I’ve long advised clients that there are few good reasons for a splash screen of any type on any website that outweigh the problems they cause. They are widely hated and have sometimes strong impact on search result.   Well if there was any doubt that Google may treat these sites differently, this should put an end to the debate.  Google are again testing a  “skip intro” link on the search results.

Why would Google do this?  Well, most likely they are reading survey results like this.

Professional Flash designers should rejoice too.  Why?  Because the layperson user associates “Flash Web Design” with “Splash Screens” over and over again in my conversations.  By obliterating these ridiculous things you will also benefit from improved perceived value among potential clients.  I do not develop Flash sites but occasionally contract flash “components” out to developers. Flash should be used where its platform offers a unique advantage to the user of the site and, in turn, to the business running the site.  It should not be used to pad the portfolio of designers wanting more eye candy to show off.

I ordered a battery for my Plantronics headset from Headsets Plus last week.  It’s about the size of a SD Card.  And it was the only thing I ordered.

Their site, order process, and other parts of the process was okay.  The packaging… not so much.

I’ve been hearing of stories of retailers starting to adjust how they package items, and have seen other examples of wasteful packaging online, but I think this one is among the worst I’ve seen.

When I placed the order, I even included this in the comments during check-out.

This thing is tiny - if you can ship it cheaper than $6.94 via another method please do so and credit my card.

At least most of it was recyclable.

I’m not a huge tree-hugger or anything, but damn, people.  Have you not heard of padded envelopes?

I have enjoyed being a member of Triibes, a community set up by Seth Godin after the release of his book of the same name.

The ebook was set up by volunteers in the community - and was really well done. Highly recommended.

[ Triiibes EBook] - PDF file

Google posted today that 20% of the queries they receive have not been seen in the past 90 days, and this is a reason to utilize broad match. I agree, but with a severe caveat. Your broad match keywords need to have bouncers, or fences built around it. Think of an ideal setup like a game of Skeeball where the query is the bowl itself.

Google Adwords always goes with the most restrictive match. If you have multiple keywords in your list, and include all the match types, you can be sure to cover all the bases, in sequence. The ideal match-type setup does all of the following well

• Catches unpredictable keyword searches
• Allows dynamic keyword insertion or headline tweaking
• Allows custom text presentation on landing pages.

So, if you use this as your keyword setup, you get the benefits of broad match as your fall through, the tight control of exact match, and the medium ground of phrase match

Keyword examples:

[lexington convention space] (exact match)
….Dynamic Keyword Insertion Heaven -> Tight Landing Page
“lexington convention space” (phrase match)
… Adgroup-controlled ad text -> Moderately Tight Landing Page
lexington convention space (broad match)
… No Dynamic Keyword Insertion -> Basic Landing page

-Massachusetts (negative broad)
-”Lexington MA” (negative phrase)
-[Lexington MA Convention Space] (negative exact)

Of course negative keywords are critical for each type, as well

If you let Google use broad or automatic match, you give up two big layers of control. Yes, it’s a hassle to create the campaigns and adgroups with so much in them, but it’s a big savings down the line. This is why when we are in the advanced Adwords sessions at conference and someone asks how many keywords people have in a given campaign, you’ll hear numbers well into the thousands.

What about discovering new keywords?

Google broad/automatic match have some interesting discovery capabilities especially if you are able to write very specific exclusionary ad text headlines as well as stuff your negative keywords list to the hilt. I think that you should isolate your automatic match campaigns in your account and just keep using them as disposable “research” type expenses. But there seems to me plenty of ways to discover keywords you should have in your account.

Skeeball Pic by Benny Mazur and Used Under Creative Commons Licens

One particular pet-peeve of mine is the forced gratuity added to meals at tourist destinations and tawny restaurants - for small parties and large ones - and the shrug of “what can I do?” the waiters/waitresses offer while pointing to the “mandated by management” disclaimer. This is taking restaurants directly into a headwind of the Groundswell of well-connected clients. “This experience was remarkable - because the management says it was.”

“Your brand is what your customers say it is” - Groundswell, by Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff

Lest you think I’m a cheapskate, I tip generously for great service - but it’s meant to be a reward for what I saw as remarkable effort and a pleasant experience. If I’m forced to wait at my favorite Indian Restaurant, mouth on fire, for 10 minutes while the waiter refreshes my beer (bar usually 15 feet a way) - there will be a price to pay.

