that overlaps the main page. Both of these prevent the JavaScript from being embedded in the HTML, so the page size is kept small and the HTML remains semantically strong. Generally, opening links in new windows is regarded as bad usability and accessibility practice, but in this case, users expect a thumbnail to open a new window with a larger image. The one and only concrete rule about this entire discussion is to never make a thumbnail link to an image that is not bigger. If a higher-resolution version with increased detail is unavailable, do not link the thumbnail. Occasionally readers are provided more than one high-resolution image. If you are providing an individual link to each, the anchor text of the links must be explicit, so readers know what they are clicking to. (You might even provide miniature thumbnails next to

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PRODUCTS AND SERVICES each, but make sure actual text accompanies the small images, otherwise the audience will just see a group of ambiguous pictures.) In our example layout in Figure 7-5, you can see links designed with increasing complexity.

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Figure 7-5. Showing additional high-resolution images can be done with different levels of complexity.

Images can also be clustered into a slideshow for increased efficiency. The slideshow should launch in a new browser window as if it were a singular picture, but provide Forward and Next links so that users can browse through the images quickly. Ideally, the design of the pop-up should also show the number of pictures and allow users to click to one directly. This functionality can be built with a series of regular, minimal HTML pages that link to one another linearly inside the smaller browser window, or with more advanced web software. There are two very popular scripts for managing slideshows:

1. SlideShowPro is a Flash component that uses an XML back-end and a Flash interface to elegantly present clusters of photos. It offers full visual customization to fit any site design, and can be coupled with a back-end tool for easy administration. It is available from www.slideshowpro.net.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES 2. Lightbox JS is a JavaScript-powered slideshow tool that is free and very easy to use. Images on an HTML page are given a common rel attribute, and when clicked, load a semitransparent window that flips through the different pictures. Version 2 is available as of this writing and is available from www.huddletogether.com/ projects/lightbox2/. In addition to static photography, many product pages contain interactive demos or 360-degree QuickTime videos. Designers and marketers should work together in crafting the best possible product presentation within budget, time, and resource constraints. Obviously, bigger products benefit from more elaborate site designs (e.g., the website of any major car manufacturer). But it’s important to design the mundane catalog items’ illustrations and photography well, because the small touches of good design and usability can dramatically amplify the clarity of information and can be a major contributor in converting casual browsers into new customers. Supporting content. While just about every product has a description, and most have a picture or two, it is often worth supplementing that core content with material that might be of interest to the reader. Ideally, an individual product page should contain everything a reader could possibly want to know about the item, including the following: Case studies or testimonials: We’ll cover third-party validation later in the book, but this is a perfect place to include some words from satisfied customers. News items: This might include press releases issued by the company, independent write-ups and reviews of the product itself, or interviews with key corporate figures. Technical documents: Whitepapers, technical specifications, best-practice documents, or anything else that might appear to a narrower segment of the readership could be added as well. These are typically in PDF or Microsoft Word format, but could also be converted to HTML. Marketing collateral: These are the two-page datasheets of multi-page booklets that serve to market the product in the physical world. While these can complement the page’s primary marketing copy, be careful of overly redundant messaging. Related products: If a particular product is part of a greater portfolio, or if it’s designed to work in tandem with other independent programs (like the main applications that comprise Microsoft Office), it would be helpful to link to them right from the relevant product page so the reader can understand the context of the item they are reviewing. As we discussed, the bigger the product, the more budget and resources are dedicated to that product’s marketing. In addition, more resources are pumped into products that are not lost in a sea of other offerings; if a software company produces only a few titles, then they are going to focus their efforts into designing the heck out of the product pages since revenue is reliant upon fewer avenues of revenue. In Figure 7-6, you can see an example of a well-designed product page from Extensis. In addition to the core content in the central column, case studies and technical documents enable customers to read about a complex piece of technology, and hopefully aid the customer in making an informed purchase.

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Figure 7-6. Extensis provides plenty of supporting content on this product page. Case studies, technical documents, and detailed specs round out the description in the center.

Shopping cart link. Your site is going to either have e-commerce capability or not. If it doesn’t, but your company relies on a network of distributors, you should point people to the place where they can find a dealer or reseller (such as in the left column of Figure 7-6). If your site does have e-commerce—meaning that people can fill out a shopping cart and pay for the items without leaving the domain—it’s imperative to provide users the ability to add items to their cart with a single click from the context of the individual product page. Try at all costs to avoid a separate shopping area, where users have to search for the products all over again in order to make a purchase. In creating a link or button to the shopping cart, a user can never have too much information. If the link is driving them to a third-party site to capture the purchase (such as Google Checkout or PayPal), tell them where they are going. Also, state the price of the product right on its page. Revealing the cost up front will lead to fewer abandoned shopping carts.

Services page design Almost all the design and content guidelines from products are just as applicable to services. A company’s service landing page needs to be sexy and marketing-savvy, and not just list the services, but provide an introduction that generates interest in the reader even before they commit a click.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Like product pages, individual service pages should have a thorough description, supporting information, and as many images as possible to help convey the weight of the marketing message. Testimonials, case studies, and other pieces of independent validation play a big role in pushing users into fulfilling the call to action (discussed in the following section). Because users cannot make a spontaneous buying decision, this supporting content becomes all the more critical, which is why services pages can be long and saturated with detail. Also, most companies will offer fewer services than products; managing a few hundred products in an online catalog is relatively easy compared to the nightmare of managing more than a dozen unique services. Clients will deliberate forever before purchasing a service, and many of them will consume every word of supplemental text available.

Redefining the call to action The lack of the shopping cart, which is the key ingredient to impulse buying, also forces a company to consider their call to action more carefully. A call to action (also called a “call to forward” in some circles) is a directive you provide the prospect—it presents to them the next step you would like them to take. They are most commonly found in pure advertising such as e-mail marketing where you are trying to make a hard sell, such as “Buy now and save 20 percent off your purchase!” For a shopping cart–based site, calls to action are easy: add the products to your cart and then buy them. For service-based companies, calls to action have to be more marketing and less sales in nature. The language and suggested steps are more subtle; you can’t push people to buy a service on the spot, so you have to ask them to take another iterative step. Some examples include the following: Ask the readers to make contact with you: By pushing them to your contact page (or providing an e-mail link or miniature contact form right on the product page itself), you are receiving permission to contact them directly. Make sure you capture their vital information: name, e-mail, phone, and areas of interest. Offer the opportunity to download additional marketing materials: This might be technical whitepapers, case studies, or full product brochures—as long as it’s relevant and valuable to the reader. For particularly significant content such as long, technical whitepapers or third-party ROI studies, you may want to ask the reader to give their name and e-mail address in exchange. Provide a means for readers to stay up to date about the service: The simplest way is an e-mail mailing list or an RSS feed, but you may also offer a traditional mailing list as well, depending on the nature of the business. In all cases, you want to capture the reader’s information, because even a name and e-mail address can be leveraged into targeted, customized marketing campaigns. Language and design. The language and design of the call to action is important. The verbiage has to be action-oriented, specific, short, and bordering on bossy. You’re not out to beg; you’re out to clearly indicate the next task the reader should take. Let’s take our preceding examples. Instead of saying “Please fill out our contact form so we have your information on file and can let you know when we have our next demo scheduled,” be direct: “Contact us to schedule a one-on-one demo with a company representative.” For

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PRODUCTS AND SERVICES the newsletter, you can be just as direct. “Submit your e-mail to stay up to date about our service” is better than “If you give us your name and e-mail address, we’ll periodically send you an update about our services.” Choose words that incite action: submit, contact, register, watch, learn, download, click, get, view, and so forth. While in truth you are asking for users to give up their contact information, you want to be politely demanding in order to spur action. The visual language of the call to action is just as important. Like the words you choose, the design reflects the need to take action. At its most basic, the link will be just that: an HTML link. But a plain-text link is passive. There are billions all over the web, and none of them look much more clickable than any other. Inciting action requires a little more design flare. Buttons are popular because they have a more corporeal feel, and feel as if they’ll do something important when clicked. (And from a pure usability standpoint, buttons have a larger click area—it’s easier to target a beefy rectangle than a small string of words.) In addition, visual cues can also bring attention to the call to action. Bolder colors, arrows, drop shadows, and larger fonts all indicate that the reader’s attention is required. Figure 7-7 shows a well-designed product landing page from Joyent. In addition to a testimonial and good marketing copy, there is a large call-to-action button that is clearly designed to be clicked. In addition, every product page on the site has a contact form at the bottom to drive users to make contact while they are on the relevant page.

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Figure 7-7. Joyent’s product page for Accelerator is a good example of a page for products that have to be sold without a shopping cart. The page features plenty of contextual information as well as a contact form and a large call-to-action button.

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Unique selling story Whether you have a product, service, or both, there is almost always something that makes you unique, some part of your sales story that sets you apart from your competition, and gives you a leverage point when marketing. It could range from a mundane but important fact (“all of our products use domestic, grain-fed beef”) to an outrageous story (“our founder came up with the idea for this product will hang-gliding naked through the Himalaya mountains”). This story is part of your sales process, and should be integrated into the website. Sometimes it’s significant enough to warrant its own section, but most of the time, it nestles in with your products and services because it helps give context and supporting information to readers. Consider the following examples: Many microbreweries have a page dedicated to their long tradition of only using the best hops and other ingredients in their beer, and how they retain the recipes passed down from generation to generation. The quaint story isn’t going to sell any beer by itself, but it helps build brand value, which in turn helps the beer perform better in the market. Figure 7-8 shows an example of this type of page. A technology company might have a page dedicated to their patents and major technology breakthroughs. This doesn’t have to try and sell anything, but it gives readers perspective on the company’s innovative attitude and its achievements. A website for a professional speaker might contain a long bio on why the person is unique, and what life experiences qualify that person as someone worth paying to address a large audience. The unique selling story is primarily a brand-building initiative. Its value is difficult to quantify because it does not directly lead to sales, but rather reinforces the marketing messages that support sales. It is designed to build interest in the company (or individual) and their products and services; it should be offered as contextual, reinforcing content when the reader is on the actual product or service page. The unique selling story should not be confused with a unique selling proposition, which essentially describes to prospects what makes a company’s product or service stronger than the competition, and is most prevalent in traditional advertising.

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Figure 7-8. Many websites for microbreweries discuss tradition, recipes, integrity, and a commitment to quality.

Summary Like most things in web design, there is no hard-and-fast formula that works all the time. In fact, a corporation’s Products and Services section is one of the least likely to fall into any convention—because there are so many possible things to sell, and because there are so many ways to present the offerings, no two sections are alike. An investment in highquality content and design are going to be absolutely key in this section, as they directly influence the perception of the material, and thus the success of the company’s products or services in the marketplace.

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8 INDEPENDENT VALIDATION

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES In the age of marketing, where every surface is a billboard and convoluted language pollutes the marketplace, there are few areas where customers and clients can find respite from the brand impression tidal wave. The public has developed a disinterest in traditional marketing—brochures are treated as little more than political pamphlets, websites are given only a few seconds of scanning, direct mail is tossed before it gets read—and the average person’s mindshare is only getting harder to penetrate after being bombarded with viral marketing, product placement, and other invasive advertising maneuvers currently in vogue. When it comes to making a purchase, clever sales copy and good design only go so far. This is especially true for service-based companies and manufacturers whose expensive products have a long sales cycle, because they do not benefit from the spontaneous “storefront” sales that consumer products enjoy. It’s easy to buy an extra loaf of bread at the store, or another shirt at the mall. It’s not as easy to spend $150,000 on a new office printer or several million on a consulting contract. This latter group requires different marketing strategies. Because more marketing dollar is poured into each sale, marketing executives, designers, and copywriters are allowed far more latitude in crafting targeted, persuasive materials that are not only designed to sell, but to inform as well. People who are writing large checks like to be deeply educated on what they’re buying. One of the key pieces of this marketing puzzle is third-party validation. Companies who rely on large, individual sales realized a long time ago that customers are far more willing to listen to their pitch if they back up their claims with real-world proof and testimonials from respected third-party names. They also realized that customers are far more willing to listen to their peers, competitors, industry experts, neighbors, and bartenders than the vendor itself. That idea has not been lost on the web medium. Today, third-party, independent validation manifests in different ways, including the following: Case studies Testimonials Press releases Reviews Awards and other recognition All of these pieces of content involve someone talking about the product or service voluntarily. We’ll cover all of these in detail as the chapter progresses. You’ll also notice that none of the people providing validation are compensated. It’s fairly easy to buy the services of William Shatner, Alex Trebek, Fabio, or another celebrity endorser, but the public sees right through the cash exchange, and it carries little weight compared to someone talking about the product or service voluntarily. Integrating this validation into a corporate website is vitally important. It proves to potential customers and clients reading the marketing-heavy material that there are in fact people out there using the product or service, and they are pretty darned happy with it.

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Delivery of validation There are several different vehicles in which you can deliver customer stories. All of these have their pros and cons, and none of them are particularly better than the others, but all of them will help reinforce the foundation of the marketing story: Case studies: These are the heavy-hitters of the validation lineup. They take the most time to produce, from interviewing to writing to the approval process, but can serve as the crown jewels in your marketing efforts. In fact, entire campaigns have been built around particularly powerful case studies—a company can write a detailed story on one of their happiest customers, and then lead their advertising campaigns with that success. Press releases: Many companies distribute press releases that discuss a success with a customer. They very often mirror the content of a case study (and can even be produced concurrently), but the text is written to target the media and get the story picked up in a magazine, on a website, or in another trade publication. Testimonials: In most cases, a testimonial is a direct quote from the customer or client. The subject matter could range from the customer’s happiness with the overall product, to the thrill of finding a time-saving feature, to commenting on the business’s superb technical support. Reviews: Most of the time, a business will exist in an industry that has its fair share of dedicated media, from pontificating blogs to glossy monthly magazines. Many of these actively review material in their industry. While this is harder for servicebased companies whose packages are tailor-made for the client, product-based companies can lean heavily on positive product reviews as added flavor to their marketing palette.

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Awards and recognition: For every product niche, there is an award. Build a better mousetrap and you might win the Best New Mousetrap Award. Build a better spaceship, and you might receive the Annual Intergalactic More Awesome Spaceship Award. Distinctions may be given to a specific product or service, or to the company as a whole. Recognition is similar, but there may not be an actual award—your company will simply be discussed in positive terms. It’s usually clear where companies can focus their efforts. For some, grinding away at press releases is worth the potential press coverage they can deliver. For others, aggregating and then boasting about awards may have the most positive impact on product sales.

Section nomenclature and positioning As we discuss each angle of validation, consider how the content will snap into the architecture of your site. Larger types of content certainly demand their own section; press releases, for instance, were covered in Chapter 6, but if you have a lot of customer-centric ones, it may be important to give that category of press releases its own home on the website. Similarly, case studies are also significant enough to demand their own real estate within your domain.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES The name of this section depends on the content contained within. If the section is just going to have case studies, consider calling it “Case Studies.” If the section has a blend of content—case studies, some press releases, maybe some press coverage and testimonials— you may want to consider giving it a more generic name, like “Success” or “Customer Success.” As you can see in Figure 8-1, some businesses consolidate their third-party validation material into one area for easy browsing.

Figure 8-1. This software company uses a combination of third-party validation content to fill out its Customer Success section.

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I N D E P E N D E N T VA L I D AT I O N The other major question is how to fit the general success section into your site’s navigation. There isn’t any consistency to this across the Web. In fact, finding the customer success section on some sites is a challenge because it’s hidden within an area that might not be intuitive to the user. Sometimes it falls within the About section, sometimes within the Products or Services sections, sometimes within more esoterically titled sections like Resources. How this section is presented sends a clear message to visitors on how seriously they should consider the material. A link in the main menu demands visitors’ attention; it invites clicks and tells them that the success of your customers is a critical facet to the overall company message. By contrast, burying the same material within nested subsections has the opposite effect. Treating customer success material as second- or third-tier content not only makes it less enticing to read for visitors, but less attractive for other customers to volunteer their own stories.

The question of context It’s entirely possible that a business foregoes the production-intensive content of case studies and press releases and focuses entirely on lighter validation material like testimonials, awards, and press coverage. In this case, having a dedicated success section is less important than presenting the material in context. Imagine a reader perusing a commercial truck manufacturer’s website, researching the company for possible inclusion in a request for proposal (RFP) initiative for an upcoming purchase. As the user clicks through the different pages showing different models, he continually sees awards the trucks have won, from magazine accolades to industry benchmarks. The inclusion of that third-party recognition—even if the visitor is not familiar with every award—easily can be the tipping point in getting that manufacturer on the short list of preferred vendors for the RFP.

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Testimonials are no different. While quotes from satisfied customers are great to have and can really be used across a corporate site, they become true persuasive weapons when coupled with relative marketing content. Consider Figure 8-2, which shows a company’s technical support section. While this is strong on its own, it’s made far more effective with the inclusion of a relevant quote in the left column. It’s important to present everything related to a product or service in context. When a visitor lands on a product page, they should be able to view everything related to that offering, including stories of success from real customers.

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Figure 8-2. A well-designed and well-written technical support section becomes more enticing for the reader with the inclusion of a relevant customer testimonial in the left column.

Acquiring the content When collecting case studies, press releases, and testimonials, someone in the organization needs to actually acquire the customer stories and translate them into tangible, usable marketing material. This is, admittedly, the hard part. But if it’s done right, your company comes out the other side with some dynamite content.

Case studies and press releases These two pieces of material share two powerful traits. First, they carry the most firepower when marketing a company’s offerings; however, they are by far the most time- and laborintensive when it comes to actually writing and publishing because of the heavy customer involvement. It can be a slightly arduous process, but the end result can deliver very high return on your resource investment. There are several key steps in producing these types of collateral.

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Identify the customer First things first—you have to identify which customers have the most compelling stories, and whose story you want to tell the world. These are not the same thing. Just writing about the first client who is willing to talk is exactly what you want to avoid, because if their story is weak or inconsistent, or if they come across as anything less than totally and completely satisfied by your company and its product, readers will smell out the holes and regard the material with as much faith as Chicago Cubs fans have for another World Series title. The marketing potential of a customer story must be judged on several key leverage points. Make sure each of the following criteria can be answered with a confident “yes.” Is the client happy? Seems like an obvious question, but still critical to confirm. Whoever volunteers to be interviewed will have their name attached to the final marketing piece, and it’s entirely possible—even probable in some industries—that potential customers will call them as a reference. Make sure this person (and the rest of the patron firm) is satisfied, and remains satisfied. Is it a compelling story? You may have the happiest client in the world, willing to go on and on about how great your product is, but the details are so uninteresting that it runs the risk of counteracting the marketing potential. For instance, imagine Microsoft writing a case study on a customer using Word only for spell checking, never for actual word processing. Would they really want to profile that customer, no matter how happy they were? (On a side note, customers who fall into this category often make for some great testimonials, where you can highlight their excitement without getting into details.)

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Do you need the story? This might be a bit trickier than the other questions, but it is still an important mental checkpoint. Think about this from two angles. First, is the customer success story significantly different from what you already have, and second, does the story align with your marketing goals? If an architectural firm has seven case studies on their bridge designs, it would be a better use of their time to focus on writing success material around their church designs, an industry where they are orienting their future marketing efforts. As you can see from Figure 8-3, many companies choose to break their case studies out by category, and it’s important to maintain a healthy balance among the categories so focus does not seem lopsided. If your perfect purchaser is not out there yet, be careful settling for a less impressive story. It’s not tragic to write about happy clients that don’t demonstrate the full range of your business’s abilities as long as their stories do not become the heart of your campaigns.

