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marți, 15 iulie 2014

"Sort of Like Knight Rider"

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This morning, President Obama toured the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, a facility in McLean, Virginia that focuses on new technologies that help make driving safer and smarter.

While there, he talked about the importance of investing in new infrastructure technologies and renewing the Highway Trust Fund, as well as Congress's inaction on important policies that would benefit millions of Americans.

Watch what the President had to say about rebuilding our infrastructure.

President Barack Obama prepares to drive a Saturn SL1 vehicle simulator during a tour of the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Va., July 15, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

Get Ahead of Google with Insight into Semiotics

Posted: 14 Jul 2014 05:15 PM PDT

Posted by Isla_McKetta

Write it and they will come. That's the drum we've been beating for a long time now. We optimize our pages and our content to please search engines and cross our fingers and hope that customers will convert.

We can do better.

But to do it, we have to think beyond Google. Yes, you still need to check all your standard SEO boxes to make your site crawl friendly. Then it's time to stop catering to the bots and start catering to the users instead.

That means we have to—no, we get to—think bigger when we think of SEO. As Rand said in his Whiteboard Friday last week, "SEO is really any input that engines use to rank pages." That's why we have to reexamine the way we design, the way we create, and the way we optimize. Most importantly, we're going to have to reconsider the underlying logic we use to approach all three of those activities as we learn to think of the user first and the bots second.

This idea of blending search and user optimization isn't new. But when Gianluca Fiorelli called for a shift from semantic to semiotic thinking on State of Digital, he got me thinking about whether semiotics are the next step in earning the audience you want.

What the heck is semiotics?

semiotic tree

Semiotics is the study of the creation of meaning. Semioticians look at everything—words, images, traffic lights, kinship structures—and study what those signifiers (signs or anything that signifies anything) mean and how people create meaning from those signs.

Semiotics is composed of three parts: syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics. When we're approaching user optimization from a semiotic point of view, we're shifting from a focus on semantics to an incorporation of all three elements.

Let's get to know them.

Syntactics (form)

semiotic tree - syntactics Syntactics (more commonly called "syntax") is the study of the formal relationship between signs. Think of syntax as dealing with grammatical rules, form, and spatial order. Syntax is why you place "inurl:" before the url in a query instead of after. Syntax can be as arbitrary as the order of lights in a traffic light, but it is unchanging.

In grammar, syntax is why you say "oranges are good" but Yoda says "good are oranges."

Syntax is so embedded in search these days that we don't even talk about it, and as long as your code is in the right order and the content on your pages is written for users who aren't Yoda, you've mastered syntax. Hooray!

Semantics (meaning)

semiotic tree - semantics

Semantics is the study of conventional meaning. Let's take the word "orange." It can mean either the fruit or the color.

orange fruit or color

Whether or not you use semantic markup, search engines are usually capable of reading the context on a page and returning a result for either the fruit or the color, depending on the parameters you entered. Crawlers have been using things like context, synonyms, taxonomy, and information architecture to determine the relevance of search results for a very long time. When Hummingbird came along, the semantic nature of search became more obvious because we could see that Google is looking at queries and not just keywords.

If you're keeping score, we're already thinking about and optimizing for two elements of semiotic thinking. And we've caught up with the latest algorithm updates. But syntax and semantics aren't the whole story when it comes to how humans create and understand information.

Enter pragmatics.

Pragmatics (use)

semiotic tree - pragmatics

You (and your customers) bring a whole life's experiences into any interaction whether it's reading a website or chatting someone up at a cocktail party. Those experiences shape the way you interpret images and words.

For example, if you're a soccer fan, the way you fell about the word "orange" could be affected by how much you like or hate the Dutch national team whose nickname is "Oranje."

And if you're color blind, "orange" could mean any of these colors depending on the exact type of color blindness you have:

orange for the color blind

"Orange" also has political connotations:

orange in politics

Photo of Orange Revolution courtesy of Wikipedia user Irpen .

The point is that search engines know the dictionary definition of a word. They can even learn about the associations you have by the search terms you enter. But they do not inherently understand (yet) the richness of your personal relationship with a word and the myriad other factors that go into creating meaning for you.

Pragmatics is your opportunity to create a site that engages with all of those connotations in order to create a stronger bond with your customers.

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Banana.
Banana who?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn't say "banana?"

Pragmatics in action

Pragmatics is also a way of describing how complicated our relationship with information inputs is.

Say you see something crazy in your Facebook feed like an article claiming, "Solar Panels Drain the Sun's Energy, Experts Say." Your job is to decide whether to share, comment on, or ignore that link. First you have to understand what it means, which in this case is figuring out if it's good science, bad science, or satire.

