January 9, 2007
The phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” has been brought to a brand new level on the World Wide Web.
Consider the mindset of your users. A penetratingly ugly website design can negatively impact your site and visitors, despite the fact that there may be great content — and especially if you’re a relatively new player in Internet Marketing.
I’ve encountered a few sites, including those of family members, that have been begging for a good Internet Marketing campaign. And I’d like to help. However, I personally feel that these sites don’t necessarily only call for good marketing. Many of these sites need something else. Upon looking at website design and usability, I realize how these two important elements truly go hand-in-hand with a successful campaign that can really translate traffic into results. In today’s day and age, a successful website needs incoming links, the ability for people to want to talk about your site — and to be acknowledged among peers.
Cameron recently discussed how social media optimization focuses on more of an “on-page” effort which entails “improving the design and usability of the website so that it becomes more compelling to users” [emphasis is mine]. A relatively new site needs more than just good content to be compelling. Design and usability are key.
This is a preview of Crappy Site Design, Great Content: Is This Poor Social Media Optimization?.
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November 1, 2006
I’ve been reading with interest the latest flurry of blog posts on the subject matter that famous blogs don’t have the social bookmarking icons that many other blogs have. The inciting post was written by 37 signals and specifies that content is what matters and icons diminish the quality of your blog (the writer so eloquently put it as making your site “look cheap.”)
The most notable comment was:
Zero out of Technorati’s top 10 blogs feature those icons. And only two out of the 15 entries in the current crop at Digg’s Top Today page offer “Digg me” icons.
A few of my favorite bloggers responded, some with mixed emotions and others with outright negativism. I can’t say I’ve seen a post in support of what Matt at 37signals said (so I’ll applaud him for his link baiting efforts most notably defined by Lesson 2: “Controversy will incite passion. Passion drives links.”)
Darren Rowse of Problogger read the thread with interest and didn’t know what to make of it. I happen to be contemplating the value of these social bookmarking icons myself, but I think that Darren does doubt the power of them a lot more than I do (and I’m certainly not as popular as he is!)
This is a preview of New Blogs Can Use Social Bookmarking: A Rebuttal Against 37Signals.
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Digital Marketing Specialist, Social Media Consultant,
and Tech Geek at Heart