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Figure 8-3. Many companies organize their case studies by category.

Contact the customer Once the wish list of customer case studies is compiled, it’s a matter of contacting the customers and asking if they would like to become part of your marketing efforts. Believe it or not, many are happy to help. Since so many different businesses in all industries rely on third-party validation to help tell their marketing story, it is rare to find the business that outright refuses to be interviewed or even referenced (although they do exist, which we’ll cover later). Contact is usually done via e-mail. Chances are that when the company and customer were going through the purchase process, there was a single point of contact on the part of the customer. This is the person to start with. This might not be the person ultimately interviewed, or whose name appears in the content, but they will at least know who to approach in their organization. Once you’ve identified the candidate, it’s a simple process of setting up a time to meet in person, speak over the phone, or arrange an online interview. At this point, you should get a clear answer on whether the client is willing to go on record about your product or service. Try not to waste time with indecisive or overly demanding contacts; they are usually far more trouble than they are worth, and will not make the process any easier as it progresses.

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Never agree to compensate a customer for their time or the right to use their name. As soon as any type of reparation is received, the testimonial, case study, or press release fails utterly as authentic third-party validation, and the interviewed customer immediately becomes a paid spokesperson, which is exactly what you don’t want because it has zero credibility.

Conduct the interview After contacting the customer, set up a mutually convenient time to conduct the interview. This might be later that afternoon or a month down the road. You are, unfortunately, at the whim of the client’s schedule and in all likelihood not at the top of their priority list. Conducting a live interview is always better than conducting one via e-mail. E-mail typically produces short, formulaic answers, and it can take a person longer to type those stunted responses than to simply talk to you on the phone and give you the story in their own words. In-person is even better, but often difficult if interviewer and interviewee are in different parts of the world. When conducting an interview, record it (and make sure that the client knows it’s being recorded). This is for future reference. Even the fastest and most efficient note takers in the world cannot capture every word, idea thread, and spontaneous question ideas all at once, and having an indisputable record of the conversation can prove invaluable when it comes to transcribing quotes accurately.

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There are few rules of interviewing.1 Many people have their own style, and the process gets easier with practice. For every dream subject that responds with elaborate, detailed, and articulate answers, there are ten subjects who mumble short, off-topic, and occasionally factually incorrect answers. It is the interviewer’s job to coax them toward coherent, usable responses. There are many subtle tactics, but the best way to get the interviewee talking is to ask open-ended questions—ones that cannot be answered with a “yes” or “no.” Start your questions with “how” or “why.” For instance, a subject is forced to think about their answer when asked, “How did our service benefit your company?” rather than “Did our service benefit your company?”

Produce the content After the interview, it’s entirely up to your company to produce the actual content, which includes writing the text, designing the printed version (if there is one), and prepping the material for the website. A professional writer should absolutely write the bulk of the material, even if this requires hiring a freelancer. The content is too valuable to be written by anyone unfamiliar with crafting marketing content, and the collateral can only be released once (especially true for press releases), so it has to be accurate, focused, and properly spell-checked the first time.

1.

For good tips on conducting interviews, read Jill Black’s article “Tips for Conducting ‘In Person’ (Face-to-Face) Interviews,” at www.talewins.com/interviews.htm.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES In terms of length, a case study should take as many words as it needs to accurately tell the story. This might be 300 words or 2,000. As long as the customer’s success, the company’s offerings, and the surrounding details are conveyed with efficiency and flair, most people interested in the content will take the time to read the entire story. Press releases are a bit more restrictive and formulaic. Their word count should be limited to one full page of content or less (500 words is a good average), and the tone should target the media—details, numbers, and first-hand testimonials count for a lot more than descriptive prose. The more salient, chewy nuggets of fact that are included, the greater the chance the press release will be recycled into a news story by an outside writer.

Receive approval from the customer Getting the material approved by the interviewee is a necessary step. While it may seem redundant—after all, they did agree to be interviewed—it is more than just a formality. Enabling people to read what they said before it goes to print is the courteous and professional course of action because it provides the writer and participating companies several important final checks: Make sure people were quoted accurately: This is especially true when interviews are not recorded and the writer is relying on hand-written notes. Generally, people don’t mind having their quotes cleaned up for grammar and structure, as long as the meaning is not altered. (In fact, many subjects are thankful for the editing, because it makes them sound smarter in print.) Make sure details are correct: For instance, if the case study contains employment numbers, statistics, profit margins, or other facts, the interviewee will be able to tell immediately if they are incorrect. Make sure the interviewee still works there: As we all know too well, jobs are never permanent and one perfect interview can count for precisely zero if the interviewee is laid off, is fired, or leaves. Never release a case study before showing the prototype to the customer. Once the final content is approved by the customer (in writing), it creates a paper trail that protects the writer and publishing party from angry phone calls, lawsuits, and other less desirable feedback.

Publish the content Once approval is received from the interviewed party, the content can be published. We’ll cover the design and delivery of case studies later in the chapter, and you can read about press releases in Chapter 6.

Testimonials Testimonials are much easier to acquire and create than case studies since they’re usually just quotes from the customer. Also, customers are more willing to give them because it requires less effort on everyone’s part; they don’t have to be interviewed and they don’t have to go through a rigorous review process.

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I N D E P E N D E N T VA L I D AT I O N Getting a testimonial from a customer is as simple as asking. E-mail is usually the most productive medium because, unlike with requesting one over the phone or in person, people will have time to respond and will therefore write a more considerate quote rather than try to make up something on the spot. Make sure the e-mail requesting a testimonial contains the following:

1. A polite, conversational tone: In the end, the person is going to either provide the quote or not, so it’s fruitless to come across as desperate or try to sound overly formal.

2. Information about how the quote is going to be used: A quote used once in a website sidebar is quite a bit different than one headlining a national advertising campaign, so let them know up front. It may affect their decision.

3. A similar example, if one exists: Showing them how their name and words will appear in context may make them more willing to provide better text. When you have received your testimonial and used it in your marketing efforts, send the customer a quick note of thanks and a link (or screenshot) of their words in action. Also consider that key phrases from a case study or press release can be reused as standalone quotes. Since this content is already approved, it might save the writer the hassle of having to interview another candidate.

Awards, recognition, and reviews 8

When it comes to referencing third-party awards, recognition, and reviews of a company, the best policy is to contact the originating party to see if there are any processes in place for citing the accolades. Most professional publications (which are hopefully the sort you are affiliated with) have a set of guidelines that they will be happy to send. After all, by referencing them, you are throwing free publicity their way. Most awards and recognition come with a media kit. This includes the logo of the honor in a zillion different formats, as well as guidelines on how to display the logo. For instance, Inc. magazine produces an annual list called Inc. 500, which compiles a list of the 500 fastest growing companies in the United States. Many of these companies choose to show the Inc. 500 logo on their site. Reviews are a bit different. Chances are the review cannot be republished in full, but the publication might very well have usage guidelines in place—for instance, whether a link back to the original review is required, the word count allowed for excerpts, whether a logo of the publication is allowed (or required) to supplement the review, and much more. As a general rule of thumb, avoid republishing reviews in full whether these guidelines exist or not.

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Designing the third-party validation Acquiring the content for customer stories, press releases, award displays, and more is only half the battle. There is still the matter of figuring delivery methods, including implementing the content in the corporate website. For some of this material, the design options are either obvious or limited, such as the display of media distinctions and reviews. For other material, where the company is responsible for creating the content, such as case studies, the design is only limited by the parameters of the site as a whole. This part of the chapter will cover the different ways of celebrating your customer success and design solutions for several key pieces of content.

The customer list One of the simplest ways for a business to boast about its success is for it to assemble the names of past and current customers into a singular, public list. This is a relatively lowmaintenance piece of marketing, but it can make an important statement if meaningful customer names are included. The list does not have to include worldwide brand powerhouses like Nike and Microsoft (although it does not hurt), but the names chosen should be immediately recognizable by your target market. For instance, if you were marketing to higher-education institutions, listing Apple or Pepsi might carry some clout for the sheer presence they have in the global marketplace, but listing Harvard or Oxford will stamp a much deeper impression on your audience. Different companies treat their customer lists in different ways. Some, like the company shown in Figure 8-4, choose to list all of their customers and impress the reader with sheer numbers—it is, literally, a customer list. Other businesses are more discriminating. They compile a list, but it only represents the cream of the crop, the most widely recognizable and powerful names in their stable. (This latter approach can be given a different title as well—“Selected Customer List” or something of that nature.) Target demographic and common sense should drive this page. If you only have three customers, don’t create a customer list. On the other hand, if you have 3,000 customers, show some restraint. If you want to position yourself as a consumer marketing consultancy, don’t spotlight the work you did for a government agency five years ago just to make ends meet. Also keep in mind that a well-crafted customer list can double as a gateway to customer case studies, with certain names being linked to an individual page discussing that particular client. You can see this technique in Figure 8-4.

Forbidden names and logo blitzkriegs There are two very important notes to close this section. Never, under any circumstances, list a customer that asks not to be a reference. Some companies are very particular about having their name (which is their brand, and in many cases, as important as their logo)

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I N D E P E N D E N T VA L I D AT I O N used for advertising purposes. Some ask this up front when the deal is closed, others— conveniently—only ask after their name is published. Respect this, because corporations take this very, very seriously.2 The second transgression in creating a customer list is building a logo blitzkrieg. This is the art of aggregating logos from all customers (usually by ripping low-resolution and poorly cropped versions from their websites) and assembling them into a collage of branding gumbo. The “goal” is to impress prospects with an onslaught of corporate identity, which is why these Frankenstein logo monsters mostly appear in PowerPoint presentations and websites. While it’s an appealing tactic for the complete sales newbie, disgruntled marketing saboteur, or grade-school level designer, the practice has several severe cons, not the least of which is the immediate and very real concern of trademark infringement.

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Figure 8-4. IST chose to categorize all their customers on one page.

2.

In fact, one software company in the Midwest acquired a certain federal agency as a customer, and everyone in the company had to sign an NDA forbidding them from talking about the deal. The CEO threatened immediate dismissal for anyone caught uttering the name to the public— even family or existing customers.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Brand protection happens all the time. For instance, a salesperson was once giving a presentation at a trade show, and one of his slides included a logo blitzkrieg that happened to include the prominent mark of a large but very sensitive insurance company. A public relations representative from that company was in the audience, and afterward, assured the salesperson in no uncertain terms that immediate legal action would be taken unless their name and logo was immediately stricken from all marketing and sales material.

Case studies As we discussed in the preceding section, case studies are the heavy firepower of thirdparty validation. In the right scenarios—and used wisely—they can be the differencemaker in a marketing effort, because while people generally resist being sold to, they love reading about others who already made the purchase. When a case study highlights the successes of other companies who once shared the same pain points as your prospect, you have a priceless slice of marketing to exploit. We already covered the process for gathering and writing the collateral. This section assumes that the final content is ready to be implemented into the site.

Finding case studies When a company goes through the trouble of researching, interviewing, and writing case studies, they almost always build a dedicated area in the corporate website to house this unique and powerful content. Unfortunately, there is no consistent manner in which businesses reference this section, and the places in which it falls in different menu structures are unsettlingly disparate. Much of this decision ultimately balances on several factors: if there’s room (structurally and thematically) in the main navigation, if it’s an important selling tool or just “bonus” content, and if it’s updated on a regular basis. There is a lot to be said for positioning the case studies in the global menu. It gives the section an immediate weight throughout the site, and indicates to visitors that the content is respected internally. It also drives more traffic. However, sometimes there is no central success section and the material is simply shown in context with the relevant product or service that’s being discussed. Many times, the case studies are simply part of a greater customer success section, as in Figure 8-1.

Listing case studies Although many companies have their customer list pull double duty as a makeshift case study landing page, which is a perfectly viable option, crafting a dedicated home for case studies is a more attractive option for the end-user because they won’t be left wondering why only some names in the list are clickable. If there is any substantial number of items, consider how to organize the list. Depending on the nature of the industry and the focus of the content, one or more of the following could be used:

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I N D E P E N D E N T VA L I D AT I O N Alphabetical by name: This is especially useful when the names are widely recognized, or if there is no other logical way of listing them. Chronological: If your customer success stories are time-sensitive, this may be the best option. Ordered by service: Companies that offer different services could use that categorization to break apart their case study list. Put yourself in the driver’s seat and try to imagine how your prospects will look for the material in which they are interested. If none of the preceding work perfectly, it’s always possible to offer the audience more than one way of browsing the material, as shown in Figure 8-5. (The only disadvantage to this tactic is that users are forced to click one extra level before reaching the content.) It’s also possible that there are enough case studies to warrant a dedicated search function.

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Figure 8-5. Consider providing multiple ways of browsing case studies.

Once the means to access the list of case studies is developed, it’s time to design that list. The case study landing page is a tricky animal because each case study has a lot of detail, and choosing which details to present users requires careful consideration. In addition to the customer name, you can include the date the material was posted, the main service rendered, technical information, or a key testimonial. Consider Figure 8-6. It demonstrates different levels of detail when presenting a list of customer success stories.

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Figure 8-6. A list of case studies can be presented with different levels of detail.

These three approaches represent different ways of displaying the list of case studies. The first example is a vanilla list—just names, no detail. It relies on name power alone to incite a click from the reader. The second list builds off the first, but adds a smidge of interactivity that allows users to expand a box to show a short summary as well as a direct link to download the full version.3 The third example is a more pragmatic approach to the information. In addition to the names, it provides users with a metadata snapshot by using dates and keywords that might be of interest. All three examples are completely valid. The key to the success of this landing page is providing information readers will react to, whether that is big-ticket customer names or key phrases describing the story. The design must play a principal role by clearly and intelligently representing the content, and providing an uninhibited path to the whole story.

Delivery Designing the landing page for the case studies is the first piece of the puzzle. How you choose to ultimately deliver each case study will greatly influence how users access and consume the content. There are several common options. Web-based HTML. The first and most obvious choice in delivering written case study content is leveraging the technology on which the site is built—the Web. While there may be other formats for sales purposes (namely PDF, Word, or PowerPoint), as you can see in Figure 8-7, keeping HTML-based versions on your site is advantageous for several reasons:

3.

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For an example of simple, unobtrusive JavaScript that you can use to dynamically expand and collapse elements like the one in our example, consult the article “My Favorite JavaScripts for Designers,” at www.blakems.com/archives/000087.html.

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I N D E P E N D E N T VA L I D AT I O N Users have immediate access. There is no waiting for a download. Pages can be easily bookmarked for later viewing. HTML content is indexed by search engines, both internal and external. Major SEO points often go to case studies rich with industry keywords. A plain web page does not require a proprietary reader. Even PDF files require some form of Acrobat to be accessed, to mention nothing of Word, PowerPoint, or other programs. While it’s easy to assume these programs are ubiquitous, the reality is that they very much are not.4

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Figure 8-7. Keeping case studies in HTML format has several important advantages.

4.

It would be fair to say that a small portion of your target audience may not have these programs available. Many businesses and just about all government agencies lock down their employees’ computers to the point where the only program available for accessing web content is a plain browser without any plug-ins or extensions allowed. This means Acrobat Reader, Flash content, and Microsoft Office files are off limits. When choosing to deliver content via these formats, research the primary demographic carefully.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES HTML-based content is just as permanent as other file types. Many designers prefer to deliver the content in PDF because of the permanency of the self-enclosed file type, but also because it looks nice when printed. Using CSS for print media can produce equally impressive results in a fraction of the bandwidth,5 and allows for global visual changes to be made on the fly, rather than requiring the manual alteration of a dozen or more printfocused files. It is important to include contextual information with each case study. If a PDF version of the same customer story is available, include it right on the page with the content. Also include other relevant documents, such as press releases and topically related case studies. (For instance, in the example in Figure 8-6, the page for Cathedral Belfries Direct might have a list of other case studies focused on the construction industry.) Also include a link to the customer’s website. PDF. Companies often retain their customer success stories in a printed format (usually a one-page slick) where graphic artists exercise refined typographic control, complicated layouts and extended brand design within a high-resolution playground. These final pieces, created in a layout program like QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign, are saved as PDF files for public distribution. Designers can count on the collateral being displayed exactly the same in Acrobat Reader anywhere in the world, which makes the format an attractive option for downloadable content. Too often, case studies are regarded as content for only printed marketing collateral, not the Web, and are glossed over when it comes time to place that content on the corporate site. Creating a new page for each case study can be a tedious task, but it is not enough to simply list a bunch of PDFs and call it a case study section. This is lazy web design and perpetuates inaccessible content. While the PDF format is widespread, it has too many shortcomings to be the only means in which the story is told. Give readers the choice between web-based content and PDF-based content. Let the two formats complement one another. Different people will find each appealing—some cannot or will not download files, others prefer the refined packaging of PDFs. Offering both is better usability than offering only one. Bear in mind that documents not native to browsers will display and print as is, and are not subject to browser settings and plug-ins. There are several important keys to creating userfriendly PDF files: Keep the file size small: There are many, many different options when generating files from layout programs, and Acrobat itself ships with several presets. An uncompressed, single-page design with a reasonable number of photos could run 10 MB or more, but with the proper compression, that same document could be reduced to 100 KB or less. The best preset for the Web is [Smallest File Size] (shown in Figure 8-8), because it keeps the images down-sampled but the type crisp and readable.

5.

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For more information on web page printing, consult the article “Webpage Printing: Typography and Usability Considerations,” on graphicPUSH (www.graphicpush.com/webpage-printingtypography-and-usability-considerations).

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8 Figure 8-8. When rendering PDFs destined for the Web, keep the file size small by using Acrobat’s preset compression settings.

Avoid dark backgrounds: Keep in mind that many people download PDFs with the intention of printing them, and that they print as is, so an entire column of white text reversed on a field of black will require people to waste an inordinate amount of toner for a single sheet of paper. The more whitespace in the design, the better. This does not mean that every PDF destined for the Web should reinvent your brand’s look and feel, but designers should be cognizant of how people will employ the collateral. Keep text as text: Layout programs have the ability to convert text to outlines, meaning that the shapes of the letters are transformed into vector data that cannot be edited. (This avoids missing font issues with commercial printers.) Since the PDF format embeds fonts into the file, this is not necessary. Keeping the text as text not only keeps the file size down, it ensures that the words are selectable via Acrobat’s Select Text tool. Link the links: Acrobat allows designers to embed URL links right into the PDF, which can be a great way for readers to return to the main corporate site after reading the document, visit the featured customer’s website, or launch any website referenced in the content.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Provide a link to the reader: You can never expect anyone to have Acrobat installed, let alone have the most current version. Always provide a link to Adobe’s Acrobat Reader, which is a free download. Interactive. Interactive is a loaded term because it means different things to different people. For some, it’s a fancy way of saying “Flash,” for others, it’s taken literally and the reader really does interact with the material. In terms of case studies, it could mean either, but is better defined as a nontraditional presentation of the success story—instead of long pages of prose, the content is wrapped in pieces of interactivity that the user can navigate, flipping between animated sequences, video content, testimonials, text, diagrams, and more. Interactive case studies work best when they are rich in content. Simply turning a story into a self-running animation sequence of moving text and clever clip art is not enough to warrant the required development resources. However, if the story is accompanied by animated diagrams, video testimonials, and an internal menu to select between the different parts, then the piece becomes a much more viable medium because it demonstrates concepts not possible with plain text on a page. Most of the time, interactive case studies are delivered in the Flash platform. This has several pros and cons. Its benefits are easy to see: a huge amount of information can be housed in a relatively noncommittal download, and people can load and browse the content almost as fast as regular HTML. The medium, even though it remains an industry standard, still has its accessibility roadblocks. Many of these are covered in Chapter 3, but to summarize, the key to better accessibility is providing text alternatives for multimedia content. For videos, provide closed captions. For narrations, provide a transcript. For Flash files in general, provide HTML alternatives in case users don’t have the proper plug-in installed. And no matter what, provide a link to Adobe’s web page that allows users to download Flash Player for their browser. Case studies are incredibly valuable marketing content, and there’s no reason their message should be lost because the reader lacks the technology or physical ability to consume it. PowerPoint, Word, and other proprietary files. Some companies choose to distribute their customer stories (and sometimes press releases) in proprietary formats like Word and PowerPoint. By all means, avoid this practice. There are a dozen or more reasons why, but the only one that really matters is the fact that these are expensive, platform-dependent applications that a very large, quantifiable segment of your audience does not have access to. If it’s too much trouble to convert the content to HTML alternatives, at a minimum export PDF versions and host those instead.

