2011 weideman-nairobi-digital marketing-marryingvisibilityandusabilityinafricanwebsites

Digital Marketing – Marrying
Visibility and Usability in African
websites

Melius Weideman

CPUT, Cape Town,
South Africa

www.book-visibility.com

1


2

Content

• Philosophies
• Website Visibility
• Website Usability
• The African Scene
• Achieving Fusion
• Summary


3

Philosophy 1

Website Design should be done for 2x Audiences:
Crawlers (Visibility) & Humans (Usability)

On SPEC - on BUDGET - on TIME

These are the measures of success
for a civil engineering project …

Is this true for website design?
NO!! - the user will decide on the success of a
website – USABILITY and VISIBILITY!


4

Philosophy 2

The Internet is about Users, Websites
and Search Engines, and their interaction


5

Philosophy 3

Websites success depends on
synergy between eight entities

owns & has
expectations of

visits to satisfy
information need

markets

designs and
maintains stores and
designs optimizes for crawls and presents
images for search regurgitates
engines


6

Philosophy 4

Check out Yahoo’s PPC
Websites need SEO
SEO and PPC for proper PPC
• Long time to market exposure • Virtually immediate

• Cannot switch ON/OFF • Full control

• Draws disinterested clicks • Pulls in targeted audience

• High level of acceptance • Distrust

• Cheap in the long run • Expenses never stop

• Once done, low complexity • Campaigns complex to manage

If you can afford to, split your budget across both


7

Website Visibility 1
How do the SEs Present Search Results?
Highest
Ranking Top-listed Paid Results
Paid
Result

Highest Side-listed
Ranking Paid Results
Natural
Result

Natural (Organic)
Results 8


WHAT?

• It is a feature of a given webpage

• This feature is defined by the degree of ease with which a
search engine crawler can find the webpage

• Once found, it is further defined by the degree of success
the crawler has in indexing the page

• A webpage with high visibility can be easily found and has
been designed in such a way that a crawler will find a large
amount of relevant, easy to index information on the page


9


WHY?

• High SE rankings not negotiable for websites with commercial intent

• Most websites must be visible to SE crawlers

• 91% of users do not read past SERP #3

• Thus - extreme competition for top ranking positions in SERPs

It is necessary for any webpage whose owner wants it to be
found on the Internet – try to impress the SE CRAWLER


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More WHY …

Because all users
are lazy!


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Even more WHY …

SERP Pos # % of Clicks

1 51
2 16
Where do they click on
3 6
the SERP?
4 6
5 5
6 4
7 2
8 1
9 1
10 2
11+ 5


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The Role players Did you know?
One out of 7 Google searches
are done on a mobile, and 30%
of them are for restaurants!

65.5
15.9
+ 14.1
95.5%


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Easy to get top spot with non-English …


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So how do I get my Website up there?

For PPC …
Rank = Bid Price X
Quality Score

For SEO …
Implement 1. Inlinks
the WM 2. Keywords
3. Anchor text
4. Metatags … 17.


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So how do I get my Website up there?

Content is KING

• ANYONE can publish any content on the Web

• This strange freedom = OPPORTUNITIES,
but also lots of RESPONSIBILITY

• A webpage where lots of text and graphics
have been dumped will not be read

• Useful content always brings the customer back


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Whitehats are those website designers who
"play nice" and try to follow all of the search
engine guidelines to optimize their site

Blackhats are website designers who use
spamdexing, cloaking, and other tricks to
optimize sites

• Creation of high quality Inlinks
• Correct use of targeted keywords
• Correct use of Anchor Text
• Inlink Spamdexing
• Correct use of Metatags
• Keyword Spamdexing
• Duplicate Content
• Invisible Text, etc


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Elements of Visibility -
Positive


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Elements of Visibility -
Negative


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Top Spot: Inlinks 1

• Are Inlinks really so important?

• Consider the 100 top-ranking commercial websites …


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Top Spot: Inlinks 2

Is there a relationship between inlinks and ranking?
# of Inlinks


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Top Spot: Inlinks 3

Is it still there without the 9x outliers?
y = 93.978e-2E-04x
R² = 0.5392

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000


22

bing: I need free inlinks

Top Spot: Inlinks 4

So, how do I go about getting those inlinks?

Write & post press releases,
blogs, Likes, tweets BUT - stay away from FFA!!!

Find reciprocal links from
industry related partners.
Run a link check in Google
for your top competitors
and see which are linking Create a legal Link Farm
to them.
Ensure your website has a
decent Site Map, submit it
manually to the Big 3


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Top Spot: Inlinks 5

Where NOT to get your inlinks from …


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Top Spot: Inlinks 6

Where NOT to get
your inlinks from
continued …


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Spot #2: Keywords 1

Check out Google Image search …
High rankings in natural results come from keyword-rich TEXT!


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Spot #2: Keywords 2

• You DON’T want Google to do a BMW
on your website …


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Spot #3: Hypertext


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Spot #4: Metatags 1

YOU have FULL
control over
what appears
here ... TITLE Tag

DESCRIPTION
metatag
... and here


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Spot #4: Metatags 2

Use keywords judiciously in: Title Tags ...

www.kapstadt.diplo.de/Vertretung/ www.synergizeit.net
kapstadt/en/Startseite.html www.bmw.com
www.rocketseed.com

... and in Description Metatags

www.sacamera.co.za www.kalahari.net www.hetzner.co.za


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Spot #4: Metatags 3

How many words/characters are displayed? Focus on the FIRST x characters!

TITLE Tag DESCRIPTION Metatag

11.3 words / 61 char. 26 words / 154.3 char.

9.5 words / 60.1 char. 27.7 words / 163 char.

10.6 words / 65.6 char. 29.6 words / 179.1 char.

