Crazy flash drives
These days flash drives come in all sorts and shapes. Manufacturers will make anything and everything into a flash drive just to get your attention. During my many ventures on the web I have run into a few of these silly, crazy, filthy, kitsch and plain wrong USB toys. I have gathered some of my favorites for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
Cockroach
I found out the hard (and tropical) way that in other parts of the world (besides Western Europe) insects are not as small as I’m used to. When living in Aruba I ran into a few of thesehuge creepy crawlers and to this day I am afraid of cockroaches. You can imagine that this flash drive doesn’t tickle my fance. Hey but I’m sure there’s someone out there who’d just love to get his hands on the cockroach. Did I mention Yuck!
Your onsite search engine – a treasure cove
Imagine this version of eden: You have built a website. And of course you’ve done your best. But you realize you can’t know everything. The website goes live. And instead of just keeping your fingers crossed and hoping your website will be effective, you actually get a chance to sit down next to your visitors and see what it is they need. You see what information they are missing when surfing your site and you are able to optimise your website based on your observations. Wow, that would be great wouldn’t it?
Surprise
Well, do I have a surprise for you. This is not just a great tale, it’s what you have access to when you take your onsite search engine seriously. Each time a visitor uses your onsite search engine he is in fact telling you what he needs. He’s helping you understand what content you are missing and what content you have hidden to deep down for him to find. Take heed of what he’s trying to tell you and your site will be better for it.
Missing
This one is obvious. When your visitors can’t find what they want through regular navigation they will try searching for it. Use their keywords to find the content you need to offer them. When writing for a website, you try to write from the visitor’s perspective. But -not being a client yourself – you are limited. By using the statistics from your onsite search engine you find out the keywords related to the content they need. Use these to create new content. Some of it may be questions to which you found the answer obvious: your visitors didn’t. Or information you found useless: your visitors didn’t.
Hidden
All the interaction designers in all the world couldn’t make a website that everyone understands. Humans are the same in many ways, but also as unique as the evolutionary coincidence that has enabled us to thrive as a race. Your navigation won´t hit home for everyone. Your onsite search engine will help you figure out what content you have hidden too well for visitors to find. Based on the statistics you can either change your navigation or find new ways of disclosing content like for instance related articles or access to frequently asked questions (faqs) on each page.
Do you use your onsite search engine’s statistics to improve your website?
Content is important – part 2
Yesterday I talked about why good content was important. Today I want to share a few pointers on how to recognize good content.
Choose the right subject
A great source for subject matter if you’re out of inspiration are your website statistics. If visitors Google you on certain key words for which you have yet to make content, then do so.
And when choosing a subject, remember to keep your visitors in mind; tell them what they need/want to hear. Don’t tell them what you want them to know.
Content is important – a short reminder
Ever since Google has been around there has been a tremendous amount of emphasis on keywords, metatags and Google rankings. And all of these issues are – of course – highly relevant. The internet is made up of an incomprehensible amount of pages and if customers aren’t able to find your page within this labyrinth of websites, selling your services or product will prove hard to do. Find ability is absolutely important. But it doesn’t stop there. Being findable through major search engines, related websites en other important places doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax. Visitors and prospective customers shouldn’t just find your website, you need them to hang out and buy your services or products.
Once visitors are on your site, content becomes the most important aspect to focus on. And – believe it or not – the power of good content is still underestimated. Which is a shame, because good content plays an important role in the Google-effectiveness and marketability of your website.
A short reminder to all of you who have forgotten why good content is pivotal:
Good content
- Keeps visitors on your website
- Makes visitors trust you
- Makes people share your website with others
- Makes other site owners link to your website
- Improves your find ability in Google and other search engines
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