In our experience, one of the principle challenges that companies face with regard to their web initiatives is determining how to feature content on their homepages.  While this seems like a somewhat obvious topic at a glance, more companies that none are getting it wrong by misunderstanding how their users experience their company through the homepage, the first impression to your clients.  To clarify this challenge, I would like to share with all of you what I call the Visibility Index.

This simple two-axis chart evaluates content from two conurrent perspectives:

1. How important is this content to your key audiences, and
2. How important is this content to your company.

While simple, I believe that content that appears in the upper right quadrant should be featured on the homepage of your website.  Like any useful rule-of-thumb, this approach should stand up to testing against real-world scenarios, while also proving its value across a range of website types.  For example, in our own case at Boston Interactive, the driver for our business is ultimately a combination of our portfolio and the experience that our clients have in dealing with us.  Our process is comprehensive and helpful, but not the determining factor in our clients decision-making process.  Our portfolio, or at least a portion of it, is front and center on our homepage while our process is accessible within the interior of the site.

Similarly for a web retailer, your product mix is substantially more important than your company history or return policy, notwithstanding the importance that customers or executive management may place on each of these simple examples.  Once your buyers have decided that you have something of value to offer them, they may very well review these topics, but until then, they are subordinate to your unique product offerings.

Our Visibility Index helps to focus your attention on the issues of importance to your site visitors, while also recognizing that there are key business drivers that are critical for you to convey to effectively position your company within your sector.   Flattening the user experience is different from turning your homepage into a portal.

We hope that this simple primer on homepage content planning shines some light on a topic that deserves careful strategy and execution.  Although this is only the beginning of our newest big idea, the Visibility Index skims the surface of website planning, and we hope that it sparks inspection of the alignment not only between your website and your business, but also your website and your website visitors.

I sometimes run into the situation, specifically among my peers that are not in the interactive/marketing sphere, of having to explain that “online marketing” does not equate to banner ads.  To us marketers, online marketing is obviously quite a dynamic term that includes website strategy, internet promotion, social media strategy, search engine optimization & marketing and yes, banner ads too.

Coincidentally, I recently read a very intriguing post from the Six Pixels of Separation blog that focuses on the evolution of banner ads.  Mitch raises a great point that banner ads were initially pushed mainstream because the click through rates could be exactly measured.  In truth, click through rates for traditional banner advertisements are dismal (around 0.05%).

This got me thinking, that if banner ads are such a small part of the interactive whole, then why do they draw so much negative attention from the public?  Unfortunately, even some of the great creative banner ads are still victim to the conditioned ignorance of internet users.

Internet users first saw pop-up ads (I still shudder at the thought) and were conditioned to ignore them from then on.  No matter how rich the media, internet users have been turned off by banner ads long ago.  So what do to now?  Mitch poses the question, “what will it take to make banner advertising great?”.  I don’t know if the traditional “banner ad” will ever be great, but I think that if we combine behavioral targeting with super creative work, then a new sort of marginal ad could evolve.  More than simple Pay Per Click messages, but relevant and creative images that gently accompany the user in an unobtrusive way that conforms to the users likes and dislikes through.

All that being said, I do believe that traditional banner ads function on more of a branding and strategy standpoint.  They can deliver little reminders to your prospects about your mission, your unique offering, etc.  What I’m saying is that banner ads should not act as the sole form of online marketing.  But will they ever gather enough strength to at least change the minds of internet users who ignore them?

Just as one standard is set, another competitor races to replace it. Google’s recenlty launched web browser, Chrome, has captured the attention of tech blogosphere.  A blog search through Google using the keyword “google chrome” yields about 195,725 responses, an astonishing number for such a new topic (the browser officially launched the beta version on Tuesday September 2).  The bloggers certainly have plenty to talk (and write) about.

Is it Google’s innovation in passing power over to the browser and away from the operating system that makes this launch so popular?  Bloggers seem to mostly be praising the tech darling for taking a necessary step that puts more dependence on the browser than the operating system and feeds the “cloud computing” momentum.  As a platform created almost explicitly for Web applications, Chrome certainly aims

Another issue on the table is Google’s impact on the industry - so heavily controlled by Microsoft.  The talk of the browser war seems to be what is giving most bloggers fuel for their posts.
 

Or could it be the impact on contextual advertising, the foundation on which Google has based its business model?  Some marketers are onto an interesting point that is still emerging as the tech sector shifts and grows towards the cloud computing model.

A very interesting and ongoing discussion about Chrome’s Terms of Service.  Originally, the agreement gave Google “a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.”  This extreme section has since been removed from the document, but the frenzy that ensued has still left an impression of doubt among members of the tech community.

