The art and science of website structures May 29, 2008
Posted by debbiepascoe in accessibility, privacy, quality, search engine optimization, usability, web analytics, web design.Tags: search optimization, sitemaps, spatial database, web analytics, web design, webmap, website structures
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The first time I laid eyes on the Maxamine software was in 1998 – the company was a year old at the time. Although a lot has happened and the software has gotten increasingly more sophisticated and powerful over time, the basics were already there, and I was immediately hooked.
The comprehensive data collection made possible by the incredibly thorough spider, combined with the storage of the data in a spatial data architecture was so powerful and elegant, and the maps were fascinating to look at and manipulate. Just think of it – if you could round up every detail there is to know about a thing – in this case a website – the only thing left to do is figure out what question you want to ask. When a regular person, with no technical expertise, can ask that question and get an answer back in a matter of seconds, it puts the power in the hands of the site owners and operators, to react at a moment’s notice to whatever is thrown at them and their websites – by visitors, regulators, competitors, even their own organizations.
This image is a shot of the way I see websites – not as pretty pages in a browser window; rather as an interlinked combination of words, images, scripts, stylesheets, pages in a three-dimensional space. The maps are always fascinating and beautiful, and the best part of all is that this seemingly complex picture holds the key to fast, flexible analysis: it preserves the relationships of all the objects to each other, and makes it possible for me to know every intimate detail about this site.
So what do you want to know? Are your web analytics implemented correctly and are the tags functioning? How easy have you made it for Google to index your site? Does your site speak the same language as the people searching for you? Are the pages you’ve linked to outside your site the same as they were when you linked to them? Are they still there? Does your site comply with privacy legislation? With Accessibility legislation? Are you drawing people in or driving them away? Exactly where in the site are all the references to the product you just discontinued, the prices you just changed, the subsidiary you just rebranded, the logo you just relaunched?
Over the years, we have examined thousands of sites. Themes emerge; relationships are identified; complexity visualized; problems are uncovered; all is revealed.
When you can understand your structure and the problems lurking inside it, then you have a framework for understanding how visitors find you, what kind of experience they are having, if it’s bad, what’s causing it, what is keeping them from taking the action you want them to take. You have a framework to determine whether the site is structured correctly and structurally sound enough to deliver on the business objectives you have set for it. You have a way to know what needs to be optimized over time and how those efforts impact the larger picture. And a way to put web analytics data and search optimization, marketing and branding efforts into perspective.
Every site is a new picture, and every picture tells a story, don’t it 
Page Load Time Gets Googled March 16, 2008
Posted by debbiepascoe in ads and ad spending, page load times, quality, usability, web design.Tags: broadband, page load times, quality, usability, web design
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For years we have been telling site owners – and anyone else we talk to – that page weight matters. Occasionally, somebody would respond with something like ‘everybody has broadband, so that’s just not the problem it used to be’. There are several issues with this line of thinking.
First, as broadband has become more prevalent, page sizes have grown larger.
Second, code that enables tracking and more robust interactivity adds weight to the pages. While you are wondering why the page is taking so long, your browser is busy reading every single line of code in order to show you the page. Bloated code contributes significantly to page weight issues.
Third, the notion that broadband is everywhere has caused an explosion in the use of flash. Flash used thoughtfully can provide a richer, more satisfying experience for the visitor. Flash used with abandon and no alignment to business goals can provide a frustrating, confusing experience that is also inaccessible to visually impaired persons and invisible to search engines.
Last week Google weighed in on the page weight discussion, and in a big way. This month, Google has begun to measure the load times of advertisers’ landing pages. Once advertisers’ load time grades are provided to them, they will have 30 days to make necessary improvements before penalties begin to be applied. Google uses the measurement of landing page quality as a component of the advertiser’s “Quality Score”. Quality score impacts two things:
- The price the advertiser pays for keywords
- Ad placement
Here are four specific suggestions offered by Google to reduce page load time:
Use fewer redirects. Reduce the page size by using fewer, smaller, and more highly-compressed images. Do not use interstitial pages. Minimize the use of iframes on your landing page.
The good news is that this is a very manageable issue, from a technical perspective. The challenge, as it has always been, is for site owners to find the delicate balance that provides the best possible user experience without going overboard on design.
New Pew Research Sets US Broadband Households at 55 Pct January 21, 2008
Posted by debbiepascoe in broadband, page load times, quality, usability, web design.Tags: broadband, low band, page download times, page weight, Pew Research, usability, web design
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It’s been a while since I posted any numbers about broadband adoption, so I was glad to see eMarketer’s newsletter on January 18. The Headline – “Who Doesn’t Use the Internet” – caught my attention. Much is written, with great flourish and excitement, about internet adoption, and it’s written in a way that leaves the impression that everybody has it and in a big, fast way. This headline is quite unique.
