Must Design

Voice Search = Next Big Thing
As of 2014 we know 55% of teens and 41% of adults use voice search on a daily basis. Now with virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa and voice recognition. 

Marty Note:
The way you get your content into their voice box is all about how you structure DATA. This post gives a great overview of schema and how to use it to win hearts, minds and loyalty as Siri shows your stuff instead of theirs.  

Might want to sprinkle a little predictive analytics and  AI-like branching too. Read this post and understand the new SEO. 

Google SEO Buzzcut
Google can cut our website's hair, but they aren't alone. We can be vicious barbers. Our unintended actions often mess with our URLs and that messes with the infinite universe we create whenever we publish.

Lessons shared here including an October update will help your site recovery from a bad Google or self inflicted haircut.  

Canonical URLs Explained
The Yoast post provides an easy way to understand why rel=canonical is a powerful new SEO tag. Yoast has a dog in the hunt. They make a Magento plugin that easily writes the rel=canonical tag into a product page's head.

The explanation about WHY canonical URLs are so important is only half right. We have a million ways of expressing and sharing URLs these days. Without rel=canonical we end up duping content to distraction.

Here's the rub. All ecommerce sites dupe content. They must. When I was a Director of Ecommerce a single product accounted for 50% of our profits. You better believe I merchandised that product into every nook and cranny our site offered. I duped that product and it's content to distraction.

There are other ways to limit duplication including:

* Use of your Robots.txt file.
* Locking content behind a firewall.  

* Use of blockquotes & rel=canonical tags. 
* Rewrite duplicated content so it's not as duplicated (lol). 

We included our email output into a folder with a "no follow" line in our robots.txt. You may think such a move is enough. It isn't. Be sure NOT to drive links from spiderable content INTO that folder or you eliminate the effectiveness of the robots.txt.

In the end every ecom site worth it's salt MUST duplicate content. Rewriting sounds like a good strategy, but it isn't. Content = time and time = money when managing million dollar commercial sites. You will be duping content.

Best to use rel=canonical because it shows Google you aren't trying to STEAL anything. Reminds me of what a friend shared about the disavow tool (used to deny inbound links or signal they may be untrusted).

 My friend was using the disavow tool daily on his clients accounts. "So you are brown-nosing Google," I kidded him. "Exactly," was his answer. Rel=canonical tells Google you are TRYING to do the right thing and sometimes that is enough. 

17,162 People Later
We've been asked to make the presentation that created our most viewed Hiaku Deck again at the Iron Yard Code Academy again (made the first presentation six months ago). There were important ideas we shared last time:

* SEO THRIVES or DIES with graphic designers.

* Graphic designers are heroes under siege by many groups.

* Set REALISTIC expectations.
* Set reasonable boundaries (with gorillas looking for bananas).
* Shared a few easy to remember tips to help designers improve their technical SEO skills.

Obviously we hit a nerve. We will be updating benchmarks shared six months ago to see how those we mentioned fared since.  Remember technical SEO is important, but your content must engage, be exciting (visually too) and develop sustainable online community to win over time. 

Good luck and if you have SEO questions we didn't cover email them to martin(at)Curagami.com and we will include and send you a Curagami Rules tee.  

Web Designer SEO
Our SEO Tips for Web Designers hit a nerve. It is heading to 13,000 views (probably today). We hit a nerve because web Designers are where SEO rubber meets the road. This Haiku Deck is full of SEO tips for web designer including:

* Know who has the banana and why.
* Know how much SEO you need to know.

* Learn what is MIST vs what is Gorilla.
* Listen Digitally.
* Understand how SEO & Content marketing work together.

* Design to Win Hearts, Minds and Loyalty. 

And More SEO tips designed for designers.  

Asking the right questions in the right way is key to online marketing success. How SMBs can compete with Amazon isn't as important as what is their why and how are they learning from Amazon's web marketing power.

Running into the web team from http://www.MoonandLola.com today after meeting them last week helped us realize we needed to add slides to our presentation. We HATE IT when that happens (lol).

Last week we spoke with about 40 Small to Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs) in a conference sponsored by FedEx and seeing the team at the Digital Summit today jogged our thinking. We forgot to discuss the importance of PLATFORM thinking.

We all know winning platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and my favorite Scoop.it. Platforms are winning because they play the "new SEO" game beautifully. We added Video Notes on YouTube to explain all of this (https://youtu.be/tSHeIxtrs4g ).

Find the Haiku Deck here: http://shar.es/1g7Kfb

The New SEO
Search Engine Optimization may be different, but it isn't dead. Until search engine spiders can understand context YOU have to provide it. Today team Curagami discovered 3 big things to NEVER do again while working with our great customer http://www.Moon-Audio.com :

* Original Copy Only
Never copy a manufacturer's product or brand copy. You MUST write original copy for every page or risk being put in the "dupe box". Duplicate content from THEM (manufacturers) is foolish for another reason - few manufacturers write great copy about their products, services or brands.