Story length Case studies, unlike press releases, do not have a soft word limit, and can be formulated different ways. The ultimate length depends on the customer being interviewed and how much they offer to the interviewee, plus the richness of the actual story. Never try to force 1,000 words of detail into a 200-word template, and never dilute the content by trying to

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I N D E P E N D E N T VA L I D AT I O N stretch it across an arbitrary minimum word count. By letting your case studies unfold naturally, you’ll begin to sense how they can be deployed across the website as they fall into one of three categories: Long; story style: These case studies are written to be read over several cups of coffee. Their elaborate prose and rich detail are written in a story-like manner, and illustrate how the client solved all their problems using the vendor’s solutions; these studies include supporting information, customer quotes, summary bullet points, and more. Their word count could easily fall anywhere between 500 and 3,000 words. Medium; news style: These case studies mimic the brevity and fact-oriented approach of press releases, but have just enough embellishment to avoid that title. They tell the customer story, but are focused on customer testimonials and quantifiable evidence to support it. Typically, these fall well within 1,000 words. Short; summary style: This approach is used when there is just not much substance to the soup, and watering down the information with gratuitous embellishment clearly makes for a lesser product. These might be the hardest to write well, because it requires editorial restraint to produce an effective case study only a few hundred words in length. All of these mention word counts in the assumption the case study will be actually written. A different medium (e.g., Flash-based interactive) might use overall presentation time as a more effective measurement of content.

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Testimonials Testimonials are third-party validation in its purest form: quotes right from the customer. The quotes can be any length, from a few words to a multi-sentence narrative, and can arrive in several formats, including plain text, audio files, and video files. The hardest part of testimonials is the actual acquisition (covered earlier in the chapter); distributing them around the site is easy.

Formats Customer quotes can be delivered in several different formats, depending on how the subject is interviewed. Plain text is by far the most common—it’s simple to gather, simple to produce, and simple to add to a web page. It’s also by far the easiest to get approved because the writer and original speaker can collaborate on cleaning up the text to read more smoothly. Multimedia-based testimonials—namely audio and video recordings—are far more laborintensive. Not only are they a chore to create, seeing as a second party actually has to operate a recording device, but they do not give the client the opportunity of editing their words beyond what can be accomplished in the post-production room. This also works against the business trying to use the testimonial—if the quote is inaccurate, mumbled, or poorly recorded, it may be lost; there is rarely a chance for a second take.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES However, if done correctly—and if done correctly on a consistent basis—the company ends up with a library of marquee media that can be promoted heavily across the corporate site, like in Figure 8-9.

Figure 8-9. When a company invests in multimedia testimonials, they can be promoted heavily across the corporate site.

Delivery The most effective place for testimonials is in context to the subject. If a customer raves about the professionalism and timeliness of a certain service, get that quote right up on that page to support the rest of the marketing effort. If a case study contains a number of solid-gold customer passages, pick the best one and make use of it as an excerpt or pullquote next to the main text. As flavorful additions to standard content, they cannot be beat—Figure 8-2 is a perfect example of a short, potent testimonial adding tremendous value to the primary content.

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I N D E P E N D E N T VA L I D AT I O N It is reasonable to create a page dedicated to testimonials, but not common practice. In order for a testimonial to be effectively exhibited out of context, it needs to be long and detailed, and these are sometimes difficult to write without sounding contrived, as if the interview subject had been “coached.” It would be like trying to judge a cake after only tasting the frosting. Without the context of the cake itself, even the yummiest parts by themselves are not a replacement for the whole experience. When adding testimonials of any format to a page, make sure to attribute them thoroughly. At a minimum, you should include the person’s name and their employer. If possible, also include their title.

Awards, recognition, and reviews While case studies and testimonials present a personal testament to the company, awards, recognition, and reviews are a more objective means of recognizing a company’s achievements. For instance, placing a customer quote about a particular product on the product page tells prospects that at least one other person on the planet really liked the product, whether it’s good or not. But if the product wins an award, or receives strong reviews from trade publications, that tells prospects that the same offering has been recognized for being a good product after a thorough and objective series of comparison tests conducted by an independent entity. Both are valuable, but in different ways. None of this is new to the Web. For years, car commercials have referenced awards that cars have won (e.g., recognition by Consumer Reports, the JD Power and Associates Initial Quality series of awards, or some internal award that the company bestows upon itself after conducting its own series of consumer tests). It makes sense for those same bits of validation to be sprinkled all over the car manufacturer’s website. (In fact, some manufacturers have a submenu item in their pages called “Awards” that list everything a particular vehicle has won.) The film industry is no different. A movie’s success is almost wholly dependent on reviews, and to a lesser extent, awards.

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As you might guess, these bits of validation are best used in context of the original subject. Sometimes it’s for an individual product or service, sometimes it’s for the company as a whole. For instance, in our example of the Inc. 500 award, many of the higher-ranking companies chose to show the logo on their homepage, as you can see in Figure 8-10. These pieces of third-party validation are important to talk about on corporate websites, and should be referenced as much as possible to build credibility and prestige. The public at large puts tremendous stock in the opinions of professional reviewers, whether it’s an award from a nonprofit like Consumer Reports or a self-serving industry award like CNET’s “Editor’s Choice.”

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Figure 8-10. Companies winning prestigious accolades can display them right on their homepage. This website uses the Inc. 500 logo as a way of telling the public about the distinction.

Summary Third-party validation can add tremendous value to your company’s website. By reinforcing your marketing message with customer success stories, testimonials, press releases, and editorial distinctions, you help build your corporate brand value. You also instill confidence in prospects, helping them understand that you are not marketing in a vacuum, and that others in the world are using your products or services with enough success that they are willing to voluntarily share their positive experiences.

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9 THE CORPORATE BLOG

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES For years, many modern businesses have recognized the value of communicating with their customers about events, news, policy updates, changes in leadership, and other significant happenings within their organization. In fact, some of that communication has been made mandatory by law—any publicly traded company, for instance, is required to provide quarterly financial information. Over the years, marketing and public relations departments have seen the tremendous benefits of maintaining an open line of communication with the public. On a basic level, this transparency builds customer trust, which builds brand loyalty, which can be gasoline for the word-of-mouth marketing fire. Traditionally, a company’s stream of communication has flowed in one direction: from business to individual. Annual reports, financial statements, newsletters, mailing lists, and letters from the CEO are all positive, proactive steps in informing the public about the happenings inside the business, but they do not allow for reader feedback. All of these are controlled environments in which public relations can operate; the best a customer could do was respond with a letter or phone call to voice their opinion. The only forum where opinions could be voiced by the public were annual shareholder meetings, or indirectly through mainstream media. The World Wide Web has leveled just about every communication-related playing field. Web-based publishers can report news the second it happens, small media outlets can compete with large media outlets, independent blogs can compete with all media outlets, and any reader can instantly argue with anyone simply by posting a comment. The Internet community at large has become jaded to the barrage of paid opinions from pontificating columnists, vested political interests in the “unbiased” media, and news with thinly veiled corporate sponsorship. People seek authenticity. The fragmented Web makes it increasingly difficult to focus on any more than a few sources of information, and users are seeking sites with a laser-like focus on the topics they care about. The need for authenticity and topical focus has been the single greatest catalyst for the phenomenal growth of blogging. Coupled with the ability to publicly comment on the content, smart web users have found the perfect medium to satiate their content thirsts as well as stand on a virtual soapbox and sound off. Corporations who take advantage of blogging can also meet these simple reader needs. By offering a topically focused blog written by members of the company, they provide the audience with an unfiltered view into the thought process of the business while simultaneously allowing people to comment on topics they care about. While promoting an open exchange of thoughts has its potential downfalls, the benefits of a well-operated company weblog cannot be ignored. The success of a business blog depends on several key factors: The content and goals of the site need to be well-planned, focused, and consistent. The implementation needs to be technically sound with a means for readers to provide public-facing feedback. The interaction between writer and reader needs to be encouraged, nurtured, and moderated.

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T H E C O R P O R AT E B L O G This chapter will cover all of these points, but for now, keep in mind that while blogging is the new cool thing all the kids are doing, trendy technology does not always align with an organization’s marketing, public relations, and sales goals, and should only be implemented if it provides legitimate value to the business.

Your blogging mileage Like any communication technology, the massive marketing potential of blogs is crippled by their susceptibility to abuse by both publisher and reader. While any company could use the medium to their advantage, it must also be prepared to absorb the risks as well as reap the rewards. But before going into the hard-lined pros and cons, let’s explore why someone might start a corporate blog.

Purpose of the business blog Arbitrarily launching a corporate blog is generally not a good idea. Any platform for intimate conversation between business entities and their interested public has to be carefully planned. For businesses, blogs are marketing vehicles. Even if the president of General Motors decided to write about pruning bonsai trees, his name would still be linked to his company, and one false or poorly worded comment could dramatically impact the public’s perceptions of the software giant—whether it was intended or not. A business blog has to have focus, goals, and purpose; it needs to exist for a set of tangible, real-world reasons that can be quantified (or at least qualified) to justify its existence. The worst possible reason to start a business blog is “for the heck of it.” Readership and participation will be much stronger if the content is consistent and relevant.

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Tell the news One of the most intriguing and reader-snaring aspects of blogs is their near-realtime delivery of news. Almost anything significant that happens in the world is blogged before being picked up by the media, and the public actively looks for that exclusive, first-on-the-scene information. Corporate blogs can easily be built for the same type of content. Large companies are always in the news. Some of them are constantly being blasted by the media (like Microsoft, for their never-ending string of lawsuits), while others become media darlings (like Apple, whose gadgets and secrecy are easy stories for reporters). Imagine a business blog that works in tandem with the traditional media, making small announcements, teasing at bigger ones, always one step ahead of the public because it has the inside track. The audience would be sitting on the edge of its seats, waiting for the next post. Here are a couple examples of the type of news that might appear. Product announcements. These are the big announcements that the public waits for. This type of content is best suited for companies that have a passionate user base— people who wait for these announcements so that they can scrutinize the product from every angle, possibly buy the product, and then give the rest of the world a recommendation on whether to buy the product.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Keep in mind that the size of the user base has nothing to do with the users’ level of interest. Few of the billions of people using computers wait breathlessly for the latest driver updates for their video cards, but almost all users of Six Apart’s Movable Type publishing platform are tuned in to the latest updates of the product.1 (And the Six Apart team has its own series of blogs discussing these very updates.) Similarly, most car owners don’t care enough about their manufacturer of choice to pay much attention to any blogs on the car maker’s website, but there exists a small niche of dedicated auto aficionados whose passion is following the automotive industry. It is this second group to whom a blog from a car maker should be focused. Corporate and industry news. When a company becomes entrenched in an industry, people look to it as the expert in its field. And not just from a product- or service-offering standpoint, but as training ground to educate a concentrated group of employees in the industry to create a focus point for talent. Consider golf. Millions of people enjoy the sport of golf—and a large percentage of them are fanatical about it—but the true talent of the industry, the people who obsess over the grams of a driver and the shape of a tee, often end up working for companies who produce golf-related equipment. Businesses operating in the golf industry become breeding grounds for golf experts. Taking that one step further, it’s a natural leap of logic to transform that technical knowledge and passion for the sport into blogs, as Alpha Golf did with its website, shown in Figure 9-1. The blog not only discusses the company’s products and general company news, but the industry as a whole, from tours to individual players.

Figure 9-1. Alpha Golf uses a blog to discuss its products and the industry as a whole.

1.

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T H E C O R P O R AT E B L O G When a company can leverage its industry expertise into an interactive publishing platform that encourages reader feedback, it creates a winning situation for both parties. Fans of the organization have a place to gain industry insight from people and organizations they respect, and the business can connect with its customers on a direct but informal basis.

Insight into the process An increasingly common practice for technology companies is to support internal blogs discussing progress, landmarks, dilemmas, and achievements regarding the projects for which they are responsible. These blogs are generally technically focused and devoid of fluff. They are written by people immersed in the process for people who care about the process, and provide an unprecedented, telescopic viewpoint into an organization. Often, these blogs are written by a team. For instance, Microsoft employees write a number of internal development blogs. One of the most popular is IEBlog, where members of the Internet Explorer team regularly post about the latest developments in the browser and the browsing industry in general.2 This blog is heavily trafficked by web designers because it provides frontline insight into the future of the most prevalent browser on the planet, and thus deeply affects almost everything produced for the Web. As Internet Explorer 7 began climbing out of the beta stages of development, Chris Wilson, the team leader, posted two articles on Internet Explorer 7, standards, and forthcoming CSS compatibility.3 These posts aggregated nearly 600 comments each. They heralded a pivotal moment in web design, as thousands of web designers began planning for future compatibility of their websites. Without the expertise of Microsoft’s team and its willingness to share their information through a blog, industry professionals might never have been able to prepare as well as they ultimately did. This type of focused content into the business process is not limited to software manufacturers. Service-based companies also openly discuss their process and projects—blogs exist for architectural design teams, legal teams, advertising teams, consultancies, and more.

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All about the personality Sometimes the personality of a company leader is all it takes to make a successful corporate blog. Ideally the person will discuss issues facing the company, the future of the industry, major product insights, and other topics that the public would expect from a top-ranking figurehead, but it’s certainly not required if they carry tremendous charisma. (Chances are if Steve Jobs were to start blogging, his site would be in the top five mostread blogs on the planet, no matter what he wrote about.)

2. 3.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie “IE and Standards,” at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/03/09/391362.aspx, and “Standards and CSS in IE,” at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/07/29/445242.aspx

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Many company leaders are already widely known. Blogs inflate their fame and draw attention to their company. Bob Lutz, vice chairman of General Motors, blogs regularly.4 Others are not widely known but become famous after their blogs gain huge, dedicated followings. Joel Spolsky, author of the Joel on Software blog,5 brought unprecedented success to his development company, Fog Creek Software, after his posts started getting read by millions. His excellent writing, topical relevance, and fearless approach to the industry positioned him as a prominent thought leader. Naturally, a blog driven by a single authority in the company is a double-edged sword. It will get traffic simply based on their name and title, but its content has to be vigilantly monitored to avoid public relations nightmares. You may have an outspoken, intelligent CEO who makes great jokes, but whose comments are better left behind closed doors, not recorded for public consumption.

The bad, the good, and the better Corporations are constantly policed by their own internal PR and marketing departments, making sure their image is polished and presentable to the public. Blogs present the opportunity to strip away the veneer and let some of the raw thought process of the company show through. While that makes for an ulcer recipe for a PR executive, it also has the potential to benefit the company by establishing a more human face to the corporate entity.

The risks of business blogging Since companies are dependent upon their customer base, they have to delicately craft the content and direction of the blog. This is especially true for publicly traded companies, whose fortunes can rise and fall with the ebb and flow of public opinion. While any of the following issues can be solved or at least nipped in the bud before they grow out of hand, it’s best to avoid them altogether if possible: Trade secrets being leaked: Imagine if Coca-Cola’s secret formula were published on a blog, or detailed schematics of Intel’s computer chips, or the source code for Windows. Bad information being disseminated: The last thing you want is the public reading false rumors about the management team, incorrect earnings reports, rumblings of acquisitions, and so forth. Overwhelmingly negative response: While the old cliché “any publicity is good publicity” is true, it is only true to a certain extent. If a company’s blog generates nothing but negative, heated response from the public, it should be either taken down or realigned, because after awhile that negativity is going to become a feeding frenzy of bad media.

4. 5.

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T H E C O R P O R AT E B L O G Most of the risks of blogging can be addressed with training. The writers and designers of the blog need to know exactly what can and cannot be written about, and the audience needs to know exactly what behavior will be tolerated before being subjected to moderation. Once these wrinkles are ironed out, the organization can reap the benefits a wellstructured weblog.

Tangible benefits When it comes to business blogs, the benefits are both tangible and intangible. There are some that can be directly measured in numbers, or at least estimated within reason, and there are some that are very difficult to quantify, but whose results are plainly evident. The tangible benefits, some of which are listed following, tend to directly influence the success of the company. Deliver news faster: If a company chooses to make announcements via its website, there will be no faster mechanism than the corporate blog. Gain reader response: One of the most valuable aspects of operating a blog is the dialog it creates with customers. These aren’t idyllic case studies or paid spokespersons, but real-world patrons using your company’s offerings every day. Their insight and responses to different topics should be taken seriously. Unfiltered and unsolicited feedback is rarely so easy to come by. Increase traffic: Few areas of a corporate site are as interesting as the blog. People understand that this is where the action lies, and that it offers the best chance of finding the juiciest bits on the company. Adding a blog to a site can only increase readership. Increase search engine positioning: Blog posts are indexed highly in search engines for several reasons: they are topical and short, they are comprised of real HTML text for easier indexing, and they tend to get linked by other sites because their content is more compelling than the general marketing fluff present on other pages.

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Intangible benefits Just as important as the measurable advantages of corporate blogging are the peripheral benefits that are difficult to quantify. While it’s difficult to apply hard numbers to these, companies with well-organized blogs will realize these in some capacity. Position the business as an industry thought leader: If a business writes consistently about its process, products, services, the industry, and even its competition, it will earn itself the reputation of being a principal thinker in its field. When a prospect looks to make a decision between companies, and all other things are equal, that potential patron will choose the vendor who is vocal and passionate about its trade. Give the company a personality: It’s too easy to get swept up in the slick marketing copy prevalent on most business websites, so when readers come across an entire section written by a real person with a visible personality in the writing style, it can be a refreshing change of pace. As businesses grow, the tendency (intentional or not) is to become increasingly faceless and obtuse, so countering that with friendly, engaging writing can be very appealing to the audience.

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Blogging platforms Thanks to the consumer appeal and widespread adoption of blogs, there are many software and platform solutions for just about any situation. These packages range from free to several hundreds of dollars, from DIY to fully hosted, from open source to tightly licensed, from strictly blog-specialized software to complex, all-purpose CMSs. This section explores the different software packages available, including features, requirements, and scope. Since the range of software and solutions is so great, every possible option cannot be covered, and high-end CMSs (like Vignette) and solutions that are too complex for the average design team to configure are avoided.