Here is the process a human might go through as you use pragmatic interpretations to figure out how not to sound like a dope when replying to this post.

1. Consider the source

The article is from the National Report, which is not a household name. If it was from The New York Times, it might be time to panic, but in this case, you'll want to dig a little deeper.

2. Evaluate the content

are solar panels real - article evaluated

Human thought is remarkably complex and here are just a few of the signs you might consider while trying to make sense of this article:

Signifier	Conservative?	Parody?
Name of publication	Seems staunch enough.	Never heard of it, but it sounds a lot like the National Review.
Tagline	Lots of people think they're independent.	But calling it out?
Overall look	Clean without spammy ads.	Wait, how do they make money?
Endorsers	Conservative darlings.	But if you were going to parody someone…
Article title	Fuzzy science?	Too crazy to be real.
Source of study	Privately-owned think tanks produce all kinds of results.	Their site has even more crazy "science."
Tone	Straightforward reportage.	Too straightforward.

3. Check the internet

It seems like this article is probably satirical, but to be safe, you can do what a lot of us do—Google "National Report" (and no, the irony of using to a search engine to prove that human users can make better connections than search engines is not lost on me). And then ask Wikipedia.

vetting solar panels article on google and wikipedia

You could have made a decision about this article on a syntactic level (the sentences made sense even though the content seemed farfetched). You could even have interpreted it on a semantic level (both Googling the article and the Wikipedia search).

But what many readers need to fully understand this article is the pragmatics of assessing the signs.

So that's a pretty deep dive just to decide to ignore a Facebook post. But the point is that your customers do this all the time, and the huge number of factors that go into showing us whether we should engage with your site and its content are more than search engines can currently look at.

That's semiotics. The whole bundle of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. And we're doing pretty well with two parts of it, but there's still a lot of opportunity in pragmatics.

Incorporating semiotic thinking into your web design and content

To recap: search engines aren't sophisticated enough to know what pragmatic associations your customers bring into a search, but your customers are naturally bringing in layers of context, preferences, and life experience. Which means there are many layers on which you can engage with a customer that search engines can't yet understand.

Here are some examples of ways to use pragmatics to connect with your audience.

1. Use satire or other humor

As with the solar panels article, some stuff on the internet seems too crazy and stilted to believe until you put it in context. The Onion has mastered this (and they have the engagement to show it). Robots don't get humor, but humans do, and being funny (when appropriate) makes your site memorable.

the onion - engagement

2. Build a lexicon for your content

Use a lexicon (a list of commonly used words, slang and/or jargon specific to your audience) to understand the (rapidly evolving) way that your customers speak and communicate with them in their own language. Think about your users and what the words you're using signify for them. Are they hearing the same things you are saying? If not, fix it.

3. Consider culture in your design

Connect with your audience by designing a site that speaks to their ideas of beauty and the way they process information. See how the US version of Shu Uemura's site is clean and spare like many American sites (or, for that matter, Wyoming)?

shu uemura us home page

Meanwhile the Japanese version showcases more information in a compact space (kind of like downtown Tokyo).

shu uemura japanese homepage

What I love about this example is that the brand aesthetic carries across cultures—only the way that brand is interpreted that changes. Cultural considerations can include anything from views on gender to perceptions of color. For example, in parts of Asia, purple is associated with luxury, while in the US it's associated with low prices. Check out this excellent slide deck by Smith Prasadh to learn more about how differently humans can see the world (and how you can use that to connect with your audience).

4. Capture tangential relationships

Engagement doesn't have to be about your product. Just take a look at what Emirates, a major sponsor of the World Cup, did in customizing their hero image for each target market. The global English version is pretty straightforward.

emirates global

Things get more personal for Chilean visitors as Emirates tailors not just the flag, but also the copy (using the English version for consistency).

emirates chile

But the best, most customized version of this campaign is the one created for Brazilians. It's so tailored, in fact, that I had to look up a couple of things. The stripes on the flight attendant's cheeks are not the Brazilian flag, but instead represent the colors of the Brazilian team. And "Little Canary" is a nickname for the team.

emirates brazil

I'll bet that Google doesn't care one single bit about these customizations. Even if they can read the text on the images. But my guess is that Emirates has scored a major goal in terms of customer "team" feeling with this campaign which should increase their direct traffic.

5. Incorporate metaphor into your design

Tired of the same old templates and stock photos? Your customers are too. Use images to evoke metaphor like Austin-based Write Bloody Publishing does here to capitalize on the do-it-yourself feeling of the Wild West.

write bloody publishing

Think about what makes your company unique and own that story with your design. It will make you stand out from the crowd.