My conclusion: Chrome is certainly worth a try.  It is a very strong starting point for Google’s entrance into the browser space, but I’m sure they will be gaining market share slowly until their second or third release.  To me, Chrome is super fast, incredibly sleek-looking, and remarkably easy to use.  As a matter of fact, I’m using it access our blog in WordPress and write this post.  I’m finding that I have more and more confidence in this browser over others simply because of it’s speed and clean interface that make for a very smooth user experience.  So try it for yourself and let us know what you think!  As of today, Boston Interactive’s traffic is broken down like this:

• Internet Explorer has 45.8 %
• Firefox has 43 %
• Safari has 9.5 % 
• Opera (barely there) has 0.76 %
• and little underdog Chrome has 0.38 %

When considering advertising online, PPC (pay-per-click) ads almost always come into consideration. The trackable clicks, the accessible ROI, the detailed keyword metrics - it’s a much better system than ad banner, which are very 2001. So, once you figure out the keywords you’ll be targeting, and your budget, your all set, right? Just set up a Google AdWords or Yahoo! Sponsored Search account and away you go? No, not quite yet.

When search engine users type in a word or phrase, they want to find the listing that most closely matches their search. May sound obvious, but with a PPC campaign you need to make sure not only your ads vibe with the search query but also the pages that users get to from the ads. Consider this situation: you run an e-commerce site and sell men’s hats, men’s shoes, men’s belts, and the female version of each one of these. Each month, you run a different promotion for one of these items. But let’s say you are bidding on the term “buy men’s hat” and just send him/her to the home page, where you are busy promoting a new line of women’s belts. What is the user going to think? 99% of the time they’ll just click their “Back” button” and try a different result, because it is so easy for them to do so.

The goal of PPC is to convert the user - either by a sale, phone call, or request for information - for as little money as possible. But, if they can’t (quickly) find what they are looking for, they will just move on. Due to the ease of clicking “back”, it’s something you need to be very concious of, in order to keep your ROI as high as possible.

The best way to keep your PPC visitors on the page is to connect your keyword targets with landing pages. You may not have one that’s exactly tailored to a keyword category - be sure you create it before activating that list of keywords. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy; some content or products revolving around the targeted keyphrases would be sufficient. And it can make a big difference as to whether the user reads what you give them or moves on to a competitor.

It’s a darn good thing Apple decided to pull the ‘I Am Rich’ application from its famed iPhone Application Store. I might have been tempted to purchase the $999.99 application (the most expensive price allowed by Apple) in order to fool all my friends into thinking I’m rich.

I am an Apple fan, I own a 3G, much of the accessories they put out and my home network is Apple driven. But I don’t remember checking a box on any of my warranty cards that opted in Apple to do my thinking for me. Apparently I am independent minded enough to purchase an iPhone but not critical enough to decide what applications I want to purchase for that phone.

If Apple doesn’t want the applications to be market driven, but instead controlled by a higher power, they leave little room for complaint, in my mind, when the federal government comes in and wants to regulate Apple itself.

The purpose and integrity of the application isn’t the issue here, surely the 10 or so people who bought the application were either rich enough to afford it or deserving of the self-inflicted ‘curiosity tax’ they encountered. Either way the application was not harmful or a danger to any of the exclusive group who downloaded it. Why pull it?

I agree that Apple should have a kill switch for applications of malice; however viciousness was not an issue. Perhaps Apple should take a look at those programs that are allowing people to track one another via GPS; it’s only a matter of time until someone finds a work around allowing them to track us all, perhaps even Apple’s own Big Brother: the Federal Government.

When a site is being designed, the main navigation is usually placed at the top of the website’s home page. And why shouldn’t it? That’s the first place where visitors look. It’s where you want to give them access to your interiors pages, so they can learn more about your company’s products or services. And this main navigation will most likely include a drop-down menu or Flash animation, in order to create a visually appealing way of traversing through the site.

The main issue with creating a top navigation that is strong on the visuals department is the trouble that search engines will have crawling these links. It is unfortunately very difficult to create a drop-down or animated navigation that is also search engine-friendly. This battle is usually won by the designers, who suggest that the visual impact of a snazzy navigation will vastly overpower the potential SEO benefits of HTML links at the top. In order to balance this, recommend that footer links be used as well.

How do these footer links help the user? Well, they aren’t really for the user. Remember - you’re creating a fancy navigation scheme to draw the user deeper into the site and hopefully buy and/or convert. The footer, on the other hand, will be used for the search engine’s perspective.

This is what Boston Interactive includes in their footer:

Each of the main sections of content are linked (they’re separated by “|”). There are also contextual links within the bottom sections of text. These were created to improve the SEO value of some of our targeted keyword phrases and pages. These links aren’t quite as valuable as those you’d find in a header or main content of the page (the higher a link is on a page, the more value it offers), but they do provide some worth.

So, during the site redesign, certainly keep in mind what you’re going to include in your footer. By including these links, search engines are given the opportunity to “find” all pages of the site, regardless of how the top navigation or rest of the page is coded.