Hosted platforms For those who lack the ability, time, or resources to implement a customized blog environment on an internal system, there are a number of plug-and-play websites that allow the near-instant creation of a complete blog. These are advantageous for companies seeking a simple, fast solution; they are not intended for companies desiring a fuller, feature-rich, configurable weblog. Most hosted blogs are burdened with several key shortcomings. Since they are often created from predesigned templates, they often have the appearance of being haphazardly stapled to the main corporate site without consideration for design continuity. Depending on the system, the alteration of these templates ranges from simple CSS and image alteration to the more intense customization of proprietary templating systems. On top of that, even if the primary design of the mother site can be approximated, their URLs can be disjointed with the rest of the site because they are not hosted locally, as you can see in Figure 9-2—although some hosted solutions allow clever redirecting or full DNS capability. Finally, hosted solutions run a slight risk of data loss simply because content is being entrusted to a third party. While hosted solutions run their own backup systems, if the service ever folds, copies of the content might be difficult to obtain. To help prevent this worst-case scenario, many hosted systems provide manual backup options. Also consider content restrictions. If the host company interprets any post to be offensive or running into the naughty section of their Terms of Use, individual entries or entire blogs can be taken down without explanation or justification, whether you consider the action warranted or not. Even after all these appreciable deficiencies, hosted blogs remain a viable option because their free, elegant systems allow rapid publishing with little resistance, avoiding some of the headaches that can arise with an internally managed platform. This is valuable to writers and editors who may not want to hurdle technology barriers in order to post content. There are a few hosted services available to companies today.

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Figure 9-2. Blogs hosted on third-party systems often have URLs that are different from their main site.

Blogger Blogger is the blogging tool owned and developed by Google.6 It is an immensely popular platform used across the world in dozens of languages by individuals who value express, push-button publishing. The site boasts well-designed templates, a simple but powerful user interface, and exceptionally fast publishing times. It is also completely free to use, including its advanced features.

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From a designer’s perspective, Blogger has two advantages. First, you can get under the hood and edit the presentation layer. Clever web designers can not only mess around with the HTML and proprietary Blogger tags in the templates, but also tweak the CSS, images, and more to wrangle a customized design out of the system. This customization is capped by Blogger’s inherent limitations (like the fact that a single template drives both the landing page and individual post pages, and functionality is limited to available tags), but this is usually sufficient if all that’s needed is a blog, not a whole site. The second advantage of Blogger is its ability to point the entire blog to a custom domain. This is accomplished by entering some general access information for a host (see Figure 9-3) and pointing the domain’s DNS records to ghs.google.com. This enables the business to use its established domain (e.g., blog.yourbusiness.com) rather than Google’s internal URL (yourbusiness.blogspot.com).

6.

www.blogger.com

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Figure 9-3. Blogger allows companies to point the blog toward a custom domain using Google’s nameservers.

WordPress.com WordPress is a popular piece of blog software. It comes in two flavors. wordpress.org is the home of the WordPress publishing platform itself, where you can download installation files, search the forums for help, and learn about different plug-ins that extend the system’s functionality. It is a CMS that is heavily biased toward blogs, and is covered in some detail in the next section. WordPress.com, by contrast, is the hosted version of the software. It operates along the lines of Blogger—users create an online account, name their blog, and start publishing almost immediately with a very intuitive interface and dozens of design templates to choose from, which can be changed instantly. It contains almost all of the tools of the traditional WordPress software, but without the need for a local installation. While WordPress.com offers writers tremendous flexibility in publishing options, the system itself can be harder to customize than Blogger. The template is fragmented into categories like CSS, Sidebar Widgets, Custom Image Header, and more, rather than being condensed into a flat template. As you can see in Figure 9-4, customization is limited to what the WordPress system will allow. Finally, WordPress.com also offers free domain pointing, a la Blogger, but it arrives with a fee of $10 per year. WordPress.com also charges for other upgrades, such as expanded storage and full editing capability of the CSS.

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Figure 9-4. WordPress.com allows users to edit pieces of the template, but does not allow full access to all the HTML driving the page.

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TypePad Six Apart, the company behind TypePad, is a pioneer of blogging software, having developed the venerable CMS Movable Type, which brought simplified commenting, trackbacks, archives, and more to the mainstream. While Six Apart still produces other advanced blogging platforms, TypePad is marketed as the hosted option for professional bloggers, as it allows for deep customization and advanced features not present in the other options. TypePad’s subscription-based model sets it apart from Blogger and WordPress.com. TypePad is not free to use. In fact, there are four levels to choose from—Basic, Plus, Pro, and Business Class, with prices ranging from a few dollars a month to well over a hundred dollars a month. Six Apart touts the latter as the “only enterprise-grade hosted blogging service,” and they’re probably right. The Pro and Business Class levels approach the functionality of custom-installed blogging software—domain mapping, multiple author levels, full template control, and more—but without the maintenance headaches. In addition, the paid service allows you to get under the hood and tinker with both the functionality and presentation. TypePad is the clear choice for companies who take their blogging seriously, and who want the raft of advanced features without the need for software installed on their own servers.

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Locally installed platforms Every hosted blog solution has its inherent limitations. Those systems are targeted toward the consumer not needing or wanting granular control over the design and structure. For any deep level of customization, a company should install, develop, and manage a local CMS. There are many to choose from, but most share some common requirements and capabilities. All of them allow full control over the presentation (including template editing and creation), the ability to develop an entire site (not just a blog), plug-ins, rich support content, and more. All of this culminates in seamless site integration. Users should never know that they are tapping into a variety of back-end systems when visiting different areas of a site—the design should be consistent from the About section to the blog to the support forum. This visual alignment can rarely be achieved through strict hosted environments. There are many, many CMSs to choose from. They come in all shapes and flavors, all levels of complexity, a range of licenses, and nearly endless bugs and shortcomings. There is no perfect system. However, for our purposes, some accommodate blogging with fewer headaches.

One great resource to keep bookmarked is Open Source CMS (www.opensourcecms.com), which allows the public to try out free, open source CMSs. Since all software is automatically reinstalled every 2 hours, visitors can experiment freely. The open source solutions described following—Textpattern, WordPress, and Drupal—are all available to test drive on the site.

Movable Type This system, created by Six Apart, pushed blogging functionality into the mainstream. Almost from day one, the software let designers use comments, trackbacks, RSS, archive pages, and static pages for a richer user experience. Movable Type (or MT, as it’s known by its users) is rock solid in terms of security, deep in terms of functionality, and extensible in terms of the host of plug-ins, hacks, and more that the wide user base has created. The system is available in a variety of licenses, from free personal licenses to multiuser licenses to an enterprise edition that affords businesses cutting-edge functionality such as user-specific permissions and support for Oracle databases. It is built for businesses and professional installations. Companies seeking technical support will find solace with Six Apart’s support center. With Movable Type’s rich language and highly scalable capabilities, this dedicated support is very appealing to companies wanting a professional-grade solution.

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Textpattern Textpattern is a free, open source, PHP-powered CMS.7 Despite the proliferation of similar products, the power of Textpattern lies in its elegant separation of content and structure, the simplicity of its templating system, the wide developer and user network, and the library of plug-ins that extend the core system. One of the great draws to Textpattern is its well-designed administrative interface (shown in Figure 9-5). The system allows for several types of roles and permission levels, so a group of users may have one master publisher, several writers without publishing capability, system admins, and designers. The architecture is virtually transparent—templates are 100 percent customized by the designer without any built-in code, so the CMS can blend in with any site. While Textpattern is a fully capable CMS, it excels at blogs. It has a configurable authoring environment and full commenting, and supports all of the technology designers expect in a blog, such as RSS syndication and archive pages.

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Figure 9-5. Textpattern offers writers a well-designed and functional authoring environment for blogging.

7.

www.textpattern.com

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WordPress WordPress was launched in 2003 as a user-friendly and standards-compliant PHP/MySQL solution for building websites.8 Unlike other CMSs, WordPress maintains a laser-like focus on being the best blogging solution available, instead of trying to be the best general CMS available. This dedication has earned it deep loyalty among its users, who have installed the software on hundreds of thousands of sites. WordPress also boasts a thriving community of contributors who lurk the forum, construct plug-ins, and add to the source code. While there is no formal support in place, almost any development question can be answered by searching through the vast knowledgebase that this cooperative has built. For businesses looking to get up and running quickly with a locally installed blogging solution, WordPress is the ideal candidate. For those looking for a richer, more extensible CMS with far greater functionality, consider one of the two following options.

Drupal Drupal is another open source CMS built on a PHP and MySQL foundation.9 It is a CMS by definition; blogging is only one application of a vast pool of functionality that includes peer-to-peer networking, forums, file and photo management, and much more. Because of the system’s breadth and depth, it requires a fair amount of technical know-how to get things done—server-side scripting and database management skills will serve a designer well when working in Drupal. Although the system is ready to go out of the box, its core is extended through modules, which are scripts that add chunks of functionality to the primary system (much like plugins for other systems). For instance, the Chat Room module allows registered users of the site to chat with one another in a JavaScript-powered window. Like most open source software, support is very much a find-it-yourself affair. As with Textpattern and WordPress, the forums are flooded with users asking questions. For professional support, the Drupal organization recommends hiring professional Drupal programmers—there is even a listing of qualified service-based companies on the Drupal site.

ExpressionEngine ExpressionEngine is a full-fledged CMS built by EllisLab that happens to do blogs very well, but also supports forums, wikis, member management, e-commerce, and more.10 The difference between ExpressionEngine and most systems is its license, which comes in three flavors: free, personal, and commercial. ExpressionEngine has a very well-organized support structure. Users of the free version have access to the knowledgebase, documentation, wikis, forums, developer area, and more, but users of the paid versions have access to unlimited technical support. Again, for personal bloggers and DIYers, this may seem gratuitous; for businesses accustomed to

8. www.wordpress.org 9. www.drupal.org 10. www.expressionengine.com

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T H E C O R P O R AT E B L O G paying for support services, this is a great deal. For a comparison of technical support, consult Table 9-1. Table 9-1. Blogging software comes in a variety of flavors

System

License

ServerSide

Database

Support Language

Internationaization/ Localization

Movable Type

Free to $279.95-plus

Perl 5.6 and above

MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL, BerkeleyDB

Online knowledgebase, community forum, technical support with paid versions

Yes

Textpattern

Free (BSD)

PHP 4.4.1 and above

MySQL 4.1.7 and above

Online knowledgebase, community forum

Yes

WordPress

Free (GPL)

PHP 4.2 and above

MySQL 4.0 and above

Online knowledgebase, community forum

Yes

Drupal

Free (GPL)

PHP 4.3.3 and above

MySQL 4.1 and above

Online knowledgebase, community forum

Yes

ExpressionEngine

Free to $249.95

PHP 4.1 and above

MySQL 3.23.32 and above

Online knowledgebase, community forum, technical support with paid versions

Yes

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Custom applications It is entirely possible that a business will scorn premanufactured software and choose to build an application with its internal development team. This choice may descend from technical limitations (for instance, its databases are in Sybase or its servers run IBM’s Domino platform, neither of which are supported by mainstream blog software) or from policy (some companies restrict the use of open source software). In either case, building a blog application is not difficult, but it needs to support certain technologies that readers of blogs expect: Chronological posting, permanent links, and archiving: Best practices in blogging dictate that the most recent content appears first, and that past posts are smartly organized in a public archive where people can browse older content. Weblog entries are constantly linked to by other sites, and it’s important to maintain the integrity of those links by giving each entry a permanent link (sometimes called a permalink), such as www.bigbizcorp.com/blog/2003/11/07/title-of-post.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Commenting: While some blogs eschew soliciting comments because of comment spam (covered later in the chapter), it remains an overwhelmingly standard feature on blogs. Posting content is only the first half of blogging. Comments facilitate a dialog between writer and audience, and encourage people to return for the conversation, not just new content from the host. RSS, Atom, and general content syndication: While the use of RSS is not mainstream—even among avid, educated blog readers—there are too many people and applications that employ the technology to ignore it. The technology is used by Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and other major personalities on the Web, and is steadily gaining in popularity as people become educated about RSS’s capabilities. Trackbacks: While not as critical as other technologies, trackbacks are still a building block of the modern blog community. They allow other blog writers to reference your business’s post by using your post’s original trackback; this acts as a small “ping” to let you know that someone else is talking about your article. There is a small, ongoing debate on whether trackbacks provide value or whether they’re just a gimmick of the blogging trend.11 There is no reason not to build a custom blogging application, but if all things are equal and your company can support the technology requirements of out-of-the-box software (see Table 9-1), then use a prebuilt solution. The core functionality, community of supporters, plug-ins, and more are already there. Even high-grade car manufacturers outsource their tire manufacturing because they understand companies that specialize in tires can do a far better and less expensive job outfitting their vehicles.

Implementation and architecture Whether using a custom application or a prebuilt solution, consider the architecture, design, and functionality of the corporate blog from the very beginning. Analyze and plan how this section will fit into the overall business site. Chances are there’s nothing else on your website to compare it to, so it’s a good idea to rely on best practices established by the web blogosphere. Since there are millions of blogs out there, thousands of them run by companies, there are plenty of examples from which to pull inspiration. There are many aspects of the blog architecture that need to be considered, such as adding the section to the site navigation, URL structure and link consistency, the overall look and feel, and the added functionality a blog requires, like RSS.

Adding the blog to the site menu A blog is only as important as the company deems it, and that level of importance is directly reflected in where the blog sits in the site navigation. There are many places to put it: directly in the main menu, as in Figure 9-6, tucked in a submenu (e.g., within the About section), or not linked at all (e.g., if the website is very large and the developer does not wish to clutter an already complicated navigation).

11. See www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/003307.html.

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Figure 9-6. If blogs are important to the company, they might become a top-level choice in the main menu.

Even if the blog has an official name, it’s probably better to keep the menu text Blog unless the name actually incorporates the word blog. (As an example, Bob Lutz, the vice chairman of General Motors, writes in the “Fastlane Blog.”) Clever names do not bode well for users unfamiliar with the company’s products or brand. Design Within Reach, a retailer that sells contemporary furniture, runs a corporate blog called Design Notes.12 Unfortunately, the name is so easily confused with the company’s products, or possibly a service, that it opens the door to uncertainty when sitting in the main menu.

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If a user has to click the name of your blog just to find out whether it is a blog or not, you need to reevaluate the menu. People look for the word blog. Anything else is just an invitation for confusion.

The URL structure Depending on how your blog is set up and whether you’re using a hosted solution, your blog may reside at several different URLs. None holds any particular advantage over the other except how easy it is for your visitors to remember. Some options include the following: A subdomain (e.g., blog.yourbiz.com): This is common when DNS information is pointing to a hosted solution. If you run your blog through Google’s Blogger service, for example, you could easily point the preceding sample domain to Google’s name servers and it would look like the content is being operated out of your own site. A subdirectory (e.g., www.yourbiz.com/blog/): This is more semantic, in the sense that the URL structure reinforces the idea that the blog is an integrated subsection of the greater site. Having a subdirectory like this would require locally installed software.

12. www.dwr.com

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES A different domain entirely (e.g., www.yourbizblog.com): This presents an opportunity to brand and market a blog in a completely different direction than the main corporate site. It does present a discontinuous architecture, however, and unless executed well, may come off as gimmicky or amateur. Since the organization of content is largely chronological, the structure may differ from the rest of the static pages—instead of www.yourbiz.com/about/contact/, the directory structure might reflect the actual date of the post, like www.yourbiz.com/blog/ 2007/05/22/this-entry-rocks. Every blog post must have a permanent URL. This is the unique location of the post, established when the content is first published to accommodate incoming links for the duration of the blog’s existence. This permanency prevents link rot. The last thing any business wants is a first-time visitor landing on a 404 page because the blog entry is no longer online or has moved to a new location because of flaky URL policy. Thankfully, all the CMSs covered earlier in the chapter automatically generate an entry’s permanent link. Sometimes this is a physical HTML file sitting in a physical set of directories (in the case of Movable Type, the system actually generates a file for each entry), and sometimes it’s a clever bit of programming (in the case of Textpattern, the .htaccess file is used to dynamically generate any URL combination on the fly).

Archive pages In addition to a consistent and manageable URL structure with permanent links, every blog needs an archive to house older content. This is not optional. Because blogs produce so much content, it is imperative that they be searchable from the first day of publication. This not only helps search engines keep tabs on the body of writing, but helps visitors who enjoyed a recent article to find others like it within the blog’s back catalog of content. There are many, many ways to design an archive section. The more content that needs to be organized, the more cumbersome the process of archiving becomes, and so it’s imperative to keep usability and accessibility at the forefront of all design work. Content can be organized by whatever aspect of metadata will resonate most deeply with users. Consider the following options: Chronological ordering: All posts are listed by date, either backward or forward. Ordering by keywords or tags: Posts can be searched and ordered by specific words that describe the content. This can also be represented by a weighted tag cloud.13 Categorical ordering: Generally, blog entries are filed into particular categories, like “New Widget Releases,” “General Company News,” “Personal Announcements,” and so on.

13. For more information about tag clouds and how to create your own for free, consult www.tagcloud.com.

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T H E C O R P O R AT E B L O G Alphabetical ordering by title: This isn’t particularly efficient unless the first word of the title is indicative of the rest of the content. Ordering by important data field: If a travel agency posts every blog entry from a different location in the world, its blog entries should be searchable by location. If possible, keep all posts visible on one page. Splitting an archive across more than one web page defeats the purpose of a person being able to browse all content from one location. However, a blog with a lot of entries might require more than one way of organizing the archives, as shown in Figure 9-7. Chronological ordering might be the default method, but offering a tag cloud or categorical arrangement can also be very beneficial to readers looking for specific classes of content. Having fancy ways to browse stuff can also make you look cooler.

Figure 9-7. It is entirely reasonable to provide users with multiple ways of searching the content.

Look and feel 9

Designers often refer to a site’s interface as the “look and feel.” Mountains of thought, planning, and production work go into developing a site design that brands the corporation in a way that reflects its values, services, and attitude. This is what makes the web space so valuable. Companies can present themselves exactly how they wish, and many spend a lot of money doing just that. A corporate blog should look like it is an integral part of the parent company, not a redheaded stepchild created by some maverick designer. Although new pieces of the design puzzle are required for the content and functionality introduced by a blog (e.g., building the display of comments and the commenting form), this only reinforces the need to maintain design continuity between the sections. In other words, just because a blog requires a few new nuggets of design, it does not need to be a whole new design. See Figure 9-8 for an example of consistency between the blog and the rest of the corporate site. Developers, designers, marketing mavens, and everyone else involved in the site design needs to avoid the temptation to use prebuilt templates for the blog. There are literally thousands of templates created for the major platforms (especially WordPress, which allows bloggers to switch between templates in a matter of seconds), and many of them admittedly look halfway decent. However, no third-party template will ever be as good as a custom design measured and tailored to blend with the rest of the corporate site.

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Figure 9-8. This company maintains strong design consistency between the blog and the rest of the corporate site.

Blogging content Now that we have covered the technical, design, and architectural considerations for corporate blogs, the discussion veers toward what these things actually support: content. Without good content, a blog is dead in the water. While the rest of a business website can get by on lack of personality, buzzwords, and colorless public relations, if readers smell anything less than genuineness in a blog, they will abandon the site without a second thought. Many of the principles covered in Chapter 2 are as true for blogs as they are for any website. Even though a blog is often a personal endeavor, even within a company, writing for the audience and not the ego will always win more readers because they feel they are being catered to, not treated like passive voyeurs. When planning a corporate blog, there are many aspects of the text that need to be considered with as much thought as the design. The rest of the chapter delves into these questions. Taking them lightly can be detrimental to the success of the corporate blog, because even a million-dollar design and clever interactive widgets can’t save bad content.

Who writes the content? Short answer: Not the PR department. Long answer: Just about anyone in the company, depending on the focus, intent, and audience of the blog. As long as there is an authentic voice, and the person or group behind the blog is real, any aspect of the company can be illuminated by the insight of different personalities. The second a blog becomes a public relations machine, content becomes homogenized. The voice goes flatter than a press release prepped for the shredder, and traffic dwindles to a trickle as readers switch to C-SPAN for more gripping entertainment.

