of the spam itself.

A: 2 of your keyword phrases optimized…and submitted to the top three search engines
How do you optimize a keyword phrase? And how do you submit a phrase to a search engine?

B: We’ll give you 4 months of comprehensive SE Ranking Reports
Here, go get reports for free whenever you want them from Mike’s Marketing Tool. Make sure you click on one of Mike’s sponsors.

C: 92% of people don’t look past page 2 and 95% of your competition doesn’t optimize at all.
What, exactly does this have to do with your services? POIF (Painfully Obvious and Irrelevant Facts)�

D: Access a Global Marketplace & Build an International Business
I think that was the thing that Al Gore Invented? THE INTERNET! It has nothing to do with you. POIF .

E: More Traffic -> More Visitors -> More Sales
POIF , but I think they better look elsewhere to get it.

F: Save Thousands of $$$
Over what exactly? Over your arbitrary pricing for an undefined fictional service?

G: This Program Normally $2500!
“This Program” — what the one where you submit phrases to the search engines or the one where you teach people how to send out emails 7 days late?

H: Sign up before July 4th and get one month of hosting Free!
Hosting Value: $10. Oh, and the email arrived July 11th. If you can’t even do a basic email campaign properly, I’m doubting you can do SEO well.

When you look at your web pages you focus like nobody else in the world. You look at each part of it thinking about the effort that went into the design. You might feel proud or relieved it is done. You know the reasons you put certain text in certain places, or remember the steps you went through in getting a graphic or photograph just right. But this lens is not the lens of a visitor to your site. It’s impossible for you or your web designer to see through that lens.

When others visit your website, they move like nervous birds. They skim and pop. Their eyes dart about. Nobody sticks around a site to be “nice,” or clicks on a few extra pages to make the designer feel worthwhile. Your site has to be right before they’ll stay. And “right” is defined by the standards of the web visitor’s itchy trigger finger, not you or your web designer.

Do you know your average “time on site”? Do you know the average number of pages for a visitor? If not, get ready - you might be surprised.

While on my cross-country ride to SMX, I had the urge to list some of the things to look out for (and hopefully produce good reactions to) as one starts a new web development or search marketing project for Company X.  If you have one or more of these, you will probably encounter difficulties later on in the project.

• Company X is unwilling to purchase an 800 number for sales.
• Company X will not allow limited price-variable testing to search for pricing sweet-spots.
• Company X is unable to tell you their top three selling items without looking it up.
• Company X refuses to use industrial grade spam filter for cost reasons.
• Company X is unwilling to set up a unique phone number for a campaign that expects large phone traffic.
• Company X does not shop on-line (if you are starting an ecommerce project.)
• Every time you ask the business owner to set up an account (e.g. Google Account) the immediate response is “how?”
• Company X will not take American Express and Discover Cards due to fees.
• Company X will not take unconventional payment methods such as Paypal.
• Company X wants to post a “no returns” policy (exception: personalized items.)
• Company X Refuses to train administrative staff on dealing with web customers, or asking phone customers where they found the number.
• Company X uses low or non-value coupons regularly (e.g. buy one, get the next 25% off… or 5% off)
• Company X insists that their customers don’t shop online, without asking them.
• Company X Calls after hours and on weekends for non-emergencies.
• Company X balks at any kind of loyalty program due to the administrative overhead.
• Refuses to use an affiliate program because “5% is too much.”
• Company X thinks that 10% conversion rate is a miserable failure - it actually rocks.
• Company X shows no interest in analytics output, even when they are distilled.
• While selling commodity items, Company X’s ends any sentence with “…but we have better service.”
• Company X keeps returning important discussions to aesthetic minutia.
• Company X balks at any kind of “tell a friend” discount.
• Company X won’t ante up the $300/y cost of Yahoo Directory listing.
• Company X won’t use electronic means of communication - such as google spreadsheet.
• Insists their customers don’t like to use their credit cards online.
• Thinks a website with 30% exit rate needs re-designed.
• Refuses to use remote desktop discussions, even when it would save time.
• Balks at using coupons or gift certificates due to administrative hassles.
• Company X overrides split testing activity in PPC engines mid-run.
• Considers their SEM consultant = their computer repairman.
• Company X is unincorporated or otherwise unstructured entity.
• Company X won’t adjust product categorization when search patterns clearly indicate they should.
• Company X thinks that PPC campaigns should run themselves once set up.
• Company X forwards $99 SEO/PPC spam with notes that say “what do you think of this?”
• Company X thinks they shouldn’t have to pay for landing page creation since the ones that don’t work are the “designer’s mistake.”
• Company X refuses to sign any kind of retainer, but expects instant turn-around on future work.
• Company X balks at any part of your services agreement that you’re uncomfortable with.
• Company X refuses to let their domain experts blog about the industry and company because it’s a “waste of time.”
• Asks you to “teach SEO” to their “computer guy.”
• Company X Refuses to put the web URL in the voice mail messages because “it would cost too much to do the voice-over again.”
• Company X Refuses to pay for a ICANN complaint email system – opting instead for “bcc” or worse “cc” based email campaigns.
• Company X balks on hourly fees for installing things on the server because “he doesn’t have his hands on it.”

So wave your flags, reel in the issues and good luck on your projects!

