News Source: http://cre8pc.com
Published: Mar 04, 2009 - 09:16 am
Story Found By: Ruud 1075 Days ago
Category: Usability
12 Comments
Sorry this site requires JavaScript to be enabled in your browser. See the following guide on How to enable JavaScript in Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox and Safari. Alternatively you may be blocking JavaScript with an advert-related or developer plugin. Please check your browser plugins.
News Source: http://cre8pc.com
Published: Mar 04, 2009 - 09:16 am
Story Found By: Ruud 1075 Days ago
Category: Usability
12 Comments
Upcoming Conferences
Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.
Join us at an upcoming SMX event:
- SMX West - Feb. 28 - Mar. 1, 2012
- SMX Munich - Mar. 27-28, 2012
- SMX Toronto - Apr. 25-26, 2012
- SMX Sydney - May 1-2, 2012
- SMX London - May 15-16, 2012
- SMX Advanced Seattle - June 5-6, 2012
- SMX Paris - June 7-8 2012
- SMX Melbourne - Aug. 2012
- SMX East - Oct. 2-4, 2012
- SMX Stockholm - Sept. 15-16, 2012
- SMX Social Media Marketing - Dec. 2012
Latest News From Marketing Land
- Marketing Day: February 10, 2012
- Report: iPhone, iPad Now Drive More Web Traffic Than Mac OS
- Drawing Out Your Affiliate Program Marketing Plan
- Is Yahoo About To Make Another Big Mistake — With Its Display Ad Business?
- Google Analytics For The Enterprise: Perception & Reality
- - See more news at Marketing Land -
Upcoming Webcasts
Learn more about search marketing with our free online webcasts and webinars from our sister site, Search Marketing Now. Upcoming online events include:
- The Inside Scoop on Automating and Optimizing Your PPC Campaigns - February 21, 2012
Latest News From Search Engine Land
- Google’s Recent Domain Registrations: Labs, Screenwise & AdWords
- Google AdWords Gets Shared Lists To Eliminate Duplicate Data Entry
- SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 10, 2012
- Now, Mitt Romney Has A Santorum-Like Bing & Google Problem
- Search In Pics: Google Sugar Cube, Yahoo Valentines & Chrome M&M’s
- - See more news at Search Engine Land -
Comments
Thanks for the Sphinn, Ruud!
Kim Krause Berg knows her stuff. BRAVO!
It’s always sad to me when "experts" make suggestions based on their taste and personal preference with no regards to the specific situation which may cause extenuating circumstances.Usability, in particular, requires more than just a few short moments glance to be able to make truly helpful suggestions. Testing (among other things) is necessary to be able to tell someone with certainty: "Do this. It will help."
Kim makes a very good point that there is a BIG difference between personal preference and actual usability issues - i.e. the dark background or must get rid of Flash. Making such sweeping statements can harm a site’s ability to connect with it’s target audience enormously if their niche market warrants the use of such design styles.
I agree with the premise in general. No one would argue that the most valuable consulting advice comes from a deeper engagement than an hour-long session. At the same time, having sat in (and been on the panel) of these kinds of sessions, there’s no doubt in my mind that many of the people who offer their sites for review walk out of the session smarter than they were before. There are things you can see immediately on a web site and point out as an opportunity for improvement .. and if that spurs the web site owner to then investigate further by starting a real consulting engagement, that seems like a Good Thing to me. :)
Make sure your marketing “experts” have proven experience and have been around since BEFORE Google became the only game in town."I’m curious about this statement, Google has been the only game in town for a number of years now, so are people coming into the business (in some cases due to no reason other than their age) automatically to be discredited? Is it ok if they were in a related field before and have moved over? There are a lot of very talented young people in the industry, are their opinions on SEO less valued?
@yoshimi....in a field as in-depth as SEO, I would personally want to know how credible the "expert" is, if what I’m told is an "expert" panel is the case. A panel of peers is different and the expectations different. There are so many layers to the big picture that only years and years of experience can bring this to the table. My hope is that site owners educate themselves before asking for free help and consider the authenticity of the feedback they may receive.This is related to my other post from yesterday about those who are new, who in their zest to develop their personal brand overnight, target speaking engagements and high profile netowrking events to get in the door. The risk to this is that, as we’ve seen in SEO history, sooner or later their lack of skills leaks out and other SEO’s react, sometimes harshly.So, to answer your question, of course by age and circumstance, many incoming SEO’s only have to deal with Google and Yahoo!. They also get better engineered algorithms, PPC, linking and social media marketing, which those of us "oldies" didn’t start out with, and have needed to stay on top of, literally to keep up with the new generation :)In answer to your questions, to make inroads, I would do what you just did! You stood up and said, "Hey wait a minute!" This tells me you’re a thinker and are ready to challenge. This will set you apart from the pack of those entering the field, IMHO. Things like this catch my eyes and make someone stand out. Then, I remember the person and keep an eye for them to see how they develop. Their talent and skills eventually prove their credibility.
@MattMcGee You bring up a good point and something else to consider. Some site clinics may be designed to introduce new ideas and get the site owner thinking about design enhancements, and the hope is that they hire the reviewer for more in-depth assistance and support. In large conferences, where you’re asked to not promote yourself, this is tricky. We even have the issue at Cre8asiteforums, where for example, someone will ask for usability help in the Website Hospital, and I know they should hire me, LOL...but I can’t solicit our members. Soooo, I drop a few hints and hope they come for more professional assistance. Thank you sir for adding that to the discussion!
@cre8pc your post from yesterday just about sums up some of what I’m thinking about at the moment. Definitely something for me to chew on.
Thanks Kim, I appreciate it. If time allows, I’m going to blog about this and hope ay small biz owners reading me get a sense of both sides of the discussion. :)
@MattMcGee Excellent! Small biz owners are the ones I want the very best for! They have limited resources and its hard to know who to trust. I’d rather they be armed with information so they can make choices that work best for them and their needs.
What I don’t see mention of here or in the comments of the original post is how the clinics can be helpful to others in the audience, even if it’s not their site being pulled up for the review. This applies more towards the easy stuff like missing alt tags, hidden text, etc. You can come away with things to look for on your site after watching how the panelists look at other sites, especially when you see them say the same thing about several sites. It’s a your Mileage May Vary type of thing -- but that’s the way it is with all of the sessions. Not every thing at every session is going to be applicable to your situation.