If you do copy manufacturer notes or specifications either 1. blockquote them out or 2. use inline rel no follows to tell the search spiders you know you've duped the content and aren't looking for kudos on it.

* Never Assume Branded Sites Know SEO
Working with Moon Audio team Curagami realized we could make a killing JUST helping major electronic brands such as Shure, Astell & Kern and Chord Hugo improve their SEO. The team at Moon assumed since the manufacturer's site was coming up high in the Search Engine Results Pages they had their SEO down.

NOPE, not even a little bit. The manufacturer benefits from all those links being driven into their pages by people who DO KNOW SEO. They don't so don't copy them.

* Do Use the SERPS
If you want to know who is doing well on your keys logout of Google (this won't kill all the filters but will help) and search for sites consistently showing up for keys you want. Next use Mike's free keyword tool to see how well the site you found ACTUALLY ranks for your keys.

You have to use a tool to see THROUGH the float. Used to be when you and I typed the same search at the same time we saw the same results. Not so much anymore thanks to Google's "floating" their index and making decisions about what you see based on a host of new things like what your friends see & like, what you've liked before (you in this instance is your computer's IP address) and other filters so secret no one really knows.

Watch Pariser's Filter Bubbles TED talk for more on why search is just showing you what you already know these days and NEVER steal copy or SEO advice from dumb and dumber manufacturers.

They win their brand name FOR FREE. If you want to know if they understand SEO type a phrase like "portable audio" and see who shows up (the usual suspects like Amazon, Wikipedia, Cnet Mashable, Techcrunch, HuffPost, etc...).

5 Problems With Faceted Search
Faceted search, those data sorting criteria you see on so many websites (on the left in the VW example) creates several web design issues including:

* Infinite Pages that can destroy SEO.
* Too Much Choice.
* Merchandising hierarchy based on attributes and sort.
* Data or engineering presentation that can overwhelm stories.
* Power moves from merchandises and marketers to tech.

Infinite Pages & SEO
Smart move is to robot.txt faceted search pages. Sending thousands of pages without social shares or much content to search spiders in this day and time is not a good idea. Faceted search tends to produce low social value pages when used by itself.

Faceted search can be used in combination with category page copy and social share widgets (highly recommended). Even in combination we suggest prioritizing pages that matter and sharing those with the spider while limit access to the infinite combinations even simple faceted search installs create.

Too Much Choice
Choice is a paradox one of my favorite books (Paradox of Choice by Schwartz) proclaims. Because you CAN do something doesn't mean its the right thing to do. Faceted search without help can quickly become overwhelming. Help can take many forms including:

* Top 10 Lists.
* Best Seller or Most Viewed badges, icons and ribbons.
* Sharing analytics such as people who bought x also buy y.

Cut down choice with feedback loops. Move your analytics closer to the "front" and your design and merchandising becomes less overwhelming.

Merchandising
Faceted search can make a merchandising team lazy. As we discussed in the previous Too Much Choice segment finding ways to curate, combine and merchandising within faceted search results based on analytics, curation and social preference creates collaboration between faceted search and your merchandisers. A website's merchandising team should be one of the most creative a powerful groups Don't let your merchandising team think your site merchandises itself (they never do).

DATA not EMOTION
We buy with emotion and justify with logic my P&G boss taught me a lifetime ago. The web is awash in DATA and we have a tendency to "widgetize" the emotionally resonate stories OUT of our websites thanks to tactics such as faceted search. If you use faceted search your team needs to find ways to build emotion IN. Testimonial teases, arresting images and snippets that lead up a ladder to a story are a few of the ways you can add emotion into a faceted search installation.

Power To TECH not PEOPLE
Curagami, our Durham, NC startup, works in an area with many startups. Startups tend to love and focus on the tech they create. We BUY PEOPLE not TECH. We trust PEOPLE not TECH so any faceted search installation needs a strong about page and a sense of who the team is behind the search results or trust is blown and the site riffs itself to itself. Finding ways to tell YOUR story inside a faceted search installation is a CSF (Critical Success Factor).

Riffing Ascent Internet (Marty Note)
Jason Nelson from Ascent Internet just helped with a great guest blog post for Curagami about why "free websites" aren't so free (goes live tomorrow). Today I noticed he was sharing information about Content Delivery Networks, CDNs. I shared my experience with loading Akamai on the site my team and I managed back in the day.

CDNs are great, but there are issue you need to know about I share in the G+ post that riffed on Jason's original. I'm including this post in Web Design Revolution because its VERY important for graphic designers to understand CDN basics and potential issues.

The issues are confusing enough you can run around for a long time not realizing its your CDN installation causing that "page not found" problem. Great share by Jason and Ascent Internet and don't be so scared by my post you DON'T use an important tool in a social / mobile / connected time.

My note about CDN's & Ascent Internet's Share Is Here
https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/ioYuNU7VJSL

How strong is your content marketing strategy? What is SEO, anyway? Read 6 SEO tips and tricks to help you boost the visibility of your web content.