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T H E C O R P O R AT E B L O G There are several different options when it comes to authoring blogs. Some are dependent on the size of the company, others are regulated by internal policies, and still others are a result of interest. If no one in the company has any fascination with writing a blog about their employer, it’s best not to force the issue in the hopes of gaining some silly marketing ground. However if everyone wants to contribute, then the corporation has a “good” problem—it’s just a matter of narrowing down the number of volunteers to find the right talent.

Everyone in the company If the company is small enough, everyone can play a role. Some small consultancies, service-based shops, and niche retailers are perfectly equipped for this. Since the staff is small (usually less than ten), and just about everyone employed is an expert in their area, any or all of them are qualified to write in the corporate blog, and there are enough hands in the kitchen where no one cook has all the responsibility. This holistic effort can give the reader a better grasp on the perspective and personalities of the company, and forge a stronger connection with existing customers, potential prospects, and the legitimately curious.

A defined team For larger companies, where an all-hands-on-deck policy is not feasible, a blog may be run by a small team or department. This provides many of the advantages discussed previously—multiple topical experts, different personalities, and shared responsibility. However, since a specific segment of a larger company is involved, the blog can afford to be narrow in focus but deep in exploring content. Of course, this only works well if it’s a team the public cares about, which means it should be a team that is doing (or at least saying) something unique. Most companies would find few readers if their accounting department ran a blog, but any time research and development, sales, and other public-facing areas are involved, people cling to every word.

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Software and technology companies use this technique very well. Earlier in the chapter, we discussed the immense popularity and industry gravitas the Microsoft IEBlog maintains. Microsoft runs similar blogs for other products, with equal success. Other technology companies like Sun, Google, Yahoo, and Apple also run team blogs about products, and they are well-read throughout the industry because the public recognizes these writers as product specialists. No one knows more about a project than the people actually bringing it to fruition.

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An interesting individual (including the CEO) More often than not, corporate blogs are written and maintained by an individual. This brings a different dynamic to the table than a group, because almost all of the advantages of a team effort are transformed into requirements for the singular author. Instead of having the cushion of multiple personalities, a single writer must have enough personality in their writing and topic choices to carry the flag alone. This responsibility is not for everyone. It requires a mental tenacity for both sticking to a regular publishing schedule and weathering negative comments, which, in a corporate environment, are almost expected. In addition, this person must be one of the following:

1. The absolute go-to guy in his area of expertise: This includes executives, product managers, industry specialists, lead developers, top producers, and chief engineers. In other words, this is the person regarded within their own company as the top dog. They are the question answerers, the rain makers, the ones with the sign on the desk that says “the buck stops here.” They command respect within the company, and therefore demand respect from the blog audience.

2. Be interesting enough that the first point is irrelevant: When Robert Scoble was an employee at Microsoft and started blogging about his company and technology in general, he did not retain a particularly important role in Microsoft, nor did he even focus the writing on his work.14 But he was a prolific writer, an engaging personality, and had a knack for rattling cages in the tech world, which his audience loved. This brings us to executive blogging. The trend toward CEOs blogging about their company and industry has skyrocketed, and there are many arguments both in favor and against. Many regard CEOs with obvious suspicion; their job, after all, is to make money for the company, not spend time sounding off about current events. Whether the blog is utilized as a PR move or written with honesty and integrity is entirely based on the individual. Bob Parsons, CEO of Go Daddy, runs a blog called Hot Points (shown in Figure 9-9).15 There is probably no better example of a CEO who blogs with authenticity—he writes about his company and the controversies it faces (usually regarding its provoking advertisements), the domain registration industry, life as a CEO, and more. He accepts comments and responds to reader feedback, and conveys his thoughts with personality and clarity. Although many would no doubt find his writing in questionable taste for a CEO of a multimillion dollar company, no one would say Mr. Parsons is boring.

14. www.scobleizer.com 15. www.bobparsons.com

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Figure 9-9. Bob Parsons, CEO of Go Daddy, writes a popular blog.

Topics and themes

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Depending upon your point of view, corporate blogs are in the envious position of being able to narrowly focus the content. Individual bloggers have free reign over their content—they can write about their cat, their job, their girlfriends, their hobbies, and whatever other topic happens to float by that day. Corporate blogs, by contrast, have to remain professional and focused on themes their audience expects. The overall content may be comprised of one or a combination of the following topics: Information directly related to the company itself: This might be financial statements, product releases, customer success stories, press coverage, or any other bit about the business entity as a whole. Information related to the writers of the blog: Since this might include either a team or an individual, the range of topics could span from personal notices (“Hey, just got a new laptop!”) to important team announcements (“We’re finally launching this product we’ve been working on for three years.”). Thoughts about the industry: This is where most bloggers head. Since there’s only so much a person can write about their own company and its accomplishments, it’s only a matter of time before industry analysis and news coverage makes its way into the blog. This is a nearly infinite space for blog punditry to thrive.

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Original thoughts vs. reactionary writing As a blog writer, you have two paths to take when you sit down to compose a new entry. You can either create something original, or you can react to someone else’s thought. Neither is wrong, and neither is more right than the other. In fact, both have their advantages. An original thought does not need to be the next 95 Theses nailed to the blogosphere’s door. It doesn’t even have to shake the foundation of society or even rattle the cages of others in the community. It just needs to be original. This could range from a simple observation to complicated analysis. Reactionary writing is the other side of the argument. Someone says, “The sky is blue,” and 50 other sites will jump on the original thought with agreement, argument, disinterest, and more. One site will say, “Yes, it’s blue, but it also has white clouds,” another will claim, “My sky is not blue, it’s black,” and still another will say, “Who cares what you think?” Reactionary writing is a critical part of the Web. It shows that other people are reading what you write and care enough to post their own thoughts. There are several substantial benefits to original content over reaction-based entries. People want to read new material, and a blog will develop a loyal audience if it continually publishes original, thought-provoking content. Also, a fresh thought is much more likely to attract incoming links. This not only leads more readers to the site, but substantially boosts search engine mojo. The best blogs have a combination of original thoughts and reactionary writing. This mixes up the content and demonstrates variety in thinking. If posts are comprised of only original thoughts, a company may be viewed as a thought-leader but oblivious or disinterested in the rest of the community; similarly, if all writing is reactionary, that writer becomes notorious for not having anything original to contribute.

Best practices in content Writing for a blog is a bit different than other media. It lacks the longevity of the formal marketing language that appears on the rest of the site, and at the same time is much looser in style than traditional media writing. While it is very much a growing segment of the Web, and constantly under refinement, several best practices have come to light. Be generous with links. Too many sites are stingy with outgoing links, fearful that their readers will skip off the site, never to return. Consider this: if you pique the reader’s interest with a reference to another site without providing a direct link, that reader will probably take the time to search for that reference outside your site anyway. Then they will not have the opportunity to click back to your site, and the reference may be lost. Link profusely and often, and the favor will be returned by others. Always link to the page you’re discussing, not the root of the site. For instance, if referencing the book review of Web Standards Solutions on graphicPUSH, do not just link to www.graphicpush.com; instead, send readers to www.graphicpush.com/book-review-webstandards-solutions. Save users that extra step of searching.

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T H E C O R P O R AT E B L O G Finally, do not launch a new browser window with links to outside sites. It smacks of bad usability (breaking the Back button for starters) and insinuates that users cannot be trusted to return without having the site sitting underneath the new window. If people want to return to a site, they will find a way—it is exactly what the browser’s Back button was designed for. Respect your employer. Since this is a corporate blog hosted by your employer, respect them when writing. Forrester, a research firm, conducts quite a bit of research on blogging, and published a paper called “Blogging: Bubble or Big Deal?” in 2004 (this paper has since been released for free). Within that short paper, Charlene Li, the author, crafted six policy items for corporate blogging:

1. Make it clear that the views expressed in the blog are yours alone and do not necessarily represent the views of your employer.

2. Respect the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information. 3. Ask your manager if you have any questions about what is appropriate to include in your blog.

4. Be respectful to the company, employees, customers, partners, and competitors. 5. Understand when the company asks that topics not be discussed for confidentiality or legal compliance reasons.

6. Ensure that your blogging activity does not interfere with your work commitments.16 Follow general blogging policies. The general blogging community also has a few general guidelines for writing and administering a blog. These apply to corporate sites as much as personal sites, and following them will make for a more communicative and respectful audience.

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Respond to feedback. Respond to comments when asked a direct question, and always respond to email as promptly as possible. Never delete a post, and never delete a comment unless it violates your commenting policy. Never write anything that is knowingly false. Always spell check and double check accuracy of information. Always link directly to a cited document. Staying true to these simple guidelines will produce stronger content, consistency in writing, more involved community management, and more faithful readers. People want to know that they are on a site that respects them.

16. Charlene Li, “Blogging: Bubble or Big Deal? When and How Businesses Should Use Blogs,” Forrester, November 5, 2004 (www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,35000,00.html).

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Comments and comment moderation While the idea of a public journal was an intriguing idea, it was the widespread adoption of soliciting comments from readers that rocketed blogs into the upper stratosphere of popularity. Millions of blogs later, comments are so ingrained into the technology that the ideas of weblog and reader response have become synonymous—in other words, a blog without comments is hardly a blog. However, any new paradigm on the Web has its angels and devils. There are basically three different kinds of comments: the good, the ugly, and the bad. Good comments are constructive, thoughtful, relevant, and personal; they are what the pioneers of the technology envisioned when they first built a response form. Ugly comments are on topic, but intensely negative in nature; personal attacks, flame wars, and outright slander all fit under this black umbrella. The bad comments are the biggest nuisance to writers—they are off-topic, impersonal, and usually auto-generated by scripts. They are better known as comment spam. Blog administrators need to be proactive in the management of comments. This is a twopronged initiative. The first order of business is addressing the live audience (i.e., real people), and the second is combating the ever-growing wave of comment spam.

Moderating the human element Thankfully, on most blogs, the readership rarely crosses the line from benevolent populace to malicious mob. People generally understand the need for civility, humility, and levelheaded conversation in blog comments, and it’s a small minority who deviate from that. Working with your audience to maintain a positive commenting environment is not difficult, but it takes assiduousness and patience. The most important thing to be done outright is post your commenting policy right next to the submission form so that all readers are well aware of what you will and will not tolerate. This does not have to be a tangle of legalese, or even long; simply stating the obvious can be enough to make would-be flame war starters think twice. Remind people that off-topic and malicious attacks will be removed without hesitation, and clearly state your position on potentially offensive language (is it a family-oriented site?), commercial solicitations, and anything else that might disrupt the conversation. Of course, there will be some who simply ignore your policies. When it comes to actual comment moderation, you can employ several techniques: Require a valid e-mail address in the comment form. Require anyone wishing to leave a comment be a registered member of the site. This will deter drive-by commentators who have no vested interest in the community, as registering can often take far longer than writing the comment itself. Do not allow immediate publishing. Comments can be placed into a queue and individually approved by a moderator. This is a drastic technique, but by far the most effective in derailing offending comments before they make it to the live site.

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T H E C O R P O R AT E B L O G Ban specific IP addresses. If you find that one person is continually sending disruptive comments from the same IP address, ban that address from being able to see your site. Most CMSs support this, but it can also be done through an .htaccess file on Apache servers.

Banning IP addresses on Apache servers. To deny IP addresses using the .htaccess file on Apache servers, simply insert the following lines of code into the file: order allow,deny deny from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx deny from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx allow from all Replace the xxx figures with the appropriate numbers of the IP address. Once this is done, anyone trying to see your site from that IP will see nothing but an Error 403 Forbidden page, which can be customized or left to the server to display its default.

Combating comment spam Although disruption by readers can be a nuisance to a blog administrator, it pales in comparison to the havoc wreaked by comment spam. Its ubiquity and methodical plundering of millions of blog entries makes it the most effective spam delivery mechanism since e-mail servers and clients were left open on unprotected networks in the 1990s. Unfortunately, comment spammers don’t usually expect their links to be clicked. Their intentions are more subtle. Since blogs are easily indexed and highly favored by search engines for their high-linking tendencies and communicative nature, spammers recognize that links placed on these blogs will be quickly found by Google, MSN, Yahoo, and others and help the target websites gain visibility in search engine results pages. That’s why these comments don’t even try to mask themselves as real comments—as you can see in Figure 9-10, they’re often just a list of domains.

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Thankfully, software writers and blog administrators have implemented several strong techniques for repelling the onslaught. Since these comments are usually delivered by a script, not a human being, their patterns can be predicted. The Spamhaus Project,17 a UK-based organization looking to fight spam on all fronts, publishes the Spamhaus Block List (SBL), which is a constantly updated roll call of known offending IP addresses. Many CMSs are built to reference this database in real time to determine if the posting party’s IP address is listed as a no-no on the SBL. Another spam-fighting technique involves running comments through Akismet,18 which analyzes each comment, and then sends back a positive or negative message to the host system. The Akismet system is free for personal and nonprofit usage, with commercial licenses available. The system is available for most major blogging packages, including WordPress, Textpattern, and Movable Type.

17. www.spamhaus.org 18. www.akismet.com

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Figure 9-10. Comment spam is often just a list of URLs.

Even if comment spam does get through, blog authors and designers can implement a “no-follow” policy on all links, which negates any search engine benefit a piece of spam might have. In January of 2005, Google announced that any link with the attribute of rel="nofollow" will not be indexed or followed by any search engine crawling the page.19 A link containing this attribute might look like this: discount drugs This attribute is recognized and supported by most major blog software manufacturers, community websites, and major search engines. (As a side note, it may be worth mentioning in the commenting policy of the blog that all links are automatically given this attribute.)

Summary As of late 2006, about 8 percent of the Fortune 500 companies are blogging in some capacity, and this number is only growing.20 Even though many of the benefits of a corporate blog are difficult to quantify, the pros overwhelm the cons with such conviction that it seems only a matter of time before all businesses will add some sort of blogging activity to their website. As the general web community becomes increasingly savvy and more willing to have its voice heard in online discussions, it is up to individual corporations to leverage this new model of thinking into a proactive communication vehicle.

19. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html 20. Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki (www.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi)

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1 0 CUSTOMER SUPPORT

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES It’s difficult to imagine that in less than a generation, the Internet has revolutionized how companies exist in the marketplace—how they are created, where they spend their marketing dollars, how competition is analyzed, and how they support their existing customer base. In the dark ages before the world became networked, customers had to rely on phone and mail. While these worked for their generation, the increasingly breakneck speed at which people demand information has made the near-instant capabilities of the Web indispensable as a support tool. Customer support means a lot of different things, and its scale of implementation is dependent on the nature of a company’s product or service. A company that manufacturers and sells hammers and saws does not have a lot that can go wrong; a missed or incorrect shipment, a broken handle, or maybe a defective blade might constitute the bulk of complaints. By contrast, a software company, especially one that sells multiple products, requires a far richer customer support infrastructure because the variety, nature, and magnitude of the inquiries will span the gamut from minor nuisance to apocalypse-level disaster. Despite the near-endless variety of services and products sold by businesses, two things are constant in the world of online customer support:

1. Ninety-nine percent of companies need it. 2. Ninety-nine percent of companies fail to do it well (or at all), even if they think they do. Any company that does business has customers. At some point, one of them is going to visit the company website looking to solve a problem, and whether they realize it or not, they are going to judge the company heavily based on their experience. Businesses that handle support well have a huge competitive advantage. The Web provides an opportunity for companies to answer customer questions before the customer actually makes contact, dramatically decreasing staffing costs and headaches from both parties. A large percentage of people ask the same few questions over and over. Providing even rudimentary information can empower customers to find their own answers, even if it’s as little as a short FAQ that handles these common queries.

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The ROI of support ROI (return on investment) is a principal number in the world of business. When it can be quantified, it is represented by a single percentage number and accompanied by the length of time it took a company to reach that particular ROI (e.g., Acme Textiles saw a 154 percent return on their investment after only three weeks). For CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and other company leaders, it can be the ultimate bottom line. Many a mid-level manager and vendor has had to meticulously calculate and forecast the ROI for their project, because for those making the final decision, ROI answers the simple question, “What’s in it for me?” A well-executed and maintained customer support section of a corporate website can deliver tremendous ROI, both quantifiable and not. Businesses and analysts call this functionality “self-service.” The customer is encouraged to answer their own question using the company’s website, which results in many hard savings, along with less tangible benefits, as you’ll see shortly.

Save money There are many studies quantifying the hard savings involved in building detailed support material for customers. A company’s initial outlay involves constructing the technical infrastructure (additional servers, third-party software, custom programming), plus the time it takes the company’s writers and information architects to actually draft the support material. However, once up and running, a support portal can be stable for years—a few bits of information, terminology, and phrases may change over time, but the architecture exists to support future documents. Without the support portal acting as a filter, every incoming request drains a support team’s time. A typical phone call might involve one or more of the following timeconsuming activities: Speaking on the phone diagnosing the problem

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Writing e-mail Researching the answer Updating the corporate CRM Discussing the problem with fellow employees or managers if the solution is not evident A self-service support portal can dramatically reduce this resource consumption. Any company with dedicated support personnel knows how much customer service costs—every phone call, e-mail, and minute spent researching can be distilled down to hard costs. In a study done by Nucleus Research, a company called nanoCom reduced call center calls by building a detailed FAQ on its website; the resulting ROI was a 978 percent payback in only seven weeks.1 Coupled with additional online documentation, the support portal shown in Figure 10-1 became a major cost reducer.

1.

Nucleus Research, “ROI Case Study: RightNow eService Center, nanoCom Corporation,” Research Note D44 (www.rightnow.com/pdf/nanoComcasestudy.pdf).

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Figure 10-1. NanoCom saw tremendous ROI in only seven weeks by adding a detailed FAQ for the product iSpQ VideoChat. The support website uses a third-party product called WebQA.

Improve customer satisfaction When a company goes out of its way to serve and support customers, it develops a reputation for excellence in client care. This reputation is anything but immediate; it’s a very long and difficult process, and the best place to start is the corporate website. Providing an abundance of useful information gives customers answers at their time of need. When customer satisfaction improves (and this variable can be measured if a company wishes to make the effort), two benefits immediately surface. First, customers will buy more products and services. Second, satisfied customers will provide the kind of marketing money can’t buy: positive word of mouth.

Entice and inform prospects There is one final piece of the ROI puzzle that might be less obvious. When a website maintains a strong support section and businesses go out of their way to publish accurate, updated, and usable information, they serve prospects as well as customers.

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CUSTOMER SUPPORT Marketing material only goes so far in selling goods. Since it’s designed to persuade, people are understandably wary; after all, no one wants to admit to being persuaded. As with purchasing a house, prospective buyers will rarely base a major financial decision on the agent’s brochure—they want to explore the grounds, look in the closets, flush the toilets, tap on the walls, and generally poke around the space to get a better feel for the investment. A public support area offers people the same opportunity to evaluate products and services. It allows them to get their questions of nuance answered—the tiny details that can affect the final decision. It also enables people to see if the prospective vendor meets their expectations for support itself, if there is interaction between customers and the host within the site (e.g., in a forum), and how the company treats suggestions, criticism, and praise.

Support options Over the years, different techniques and technologies for customer support have surfaced. Some of them are as old as the Web itself (e.g., the ubiquitous FAQ); others are a result of new technology opening up opportunities for service (such as interactive chat). As we discussed in the beginning of the chapter, some companies will require minimal customer support, and others will necessitate complex portals to meet client demands.