Another way to do this is to reconsider your site nav with an eye toward metaphor. Maybe you're a game company like 2K Games and you want your customers to feel like they are already immersed in your game, say BioShock, as they interact with your site. The first step would be to build a navigation that encourages that kind of feeling. Have your user enter the site as they would enter Rapture—through the bathysphere. Showcase game add-ons as plasmids. And use cutscenes to hint toward exciting features on the site just as you would in the game.

As long as you don't throw your SEO training out the window, it's okay to try something new and see if it speaks to your customers. If it doesn't, try something else. As Lindsay Wassell said yesterday at MozCon, "The internet rewards innovation. Search engines reward innovation." Be that innovator.

Those are just a few examples. The opportunity in thinking semiotically as you design, create, and optimize is to engage with your customers on a human level. This naturally builds your brand affinity, which should increase your traffic.

I'd love to hear about how you're using pragmatics to build nuanced relationships with your customers.

Your mission

Let loose your creative team. No one wants to be an SEO copywriter or an SEO designer. When you're optimizing a site in any way, think first about the user—the one with the most sophisticated relationship—then make sure that your standard SEO boxes are checked. Anything less is like dumbing down a parallax experience to a simple sketch to make sure Google fully understands it fully.

Now go off and use pragmatics to relate to your customers in such a way that so many customers come to your site and engage in such great numbers that the search engines chase you trying to figure out how you did it. You'll be prepared if Google's algorithm ever learns how to account for pragmatics, and it beats you chasing rankings any day.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

5 Essential Steps to Future Proof Your Website

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 01:30 AM PDT

In our ever-changing online world, it can seem like an SEO's life is a never-ending attempt to keep up with algorithm changes. Constant fixes, undoing of old work performed by previous agencies, and trying to predict what the next shift will bring. It can be exhausting and even appear futile.

But what if there was a way to make life easier? A way to future proof your website so that the next algorithm update didn't destroy your last year of work? A way to ensure everything you do won't have been undone or need to be redone in 18 months' time?

And there is a way! In fact, there are several. And I'm going to discuss them right here, right now.

These steps cover a range of areas – some of the points are technical, some are content-focused, and others are link-based. However, all of them aim to ensure that whatever website work you undertake from now on, you won't be regretting in a year's time. So let's get future proofing!

1) Keep Things Simple

When you're creating a website, or building new areas within it, a key concept is to keep things simple. Whether you're working on the CMS, the URLs, or the website structure, keep things as clean and straightforward as possible.

This helps for numerous reasons. One, having a simple CMS makes it much easier for you to make alterations but should also mean you'll need to make fewer of them as there is less scope for things to go wrong or break. Secondly, search engines are unlikely to change the way they crawl websites anytime soon, and having a logical, flat website structure, with clean code and short URLs, makes it easier for them.

Short, logical URLs are also great for users, as they make it much easier for them to remember them and also to link back to your site correctly. Make sure your URLS reflect the architecture of the site and avoid unnecessary parameters as much as possible.

You should always remember that a consistent website design and structure is great for the user-experience, because it is easy to use and intuitive to navigate. Keeping users happy should be at the forefront of any website's aims, so this really is an essential point!

(An extra bonus – a simple site is also likely to load quickly, which should earn you brownie points from search engines and users alike).

Top Tip – Use a tool such as Slickplan to manage your sitemap and navigation structure.

2) Ensure Everything Works

Going hand-in-hand with keeping things simple, is checking that everything works smoothly. If you've already implemented an intuitive site architecture and are using a sensible, well-ordered URL structure, your internal linking should be easy to use and monitor.

The same goes for building new pages – if the site structure is flat and clear, then it will be much easier for you to know where to add new pages and how to build them seamlessly into your website.

Effective internal site linking is essential for both users and searchbots, so ensuring it works should be a top priority. Designing a straightforward process for it will make things much easier in the long run, and should mean you have to make fewer alterations or fixes. So, whether you're creating a new site or looking to improve your current one, take a good hard look at the internal linking structure. Make it intuitive and ensure it all works perfectly now, and you'll have far fewer issues down the line.

Another top tip is to conduct regular link checks to ensure you don't have any unresolved on-site issues. Make sure your website is clear of 404s and don't leave 302s in place if the change is permanent. Simple stuff, but it'll all help to guard your website against future problems.

Top Tip – Use crawlers such as Screaming Frog or the crawl section in Webmaster Tools to ensure everything is running smoothly.

3) Watch Your Links

We've talked about internal links, now it's time to look outwards. It is vital for the future of any website that you keep a close eye on all the links pointing out of and back to your website. Spammy link building strategies will only ever bring you trouble – a fact that many websites have unfortunately learnt the hard way.

It is vital for the long-term future of your website that you only accept links from good-authority, relevant websites, created in a genuine fashion. Similarly, you in turn should only link out to good authority, relevant websites. It's simple, it's something Google has repeated again and again, and yet it seems to be something lots of people still can't get their heads around.

