Blogs

This week I am almost completely consumed by search engine optimization. It's the topic for chapter in my new book on building Drupal Web sites and the topic for an SEO class that I'm teaching at the beginning of August. I've been comparing search results for phrases like "php drupal" and "php drupal help." I've been obsessing over click through rates and conversion rates and I've been studying the competition.

And then I got side tracked and stopped to see how some of my favourite free software projects rank in the search engines. I searched for four variations on the phrase "free graphics software." I expected to find top search results for two of my favourite free graphics applications (GIMP and Inkscape). Take a look at what I found:

• free graphics application
• free graphics software
• free graphics program
• free graphics editor

GIMP ranks well in all four search phrases, but only the first link yields a top-ten result for Inkscape. What's up Inkscape? Why aren't you top ten how can we make you do better? SEO to the rescue. Before you get covered in hives and think that SEO is just for marketing wonks try doing a few searches of your own using variations on key phrases. The results are often surprisingly different. Almost every small business (or free software project) can complete a few easy steps to make their site more findable. Over the next few blog entries I'll show you how.

Can't wait? I'm pretty impatient too. So I've created a three-part mini workshop available INSTANTLY as a free email class. Sign up today and be done by the end of the week. Feel free to wait for each of the lessons to be posted here if you prefer to watch paint dry instead of getting started NOW.

As a super-awesome bonus you'll get a free subscription to the HICK Tech ezine. It comes out approximately monthly and includes full articles that aren't published here on topics relating to SEO, email marketing and Web site design.

I'm currently reading The New Community Rules: Marketing on the social Web by Tamar Weinberg. She's got a great list of techniques and tactics for composing blog posts. Here's the summary of her advice:

• Use visual elements to capture attention.
• Keep it clean and to the point.
• Link to appropriate sources.
• Write powerful headlines.
• Provide reader-friendly lists.
• Write informative how-to articles.
• Use storytelling to your advantage.
• Use interviews to encourage engagement credibility.
• Write reviews of relevant products or services.
• Use regular features to build a following.
• Listen to your readers.
• Don't abandon your readers.

Check out Tamar Weinberg's personal site for more on blogging and the social web and her book site for reviews and links to media coverage of The New Community Rules.

The next print-out in my pile is from 2001. This article, Archives, Archivers and Achievement, is still available online at Francois Lachance's Web site. My print out was from the Teaching Online in Higher Education conference, although their archives don't appear to reach back to the 2001 conference. So why did I print out this article? This was a few years before I briefly considered going back to school to get a Masters in Library Science. I don't remember what it was that caught my attention back then, but this is what catches my eye now:

"The roles of curator, creator, custodian are congruent with the activities of describing, manipulating, and preserving information."

An archive can

• serve as a showcase
• serve as a storeroom
• introduce a triage dimension to pedagogical work & play
• serve as a gateway to other archives

The existence of an archive can

• be leveraged by an institution for marketing
• indicate institutional long term commitment
• demonstrate a judicious use of resources

The very idea of an archive does stretch the "anyplace, anytime" mantra
to include "anyone". But not everyone can serve anyone all the time and so
the goals associated with the construction of any archive will take on
their own local colour.

Do you have an archive of content on your site? Does it have a purpose beyond what's described by Dr. Lachance's article?

In my paper archives I also found a usability checklist that I'd written in 2001. It was a long list. At the time there were no comprehensive online checklists to help make your site more usable (or at least none that were easily found). Before transcribing my list I did a quick search to see what's available today. I found a good 25-point Website Usability Checklist but I also found a really great prelaunch checklist by Larisa Thomason. Even though her checklist was written in 2004 a lot of it is very relevant five years later.

1. Understand what you're getting from your Web host. This includes: bandwidth limits, storage space, access to Web site statistics and databases.
2. Check your page load speed. Not everyone is on a high speed Internet connection. People who are accessing your site from a Blackberry or iPhone may also be paying for data transfer.
3. Let users contact you. Most content management systems will have a contact form built-in. Make sure you enable it.
4. Test pages a different screen resolutions. The Google Browser Size tool is a great way to see what people are missing.
5. Check page display in all browsers and operating systems. Browsershots lets you get a screenshot of your Web site on lots of different kinds of systems. If you need to test more complex scripts you can also rent a machine at BrowserCam.
6. Correct all spelling and grammar errors.
7. Verify all hyperlinks. There's a free testing service available from the W3C. It only works one page at a time, but it's still faster than clicking each link individually.
8. Give all users access to important content. Make sure that content isn't stuck inside video or audio without a transcript or equivalent "accessible" format. Not everyone can wait for that video to download, not everyone has speakers and not everyone has perfect vision.
9. Create a custom error page. Without a custom error page, visitors get the standard 404 error that begins with the generic "File Not Found" message. A custom error page gives visitors useful information and helps keep them from leaving your site in frustration.
10. Usability testing is complete and problems corrected. The 25-point Website Usability Checklist is quick and easy-to-use.

The full list is available at Prelaunch Checklist.