1. Strong Copy Trumps SEO.
2. Do Keyword Research.
3. Share Link Love (i.e. create great content).

Marty Note
Interesting to see how How Design explains SEO to graphic designers. I would take a slightly different tack. Let's reframe SEO in ways graphic designers can understand and adapt.

I create content daily and am learning SLOWLY how to make headlines sing and links flow in. As competition for links goes UP with the rising tide of content publishers are the right side of the bell curve where more than average links reside will learn a few tricks from graphic designers such as:

* ARRESTING Images.
* Demand hierarchy.
* Clear Calls To Action (CTAs).
* Headlines that GRAB and HOLD.

Content that doesn't get read doesn't help. The first rule of getting your content read is find an ARRESTING related image you won't get sued to use. Haiku Deck (http://www.haikudeck.com) is one of my favorite visual marketing tools. Need lawsuit free arresting images? Use Haiku Deck.

Demand Hierarchy is keeping demands on your visitors LOW. When I was a Director of Ecommerce we did extensive analysis of our 40+ homepage links and 5 mattered. Vicious 90%/10% rule in links. Key is to lower choice and eliminate the superfluous. 

CTAs don't have to be "buy now" anymore. We love asking a question with the link between the present page and the answer. Want To Be A Great Internet Marketer? Highlight and underline that sentence and it will get clicked because it is an IMPLIED CTA.

This doesn't mean we are above a good "Learn More", but too many "old style" CTAs can get boring and lose their punch.

Finally your HEADLINE or subheads matter. Headlines should set a hook. Subheads should organize the answer so readers can scan and skip sections. I try to live by the 7 word rule.

I read this rule about roadside billboards. Billboard creators limit their copy to 7 words because who can read more zipping buy at 60 mph. We all zip by at 100 mph on the web these days so short, punchy headlines that align with your arresting image and plant a hook work best.

We like KEYWORDS, Brands and questions in headlines too. Questions create curiosity. Keywords create scenttrail and brands create comfort and "like me" feelings of trust and security.

Beautiful Unusual Navigation Designs for Inspiration. Selection of Awwwards websites with a strong presence of unusual navigation. An effective navigation design is crucial for a website

Yesterday an article on Medium, Snowfallen, caught my eye. It's about a technique for presenting longform writing online, by embellishing it with integrated

We Live In Google's World
If the web is the wild west then Google is the organizing and calming sheriff. There latest moves including slapping artificial intelligence into their algorithm and moving to real-time updates mean  we live in Google's world perhaps more than ever. 

Google's ability to balance an ever changing world on the head of a pin can be admired, feared or detested depending on where your website is coming out, on how much traffic your site is losing or gaining based on the latest.

These changes mean a favorite too, the Penguin Tool ( http://barracuda.digital/panguin-tool/) is about to lose it's relevance. The ability to overlay Google's moves on your Google Analytics is yet another "not provided" move. Google wants to hold and control their data since control translates into the ability to sell those tools back to us.

As my friend and Google Watcher, Bill Slawski told me he thinks web marketers should be boning up on AI. As we lose our ability to SEE and learn from the web's data Bill is right. We better know AI or diversify our multichannel marketing FAST. 

We live in Google's world perhaps now more than ever!

http://www.curagami.com/google-penguin-4-rankbrain-love/?v=7516fd43adaa 

http://barracuda.digital/panguin-tool/

With 22,000+ views SEO for Web Designers blew up thanks to a defined tribal audiences, advocates and luck. Discover tips on how to blow your content up too.

SEO For Web Designers
Web designers are where rubber meets road for Search Engine Optimization, but it is unrealistic to expect designers to become SEO experts. This Haiku Deck sets reasonable expectations and outlines a handful of technical SEO best practices sure to help any web designer understand the most Darwinian of practices - today's SEO.  

Website MacGuffins are ideas such as Free Shipping whose absence hurts more than their presence helps. What are your website's MacGuffins?

Web designers shouldn't be SEO experts since keeping up with DESIGN is a full-time job. But web designers are where SEO rubber meets the Google Road so understanding a handful of ideas is critical to the online success of any designers creations.

Web designers shouldn't be SEO experts since keeping up with DESIGN is a full-time job. Nothing has made that truth more apparent than my first week learning CSS, SCSS and the like at The Iron Yard Code Academy in Durham, NC this week.

But web designers are where SEO rubber meets the Google Road so understanding a handful of ideas is critical to the online success of any designers creations. This deck was created to share with The Iron Yard's Cohort 3 Front End Engineering class Friday January 16th.

Includes our favorite FREE SEO tools and how we use them. Good luck and let us know your SEO / Design experience and we will curate into an upcoming post on http://www.curagami.com.

The "Web Design" category of general interest covers its fair share of ground. Informative articles on everything from UX to client management, to conversion psychology,...

Seasonality creates relevance & relevance creates community. Every website's hero should change at least 4x a year: Summer, Fall, Winter & Spring.