searchability

Before reading these articles, I didn’t realize that seo or social networking were an industry all of their own. I thought that coders just threw a few keywords into their alt tags and that was that. They are important fields, too. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your website design is or how pertinent the content, if it doesn’t show up in people’s searches it will all be for not.

I found one site that was particularly helpful in telling you when and where to enhance seo in your site: http://www.webconfs.com/15-minute-seo.php
There are some really useful tips. One that I wouldn’t have thought of before is to add common misspellings or nicknames of words. To increase seo you can also add synonyms, update the site regularly, make sure your site isn’t only images (avoid text images) and include .edu and .gov links if pertinent. On the other hand, it is good to learn that if you have a link to a site that you don’t trust on your page, you can enter “nofollow” to keep that link from harming your site’s searchability.

Other advice I found useful is to use good descriptions in anchor texts. In the past I’ve often written “click here,” not realizing that using more description would increase seo. As a side note, I was equally impressed to learn here that many search engines are often smart enough to know if they are being tricked into thinking that a site is more relevant than it is (for instance, by the use of “doorway pages”).

The conversations about how to apply keywords to images and/or videos for seo are becoming more and more important as greater numbers of sites are focusing on visuals to convey messages. This site offered particularly valuable advice on how to maximize seo with regards to video: http://www.antezeta.com/blog/video-seo-top-tips. The .pdf also reminds you to enter “alt” attribute tags for images in the site (which also helps users with screen readers).

From the research I’ve done so far, it seems that seo is higher on the priority list than social media marketing, though both are important. Social media can be useful in promoting a site, but if search engines aren’t leading people there in the first place, social media becomes irrelevant.
According to this site: http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/11/13/social-media-seo/, you should become fluent in seo before social media, but a lot of marketers don’t because it takes a lot of work to stay up on all of the current search trends and the newest, most effective methods. According to the .pdf provided to us, blogs, emails and forums (in addition to social media services) all work to increase traffic to a site.

One last note consider when optimizing a site for search success is not to focus solely on the numbers. At least for the majority of sites, it isn’t just about how many people see your site but how many of the right people see it. A lot of the scams to trick search engines into finding your site aren’t very helpful in the long run. If users are misdirected to site site and then click out right away because it isn’t what they’re looking for, you aren’t benefited nearly as much as when users find the site through a relevant search and want to be there.

There is a lot more to think about in terms of seo than I originally realized, but it is nice that there are a lot of good web resources available. When I create my own site, I will definitely make sure that I have a clear direction/purpose and am simple and descriptive in my language. I plan to learn useful seo methods, pay attention to social marketing outlets, and utilize services such as Google Analytics to further improve my site’s search- and user-abilities.

CNN.com Relaunch

CNN.com's new website design is accessible, but not pretty. Entering the new site, the viewer is stunned by a large, bold header featuring four shades of red. Immediately under that, bold black boxes feature current video stories. If you make it past all of this, however, the site features a number of photographs and videos which successfully catch the viewer's attention and the amount of text on the page is easily readable. The website also highlights a wide range of topics. Their goal was to continue to feature breaking news, but also focus more on in-depth stories, entertainment, video commentary and tv material, which I think they've successfully done.

I like the fact that the site is laid out in a grid format though I don't think it was executed as well as it could have been. The layout on the top half of the homepage feels bulky and unbalanced. Similarly, the 3x3 grid on the bottom of the page listing of all of the sections borders on overwhelming, though I can see how it would be useful for navigation purposes. Once you navigate further into the site, the aesthetics improve (ie- return to the original style).

As a side note, I am a big fan of being able to customize the site and feature the information that I care about. I think a lot of people will utilize this option. It was also interesting to read in the article that a lot of redesign was based on user data CNN collected; I would be interested to learn more about how this data was collected and interpreted.

Overall, some good ideas (such as incorporating more visuals), but not great style.

GOOOOOOGLE

Before reading the article "Searching for Trouble: Why Google is on its guard" by Ken Auletta, I had no opinion on Google other than it is convenient and functional. Like many people, I took it for granted, using it daily but never stopping to consider it. I didn't even know how Google worked; the math of it is genius. After reading the article, I am thinking about Google, though I'm still not sure what I think.

I dislike the monopoly created by Google. I dislike what a powerhouse it has become. It scares me how much information Google is able to collect from its users and what it could do with that information of it divorced its users and married its advertisers (as Auletta mentions, p54).

Yet I found myself respecting Google's values and founders. For instance, I love that Google has succeeded to the utmost degree and yet still pushes its limits and those of the industry in the quest of developing new products and services. I admire the passion of its founders. Auletta, describes Brin and Page as having "restless-we-are-never-satisfied energy;" they are pioneers.

The brief section of the article which speculates about the Obama administration's relationship with Google interested me; it summed up a bit of what I was feeling reading the article. I appreciate the services that Google provides (a lot) yet its size feels menacing. I will be curious to see how the various court decisions rule, including Google's bid to digitize the world's library.

I do not think Google is going anywhere. The business has extended arms in many directions and eventually it might have to start making decisions and narrowing its reach, but everyone Googles and that won't change.