Postscript :  Gonzo-SEO has a similar list of great ideas here.  I definitely need to work out a questionnaire for 2008 that helps us identify these situations.

I rarely post in my blog just because someone else posted something in theirs, or because of a great new newsletter entry, but this has to be an exception - it hit home so well.� Jakob Nielsen’s latest Alertbox, titled “The Myth of the Genius Designer” nailed it and I hope many of my clients and clients-to-be have a chance to read this.� I plan to carry a few copies around with me (fully credited and URL’ed, Jakob) to hand out when the black turtlenecks and severe glasses enter the room.�

Nice job.

This list of 43 web design mistakes to avoid is very good.. a strong recommended read.

Of the rules, I disagree somewhat with these - so let me ruffle it a bit.

27. Do not use FrontPage…
>> Okay.. I don’t use it for site development anymore, but for some customers it’s a perfect way to make sure they can update their own sites, especially if they’re used to Microsoft Tools. But now, with Apache support for Frontpage Extensions cancelled, there are plenty of good reasons to look elsewhere. If you plan to avoid Frontpage, make sure your clients can update their sites easily using another tool, such as a nice Content Management System that is search engine friendly. I think that Frontpage has been an important part of managing websites for many people, and in the hands of a good developer it produces usable code. The problem comes when people paste in Microsoft Office documents. Then things get awful.

34. Do not use animated GIFs:
>> if Animated GIFs are properly optimized, and palette-reduced, they can be highly effective and efficient way to introduce simple animation and emphasis into graphic elements on a page without the overhead of Flash. Clearly these are meant for limited-pallette solid-color graphics or text - but I wouldn’t list this as a rule. Trouble is that most people do not properly optimize a GIF file. There are some really good programs for this, including some inexpensive shareware. I use Imageready from Adobe for this purpose. If you’ve made the move to Adobe Photoshop CS3, you’ll probably like this post about Imageready Features.

40. Avoid long pages:
>> Have to disagree with this one as a “rule.” The research from work I’ve been involved in shows that for some products and services, long-form pages can convert better than short form. Clearly this doesn’t apply to all pages, and the content itself has to be good enough to warrant continued reading. So perhaps the rule should say “Avoid long boring pages.” Sometimes, having a long-form page is the perfect way to lead the customer forward on their information quest. But the style and writing are everything.

It’s well known that the closer your keyword, ads, and landing pages are related in the mind of the searcher, the more likely they are to convert. So it’s important that you design your advertising “funnel” to retain the confidence of the searcher from first click through ordering. I thought I’d show you a few tricks that have proven themselves over the years, starting with the most basic - the Google Keyword Insertion method, then talking about Dynamic Landing pages, and ultimately specialized product linkages from ads.

With Google Adwords (and other PPC engines,) it is possible to construct Ads inside of AdGroups so that the search terms are dynamically inserted into ads. Done wisely your ads can achieve 2-3x the click through rates of static ads (or more) and reap the higher levels of quality scores that come with it. In my methodology, each adgroup will have a set of ads associated with it (that you are testing,) and all of those ads will have a dynamic headline (explained below.)

Remember, the structure of a Google Ad Campaign is:

Campaign -> Adgroup -> Ad <- keywords

Figuring the Adgroup Divisions out is the hard part - where should you divide your groups? What is a theme? This will be specific to your own campaign. Some marketers call this things like “Peel and Stick” but I’ve always just called it finding the sweet spots!

For example: Let’s say you sell auto parts and have divided out your tire gauges into an adgroup. You’ve done your keyword research and got them all set up as exact match phrases (in Google, those are the ones with the []’s around them.)

exact match keywords:
[car tire gauge]
[automotive tire gauge]
[tire gauges for cars]
….many more (typically 80-100)

So now you write the ad… but instead of a normal headline you add a syntax like this

{KeyWord: default keyphrase} - capitalize every word of headline
{Keyword: default keyphrase} - capitalize only the first word
{keyword: default keyphrase} - lower case throughout

So here’s our ad:

{KeyWord: Quality Tire Gauges} <— “Quality Tire Gauges” is our default text.
30-120 PSI - Brass Fittings
Made in USA - Will Last Years
Tire-Gauge-Site.com

If it can, Google will substitute the searched keyword here in place of “Quality Tire Gauges” (our default if none of the keyphrases) with one of the exact match keyphrases. As you can probably guess, it’s best if you have just about every derivative of keyword covered in your keyword list (a tool such as keyword elite can be a big helper here) and that you make sure you never go over 25 characters (the current limit for the headline of an Adwords ad.) So, if a user searches for “car tire gauges” on Google, this sponsored link will appear

Car Tire Gauges <–
30-120 PSI - Brass Fittings
Made in USA - Will Last Years
Tire-Gauge-Site.com

So instead of a generic phrase that is “close” to the phrase the customer searched for, you now hit it perfectly every time. Google will now “bold” the text on the ad every time for you, and you’ll have a much better chance of obtaining and selling to those customers

You can also use phrase or broad matches, but keep in mind that your default text will show more often since broad and phrase maches often end up having more than 25 characters pretty often, plus, you lose control over the headline, and sometimes they can be pretty funny.

Watch for Part two: Altering your landing page on the fly - slightly more advanced!