The FAQ The FAQ is an Internet standard. When the list of topics is thorough and the answers are good, a simple list of common queries can be extremely effective. The vast majority of people understand what a FAQ is, and because of this, many will try to answer their question there first—especially if the subject matter is fundamental. Consider it the first line of support. A FAQ can be as topically deep as a company wishes, but there is a fine line between too minimal an approach and overwhelming the visitor with content. The goal of a FAQ should be to address exactly what its name implies—questions that are common among users or prospects. Riddling the section with minor technical details, esoteric scenarios, frivolous assumptions, and other distracting riffraff can be as detrimental as leaving out major answers.

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Usability is a key ingredient to the success of a FAQ. The design should be clean and readable, with an emphasis on categorization and scanning, all of which will help people find their question faster.

Avoid the easy yes/no In terms of content, questions should be phrased to avoid simple yes-or-no answers. Responses should be moderately detailed, but completely resolve the query. Imagine browsing a FAQ for a fabric company. Here is an example of a poorly structured inquiry: Question: Do you offer custom patterns? Answer: Yes.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES While this accurately answers the question, it provides no detail, and does not help the reader find out how the company addresses custom patterns, much less the next step in using those services. FAQs can be leveraged as minor marketing vehicles. If a prospect sees everything they want in your product after consulting the FAQ, help them make contact with your company to procure their business. Here is an improved example: Question: I’m interested in your fabric, but what if I need a custom pattern? Answer: Acme Textiles is happy to address the unique needs of our customers by offering a full range of custom pattern reproduction on all of our fabric options. For pricing, please see our detailed pricing chart, or call 1-800-555-8866 to speak with our knowledgeable sales staff. Notice that the question could not be answered with a simple yes or no—it demands an explanation. In this example, the response is immediately affirmative while boasting about the company’s great product line, and follows that up with two simple options for getting more information. The response weaves a subtle marketing flavor into the text, which works well for FAQs addressing prospects. For FAQs handling the problems of existing customers, much more straightforward language is appropriate. Here’s an example: Question: I was shipped the wrong color. What do I do? Answer: While we strive for accuracy in ordering, we occasionally make mistakes. Please call our support staff immediately at 1-800-555-8866 to receive instructions for returning the incorrect order, and to confirm the details of the correct order so we can ship it without delay. This response admits that the company is at fault, and provides a means of immediate rectification. There is no attempt to market services or speak over the customer’s head—just a straightforward reply to a very real problem. We’ll cover writing support content later in the chapter.

Designing the FAQ The architecture of a FAQ is clear-cut: there is a list of questions, and each one has an answer. If there are a substantial number of entries, the FAQ should have subheads to intelligently categorize the content. The simplicity of the content opens the door for different design options. Listing the questions in a linear fashion can be complemented with simple collapse/expand JavaScript functionality that dramatically shortens the initial page length and has more of a table-of-contents feel, as shown in Figure 10-2. For deeper FAQs, a slightly different architecture should be considered. One popular option is to keep the list of questions in the top half of the web page, and all of the answers in the bottom half. When people click a question from the leading list, they are transported to the point of the web page where the answer starts. This is accomplished through simple inline anchor tags. For instance, this might be the question at the top of the page: I'm interested in your fabric, ➥ but what if I need a custom pattern?

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CUSTOMER SUPPORT And this might be the answer further down:

Acme Textiles is happy to address the unique ➥ needs of our customers by offering a full range of custom pattern ➥ reproduction on all of our fabric options. For pricing, please ➥ see our detailed pricing chart, or ➥ call 1-800-555-8866 to speak with our knowledgeable sales staff.

Figure 10-2. The example on the left shows frequently asked questions in a single, linear format; the example on the right demonstrates how that same list can be shortened with simple expand/collapse JavaScript functionality.

This, like the earlier example, presents the questions like a table of contents, but can still be used when JavaScript is disabled. It also gives each FAQ entry a unique URL, such as www.acmetextiles.com/faq.html#customfabric, so that they can be individually bookmarked or referenced from another page. When a FAQ begins to expand, the section must branch out beyond a single web page. One central list of all questions can be maintained on one page, but each question links to a separate, individual web page for the entry, so a user might arrive at a URL like www.acmetextiles.com/faq/custom-color. This flattened architecture allows for a more scalable system.

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Bear in mind that if a multi-page hierarchy becomes necessary, the content begins to stretch the fundamental definition of a FAQ, and we find ourselves reaching the next stop along the knowledge management train ride: the knowledgebase.

The Knowledgebase A company’s knowledgebase (alternately written as two words—knowledge base—or abbreviated KB) is a very rich, content-oriented environment that houses everything the corporation wants to share about their products or services. For smaller or service-heavy companies, a FAQ fulfills this need nicely. For companies producing an array of products, or whose technology touches many industries and third-party products, a knowledgebase is essential for collecting, organizing, and presenting a nearly unlimited amount of information.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Knowledgebases are extremely popular with software companies. Microsoft’s Help and Support center is one of the most well-known knowledgebases.2 It contains thousands upon thousands of public articles that can be referenced by employees, consultants, IT professionals, and the general troubleshooting public. Other major software and technology companies such as Novell, Apple, Texas Instruments, and Corel retain similar environments.

Standardized format vs. the library approach The content of a knowledgebase typically takes two paths. The first is a standardized article format, where all content is presented in the same template, searchable within the same section, and typically tagged with a unique ID number. This is how Microsoft operates—every article has a unique code (e.g., 907586) that gives the article a permanent identity in the knowledgebase database. This code is placed in a prominent position inside the article’s web page so that users can note it for future reference. The second methodology treats the knowledgebase as a traditional library. It becomes a repository of a variety of document formats, with little or no design continuity between them, tied together only by the fact that they somehow support the customer. See Figure 10-3 for an example of a library-style approach.

Figure 10-3. A knowledgebase can take on a library-like feel when it houses a variety of document types.

2.

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CUSTOMER SUPPORT Neither of these approaches is better than the other—it depends entirely on the internal definition of the knowledgebase. A singular format is easier to maintain from a database point of view as every document will follow the same template for content and metadata, but there is value in distributing generic help files, PDF documentation, whitepapers, and more in their natural state.

Search: Don’t deploy without it Because a knowledgebase is designed to contain a vast amount of content—quite possibly more than any other part of the corporate website—it must be designed to help users find very specific, targeted information. Where a FAQ must be easy to browse, a knowledgebase must be easy to search. In fact, providing the opportunity to browse is secondary in importance; only a severe minority of users will even attempt to manually navigate a knowledgebase of any substantial size. A knowledgebase requires a dedicated search, and should not be lumped into the general site search. Users should know before they enter a single word that the results will be exclusive to the knowledgebase. Designing search for a knowledgebase is a bit different than general site search. Since there is typically a voluminous amount of information to sift through, it has to be treated as more of a general web search, with the search box prominent and focused on immediate use. See Figure 10-4 for an example.

Figure 10-4. The knowledgebase search should be simple and prominent.

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As you can see from Figure 10-4, a knowledgebase-specific search should have the following: A prominent presence in the page: The landing page for a knowledgebase should have the search function highlighted, front and center, without any ambiguity about its functionality and exclusivity. A long search field: Typical queries are two or three words long; for a knowledgebase, this could easily be a much lengthier string. For instance, users might search Microsoft’s Help and Support center for an entire error message—a precise string that could be a dozen or more words. An additional filter: This optional filter confines searches to certain products or document types (whitepaper, documentation, third-party technical article), or any other segregation that makes sense to the user. If a filter is used, the default should always be to search the entire knowledgebase. Lack of complexity: Do not ask users to only type in human-like questions, never mention Boolean search phrases, and make the link to any advanced search capability small with the understanding that a minute percentage of users will actually use it.

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Documentation How many times have you purchased a product, put it together, and promptly threw away the manual? How many times have you purchased software, got it installed, and misplaced the documentation at exactly the same time the program crashes? Almost every product comes with some documentation, from quick install guides to 500-page tomes. These printed materials are hard to replace once they’ve been lost, and companies rarely sell the documentation separately. The support section of a website is the perfect medium for delivering digital versions of product documentation. The good news is that this material almost never needs to be converted to HTML. PDF is ideal—most users will be looking for a replica of the actual printed material, which can contain copious screenshots, illustrations, symbols, variations in typography, and complex layouts designed to convey the information accurately.

Best practices in long-format PDFs Ordering a double tall nonfat latte at Starbucks requires more time than page layout programs such as Quark Xpress, Adobe InDesign, or even Microsoft Word need to convert a manual into a web-ready PDF. Chapter 8 covered some important tips for rendering short marketing collateral as PDFs, including keeping the file size small, linking links, retaining the integrity of text, and more. All of these practices still apply. However, product documentation can be lengthy, and in order to keep file sizes manageable, apply these additional practices: Squeeze the compression just a little more: In Chapter 8 we advocated using the preset [Smallest File Size] when rendering a PDF. If a document contains a lot of images, consider reducing the pixels per inch variables even further—72 for color images and 200 for monochrome images. Build a table of contents: Acrobat enables users to craft a table of contents using the Bookmarks feature, which produces a list of page links in the left column so that the audience can easily jump around the document without manually scrolling through every page linearly. Some programs, such as Microsoft Word, automatically generate this list when rendering a PDF when the content is marked up with appropriate headers.

Forums At the time of this writing, the Web 2.0 fad/buzzword is sweeping the Internet like a virulent mist, clinging to and infecting hundreds of marketing roadmaps, software specs, and business plans as forward-thinking companies try to grab onto the next wave. At the center of these new marketing channels is user-generated content—fan blogs, social networks, content syndication, API mash-ups, and more. It’s a great set of ideas, except that it’s largely been done before with simple, pedestrian forums. A forum can be a massive asset to a company’s support effort. By acknowledging that their customers have a voice—and that many of them are just as smart as their own employees— companies can be confident that their forums will grow into sprawling repositories of information. If traditional knowledgebases are bonsai trees, carefully pruned and tended by the corporation, forums are creeping ivy, expanding organically in all directions at once, fertilized by the constant tides of member activity.

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CUSTOMER SUPPORT Both have their purpose, but over time, a forum can prove to be an irreplaceable source of information to customers as well as provide three key assets to companies:

1. Community building: Over time, forums often become the central hub for customers, because of the sense of common ground. It’s where the topmost fraction of corporate evangelists engage in flame wars with the bottom-most fraction of disgruntled customers, with oceans of lurkers, moderators, and curiosity seekers in between.

2. Information repository: The most active forums have dozens of posts every hour. In time, the community’s knowledge becomes the definitive source of information, and searches through the forum’s archive can dwarf the searches in a company’s FAQ or knowledgebase. The differentiating advantage for users is that the forum might contain the answer to a question so esoteric that the knowledgebase has no record of it.

3. Direct, constant access to the customer mindset: The value of this cannot be understated. Company moderators can read discussions in the deepest threads, introduce new threads with important announcements, perform searches on specific products to see what people have said about them, and much more. Forums tend to grow at exponential rates. Once enough users become part of the system, more users will hear of it, and then it will grow more, and then even more people will hear about it, and then it will grow even larger. The larger it gets, the richer the information becomes. See Figure 10-5 for a forum that encapsulates this organic knowledge growth.

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Figure 10-5. Forum content grows organically as members slowly feed the system posts over a long period of time.

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Forum platforms Thankfully for developers, webmasters, designers, and the rest of the website team, there are plenty of forum software platforms to choose from. Most are free, some are add-ons to current CMSs (e.g., licensed users of ExpressionEngine can purchase the forum module), and almost all share some common administrative features like thread closing, user banning, spam control, and so forth. Here are just a few popular options.

IP.Board. Formerly known as Invision Power Board, this rich forum software is ideal for enterprise-class installations. Along with phone and e-mail support direct from the company (IPS), the software has a bucket of features, including a detailed administrative area, customizable interface, and powerful moderation features. There is also a focus on community content, and socializing the forum experience. IP.Board enables members to create buddy lists, user ratings, detailed profiles, RSS feeds, and more.3 In addition to all the built-in features, IPS also provides a host of snap-on functionality, including IP.Gallery (photo management), IP.Blog (integrated blogs for forum members), and IP.Downloads (a file manager that users can employ for all types of downloadable content). These deeply expand the IP.Board environment, and help create a unified social area for members of a support forum.

PhpBB. This software has been around since 2000, and is one of the most feature-rich and stable forum packages available for free.4 PhpBB (a snapshot of which can be seen in Figure 10-6) is completely open source, and runs on MySQL and PHP. Its features are comparable to other major platforms: comprehensive back-end and admin, full thread and member management, a rich member profile section (including the ability to tag other members as “friends” or “foes”), and a well-designed search function. Since there is no formal company backing phpBB, support comes through the large and active community (which can be found at the website’s own internal forum) and a detailed set of documentation. There is no option for paid support, although you can buy a phpBB t-shirt to fund the development team.

PunBB. In the early 2000s, a new breed of alternative forum software packages began turning up. This generation focused on two things: a stripped-down feature set (meaning that all the bells, whistles, and functionality bling in software like IP.Board is largely lost) and a stronger adherence to web standards (which means that the chunky, artery-clogging, table-based layouts of phpBB are replaced with light and zesty CSS-based layouts). PunBB is part of this new generation.5 What it fails to deliver in volume of features is made up for in streamlined functionality, fast-loading pages, and much easier customization. PunBB is also free and open source, and actually has more platform options than its brother, phpBB. (The forum shown in Figure 10-5 is driven by PunBB.)

Forum administration The one significant disadvantage to maintaining a community forum is the amount of time needed to moderate members, threads, and spam. For small forums—a few hundred 3. 4. 5.

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CUSTOMER SUPPORT members and maybe a few dozen posts a day—a single person can sufficiently monitor the activity. For larger forums—those over 1,000 members—several moderators are needed to keep discussions on track. As you can see in Figure 10-6, a moderator has the power to lock threads, delete posts, and ban users, but is also expected to contribute to good conversations, and even answer questions from members as needed.

Figure 10-6. This screen from phpBB shows how administrators can ban usernames, IP addresses, and e-mail addresses.

People expect to post whatever they want on a company-sponsored forum, even if it reflects negatively on the host. Moderators have to be exceedingly judicial in how they wield their power. Arbitrarily deleting content, from single posts to entire threads, will quickly cultivate a bad reputation, and users will be reluctant to discuss legitimate support issues in a place that does not foster free discussion. A “benevolent dictator” approach tends to work better than “overreacting jerk.”

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That being said, there are always people who post off-topic spam or caustic and destructive comments. These are the threads that administrators have to watch for, and delete or lock ruthlessly. Think of a forum as any traditional community. People will congregate where they know there are like-minded fellows, especially when they sense that the environment is being tended by a considerate but firm-handed authority. On top of all that, administrators have to constantly weed out spam messages. Each system comes with different levels of spam control, and many members of the community have contributed plug-ins and system modifications that help stem the flow. For instance, in phpBB, there is a modification file that allows URL posting from active members only, not guests. In PunBB, there is the option to verify all registrations so that moderators can review individual member sign-ups. There is, unfortunately, no magic script that filters all spam. Keeping the forum clean requires constant updating of spam-deterring methods, as well as brute-force deletion of unwanted posts.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Running a forum inside a support portal is not a small undertaking. The community requires constant attention. Fighting spam and banning troublesome members is a fulltime gig, but the opportunity to communicate directly with customers and prospects (and mine their thoughts for product enhancements and marketing ideas) more than makes up for the less glamorous aspects of the job.

Dedicated support contact Despite advances in technology, and despite the massive investments companies have made in building rich support portals, the most effective way of maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction is to provide a direct means of contact, and respond in a timely manner. Logically—and realistically—the deepest knowledgebase and most active forums cannot possibly address every issue a customer might have with your product or service. These can deter a large percentage of direct customer contact and save a company a wad of cash, but at some point, a customer is going to contact you for one of two reasons:

1. They’ve looked for their answer elsewhere and cannot find it. 2. They don’t want to look for their answer. They just want someone to tell them. A search on Amazon.com for “customer service” returns more than 50,000 books. Chances are that most of them are probably pretty good, and their advice practical and actionable for companies of all sizes in all industries. Whether you read them or not, remember one thing—when a customer contacts you through the support portal, they are asking for help. They are vulnerable. They need you. Nowhere else on your site is clear communication and usability so important, and at no other time will a company be able to make such a strong statement about its integrity and dedication to good customer service as when its mettle is tested.

Instant messaging While it’s not realistic to slap an AIM or MSN Messenger handle up on your support portal (unless you do it for each member of the support team), it is possible to implement an internal, generic chat window that customers can use. The functionality is not that different from a phone system. People enter their name and wait in a queue for the next available agent; once they come online, the agent and customer simply type back and forth in real time. This technology does not even have to be custom developed. There are plenty of vendors that specialize in enterprise-grade chatting systems. Akeni, for instance, produces a range of products for help desk applications, secure messaging, messaging within just a LAN, and more.6 For companies on a budget, there are smaller solutions with open source licenses.

Phone number The oldest of the support options, the eternal phone number for technical support is very much alive in an era of interactive technical triumphs. This traditional medium is popular

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CUSTOMER SUPPORT precisely because it eschews the new wave of portal interfaces, downloads, search algorithms, knowledge management, and the rest of the buzzwords gumming up people’s ability to get a clear answer. Like an arrow fired over a field of wheat, a phone call bypasses the chaff and gets right to the point. However, phone calls can be just as frustrating as web-based support. First, the phone number has to be in an obvious place on the website; making users search is only going to further upset them before they actually punch the digits, which just deepens the hole the customer service representative has to dig the company out of. Publish the number boldly, on every page of the support section. Also publish the hours of operation (noting the time zone), and, if technically possible, how long the wait currently is. And for the record, there’s no good reason to put an image of a young, perfectly styled, headset-wearing, big-smile-with-dimples woman standing by to solve your problems. We all understand that call centers are not staffed with people who double as stock photography models (see Figure 10-7). Also, do not bother taking photos of your own support people. Visitors will not know the difference, and staff come and go.

Figure 10-7. It is not necessary to put an image of a shiny woman next to your support number. It won’t fool anyone.

In addition, make sure the number somehow goes to a person. Designing call center phone menus is far beyond the scope of this book, but keep in mind that at the end of the day, everyone just wants to talk to another human being about their problem. Automated menus are not sympathetic, and rarely help. Just facilitating an actual conversation can go great lengths in fostering a positive customer interaction.