The article goes on to highlight the results of a new study by Pew Internet & American Life Project and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (PDF). In addition to information about broadband adoption, this study is full of great information that will be of interest to our friends in local, state and federal government. People are increasingly turning to the web and expect that they can find what they need from their government there.
Three key findings:
- “Digital Divides Matter” -”low access” people – those with no or low bandwidth – are not as successful as “high access” people in finding needed information to address their personal issues.
- “E-Government is not an Option; It’s a Necessity” – See above. All citizens – rich and poor, old and young, high-band and low-band, are turning to the agency websites for information.
- Government agencies can not afford to disenfranchise people, and must provide information in many different formats so that it can be accessed by all.
This is an excellent paper and well worth the read.
eMarketer’s research, using International Telecommunication Union for select countries, supports the broadband numbers. We know people access the internet from work; we also know that this is a problem for employers and not something that is preferred or encouraged.
Interestingly and coincidentally, the subject of page download times was discussed at length this past week on the Web Analytics Forum. Practitioners are talking about it, thinking about what to do about it, asking others about it. Page weight continues to be an important consideration for site owners.
Unfortunately, organizations are frequently in the dark about just how large their pages are.
We are seeing increasing instances where a very heavy page is not the result of images or even a flash file -those can load in the background. Rather they are the result of pages with very large amounts of code required to build the page. In some instances, code is commented out, but never removed. Browsers must read every line of code in order to build the page, so every unnecessary line adds to the time people have to wait.
The creation of an attractive site with sleek code that can reach your target audience in an acceptable time frame may require thinking critically about just how the site is put together. But it can be done, and it is worth the effort.
Mobile web access – the next frontier is here December 2, 2007
Posted by debbiepascoe in mobile web, page load times, search, usability, web design.Tags: brands, broadband, local search, marketers, mobile web, usability, web design
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I just ran across a blog about mobile phone adoption that has some fascinating stats in it. The blog is written by Tomi Ahonen – here’s a link to two posts. Even though they were written a while ago, the information is still very relevant, probably even more relevant, an well worth the read.
Mobile the 7th Mass Media is to internet like TV is to radio
(Stats below come from this post.)
As web content migrates to the mobile internet
At the end of 2006, according to Informa’s Mobile Market Status 2007 , there were 2.7 billion mobile phone users
- three times as many mobile phones as personal computers(850 million)
- over a quarter of all internet access is already from mobile phones
- nearly twice as many mobile phones as TV sets (1.5 billion)
- twice as many people use messaging on a phone (SMS text messaging) as use e-mail on the web.
- more people are accessing the internet via mobile rather than PC in China, Japan and South Korea
By comparison with the number of mobile phones,
- there are 800 million registered automobiles
- 1.3 billion fixed landline phones
We have not even begun to know how internet access via mobile phones will impact site design. One thing’s for sure, though. It can not be avoided. The more consumer-oriented, and geographically relevant a company is (where is the closest one to me, how do I get there, what are their hours, do they have the merchandise/food/gas/service I need or want to purchase), the sooner it will become an issue.
Some pundits that cover this space are speculating that the PC will be obsolete in the next few years. I’m not ready to buy that, for a couple of simple reasons. One – real estate, and two – computing power. Mobile screens are not very big, and even if they get a bit bigger, they will never be big. If they were big, they would be….PCs. If I am on the go, having content that is relevant to being on the go is great. When I am stationary, I’d rather use a larger format, with more computing power that will enable me to see and do more things simultaneously. which leads to reason number two – the size of mobile phones will continue to limit computing and battery power. Yes it continues to improve; I’m just not buying the notion that mobile internet access will replace laptops.
The balance will continue to shift as more content is created for the mobile environment and as advertisers and marketers experiment with methods to reach the mobile market. As some point, they discover what they can do that mobile users will tolerate. Because some rate plans charge for texting and excess minutes, it will be interesting to watch this play out: will carriers change their rate plans to “all you can eat”? Will consumers revolt if they start receiving unsolicited text messages?
At some point, market equilibrium will be reached – some people will use one method or the other, some will use both.
For big consumer brands, ensuring that their information is formatted for mobile access is a no-brainer. A beautiful online “experience” complete with flash, ajax, beautiful graphics, etc- has a defined reach. Access to these sites increasingly requires broadband access. As the stats above show, mobile access has three times the reach. Brands that can create streamlined mobile-accessible, relevant content and applications will have a far greater chance of reaching their rank-and-file buyers.
