| LED Digest 2503: Designer Links on Client Sites |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. October 1, 2007 Issue no. 2503 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== <Moderator Comment> ~ Hosting Deals --== iPhone for Mobile Marketing ==-- ~ Adam Boettiger "...I've saved a ton of time by having full browsing capability (not WAP)..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Site Usability Mistakes ==-- ~ Grant Crowell "DON'T insert a link on the footer of the home page to your own company site." ~ Michael Linehan "The colour change is so incredibly simple and basic." --== Web Stats ==-- ~ Lorelle Smith "I use FastStats for its speed & simplicity... and ClickTracks for its graphic views." ~ Bill Seaton "I've used [AXS] for years and can't recommend it strongly enough." ~ Nathan Holley "Javascript tags...are still the best method for tracking clickstream." =========== NEW ================================== <Moderator Comment> Greetings LEDer, If you're looking for some hosting (or just a good deal), Adam Boettiger sent me this tip -- Dreamhost http://www.dreamhost.com/ is currently offering a 10-year birthday special where they will give you an instant $110 credit on your account for new signups. Sign up for the one-year plan and you get like 5 TeraBytes of throughput and more for a year for $119, plus a free domain registration. Also, Adam mentioned he's had an excellent experience with Servint http://www.servint.com/ for hosting. I've been looking for alternatives to Pair.com (I still like Pair, but I'm starting to outgrow them; plus their Wordpress hosting leaves a lot to be desired). If you have any other hosting tips or recommendations, please let us know. -Adam ----------------- From: Adam Boettiger Subject: iPhone as a mobile marketing tool I assume there are other subscribers besides myself who have purchased the iPhone. I was wondering if any of you are using it as heavily as I am to manage some of your marketing campaigns? There are, admittedly, some shortcomings with the iPhone mail application that hopefully will be fixed with future updates or when v2.0 of the phone comes out with 3G in January to April window. But in general I've saved a ton of time by having full browsing capability (not WAP) to do things like: - Create, start and manage a Google Adwords campaign from my bus or train commute (including creating the ad copy!) - Monitor and edit PPC campaigns through admin panels - Use Newsgator Mobile app to monitor over 100 RSS feeds very quickly to stay abreast of industry happenings and more... Wondering how many other LEDers are using it for similar purposes or different ones, to save time in online marketing? Adam Boettiger http://www.iPhone-L.com/ The iPhone Discussion List ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Grant Crowell Subject: Site Usability Mistakes: Webmaster Links on Client sites I've been reading the last couple LEDs about web design usability "don'ts." Here's a big "don't" I have: Web development companies, DON'T insert a link on the footer of the home page to your own company site. There are three big reasons for why this is wrong to do: -- There's no benefit to the client, period. Placing a link to another company is like an unpaid, unrelated advertisement. It distracts the audience from the site they're already on. -- It cheapens the user's experience. Visitors are not interested to know who the site's designer is, any more than they would be interested to know who the copywriter is, or the search engine marketer, the hosting company, etc. -- It cheapens the designer. A link on the home page footer signifies to more and more people today that it's a tired strategy by someone with an amateurish sense of enhancing their own link popularity at the client's expense. While naive or uncaring designers may think it might get their brand out there for prospective clients, the message really sent is that the designer is willing to put their own interests ahead of their clients when it comes to the web site's performance. I've been doing website designs professionally since 1997, and not once have I ever requested my company's name on a client site. If they offer it, I tell them if they feel its truly relevant to their audience to be referred to what we offer, they should be make it particularly relevant by including it on a separate links and resources page, or even a testimonials page; but NEVER on the home page. The best way web designers can use their client's websites to promote themselves is to feature a client portfolio left on their own site, with simple screenshots and descriptions of the work performed. More web designers and developers need to better respect both their clients and their client's audiences, and start with thinking only of what's best for their client by preventing all unrelated links, including their own. Grant Crowell Grantastic Designs www.grantasticdesigns.com -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Michael Linehan Subject: Usability [Regarding using URLs as queries in major search engines, rather than putting them directly in the URL browser bar; also on changing the color of visited links. -ed] I have sat with prospective clients and clients and asked them to go to an example site so I can illustrate some point. I have watched - as they start from anywhere on the page - go to the search box on the upper right and type in "www.golflocker.com", or whatever I just said. I then watch them examine the search results. Sometimes they find it; sometimes they don't. I have asked, "Why didn't you just type that in the other box just to the left - where the urls appear?" and gotten responses like: "That's just for my default Yahoo window." or "You can go that?", "Ohhh, ummm, I think doing it this way is the easiest." or "It usually shows up in Google." > My theory is that clients surf their own site with mental > goals very different from that of a typical visitor. - Alicia Lane, LED Digest 2502 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1914/190/ I doubt this would make any difference. The colour change is so incredibly simple and basic. If someone knows the convention, they know it. I don't think a business owner is going to forget it just because they are looking at their own site ---- any more than they'd forget big bold type on their own brochure means "heading". Again, whenever I've encountered this, I have explained the point. The reply, in every case, has been,"Really. I didn't know that. Well, anyway, I still think it's confusing, so I want them to just stay the same. The change when I point is good. That's normal. But not changing to another colour just because I've been there." Every time. Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy ========= Begin Sponsor Message ========= Search Engines Love Seasonal Content At http://GetWebContent.com/LED, we take the time to learn about your products and services. Then we produce useful topical content related to the current season. Search engines spider your seasonal content and add it to their index. Users enter your site via the seasonal content and convert to sales. For a no obligation quote on seasonal content: http://GetWebContent.com/LED ========== End Sponsor Message ========== -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Lorelle Smith Subject: stats > I've heard about Google's web analytics, John Smart > just mentioned WebTrends, my old techie suggested > WebStat... I'd like to hear what you think the best > options are, and why. - Tom Anson, LED Digest 2501 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1913/190/ Hi Tom, The first thing to do is check with your web hosting service. See if "raw server logs" are available, and if so, how long they are kept on the server. You might get lucky and have several years' worth to give you valuable historic data. But because they do take up space, most hosts don't let them sit around too long. Some hosts actually delete them every 3 days or a week. (That's one reason I use Pair.com -- they never delete logs.) Anyway, if you can get your logs you can run them thru an analytics program. I use FastStats by Mach5 for its speed & simplicity (and budget price) and ClickTracks for its graphic views. These programs aren't hard to learn to use and the information you can glean is incredibly useful. CT graphically shows the percentage breakdown of which links got clicked on a page. You might use this data to put your navigation links in order by popularity. Basically, the data in your logs can help you improve your site by understanding how people interact with it. Another thing you're probably missing out on is 404 errors. Your log files will show you whenever a page or image is missing. If your host doesn't supply server logs, and you don't want to change hosts, your best option will be a third-party provider such as Google Analytics. You have to place their script code on your pages. (I hate giving Google all that data but that's another post.) But of course that sort of system will give you only information going forward, so if you can get access to your server log files that would be ideal. (Contact me offlist if you can get them -- I'd be glad to run your logs thru FastStats for you at no charge. Call it a favor for a fellow longtime LEDer!) Lorelle Smith, The Keywordsmith Professional Keyword Research & Analysis Consultant http://www.Keywordsmith.com -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Bill Seaton Subject: Site usability Mistakes Hi, Re: Tom Anson's request for a good web stat program. ... Try this: http://www.xav.com/scripts/axs/ The above link will take you to the download page for this program. Once installed, it will provide the referring page and keyword used, when a visitor landed on the site, which page, how long stayed on the page, where went to next, etc. In addition, one can obtain graphical output of hits by day of week, hour of day, average number of hits per visitor, hits from other sites (full URL), hits from other sites (domain only), and many other features. Script is fully customizable. Best of all, it's free. I've used it for years and can't recommend it strongly enough. Thanks, Bill Seaton -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Nathan Holley Subject: Stats > The worst services to use are the ones that rely on > Javascript (which includes nearly all of them now). - Michael Martinez, LED Digest 2502 Yeah, javascript tags are definitely 'de rigueur' aren't they? But I disagree that it's the worst method of collecting analytical data. It's all about what your needs are, not what method is "best" (as you well know). That said, I'll always go with js tags right now, and here's why: - Server log analytical packages still matter. There are several good ones, but ClickTracks Appetizer is my current favorite. So run one of these no matter what clickstream package you go with. - Web beacon tracking is still in heavy use. Google AdWords uses these to track goals by placing them on a landing or confirmation page. I wish these would go away... I really do. But they're going to be around for awhile. - Packet sniffing is way out of the picture for me. It's probably one of the best methods to track web stats, but anything requiring hardware is problematic. When I worked in the corporate zoo I ran into it a few times. More and more, analytics is a discipline of MARKETING not IT. Yet the IT department is still the default for web stats. Adding a packet sniffer makes the IT department crucial. Avoid. - Javascript tags, while problematic, are still the best method for tracking clickstream. If they're placed inline, directly before the /body tag, on every page, they do a nice job of capturing info and showing you useful "stuff" you can take action on. The best stats package on the market today, that's free, is Google Analytics. Mint http://haveamint.com/ is also a nice little server side solution (its a web log script so you won't be giving Google your competitive information). There are others, but they're not as good, and you start paying serious $$ for the good ones. Nathan Holley ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by: GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED SEOToolSet.com Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification Join the certified SEO directory: www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/189/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/187/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/201/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." - Albert Einstein |