I recognize that the gratuity being entirely connected to “table service” may unfairly discriminate against the kitchen staff… so I would love the ability to tip the food and service separately or at least see how it was divided.

I do not run a restaurant but know people who do, and realize that it’s a hugely difficult financial challenge. Just watching restaurants come and go here in Lexington is evidence enough of the perils they endure. Family-oriented restaurants without high-profit alcohol sales to lean on have it even tougher.

But forcing consumers to pay a mandatory gratuity for a burger and fries is stretching things a bit far - and someday may face a legal challenge. One silver lining that may keep the practice intact is that automatic gratuity has a paper trail, and thus using it as a tax shelter is far more difficult.

Johny Rockets’ Mandatory Tip

I love 50’s diner-retro experiences and Johny Rockets has always been a favorite - each time we’re passing through Newport KY or the Montgomery Road area of Cincinnati we stop in. I walked 2 miles to eat at one in Long Beach CA once. My kids love it, and despite the $50+ cost of a meal, I was a fan and I’ve even blogged about it . The restaurant is owned by Daniel Snyder and led by president Lee Sanders and they plan an extensive expansion to 1000 locations - so I might get my wish for one in Lexington metro.

No doubt, I had always thought I’d be a dedicated customer, but now I’m not as sure. Forcing a mandatory tip (no matter what the service level) has given me reason to raise eyebrows. I would have left a tip of roughly the same amount as the forced one, by the way, and left far happier knowing I had sent a message of my satisfaction.

So I was much more likely to go online to voice my opinion.

Consumer Ratings Online Are Moving to Mobile Devices

“Tipping is a deeply personal practice” says Henry Harteveldt - Travel Analyst with Forrester Research, and if restaurants remove the ability for us to take a stand against crappy service or food, what are we to do? Well, I have one idea of what’s going to happen in this Groundswell. The funnel is going to get flipped and the mobile device becomes the megaphone via ratings of these businesses.

Enter mobile restaurant rating and local search. Our voices are about to get quite a bit louder.

Restaurant ratings guides (such as Urbanspoon, pictured right) are now getting tied to GPS locators, local directories, and social networks.  Combining that with the amazon iPhone interface makes it a pleasure to use. A bad experience will be read about by hundreds of other people - at the moment they are out looking for a place to eat.

GPS-enabled phones will allow patrons to find “well-rated” restaurants near their location and rate them on the spot. They allow us to send restaurant information to our phone with a click on our desktop computer, too - in case we found one we wanted to try from a social networking friend.

Smart Restaurants Will Leverage The Trend

For good restaurants with happy customers, this is a huge advantage.

If I had a successful restaurant in a foot-traffic area, I’d put a 24″ monitor in the window rotating my review listings for all to see.

I’d hand out small “rate-us” cards to customers after setting up a simple URL (e.g. restaurant.com/rate-us) that made the ratings on sites such as Yelp a one-click proposition.

I’d position a netbook-type computer dedicated to ratings where people could voice their opinions online instead of a tip and kicking in a bonus to the staff myself when great service is reported, and having heart-to-heart talks with staff when it didn’t.

“Some business owners will post their reviews on their door, or on the counter, to show them off, and that’s a subtle way of asking customers to write about them”
- Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman

The ultimate remarkable service idea might be to combine the above and a “pay what you think it was worth” model - to get people talking to friends.

Restaurants that stand out win.

I realize how hard it is to run a restaurant - and in no way do I wish to belittle that effort or the entrepreneurial risk it requires. But with these challenges you must remember that customers are everything - and they can be your ambassador on the connected web every day if you engage them. The “quiet middle” of the satisfaction bell curve gets you nowhere - you must look to amplify the fans and listen to the critics to stand out.

PS: See “Flipping the Funnel” - a nice little 18 page e-book by Seth Godin. [pdf]

I’ve posted the audio, slides and handouts from the recent Lexington Ad Club Event.

It is a great primer for those at the starting level in Social Media - businesses that just want to hear that it’s real. There are case studies, exceptional Q&A, and a really strong fundamental explanation of Social Networks, Online Authority, and more. The panel discussion includes Nick Huhn, Jason Falls, and Scott Clark and is moderated by Bill Dotson and was sponsored by the Lexington Advertising Club.

Audio Playback (or, download the MP3 file here to import into iTunes or your MP3 player)

Full Length Video (audio is a bit quiet.  The audio on the MP3 file above is far clearer.)

Want to import it into iTunes? Download MP3 file here (right click and save)

Printer Friendly Version of Handouts also here (PDF file)