On August 11, 2008 Gmail went down for a number of hours in the afternoon. Users were stranded with a 502 error screen (temporary error – wish I could use that one when I get pulled over by a Statey). The world stopped.

Apparently IMAP services continued as web access failed. Google assured us all mail was safe, incoming mail was not affected and all would be ok in the world of the Google subscriber.

Personally, I panicked. I was waiting for the confirmation from Apple for my purchase of the ‘I’m Rich’ Application, which is right here on my phone, wait, where’d it go?

After a couple hours of wondering what had happened and following the statements from Google, I realized something: GMail is a terrific service (despite this outage). If I could find an ISP that had as few problems, I would be ecstatic. If I could find a cellular service which offered the same level of consistency of service, access and all the bells and whistles, well, I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only subscriber. There was a lot of buzz around the Google outage. A lot of judgment and disappointment, especially from those users who use GMail for their corporate email and calendar. But, I think we should give them a break for the time being. The GMail team is a dedicated bunch and were very apologetic about the incident. And at the end of the day, this means a lot in an age when, ‘It’s not our fault’ seems to be the unfortunate rhetoric most service providers have scrawled on their walls.

With only 1 day left until the Beijing Olympic Games, the media world is gearing up for the Olympics frenzy. I recently read about the official Olympics website’s effort at creating its own social environment through a microsite called My Olympic Story.

The site showcases a different personally-submitted story every day that tells about their unique Olympic experiences. Users submit their stories via e-mail to the Beijing Organizing committee for the Olympic Games. The top 100 stories are not only showcased on the website, but also compiled into an anthology that will become part of the Olympic Museum collection.

This was a noble attempt, however I’m not sure that this was the most innovative effort the Olympics marketing committee could conceive. I do give them recognition for attempting to bring the conversation online, but if they were going that far, why not give the site blog-like functionality with the ability for readers to comment on each story and share with others? And if the stories are published daily, why didn’t they include an RSS feed on the homepage to keep visitors aware of and involved in the conversation?

A little “web 2.0” functionality can add a lot of value, especially for such a global event as the Olympics, which is expected to attract 4 billion viewers. Such an event has high expectations to bridge cultural gaps and put ethnic differences aside. It’s a bit disappointing that their current interactive marketing efforts fall short of their potential. Imagine the possibilities for global conversation with the world as your stage for an event as momentous as the Olympics.

This example shows us the importance of understanding the term “web 2.0″ and its implications that are vital to navigating, using, and profiting from the swiftly evolving web. In truth, understanding the web as a platform for communication and innovation is the key to successfully managing your online marketing efforts.

One of the worst assumptions a company can make about their website is: “The site is up, whew, glad we have that done!” This idea stands in stark contrast to best web practices and most web savvy business people know it.

However, the more dangerous assumption is that updates and changes only need to happen once in a while, quarterly or bi-annually. Though this belief edges closer to the ideal, it falls short. In reality, your brand and user experience are tied in part to how up-to-date your content and design are.

While instructing, I use the following analogy for my students: maintaining a website is much like maintaining a home. Noticing the big things - a wall that needs repainting, a lawn that needs new seed or a kitchen you want to expand - is simple and obvious. But, what would your home look like if you failed to dust, vacuum or clean the counters? These weekly or, often, daily tasks keep a home usable and a pleasure to be in. The same is true for your website. Content often becomes outdated in a matter of weeks, time-sensitive information becomes useless overnight. So ensuring this content remains accurate and current will add credibility to your brand.

Maintenance supports other goals

The focal point for every website’s post-launch activity is maintenance. Content edits are certainly simple and easily executed tasks a company can complete. But consider other activities which expand your site and offer the visitor additional features of interaction which keep them on-site longer, thereby exposing more of your brand to them:

• Adding a “search” box - This allows your visitors to complete their missions without incident, associating the positive experience with your brand.
• Incorporating dynamic directions - Adding the ability for a visitor to map their way to your business does two things simultaneously. First, it keeps the user on your site (which is extremely important). Secondly, it enhances the experience. By keeping the visitor away from Google or Yahoo! Maps the experience remains clean and simple – two recurring words visitors use when describing sites they like.
• Start blogging – Use this as a forum for announcing business strategies, relationships and decisions. Share some industry standards and tricks alike with your visitors to help them become more knowledgeable. ( such a good idea, I think we should do that! )
• Is your clientele bi-lingual? - How about creating a version of your site for the non-English speaking audience? Providing your content in a different language may expose your brand to a new demographic that until now never considered your company for lack of comprehension.

A mental block site owners have to be conscious of is, as visitors to our own sites, we become blind to the errors or the staleness of content and imagery. Those who come to our sites to find information (especially current information) want to be there and experience the new aspects of the site. So, don’t be lackadaisical in giving it to them.