11 words / 28 words /
62 characters 165 characters


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Website Usability 1


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Website Usability 2

Why?
To ensure that user can accomplish (a) task(s) easily while working on a
website - try to impress the HUMAN USER

What?
Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular
tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. Usability can also
refer to the methods of measuring usability and the study of the principles behind an
object's perceived efficiency or elegance. (Wikipedia)

Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they
encounter the design?
Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily
can they reestablish proficiency?
Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily
can they recover from the errors?
Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design? (Nielsen - use-it.com)

33

Website Usability 3

The Golden Triangle


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Website Usability 4

User waiting times

Decades before the birth of the Internet - 1968 - it was claimed that ‘... thinking
continuity essential to sustained problem solving ...’ is not possible if a user has to
wait as long as 10 seconds for a system response (Miller, 1968: 268).

Nah (2004) claims that users can only wait for two seconds: ‘Web users’
tolerable waiting time and the tolerable waiting time for information retrieval is
approximately 2 s.’

Three times are important in human–computer interaction: 0.1 second for the
user to receive feedback that the system is responding to an action, 1 second for
the user’s flow of thoughts to remain uninterrupted and 10 seconds to keep the
user’s attention focused on the dialogue (Nielsen, 2007).


35

Website Usability 5

Font Choice

serif fonts sans serif fonts

f s fs
Studies have proven that they Computer screens do not offer the
read faster when printed using the same high quality, so the extra detail
high quality typography used in becomes fuzzy. SSF read better on-
books and magazines screen
Arial
Times New Roman Arial Black
Georgia Verdana

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Website Usability 6
Website Usability – Error 1


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Website Usability 7

Which font is currently selected? Must I really go through all
3 options and figure it out myself?


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Website Usability 8
www.weathersa.co.za

Click on the arrow to select?


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Website Usability 9


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Website Usability 10


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www.qg.com


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www.zincbistroaz.com


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Spot the Error – Error 9


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Want more?

www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/

www.ananzi.co.za

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/archives/sts-108/flash/sts108.swf


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• Exposing coding in user messages
• They don’t care!!
• Use ordinary language, eg.
“The date you supplied is not
a workday”


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Spot the Error – Error 11


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Summary 1

• Your website will NOT be read like a book - get used to it

• Top left corner is prime position - use it wisely

• Get a total topic-novice to test the logic flow of every webpage

• Ensure that you have a headline that tells me what the site is about

• Then give me the basics - what, where, how, why, when, before overwhelming me with detail

• Don’t let me wait too long for fancy downloads


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Summary 2

• Content should occupy most space, enough keyword rich, sensible text
to satisfy human AND crawler

• Company logo/name top left

• Search button top right, called “Search”

• Navigation on top and/or down the left

• Always be only one click away from homepage - be clear
(60% of page views are on non-homepages)


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The African Scene 1

How can I quantify visibility?

• Not one single variable

• Learn to average out

• Do EVERYTHING to satisfy crawlers – boring, unfriendly website

• Do EVERYTHING to satisfy humans – crawlers will keep left, rankings drop into obscurity

• SJF – do the quick, cheap n easy stuff first

• Spread out the expensive, time-consuming stuff over time/budget


52

The African Scene 2

How can I measure visibility?

www.alexa.com www.grader.com

www.ranks.nl www.whoismark.com


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The African Scene 3

Sample African sites
www.socialmedia.co.ke/ www.time.co.ug/index.php?q=services

www.businessindex.com.ng/ www.kalahari.net/


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The African Scene 4

Kenya - Alexa


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The African Scene 5

Uganda - Grader


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The African Scene 6

Nigeria - Ranks


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The African Scene 7

SA - whoismark


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The African Scene 8
All TLDs

56/262

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The African Scene 8
Valuable domains


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The African Scene 9
The green fields of opportunity …


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Achieving Fusion 1

So, what do I do next?

• Measure/estimate your site’s Visibility and Usability against the 4 possibilities
• Start making changes, strive towards class 1

1 USA VIS

2/3 USA VIS

2/3 USA VIS

4 USA VIS


62

Achieving Fusion 2

What must I do to get to Class 1?

1 USA VIS
Focus on the following first – they contribute to both!

• Webpage availability
• Keyword usage

• Anchor text

• TITLE tag

• H1 tag


63

Achieving Fusion 3

What did I do wrong to get into Class 4?

4 USA VIS
You probably implemented this common
factor – fix it up – rent-a-copywriter!
• Badly written or no content

Also ensure that you have
done the 5x Class 1 things


64

Achieving Fusion 4

What did I do wrong to get into Class 2/3?

2/3 USA VIS

You probably implemented these common
factors – fire-your-designer, and fix it!

• Excessive graphics (images, videos …)
• JavaScript

• Flash

• Frames

• Readable but keyword poor text


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Achieving Fusion 5

What did I do wrong to get into Class 2/3?

2/3 USA VIS

You probably implemented these common
factors – fire-your-copywriter, and fix it!

• Extreme amounts of text

• Excessive keyword usage


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Summary
If I can choose only 1 slide, what should I
choose to remember?
• You HAVE to rank at least somewhere on Google/Yahoo!/Bing p1 for at least ONE keyphrase!
• USABILITY and VISIBILITY are the most important design factors
• Both have to be earned through elbow grease – neither will just happen
• Do not expect your garden-variety web designer to have an interest in either

• Involve the user in the design and testing of a website – they are the audience

• Apply SEO & PPC judiciously - SEO if finances are limited,
PPC if quick ranking is needed, both for sensible exposure

• LOOK and LEARN from your competitor’s websites

• Get the easy-to-do basics right first - TITLE, metatags, H1’s, anchor text
and manual submission
• Now move on to the two big ones - canvass those inlinks and have
body text rewritten by an expert to be keyword-rich


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