New: Citysearch, a division of IAC, wants to build out Sidewalk.com as a local guide site, and instead of launching their own coding project is testing the crowdsourcing waters. Entrants get a shot at a $10K prize and (possibly) additional funding to realize the project. Here’s the outline of the contest: Continue reading »
Jul 012009
Mar 192009
I remember in the early days of the Web it wasn’t uncommon for a site to tell you that you could only view the site in a particular browser, or that if you didn’t have a specific resolution you might not see everything. Eventually, web designers figured out that rather than telling the user how to browse, they would design for the user and ensure the site rendered correctly in the major browsers and most common resolutions.
Aug 262008
Although the Stanford Web Credibility Guidelines are a few years old now, they are still a great starting point for anyone trying to boost their web results – ecommerce orders, business inquiries, and so on. While some of their ten guidelines seem obvious – “Make it easy to contact you,” “Highlight the expertise behind your organization,” “Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site,” to name a few – we have all seen many, many sites that fail to take these simple but important steps. I think there is another credibility indicator that the Stanford researchers overlooked: #11. Rank at the top of search results.
Sep 052007
The concept of crowdsourcing – letting a bunch your users create your product, or at least enhance it – is a staple of Web 2.0. Now, we see that European social networking site Mister Wong is crowdsourcing their corporate identity by holding a logo design contest. The contest offers $12,000 in prize money, with half going to the winner and the remainder split between two runners-up.
May 082007
At every Pubcon at which I’ve done a community building presentation, master community builder Brett Tabke has emphasized the importance of getting real community content as high on the page as possible. Brett is the architect of WebmasterWorld, the Web’s busiest webmaster community and one of the most successful topical communities on the Web. What he means is that the community’s real content – actual posts by members – should be as high on the page as possible. This means that the space devoted to logos, headers, banner ads, navigation bars, announcements, sticky threads, etc. should be minimized. Brett’s advice is very simple, and very frequently ignored. I was reminded of this by a recent post by search marketing blogger RustyBrick, which takes the Search Engine Watch forum redesign to task for adding more intrusive (and taller) advertisements. He notes that the redesign moves the content from about 400 pixels from the top of the page to 630 pixels. For the relatively low percentage of visitors still stuck with an 800×600 display, that will push the content completely below the fold. In fact, on my late-model Toshiba laptop, when viewing a thread page all that was visible was the name of the poster of the first post – and that was with a couple of the toolbars I often use closed. This inspired me to check a few other sites, and to ask those of you who run communities, “How high is YOUR junk?”
Apr 202007
“The SEO Playbook – Welcome to the Rabbit Hole Alice” is a must-bookmark post by Todd Malicoat, aka Stuntdubl, that compiles a massive list of search engine optization resources that shed light on every area of SEO. From content to links, from site structure to general SEO, Todd has compiled a ton of links to informative blog posts, articles, and forum discussions. Read all of those articles, and you’ll test out of SEO 101 and be ready for the advanced class.
Mar 052007
ZDNet blogger Tom Foremski poses the question, “Is Search Broken?” Foremski’s thesis is that Google, Yahoo, MSN et al should be able to find Web content and figure out what it’s about without so much human intervention:
Feb 152006
A few days ago, CNET reported that big retailer Target was sued by blind patrons because their website lacked standard accessibility features to accommodate visitors with impaired vision. While one can look at this lawsuit as yet another example of litigation run wild (one early report pegged the incident as, “Target Sued Over Missing Alt Tag”), it’s sure to draw new attention to website accessibility. Less obvious is how this issue relates to search engine optimization (SEO).
As I mentioned in my general post about the Stanford Web Credibility Project, I’m going to look at each of their points in some detail. The first guideline from their research is Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site. The researchers further elaborate, “You can build web site credibility by providing third-party support (citations, references, source material) for information you present, especially if you link to this evidence. Even if people don’t follow these links, you’ve shown confidence in your material.” This particular guideline may not apply equally to all sites – some sites make few claims. Just about every site, though, makes some assertions that would no doubt be stronger if the reader thought they were backed up by hard data. Let’s start by looking at vitamin and supplement sellers – that’s certainly an area where lots of claims are put forth.