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The support contact form Without question, the contact form is one of the most important aspects of a company’s customer service efforts. This is the one constant that should be maintained in any support section. Someone will always need help, and e-mail remains the lowest common denominator of business and customer interaction. Building a good contact form requires more thought than simply throwing a few fields and a Submit button onto a web page. To ensure that the contact form is useful and usable, there are a few best practices for crafting a positive customer experience: Keep the form short and usable: Ideally, the form should collect four pieces of information: name, e-mail, description of the problem (facilitated by a large text area), and categorization of the problem (e.g., via an area to enter the problem type or product item number). While it is tempting to ask more questions about the actual issue, forcing the user to define a problem that they don’t understand through a series of drop-downs or radio buttons can quickly lead to frustration.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Do not ask for unneeded information: This point ties in with the preceding one. Asking for someone’s mailing address, for instance, is not appropriate for a support e-mail. This and other supplementary information can always be collected in a follow-up conversation. Make sure optional fields are clearly marked as such: Again, if additional fields are appended to the core information, make sure the difference between a required and optional field is explicit. (Chapter 3 discusses this in more depth.) Provide detailed error messages: Keeping in line with good usability and contingency design, write descriptive error messages in plain language. Avoid cold, machine-like messages like “ERROR: TYPE 897WTF PLEASE RETYPE EVERYTHING,” when users click Submit; instead, provide humanized announcements like “You may have entered a bad e-mail address; please check the field and try again.” Test the form: This may sound obvious, but there are plenty of documented cases where contact forms have simply failed to work. In one case, an e-mail sent through a national retailer’s support section was returned to the sender asking them to not send e-mail directly, but to use the contact form in the support section, which they had just used. It is this type of mind-numbing mistake that can be caught by one internal person actually testing the process. Provide confirmation: Actually, provide two forms of confirmation. First, when the user submits the form, immediately return a message on the same screen to confirm it went through; second, have an automated e-mail sent to their address letting the subject know the e-mail was successfully received with an estimated time of response. Reassure the customer that the company is listening and intends to respond (see the next point). Respond: There are few things more frustrating for a customer than sending a long, detailed question only to have it completely ignored, so make sure someone is listening on the business end. An auto-generated confirmation of delivery is a good first step, but unless a human being actually addresses the query, everything else is irrelevant. Remember that contact forms in the support area will be used when people need help, so there is no point in complicating the process. Streamlining the form itself, plus confirming that the message was received, will reduce the chance for errors, build confidence in the user that you know what you’re doing, and help get their question answered faster.

Providing a simple e-mail address For small companies who are looking for a simpler solution and do not need to store information from the contact form in a database (such as for support tickets), a simple e-mail address may work. The major disadvantage of plain e-mail is that the content is not regulated—you cannot require users to submit certain pieces of information, such as their name or the product they have a question about. In this case, the best policy is to place a polite note next to the link describing what information will help get their question answered expeditiously, as shown in Figure 10-8. Also, the support e-mail address should be generic, like [email protected], or [email protected]. Publishing a specific person’s name is generally not advised because that person could leave, making the address obsolete. Likewise, there is probably more

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Figure 10-8. This technical support screen represents several best practices. Customers are encouraged to review the online documentation before making contact, but if they choose to contact the technical support, they are provided with phone numbers, the fax number, and two e-mail addresses based on geographic location. There is also a small note next to the e-mail links to remind customers to include their product model.

Best practices in the support section Although a company’s support effort might comprise different elements such as a forum, FAQ, or knowledgebase, there are several best practices that cover the gamut of a customer support section. It cannot be overstated that providing helpful support at the time of need with a great attitude, fast response times, and a passion for delivering the ideal solution is the absolute best means of delighting customers. Following these best practices simply helps make those goals a reality.

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Provide direct and helpful content There is absolutely no worse time to obtusely market to customers than when they’re in your support area. A website may use a proliferation of buzzwords like “organic IT” or “pervasive interactions” to market the product on the rest of the site, but a company will have more success selling ice to penguins than its product when that confusing jargon is injected into supposedly helpful content. Writing for a support portal needs to accomplish two things:

1. The content needs to help users find what they need: In a study by Forrester, 72 percent of those polled cited “Direct path to content I am looking for” when asked about what constitutes a positive experience on a website.7 This was the leading answer, eclipsing good menu structure, site search, and personalized features. Users want to be pointed in the right direction, and rely on strong, clear messaging to help them.

2. The content needs to help users solve their problems: Leading a camel to the watering hole is just fine—as long as you don’t ask them to drink vinegar. Actual help documents need to be penned in a clear, authoritative, knowledgeable voice that helps readers. Many companies staff professional helpdesk writers to scribe this information, and most are exceedingly good at their jobs. This is one area where a permanent staff member who understands the product or service on the finest level of detail can deliver a surprisingly high ROI. Consider this excerpt from a document published in ESRI’s knowledgebase (shown earlier in Figure 10-3): “Geographic data is represented on a map as a layer. A layer might represent a particular type of feature, such as highways, lakes, or wildlife habitats, or it might represent a particular type of data such as a satellite image, a CAD drawing, or a terrain elevation surface in a triangulated irregular network (TIN). A layer defines how to display the geographic data it references and where that data is located in your database.”8 The language is clear, concise, and descriptive. The bold terms (styled this way by the ESRI writers) are not found in everyday language, but are necessary to convey the information effectively. In fact, each bold word is actually a hyperlink that takes the user to that specific term’s entry inside the knowledgebase’s glossary. At first glance, a user’s cerebral cortex might scramble in fear when they see a term like “triangulated irregular network”—until they realize a definition is a mere click away.

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Charlene Li, “Creating Good Online Content Experiences: Usability Beats Unique Content, Hands Down,” Forrester, October 24, 2006 (www.forrester.com/Research/Document/ 0,7211,39495,00.html). ESRI, “Adding layers to a map” (http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/ index.cfm?TopicName=Adding_layers_to_a_map).

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CUSTOMER SUPPORT Microsoft, keeper of one of the deepest libraries of technical knowledge in the world, publishes the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications,9 a detailed tome that describes ad nauseum the nuances of writing technical documents,10 from using technical terms consistently to accurately describing user actions as they navigate software.

Adapt to customer needs This is a difficult point to define sharply, but it can be summarized as updating the support portal to address new technology, functionality, and content before customers even know what they’re missing. The goal is to silently refresh the support section to ride waves of change, not paddle desperately behind after your team has been swamped with inquiries about the latest new thing. This, admittedly, could mean a lot of things; each industry has its own particular curve that needs to be outdistanced in order to remain competitive and relative. Customers expect their vendor’s website to remain at the forefront of their business—especially a support portal that is (theoretically) built to cater to those who keep them in business.

Keep content current Too many companies focus on pushing out the latest product versions and disregard updating documentation, but not supplying the most current product or service information in the support section can be detrimental. When customers arrive, they are seeking information about the grand new thing being trumpeted about by the media, not obsolete documents detailing what was hot five years ago. Product announcements need to be accompanied by every relative piece of documentation, from help files to new entries in the FAQ. The curious will read these with avid interest; failing to provide them will turn red-hot interest into stone-cold apathy. The world is far too busy a place to warrant the company or its product a second thought.

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Embrace new technology (the rise of mobile access) Every few years, a new technology enters the consumer market that forces companies to rethink their marketing efforts. Savvy marketers will see these coming long before they hit critical mass with the general populace, but these paradigm-shifting events are happening in much shorter intervals with an ever-shrinking adoption period. For instance, telephones took nearly 40 years to reach commercial saturation. Websites took only a few, from the public announcement in 1991 to the realization in 1996 that a web presence was mandatory for businesses to compete. Today, maintaining a corporate website is simply accepted—it’s just something companies do. But existing in the digital realm is not enough; it’s like building a headquarters and leaving it empty. Smart marketers keep their eyes on the horizon, and the smartest are already preparing for the next revolution—mobile access.

9. www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/6074.aspx 10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_nauseam. Nothing like a little “proof by assertion.”

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES The mobile Web has been long heralded. Before mobile phones became small enough to fit in a pocket, techies and gadget nerds predicted full media access, from commercialfree television to movies on demand to lightning-fast Internet access. Today, these are all real features of most devices. But general acceptance has not been smooth. In the case of TV and film, licensing issues clogged the delivery; in the case of the Internet, the obscenely small screens of cell phones and PDAs have hindered the viewing of traditional websites, leading to very slow adoption.11 Designing for the mobile Web is different than traditional web design, but companies who support mobile access now—especially in their support portal, where legitimately useful content is housed—will have a sharp competitive advantage as the trend reaches critical mass in the consumer realm.

Break through language barriers Many companies spend a lot of their time translating their products to different languages and dialects. The software industry is intimately familiar with the process and costs involved, because entirely new, separate language files need to be compiled and thoroughly checked before the product is released in a new market. This language transformation involves both of the following processes:

1. Internationalization: Often abbreviated as i18n, this is the preparation of products to be subject to translation, such as making sure different types of currency or measurement are understood by the source code.

2. Localization: Often abbreviated as L10n, this is the actual process of translating a product to a specific country or region. A support portal’s language options should mirror the product itself. If a company goes through the effort to move its product from German to English, or from English to Spanish, marketing to those dialects will be much easier if the supporting material is available in the same language. Foreseeing these customer needs and accommodating them before serious issues arise is necessary for retaining strong customer relationships across borders.

11. The adoption is actually very slow in the United States, but fairly advanced in Japan and European nations. One study by Media-Screen (www.media-screen.com/pocketTOC.html) places US adoption at 5 percent; another by comScore (www.comscore.com/press/ release.asp?id=1041) says 19 percent and contrasts it with much higher European numbers.

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Summary For many companies, the support section of their website is a primary destination for users, not a secondary bucket of content perused by the casual browser. People interact and scour support content with deliberate needs, looking for very specific answers. Because of this, the support portal—almost more than any other section of a website— offers the opportunity for a business to show its true colors when it comes to customer service, responsiveness, thoroughness of content, and general attitude toward helping customers and prospects get the most from their product. A bad experience can substantially damage a customer relationship, while a good one can reaffirm the person’s decision to buy your product to begin with.

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1 1 CONTINGENCY PLANNING

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES It’s only a matter of time before something goes wrong on a corporate website. This is not a hair-brained prediction made with a crystal ball, nor is it arbitrarily negative, glass-halfempty portending. It’s simply a fact. The Web is not built on a foolproof architecture— eventually, something will happen that is not supposed to. While the Web has proven to scale well, from a few dozen domains and a couple hundred pages (when the most popular website was for the film Batman Forever) to billions of pages across millions of domains, human error has proven to scale with equal efficiency. Like a vast living organism expanding at exponential speed, small pockets of cells fade away as dozens of new ones rush to fill the void. Incorrect internal and external links can lead to missing pages, deleted content can still appear in search engine indexes, and coding errors can manifest in all the wrong places at all the wrong times. Mix in the fact that individual websites continue to grow and the problem only folds over several more times. The more people editing a site, the more content that will be created; the more content that is touched by more people, the greater the chance of holes appearing in the architecture. Contingency planning for a corporate website is a priority because it directly affects the perception of your business. The better you can lead your visitors to the light after they stray off the main path, the more they will appreciate your consideration and willingness to help them find the content they’re looking for. When planning, designing, and developing your corporate site, consider the reasons why someone would need help on your website: They find something that is broken: This might be a bad incoming link (they arrived from another site), a bad internal link, a misbehaving script (either on the server or in the client with JavaScript), serious display issues (“Why does this site not look right in Netscape 3?”), or outdated or incorrect content. Pieces of a site that are broken are a direct result of human error somewhere along the development line—at some point, someone screwed up. They can’t figure out what to do: Your links may be sound, your scripts triplechecked, and your CSS optimized for browsers that never made it out of the ’90s, but for whatever reason, the user can’t figure out how to use your website. This is almost always a design, usability, or accessibility issue, and the web designer is accountable. In either case, it’s the corporation’s responsibility to fix the problem. Until the problem is resolved, however, plan for the unplanned and ensure that your site has effective failsafe options built into the architecture. This chapter will cover several aspects of contingency management, from building smart error pages and intelligible search results to proper page-printing techniques to making sure you have a doomsday page ready to go in the case of a total domain meltdown.

Redirects and error pages To draw a rough analogy, a website is like a system of roads. There are several main highways, some smaller bypasses and shortcuts, a bunch of sideshow attractions, and a forest

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CONTINGENCY PLANNING of signs telling people where to go. Wandering off the beaten path will often land visitors in the middle of an unfriendly error page, most of which seem to have been designed by system administrators too busy fragging each other in Quake to write server messages with plain language. Error messages on most websites are extremely unhelpful. They look completely different from the rest of the site, throw around technical jargon more freely than candy at a parade, and rarely offer any way for a visitor to back out of the hole and find the content they came looking for. The error screen in Figure 11-1 is actually a mild example: while it eschews the unfriendly language, it remains decisively unhelpful. This section will discuss why these error pages exist, how to customize them, and what content needs to be included to make your visitors’ lives as easy as possible.

Figure 11-1. This exceptionally unhelpful error screen is all too common in corporate websites.

Crash course in status codes When most people think of error pages, they think “404,” to the point where it has become as common a term as browser or navigation. (“Hey, Chuck, your link’s not working. All I get is a 404.”) While a 404 is indeed a legitimate error, it is only the tip of the iceberg.

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HTTP status response codes are part of the HTTP spec and are intended to give a short description of the page’s status—whether it’s good or bad, a problem on the server, or a problem on the user’s end. The first digit of the number indicates the status category of response code. There are five categories in total. 1xx Informational: There are only a few codes here, and they essentially mean that the request was received and the process will continue. 2xx Success: These indicate that whatever action was requested has been successfully received and processed. 3xx Redirection: This series covers web page redirection. 4xx Client Error: This category is home to several common codes, usually generated from missing or forbidden content. 5xx Server Error: These occur when something goes awry on the server. They usually appear when server-side code (Perl, PHP, ASP, and others) is not functioning.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES All told, there are nearly 60 standard codes that are tracked by servers.1 Some codes remain unused (such as 402, which was intended for micropayments, but has yet to see the light of day); others are being drafted (like 509, which indicates bandwidth limits have been exceeded), while others like 404 and 500, are as common as seashells on a beach. These more prevalent errors, covered in depth in the following subsections, require contingency planning.

200 OK This is by far the most common status code, but there’s no contingency plan needed because 200 OK means everything went just swell when the visitor requested the page. The URL was found, the page was loaded, no redirections were detected, no script errors occurred, and there were lots of puppies and rainbows. Even though you never see it, this is the code you want; anything else in this list raises a red flag.

301 Moved Permanently and 302 Found The 3xx series of HTTP status response codes is a fishy area because although each code is explicitly defined in the W3C’s spec, many are utilized and interpreted improperly. Luckily for developers, 99 percent of the time, a corporate website will only need to use 301 Moved Permanently for permanent redirects and a 302 Found for temporary redirects. Anything else in the 3xx category will have unpredictable results because of inconsistent interpretation by browsers. Redirection has always been at the forefront of discussions about search engine positioning. Because a lot of malicious web activity relies on sneaky redirects, some methods, like meta refresh—which uses a meta tag to handle the redirection—are universally frowned upon by search engines because of their lack of security and history of abuse. Search engines want to see a permanent redirection, not a temporary one, which is why 301 Moved Permanently remains the safest means of directing robots to new locations. There are several easy techniques for handling redirection. For websites running on the Apache server platform, setting up redirects is a simple matter of editing the .htaccess file. The .htaccess file sits in the root directory of the site.2 It is capable of controlling many aspects of a website, from hiding directories to setting up extension rewriting commands to banning specific referring URLs. It also enables redirects. To implement a 301 redirect using an .htaccess file, simply open the file in a text editor and add the following line, editing the paths to match your site: Redirect 301 /old/page.html /new/page/is/here.html This simple line instructs any incoming user agent (such as a browser or search engine spider) to bypass /old/page.html and skip right over to /new/page/is/here.html, the

1. 2.

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For a complete list of response codes, see RFC 2616 in the HTTP spec, found here: www.w3.org/ Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html. For more information about the .htaccess file’s capabilities, consult http://httpd.apache.org/ docs/1.3/howto/htaccess.html.

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CONTINGENCY PLANNING new location. A 302 Found redirect is very similar. Just leave out the “301” from the string and the redirect is treated as temporary: Redirect /old/page.html /new/page/is/here.html Adding multiple redirects is a no-brainer; simply add an additional line for each one. Here’s an example: Redirect Redirect Redirect Redirect

301 /old/page.html /new/page/is/here.html 301 /previous/spot.html /fresh/digs/here.html 301 /please/avoid/linkrot.html /by/using/redirects.html /old-root-page.html /temporary-root-page.html

Some servers use Microsoft IIS, which handles redirects differently than Apache. Instead of editing an .htaccess file, developers must open the administrative section and follow these simple steps:

1. In Internet Services Manager, right click the file or folder you wish to redirect from. 2. Select the A redirection to a URL radio button. 3. Enter the new destination location. 4. Check The exact URL entered above and A permanent redirection for this resource. 5. Click Apply. For those who do not have access to .htaccess or IIS, redirects can also be handled with server-side code. For instance, placing this snippet of PHP code at the beginning of a web page will properly redirect incoming requests: Similarly, you can use this snippet of ASP.NET code for a page running on Microsoft servers:

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<script runat="server"> private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e) { Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently"; Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.yoursite.com/new/page.html"); } Even the oldest content should redirect to something to avoid linkrot and prevent users from getting lost in the site. When pages disappear completely and there’s no indication of a new location, frustration sets in and visitors will quickly find somewhere else to go.

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404 Not Found Missing content is an all-too-common problem on the Web. The reasons are many. Websites can get moved to new servers and not all of the pages arrive safely; databases can get corrupted and dynamic content is simply vaporized into digital ether; someone types the wrong URL and unknowingly attempts to access a nonexistent page; a website is redesigned and content gets shuffled into new directories, rendering all incoming links obsolete. When people encounter any of this missing content, they usually stumble into a 404 Not Found error, the HTTP status response code for a page that is MIA. This usually elicits a colorful four-letter word from the user. The best thing to do for missing content is make every effort to ensure that it’s not missing to begin with. A large part of avoiding 404 pages is setting up redirects to new locations if the content was moved, or directing people to a page explaining the reasons why the content was taken down. Unfortunately, there are some situations that are simply out of the web designer’s control (like a person typing in the wrong URL); in those cases, a well-designed 404 error page becomes a corporation’s saving grace. Most 404s are bleak, server-generated pages that contrast sharply with the rest of the site. Simply having a 404 page that matches the design of the website is a massive first step forward in usability—it immediately puts people at ease, and presents a friendlier environment for explaining exactly what went wrong. Once you have established design continuity, it’s time to start adding some content. As shown in Figure 11-2, an error page should accomplish all of the following:

1. Explain where the user is: Help the visitor understand that they have landed on a page explaining that the content they are searching for cannot be found. While the term “404 Not Found” should appear somewhere in the text (because it is the official HTTP status response code), this first message should be friendly, clear, and firm, like a police officer explaining to a tourist that they just turned the wrong way down a one-way street.

2. List what might have gone wrong: There is a reason the visitor has found themselves in a 404 page, so explain common symptoms like mistyped URLs (and common mistakes therein, like typing an .html extension instead of a .php extension), moved content, or a bad referring link.

3. Provide a means for finding the content: Once a visitor understands the content they tried to access is not obviously available, they need a means to find it. At a bare minimum, suggest they return to the homepage (useful if they arrived from another site or search engine) or browse the site map. More useful, however, is providing a search feature. This gives the user an immediate, familiar route to find the page they want, and if the search function works well, it will probably be a clean fix.

4. Enable feedback: There is a chance that the person is intimately familiar with the company website, and they really think that the missing page should be there. In that case, it’s important to provide a means of contacting the webmaster directly to report the issue; this can be done through a direct e-mail link or a short form.3 3.

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Ian Lloyd wrote a good article for A List Apart called “The Perfect 404,” in which he detailed a method for providing a single button to report the missing page. You can find the article at www.alistapart.com/articles/perfect404.

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Figure 11-2. This 404 page provides an explanation of why the user might have encountered the error and some means of finding the content they were looking for, plus a link to the contact form where they can report the missing content.

