Half-Geek

The New Way to Search?

Not long ago I came across a new search engine that I thought I just had to share. Unlike the thousands of other search engines popping up all over the web, this one really did catch my attention. It's called Viewzi, and in my mind its changing the way we search.

In your typical search engine, whether you are searching for videos, or a new fridge for your home, typically you get the same standard text list results returned, which I am sure all of you are familiar with. Now I know Google is trying to lead the way with blended search, however what Viewzi does takes it to a new level.

Unlike the other search engines, including Google, Viewzi doesn't display search results like you are used to, it does it quite differently. Think about it, like in my example above, searching for a video is quite different to searching for a product to buy online, so doesn't it make sense to display these two different types of searches in different formats?

How Viewzi works is it creates many different ways of viewing search results, depending on what you are searching for, by having a number of different views to choose from. Once you perform a search, you are then able to choose how your search results are displayed. For example you can choose to use the 4 Sources View, which will return the top 4 rankings of your keyword from Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN, and list them as thumbnails, on the one page. This gives you the ability to quickly scan the larger search engines, while using only the one search engine. There are many other views to choose from, but will let you check them our for yourself .

So you may ask then, if this is so cool, is it now my default search engine? While I do believe this is a great new way to search, my answer is no. While I do enjoy viewing search results in different formats like Viewzi offers, the search results returned are not highly relevant to what I am looking for, mainly because of the fact I am based in Australia and as of yet Viewzi does not seem to have any country specific search options.

So while it doesn't replace Google as my most used search engine, I do believe these guys are heading in the right direction, and I bet you any money the likes of Google will be heading down this road in the very near future.

campaigns & goals with clicky

Having a website without web analytics is like having a new car without a dashboard. You need to understand what the vital signs of your website are in the same way that you do with your motor vehicle and how to measure them.

When I launched half-geek I decided to give clicky a go and this website analytics software offering has continued to impress me ever since. Just recently, clicky launched some new functionality that really helps in making them a viable option for far more websites - campaign and goal tracking.

What I always loved about clicky was the clean and simple dashboard interface that allowed me to see the vital signs of my blog at a glance. Data such as feedbrner RSS subscriptions for half-geek are important to bloggers like myself and clicky catered for this in a better way than competitor software.

The introduction of goal and campaign tracking means that e-commerce sites can now enjoy the benefits of clicky as well. Why not give Google Analytics a side step and try it out!

re-inventing e-commerce

Lately, I have been charged with thinking about the creation of an e-commerce platform for one of our clients. Naturally, I work as part of a team to develop the best solution.  I am amazed me how much effort some people put into re-inventing the wheel when it comes to simple e-commerce solutions, particularly in New Zealand.

There are so many examples of global websites that have trained consumers into the best way to buy a retail product online. For that matter, we now have some pretty good local examples too. Sure they are not perfect. But they provide an e-commerce new-comer with the best starting point available. They also have reams of the analytical data which will slowly but surely help them improve the holy grail of e-commerce kpi's - shopping car conversion.

Amazon have created a number of conventions in the area of e-commerce website design and functionality. They are going to make close to $20 billion dollars in revenue this year, so they know how to sell stuff on the internet. Amazingly, they will make $191 million of this revenue through their membership only shipping club.

It is so logical to use the likes of Amazon as a starting point for all of your key functionality. If you want to put your efforts into re-inventing e-commerce, wait until you have as much customer data as Amazon. Then you can have statistical confidence that what you are about to pile thousands of dollars into will work.....

from A to B for free

It was almost a year ago that I took an opportunity to congratulate my good friend Espen and his partner Brian for their success in getting their new online rental car relocation business Transfercar up and running.

I was having a chat with Espen the other day and the good news is that Transfercar is progressing nicely. Their new site was only launched recently and it is already helping people find cheap rental car deals across the country every day.

Trnasfercar proves to me that with the right idea, there is still a whole bunch of opportunity for online startups in New Zealand.

Broken Links - Thanks Google

As a webmaster, one thing I am always doing is fixing broken links on a website. Everyone knows that having a broken link on your website is no good for anybody, as if a user does click on one they are very likely to leave your site and never return. So I assume by this point most of you are agreeing with me? Right? OK so now what about broken links on external websites? For example someone is nice enough to link to you from their website, however the link is broken. Is this just as bad?

If you ask me I will tell you yes, I think it is just as bad for two reasons. One is that again the user will have a bad experience by arriving to your site only to realise the link was broken, and two, when a search engine such as Google crawles your website you are unlikely going to get credit for the link!

Now in the past it was pretty much impossible for you to find these broken external links, unless you randomly came across the website and noticed the link was broken, or were told by a user. However now thanks to the guys at Google  you can easily find these websites, using a new feature in Google Webmaster Tools. If you login to Webmaster Tools and view the "Not Found" and "Errors for URLs in Sitemaps" reports, you will see there is an added field called "Linked From" which lists the number of pages that link to that specific url. Clicking on the link opens a new window which shows you the websites where they are coming from. Now all you need to do is send a nice email to the webmaster of that site and ask them kindly to fix the broken link by providing them with the correct one!

Doing this and fixing any external broken links will take up a bit of your time, however if you know the importance of inbound links you will know it is time well spent.

The Importance of Good Landing Pages

To the more experienced internet marketer or SEO expert, this should really be a no brainer, however it always surprises me just how many bad landing pages there are out there on the web. Landing pages are very important and can do wonders for not only your conversion rate, but also your cost per click for say paid advertising such as as Google AdWords.

