Archive for the 'Usability' Category

Site search

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Here are 2 vendors to check out.

http://www.inquira.com/
http://www.mondosearch.com/ (http://www.behaviortracking.com/)

Static URLs and 301 Redirects

Thursday, April 5th, 2007

Why Static URLs are better than Dynamic URLs (from resource II below)
Static URLs are known to be better than Dynamic URLs because of a number of reasons
• Static URLs typically Rank better in Search Engines.
• Search Engines are known to index the content of dynamic pages a lot slower compared to static pages.
• Static URLs are always more friendlier looking to the End Users.

Discusses the SEO and usability benefits of rewriting URLs
http://www.seoconsultants.com/articles/1000/urls.asp


Why 301 redirects are search engine friendly (from resource II below)

301 redirect is the most efficient and Search Engine Friendly method for webpage redirection. It’s not that hard to implement and it should preserve your search engine rankings for that particular page. If you have to change file names or move pages around, it’s the safest option. The code “301″ is interpreted as “moved permanently”.

301 redirects on IIS resource I
http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

301 redirects on IIS resource II
http://www.mcanerin.com/EN/articles/301-redirect-IIS.asp

Search Friendly Redirects

Thursday, April 5th, 2007

http://www.webconfs.com/redirect-check.php

Don’t have your hands on the server and you can’t personally confirm if a certain box has been checked to insure that 301 redirect? Or you aren’t handy with .htaccess files?

You can still check to see what the search engines think of your redirects

Usability Resources

Friday, March 9th, 2007

If you are interested in SEO, you should start reading up on usability. Brushing up on usability will certainly make your search marketing stronger.

Unless of course you are an algo chaser looking to capitalize on the latest blimp then you can ignore this and go back to chasing that algorithm.

Below are a few well regarded usability experts.

Jared Spool
Jakob Nielsen
Nielsen Norman Group - Usability training
Human Factors - Usability training