If you already have a website up and running, now is the time to conduct a thorough link audit. Find all of your neutral, suspicious, and downright bad links and work through them. Create a comprehensive list of every link you'd be ashamed to admit to and get it removed. Ask the websites initially, and create a disavow file if you have to, but make sure you purge your website of this rubbish. I know this sounds arduous, but you and your website will thank me in the long run.

Promise to yourself that from now on there will be no spammy link building tactics and that you will be prepared to deny links to and from websites that you don't trust. It may seem drastic initially, but the search engines will reward you. It may take time, and you may only see the benefits when the next update doesn't negatively impact your site, but it's worth it.

Top Tip – Use LinkRisk to evaluate your link profile and identify links that could be harming your site.

4) Create Quality Content

It's a point that's been hammered home again and again over the last couple of years, but good quality content is the crux of any well-performing website. If you want your website to do well and stand the test of time, then its content has to be brilliant.

To guarantee brilliant quality, content needs to embody three things.

Firstly, it has to be relevant to your audience. This means it gives users the information they are looking for and, as a result of this, makes good use of the appropriate keywords. Of course, this should also help your site to rank well, but that shouldn't be your only priority.

Secondly, it must be clear and easy to read. This means that your quality of writing and standards of grammar must be impeccable. If your writing is poor quality or difficult to understand, no-one will trust your website or refer others to it; it's that simple.

Thirdly, it must be up to date. This ties in with the idea of relevance, but deserves its own point. To make sure your content remains useful and current, you will need to review it regularly. However, you can make this easier for yourself by creating lots of evergreen that won't need much, if any, future editing.

To make life simpler for yourself, it's best to create a thorough content inventory of your site, which you can update as you create and add new content. It'll also make it easy for you to identify content that may now be old or outdated – giving you the chance to either update it or remove it completely.

Top Tip – Create a thorough content map for your site, define your sales funnel, and plan out how to address each point of the process with your content.

5) Be Mobile Optimised

When it comes to making your website future proof, I have so far deliberately steered clear of any trends or fads. As a rule, they tend to come and go and don't leave a lasting impression on search results. However, the trend for mobile cannot, and should not, be ignored.

Mobile web traffic has been growing at a phenomenal rate, and only the incredibly foolish would choose to ignore it now. As such, you must make sure that you have a website that not only renders and functions on a range of mobile devices, but that it is just as easy to use and looks as similar as possible to your desktop version.

Having a great desktop site already in place should greatly assist you when it comes to creating a mobile version. Your site will already be clean, logical, easy to use, well-linked, and providing great content. All you should need to do is tweak a few bits and pieces with the layout and clicks vs hovers, and you should be good to go.

Get your mobile site working well now, and you'll not only be able to benefit from the ever-rising number of people searching via mobile, you'll also have one less thing to worry about further down the line. It should also help to hone your skills when it comes to creating and maintaining a simple, easy to use site, as mobile is much less forgiving than desktop.

Top Tip – Make use of Google's available resources and tools to learn how best to optimise your site.

So there we are, those are my five essential steps to future proofing your website.

How would I summarise them?

1) Don't try to cheat the search engines – you'll always lose out in the end

2) Be proactive and keep an eye on things – fix little problems now to avoid bigger issues later

What steps would you recommend to future proof a website? Have I missed any key points? Have you already tried to implement any of these principles? Or have you been hit by a penalty and are trying to ensure it doesn't happen again?

I'd love to hear from you. Either grab me on Twitter @SamanthaKHall or leave a comment!

Image from Flickr

The post 5 Essential Steps to Future Proof Your Website appeared first on White.net.

Seth's Blog : Project management for work that matters

Project management for work that matters

Resist the ad hoc. Announce that this is a project, and that it matters enough to be treated as one.
The project needs a leader, a person who takes responsibility as opposed to waiting for it to be given.
Write it down. All of it. Everything that people expect, everything that people promise.
Send a note confirming that you wrote it down, specifically what you heard, what it will cost and when they will have it or when they promised it.
Show your work. Show us your estimates and your procedures and most of all, the work you're going to share with the public before you ship it.
Keep a log, a notebook, a history of what you've done and how. You'll need it for the next project.
Source control matters. Don't change things while people are reviewing them, because then we both have to do it twice.
Slack is your friend. Slack is cheaper, faster and more satisfying than wishful thinking. Your project will never go as well as you expect, and might take longer than you fear.
Identify and obsess about the critical path. If the longest part of the project takes less time than you planned, the entire project will take less time than you planned.
Wrap it up. When you're done, take the time to identify what worked and what didn't, and help the entire team get stronger for next time.