Landing pages are described as pages that users get to after clicking a paid advertisement or external link on a serp (search engine results page), however I like to think a landing page is any page on your website, where visitors land, or view, which in most cases is every page on your website.

Most of you should know by now, that while the homepage is the 'main' page on a website, there are many users that will find your website through a sub page in a search result, and eventually leave without ever actually seeing the homepage, so while your homepage may be the best looking and coolest page on your site, some people won't even see it.

What does this mean? It means that the pages that users are landing on are the pages that you are going to have to work on to convert them into doing what ever it is you want them to do, such as buying your product or signing up to your newsletter, or even visiting a certain page.

If you ask me, landing pages should clearly communicate to the customer what you want them to do, and be centered on a particular topic. There are people out there who will disagree with me, but its best to have each landing page targeted towards one specific topic, in which you don't really talk about anything else. If you are running some sort of PPC advertising such as AdWords, this will help here too, as you can now send a user who clicked on your ad for 'MP3 Players', to a page that talks only about MP3 Players, which will help in many ways.

So what makes a landing page a great landing page? There are many things you can do to make the landing page work, however one really good tip is to have a very clear call to action. Ask yourself what do you want the user to do while on the page? If its to fill out a form, then make the submit button a colourful big button, make the user want to push that button! Don't use one of those standard web buttons, I guarantee a colourful button will lead to more people actually submitting the form.

Another thing that really helps is to use short, easy to read text. Do not write really long paragraphs of boring text, instead write some clear text in bullet points that is easy for users to read and follow, in other words assume the people reading your page are stupid, and guide them into doing what you want them to do.

There are many other tips I could write here, however what I have always found is that different industries differ in results. What works for a real estate estate website may not necessarily work for someone selling shoes online. It really comes down to testing. You may have a good looking page that does convert users, but you really won't know how good it is until you do some testing and test different variations. Having an image placed on the right hand side of your landing page may well convert users more then having it on the left, it seems stupid I know, but its true, so make sure you test.

While it may seem like a lot of work to optimise your landing pages, and it is, if you do take the time and do it right, you will reap the benefits, guaranteed.

geeked out omniture style - the verdict.....

Whoaaaa....what a day - Im geeked out Omniture style. I write this post from Wellington airport waiting for my flight home from Omniture training (thanks for the free wireless Wellington airport- genius!). Today's training was the advanced version and definitely a step up from yesterdays basic-how-the-interface-works type stuff.

Topics such as multivariate testing and segmentation were examples of today's focus. This web analytics software can do pretty much anything that any online marketer would ever need, so long as the software is implemented correctly. I actually cannot stress this enough.....implementation of Omniture will be the make or break process for companies who choose to take up their offering.

To get value from such a web analytics tool, one must first know what one wants to measure. While this sounds like a simple question to answer, for many New Zealand businesses it is not simple at all. New Zealands blue chip organizations are still developing their understanding of what their websites should be producing.

So, if you own a webiste where there is no clear path(s) to a desirable conversion(s) or action(s), the value of software such as Omniture rapidly diminishes.

However, in a a sort of bizarre turn of fortune, the Omniture training is actually effective in opening the minds of these organizations. It quickly becomes clear that they should be measuring conversions on their website. But what conversions? All of a sudden the benefit of online marketing becomes clear. And their latter mentioned fortune lies in the fact that they can configure,develop and design their new conversion orientated website around this new web analytics software. Web development the way it should be done.....

I also discovered (ashamedly) that Omniture acquired one of my favourite multivariate testing businesses, Offermatica last year. The technology that they acquired as part of this takeover has been integrated into a plugin offering in the suite of Omniture analytics software. I have to say I am excited by the prospect of being able to use this tool.

I would not go as far as to say that I was sold on Omniture, but it definitely is a comprehensive tool and I am impressed by the quality of training. It strikes me as an enterprise level tool, the type of software that requires additional investment in human resources to manage.

Overall verdict - I need a larger sample ;-)

omniture sitecatalyst

I am down in Wellington today on the first of a two day training course on Onmiture's SiteCatalyst. SiteCatalyst is the foundational web analytics software offering from Omniture. The software has been purchased at an enterprise level by one of our more major clients in the financial sector.

Today's training was very much focused on the user interface. I suppose some would call it Omniture bootcamp. I have had quite a bit of experience with Clicktracks in the past so most of the stuff I learnt today was not new, just the stuff an experienced online marketer would expect, only in Omniture style.

The most interesting aspect of todays training for me was the trainer, Jason. Jason has traveled down from the Omniture head office in Utah USA to conduct our training course. His approach to web analytics was re-freshing for me. To coin a kiwi phrase, "he knew his shit". Fond memories of my trips to SEO conferences in the USA came flooding back. This was the last time I heard the likes of this chap.

True website analysts are few and far between down here in New Zealand so I was happy to listen to Jason talk about how website analysis was about measuring objectives that help you meet your business goals. He talked about how the difference between tactical and strategic use of web analytics software and how crucial it is to actually be strategic. Sounds so simple yet very few businesses know how to achieve this status.

My favourite moment of the day had to be when a person from my clients marketing team (also attending the training) asked,"How do we measure the success of putting our TV advertisements on our website?", to which Jason promptly replied, "Why would you want to put your TV ads on your website, are they like really funny or something?"

Enough said really....