Tag: web design

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Mobile SEO and Responsive Web Design

My latest article at Practical Ecommerce, SEO Benefits of Responsive Web Design. Read it in full.

Site owners have many competing needs when developing mobile sites. Different devices, different capabilities, different screen sizes and resolutions, all have an impact on designing and developing mobile sites today.


Image courtesy of Google’s Go Mo initiative.

According to Mongoose Metrics, a tracking and analysis firm, only 9 percent of sites are ready for mobile in 2012. The primary consideration with mobile tends to be enabling better usability and — for ecommece sites —conversion. Another study by Compuware, a software and services provider, shows that 57 percent of users will not recommend a company with a bad mobile site and 40 percent of users will visit a competitor’s site rather than using a poorly optimized mobile site. The case for usability and conversion as primary concerns in the drive to take ecommerce sites mobile is easy to make. Fortunately, responsive web design — the leading solution to the mobile usability challenge — is also beneficial to search engine optimization.

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Originally posted on Web PieRat.

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Are You Accessible? – Accessible Web Design

As appeared in the Presence Pointers column of the October 2008 issue of “Business Watch” magazine.

What has always fascinated me about the Web isn’t all the graphics, images, sounds, and videos; it’s the ability to access all kinds of information. Just about anything you could ever want to know is often just a few clicks away. That’s pretty incredible. All that other stuff is just icing on the cake.Yet for some people, the access that many of us now take for granted, still seems like a distant dream. Believe it or not, I’m not talking about people in far away countries who don’t have the technology to access the Web or who may be prohibited from or limited in their access. I’m talking about people right here who may even be your neighbors. Continue reading “Are You Accessible? – Accessible Web Design”

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Is Your Website Headstrong?

Originally published at “InsideSEM.com” in June, 2007.

Headstrong often carries a negative meaning, such as someone who is disobedient, determined to get their way. Well, if you want to obtain top rankings and want to drive quality visitor traffic to your site, headstrong might be a good thing.

By headstrong though, I’m not advocating being disobedient, turning to unsavory methods and tactics. To be fair, what I’m really talking about might be better described as head strong. Continue reading “Is Your Website Headstrong?”

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Search Friendly Website – Talking to Spiders

As appeared in the Presence Pointers column of the April 2008 issue of “Business Watch” magazine.

On the simplest level, a Web site visitor can be classified as human or spider. Of course human visitors are obvious and highly desirable as they are the only one of the two that can buy from us. Back in November of 2007, I talked about the importance of making sure your Web site met your human visitors’ needs in the article, It’s not about you.

But what about these spiders? Is your Web site about them, and how could it be if it is about your human visitors? Thankfully, your site is still about your human visitors, even when the spiders come crawling. While your message doesn’t need to change, we may need to change how it is delivered to get the most out of the message for both humans and spiders. Continue reading “Search Friendly Website – Talking to Spiders”

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Leap Onto the Web

As appeared in the Presence Pointers column of the February 2008 issue of “Business Watch” magazine.

If your business doesn’t have a website yet, then this month’s column is especially for you. And even if you do have a site, it may still be worth the read. If you’ve been holding out on making the leap to the web, well it’s time to move past that. Web access is available in more businesses and homes than ever, and thanks to smart phones like the BlackBerry and iPhone, people have access to the web 24/7, just about anywhere they are.

Let’s talk about this thing called “web design.” We’re going to bypass the do-it-yourself discussion. If you want to play around on your own with a hobby site or site for your family, great, but don’t jeopardize the image of your business while trying to learn web design — there’s much more to it than just understanding a little HTML code. Businesses will either have staff on hand or, more likely, will outsource the development of their site. It is very important to understand up front that graphic design and web design are extremely different things. Continue reading “Leap Onto the Web”