I spent a week in Italy visiting the most beautiful artworks and buildings on the planet as well as eating the world’s best cuisine. As a web designer/developer, I relate everything to web stuff. I took away a few thoughts I want to share:
Build ’em to last
I live in Boston, an old city by US standards. By Italian standards we are a baby. Take the Coliseum, completed in 80 AD and still standing. WOW. I repeat, WOW.
My Takeaway:
You have to think about the future. Perhaps building a unique static website sounds wicked cool. But after a few years that look will be dated. You are stuck with a mess and have to start from scratch. How can you avoid this? First off, building a static site isn’t a great idea. Go with a content management system (such as WordPress) so you can separate out the presentation layer. By using a theme (either bought or custom designed and developed, you won’t need to start 100% from scratch to update. You can either buy a new theme or develop your own. Now of course it will require work, but not nearly as much. If you are using a premium theme you can re-do a small site in days!
Have a focal point:
Visiting The Pantheon, you are immediately drawn to the central opening (oculus) to the sky. I dare anyone to say they have been inside the Pantheon and not looked up immediately.
My Takeaway:
Seems like a no-brainer, but having something that grabs people’s attention when they come to your site is important. How do we do this? The web is a visual medium, so there needs to be something that immediately draws a person in, so they can get your message. How do we do this? A common approach is the image sliders we see everywhere. Overused? Perhaps, but most clients want them. So here’s my take: 4-5 slides maximum. And make them count. Use great images, not stock photos. Invest in some custom designed graphics which will hold people’s attention. Don’t want a slider? Fine, a great image will grabs people’s attention just as well.
Keep it Fresh!!!
Typically I am not a big pasta eater. BUT when I go to Italy, I eat it every day. It is so different than anything you will have in the US. I believe it is the freshness that is the difference. Sure, good ingredients, but oh so fresh.
My Takeaway:
What makes a good website? Good design, yes, good programming, sure. But that all goes away after your site is launched. What makes a good website for the long haul is freshness. If people come to your website and it is the same old thing, they ain’t staying. You should constantly be changing/adding content. New imagery is equally important. If you are an e-commerce site, adding new offerings, having sales, specials, are all things which keep a site fresh and keep your customers coming back.
Bottom Line:
There is beauty and examples of greatness all around us. Keep your eyes open and take inspiration from the wonders you see (and eat). Incorporate these things into whatever you do. For me of course it is building and managing websites.
The proof is in the pudding. Great expression. BUT What does this has to do with search engine optimization?
Well, The one good thing about search engine optimization is you really can’t BS. Now I have 1 million search engine optimization firms call me every week, (maybe a slight overstatement) promising to make me number one. The problem? They don’t even know what I do for a living when they call! The reason I say you can’t BS is that those firms typically are NOT in the top hundred for the search phrase “search engine optimization”. If it was so easy, don’t you think they would be number one?
My take on the whole industry is that it’s really a bullshit industry that sprung up with the advent of Google. When someone calls you up and promises to make you number one: hang up the phone. Do it quickly. Do not waste your time. No one can make that promise. (well, they can make that promise but they cannot fulfill it)
When I work on search engine optimization, I do it with a common sense approach. I don’t try and trick the algorithm, no on can. I work within Google’s guidelines. Quality content wins. Consistent solid content achieves desired results. Most people are lazy. If you can commit to a schedule of posting good content on a regular basis, you will improve in search results. Think about it like this. If you add one post a week, at the end of the year you posted over 52 new links within Google’s index. If during that same timeframe, your competition hasn’t added anything to their website. Shouldn’t you improve? Of course you should!
I recently had a chance to prove this to myself. A client (one of my most favorite) emailed me that they had noticed a drop in performance for organic search. We had been following a blueprint I laid out adding a lot of great content. So I was startled when I read the email. A little background: She had recently been working with a so-called SEO expert who fed her this nonsense about her rankings dropping.
I did a bunch of tests and found that not only had her company not dropped, but actually improved considerably! As I said the proof is in the pudding! I sent her the search results and she was thrilled. I made no promises other than we will improve if they follow my roadmap. She was number 1 for over 20 phrases! I was vindicated, and as usual the SO expert was proven wrong!
The pudding tastes excellent by the way.