Once your error page is built, it’s a simple matter of loading it onto the server. Many CMSs natively support custom 404 pages inside their engines, but for many websites, an error page will simply be a static HTML file referenced by the server. For Apache servers, setting up 404 and other status response code pages is simple. Like redirects, it uses the .htaccess file to invisibly route visitors to the appropriate location. Once your 404 page is on the server, simply instruct Apache on the location by adding a short line of code to the .htaccess file:

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ErrorDocument 404 /path/to/your-404-page.html That’s all there is to it. In fact, this same line of code is also used for other error documents, such as 403 and 500. A typical .htaccess file might contain the following: ErrorDocument 403 /path/to/your-403-page.html ErrorDocument 404 /path/to/your-404-page.html ErrorDocument 500 /path/to/your-500-page.html

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES This functionality in Apache can handle any type of error document. For Windows servers running ASP.NET, the process is a bit different. Open the web.config file and search for the following cluster of code: <system.web> <customErrors mode="On" defaultRedirect="error.asp"> <error statusCode="404" redirect="/path/to/your-404-page.asp" /> From here, you can define the path to the custom error page by editing the central line. To change this in IIS, open Internet Services Manager, right-click the website, and select Properties. Choose the Custom Errors tab. Select 404 (or whatever error needs customization) from the list and enter a new path.

500 Internal Server Error This error occurs when something goes awry on the server. This is not a client-side problem, but rather an issue in the web software, like a server-side script (Perl, PHP, ASP, and so forth), or in the database. Receiving this error requires immediate action from the developer—the problem is not going to fix itself. In the meantime, the error page for a 500 code can be implemented using the same Apache and IIS techniques as the 404 page covered in the previous section. The messaging and technology needs to be handled a bit differently, however. First, the text should clearly state that there is indeed a problem, but it has nothing to do with the browser or Internet connection—assure the user that they are not at fault. In addition, provide a simple e-mail address for contacting the webmaster. The page should be minimal in design and built in HTML only. Any scripts appearing in a 500 error page may not work at all if there is a serious problem in the server software, so avoid them.

Site search Everyone has their comfort zone with the Web. We all know where our favorite sites are, how frequently they’re updated, and what we can expect in our daily saunter through the digital realm. We rarely think about the fact that the Web is indeed a cavernous, expanding library of human thought, unprecedented in scope and almost impossible for the human brain to put into perspective. Even the most voracious consumers of Internet content are mere ants picking their way through a forest of information. Search is the only tool we have to put the incomprehensible amount of data into any semblance of order. Search engines specialize in crawling, indexing, ranking, and displaying web content. While this might sound simple enough, the fact that Google, Yahoo, and MSN have all made billions of dollars in just the search industry should be some indication that the world relies heavily on their technology. In fact, the Internet has three characteristics that make search indispensable:

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CONTINGENCY PLANNING The Internet is already vast. Even if no content were added from this point on, there would still be trillions of documents to sort through. The Internet is constantly growing, but in unpredictable ways, like a living organism. For instance, ten years ago, blogs didn’t exist; today, Technorati estimates that over 100,000 are created every day.4 Social networking sites have also changed how content is distributed. Instead of people operating many small sites across millions of domains, sites like Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn are collecting people’s thoughts, contacts, and interests like giant filing cabinets. The Internet is decentralized. There is no master hierarchy or even pattern, so content can only be regarded in context to other content. Search engines quickly evaluate the relevance and importance of sites based on their relationship within the network of content around it, and specifically how all those sites are linked to one another. Through this, search engines help us understand which sites will serve us best. On the Web, there are two fundamental types of search: broad, web-wide searches conducted through commercial search engines, and localized searches that confine queries to a specific website. Marketing for the former is covered in Chapter 13. This section discusses the latter, from the basic, internal search box to designing search results.

Search as a navigation complement Some might argue that many corporate sites are simply too small to consider a search function. With a finite number of pages and a thin architecture, users should be able to find their way around smaller websites without trouble. Unfortunately, the issue is rarely so black and white. To start, designers and the company staff are always artificially comfortable with their own site’s design. For them, the website is obvious; they know it like the back of their hand, and intentionally or not, expect outsiders to find it equally effortless to use. To them, a search feature is redundant. In addition, the online habits of people are changing. The world is accustomed to the instant gratification that major search engines provide—they type in a few keywords, and in seconds, they are served the exact slice of content they need, plucked magically from a menu of hundreds of millions of possibilities. That ease of use is addictive.5 When confronted with an unfamiliar website, it’s exponentially faster for people to use the search feature than try to decipher a brand new architecture.

4. 5.

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This number is based on Technorati’s “State of the Blogosphere” posts, which can be found at www.technorati.com/weblog/blogosphere. As an interesting footnote to people’s addiction to search engines in general, it’s always fun to review Google’s year-end review of search-related stats. In their 2006 Zeitgeist (www.google.com/ intl/en/press/zeitgeist2006.html), four of the top ten searches—Bebo (#1), MySpace (#2), MetaCafe (#4), and Wikipedia (#6)—are in fact stand-alone domain names, meaning that it would have actually taken less time to type in the domain than search in Google, but millions of people used Google anyway, simply out of habit.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES At this stage of the Web’s evolution, there is really no point in not adding search functionality to a website. Consider Figure 11-3. This company’s site has well under 100 pages of content, which are organized efficiently in the menu structure, but they still include a search function—not as a defensive technique to compensate for shoddy navigation, but rather to complement the traditional menu.

Figure 11-3. This company has a relatively small website, but chooses to include a simple search box to complement the traditional navigation.

Internal searching is simply another way of getting around a site. Some people might chose to drill down through a predetermined hierarchy, hoping they can find the content they want without backtracking too many times. Others will conduct searches. The scope of the search, the efficiency of the results, and the design of the results data all contribute to the overall usability of the search function. If executed poorly, it may as well not exist, because it’s just going to frustrate visitors and send them back to the global menu.

For developers and site owners not wanting to delve into the technical aspects of implementing search, Google offers a simple solution called Custom Search Engine.6 By entering a few parameters, anyone can create a targeted search widget that only scours defined domains. Simply paste the code Google provides into your site and you’re off and running. These custom search engines take advantage of the search engine’s algorithms and speed, but the downside is that users might be put off when they encounter a search results page branded by Google instead of the host company.

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www.google.com/coop/cse

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The small but mighty search box The first component of adding search functionality to a website is including the search box somewhere on the page. This tiny little widget is vitally important. Designed well, it can be a positive first step toward a great experience; designed poorly, it will annoy users before they type their first query.

Practice good HTML The search box is technically an HTML form, albeit a very simple one—it’s usually just a lonesome input field with a button as a sidekick. However, it should follow best practices in regards to HTML forms. This includes using semantic markup with an eye for accessibility. Consider the following code:

Search: s

This simple example includes several key things. First, it uses actual HTML, and does not rely on JavaScript or Flash, which users can disable. Inside the form, a tag references the actual input field; this gives the Search: label semantic meaning and increases the hit area for the input field. For a form this small, the tag is somewhat redundant with the button, so including it is up to the developer’s discretion; it does not affect the functionality if left out. Chapter 3 discussed how HTML junkies and accessibility pundits emphasize the importance of the search box coming first in the tab index order, regardless of whether it’s the first link or form control on the page. To ensure that this happens, the tag for the input field in the example includes a tabindex attribute. Finally, a search form should always include an actual button for submission. While it is possible to create a buttonless form that relies solely on pressing Enter to activate the search, this is not advised. It may not be clear to users that they need to press an additional key after typing their query. The actual button should be left as a proper HTML form control, as shown in Figure 11-4. People are comfortable with a browser’s default HTML button, and deviating too far from the standard can result in confusion. (If an alternative element like an image must be used, make sure it contains actual words—like “search”— not a nondescript arrow.)

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Figure 11-4. This simple search box is based on well-formed, semantic HTML.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Although the search input is technically a form, it is not necessary to include every last HTML tag related to forms. For instance, a

tag with a nested

tag would be overkill since the description would take longer to disseminate than the form itself. However, these same tags are invaluable for a page offering advanced search options, where the form might have multiple query fields, drop-downs, and other filters.

Page placement Building the search input form is relatively simple compared to the challenge of implementing it into the site design. There are no hard and fast rules, save two:

1. The search field should exist on the page: It only complicates a user’s life when there is just a link to a search page instead of an actual search form. Treating it as another navigation item defeats the purpose of search; the simplicity of typing in a few keywords—as a complement to the primary navigation—is significantly hindered when people have to use the main navigation just to get to the search feature. The ability to search should be as persistent, immediate, and obvious as the main menu.

2. The search input should be contextual to the navigation: Many sites (like the one in Figure 11-3) place the input field in the upper-right corner. This is not because some fancy book like this one told them to do that, but rather because it is sitting a breath away from the main navigation, so users can see all of their options in one glance. Moving the search away from the primary menu will decrease its use because people will simply overlook it. Most sites only have simple search, and they generally follow these two guidelines very well. Advanced search functions are rare, and should only be used if absolutely necessary— when the content is so vast and deep that adjusting keywords fails to uncover the desired content. In that case, a basic search form is complemented by a small link to a separate page for advanced searches, as shown in Figure 11-5.

Advanced search pages Some companies publish immense amounts of content on their website, either from sheer size (like IBM), from depth in their expertise (like Xilinx, in Figure 11-5), or a combination of both (like Microsoft). In this case, advanced search functionality is almost unavoidable. When the needle is truly lost in a haystack, users will need these features to find the precise content they need. Advanced search options should never appear alongside the basic search input near the main menu. Regard them as two different pieces of functionality. Everyone understands the concept of typing in a few words and clicking Search; few understand parametric filters, Boolean phrases, relevance ranking, and other newfangled search terms. Keep basic and advanced separate, and never use only advanced search. Visitors should always be encouraged to use the basic input first, and then given the option of refining their scope through advanced functionality. When designing advanced search pages, avoid the use of confusing terms such as Boolean. People just don’t understand that. Instead, present options and parameter refinement in simple terms, even using examples if necessary. See Figure 11-5 for an example of a welldefined advanced search.

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Figure 11-5. This advanced search page uses humane language to describe the different ways of refining a site search.

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Search results Once a visitor has decided to employ the site’s search feature, they are provided results. From here, they will quickly decide whether they have found the content they came for, whether they need to refine their search with different keywords or by using the advanced search, or whether the designer of the site is a professional charlatan who cannot honestly expect anyone to find anything in this incoherent pile of links and errors. Companies should make every effort to meet the first option, provide an easy route for the second option, and avoid the last option altogether. Like error pages, search results are not designed to be primary content; they exist for users who have not found what they are looking for through the website’s navigation scheme. When a visitor finds themselves off the beaten path, they need to understand that the

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES page they are on is still part of the main site, so maintaining design uniformity across this contingency area is very important. Beyond visual consistency, a results page should contain a very specific set of items. All of these contribute to the usefulness of the overall search functionality. Most major search engines also follow these simple guides. These companies have invested millions into user testing and interface research, so when in doubt, follow the lead of Google and MSN: Present a search box: When a user lands on the results page, they are either going to find what they want or try again. Present a search box near the results so they don’t have to scan the entire window if they want to change their terms. Clearly differentiate between search results: Chances are a keyword string will return multiple possibilities, each represented by a short blurb and presented in one long column. These should be designed to clearly stand apart as unique items, not as a continuous run-on block of text. Careful typography and subtle design elements like horizontal rules and indentation can help visually delineate individual results. Highlight the search term: Inside each search result, highlight the text that matches the query so people can quickly see where it sits in relation to other text. The highlight might be bold or a different color. Repeat the search term: Echo the query string at the top of the page so users are reminded of exactly what they typed. If they fail to find what they want in the first pass, they can refer back to this (instead of hitting the browser’s Back button) to refine their search. If possible, repeat the query inside the search input field so that they can quickly edit their word choice. Also, duplicate the terms inside the title of the page (so that it appears in the top of the browser window), and if technically possible, inside a clean URL. Display the number of results: This can be a subtle addition, but the visitor should know immediately how much content they have to sort through. If it’s an overwhelming number, and they don’t see what they want in the first two pages, they are likely to refine their search without going too deep. In addition, explain how many search results are on each page (usually ten), and then how many total pages are returned. Add obvious, contextual navigation for multiple pages: If the results span several pages, clearly indicate the page numbers to click, and provide Previous and Next buttons so users can quickly cycle through content. Indicate media types: Most results will be standard HTML pages, but it is entirely possible that a corporate site will host different types of files, such as Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and, most commonly, PDF files. These should be explicitly marked along with their file size; a potential prospect will not be happy when they click a promising link only to be forced to download a 17 MB PowerPoint file. These items are not a la carte, nor are they conflicting; they should all be employed for the best possible design. Usability is paramount to this area of the website—users have no interest in anything but finding their content, so make it as easy as possible to scan the results. For a good example of a search results page, see Figure 11-6. This site meets almost all of the preceding criteria, including small details like a clean, readable URL.

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Figure 11-6. This site has very well-designed search results.

Handling errors in forms If there’s one theme to this chapter, it’s “prepare for everything.” Some people will never land on the right page, read the right content, or follow the correct path of links you have carefully set out. However, it is possible to prepare a website for the unexpected detours and errors users often encounter, which is the whole point of considerate 404 error pages and well-designed search results. The idea is to get people back on the right track as soon as possible.

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Unfortunately, contingency design does not stop at helping people find the right page. The next category of preparedness occurs on a granular, in-page level, where people find the right page but cannot seem to find their way around the clever form your company has laid out for them. Of course, forms are not the only party guilty of confusing visitors. For instance, there are plenty of menus—evidently having been designed by drunken monkeys—that kill a user experience before it even starts. But because of their interactive nature, forms allow designers to help users. Once the Submit button is clicked, companies have the opportunity to check a person’s inputted information for both content and format before unusable stuff gets passed on.

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Take responsibility Every company must take full responsibility for its website. The company dreamt it up, paid for the hosting, hired the designer and writer, and approved every nook and cranny before sending it out into the world. If something doesn’t work, it’s because it wasn’t tested thoroughly. Testing forms is especially important. Everyone who has so much as opened a browser has encountered poorly implemented forms, each time cursing the company, its developer, and its faulty QA process. There are many reasons why people stumble so badly when it comes to these things: The form is poorly designed: Even the most complex forms—with all manner of drop-downs, radio buttons, text fields, and more—can be usable if they are designed well. Confusing forms are usually a result of two things: bad graphic design (inconsistent placement, no visual hierarchy, etc.), and poor direction (ambiguous labels, badly titled buttons). The form does not work: Whatever script aggregates the data and sends it on to the database or e-mail system fails to work. This may be because of altered server environments (like an upgrade to a new version of PHP, Perl, or other language), a corrupt database, or just a poorly written slab of code that works about as well as a car without an ignition. The form is inaccessible: Users trying to access the form on alternate viewing devices or with a disability are unintentionally hindered by poor HTML markup or inconsiderate design. This is a direct result of uneducated designers and a lack of thorough testing. All of these hurdles are quickly discovered with basic testing and a rudimentary QA process. Drawn-out user testing and focus groups are rarely needed; simply sticking a few strangers in front of a computer and asking them to fill out the form will catch 95 percent of the problems right off the bat. Similarly, expensive code rewriting is often not necessary. A few tweaks to the markup, the CSS, or the back-end code can remedy anything but the most debilitating problems.

Common problems (and the errors that love them) Even the most conscientious corporate entities cannot possibly predict user behavior, especially the type of behavior that results in setting off a library of error warnings as soon as the Submit button is clicked. When a user does trip a wire that they’re not supposed to, the host entity needs to be firm but kind in guiding them back onto the right path. There has been a tremendous amount of research and study for errors in software programs, but the rules are slightly different on the Web. For instance, Microsoft is notorious for its incredibly poor error handling (“A Runtime Error has occurred. Do you wish to debug?”), but some websites are just as bad. Reading a stack of usability studies is not necessary to understand that frustration quickly mounts when a person fails to correct a problem because of poorly designed and obtusely written errors.

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Error message design Unfortunately, error messages need to look like error messages. Bold, obnoxious, and startling are good characteristics. The key is to craft a design that melds with the overall site but clearly stands out as an abnormal element—you want people to understand there is indeed a problem, but it’s fixable and the world is in fact not ending. The basic ingredient to successful error messages is capturing the attention of the user. If an error message is too small, or not adequately separated through visual design, or is placed somewhere in the stratosphere, then it completely fails to fulfill its destiny in the universe and your audience is left with no choice but to go and spend their bucket of cash elsewhere. Intelligent placement. It’s not uncommon for error messages to pop up completely out of context near the header, below the form, or in the sidebar 500 pixels away from the source of the problem. There are two places for communicating problems: right above the form (required) and in line with the specific field in question (optional, but sure nice for the user). The error message must appear right above the form. Not only is it contextual to the actual fields, but it will appear above the fold so that users will see it immediately when the page loads. Inline errors should appear next to the offending field in addition to the primary error. These do not have to be too obnoxious—simple icons or bolding of the label of the field is sufficient. See Figure 11-7 for a straightforward example of both of these.

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Figure 11-7. This fictional example uses several contingency design techniques to bring attention to the fact that the user forgot the final m in his e-mail address.

Graphic design. As these messages need to visually pop from the screen, the design is very important. They have to catch the eye, but not clash with the rest of the site; in other words, the error message should look designed, as if it were part of an effort to streamline the experience (which it is).

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Chapter 3 stressed the importance of not using color alone to convey important information. Nowhere is that more applicable than in handling errors. It’s simple to throw a bunch of red borders and text around when something goes wrong, but those who cannot identify the difference between red and black will be lost. Color is a powerful tool, but the Web requires a more explicit visual mechanism. Consider coupling the error with an icon that grabs a person’s attention with equal power—octagonal stop signs, yield symbols, and information graphics are recognized by users around the world. In addition to color and iconography, typographic treatments also work well. Bolding the label of the field in question using a <strong> tag is a reliable means of bringing attention to the error. There are no problems with color information getting lost, no images to load, and visitors using screen readers and other alternative devices will recognize which text is emphasized. Functionality. The functionality of the error messages is equally important. First and most important is to ensure that the error reporting actually works—rigorously test every field and option to check if every possible error is displayed correctly, and for the right reasons. Server-side code works best for error handling. All form checking, including data analysis, like scanning for well-formed e-mail addresses, should ideally be handled with a language like Perl, PHP, or ASP. There are plenty of free scripts available. While JavaScript can be used, if the user agent has it disabled (or cannot read it to begin with, as on a mobile device), then the user may be stuck with a wholly non-functioning form and no idea why. Finally, a small usability point. When reloading a page to display an error, retain the content that the user has already entered. There are few things more aggravating than spending 20 minutes on a detailed form only to have the entire body of work erased by a ridiculous error. (The only exception of lost information would be passwords. For security reasons, many sites require these be reentered if an error occurs.)

Error message content Designing a good error message is only half the battle. What the error message actually says is equally critical, because if the user does not know how to remedy the problem, they will have to either resort to experimentation to figure out the issue or simply quit. When writing these messages, adhere to the following guidelines to ensure a warmer experience for the visitor: Explicitly state that there is a problem. Define the problem in humane language. Do not use error codes or obtuse technical jargon. Be specific about the exact field that is causing the problem. (You may have to remind users that some fields are required; it also doesn’t hurt to remind them how they are marked required so they know for future reference.) Offer helpful advice for resolution. Mention some common problems (e.g., a US zip code should always contain five numbers, so ask users to double-check that there are in fact five digits and no alpha characters). If possible, offer a correct example (in the case of the zip code, 90210 works just fine). Offer an alternative means to completion if the error is recurring. For a contact page, provide a traditional e-mail address that someone could use in case the form continually fails to execute.

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CONTINGENCY PLANNING The tone of the message should be friendly, nonconfrontational, and bordering on apologetic. Don’t beg for mercy, but don’t hammer the user for their idiocy. A professional, clear, and authoritative voice will always work better for the masses than one that comes off as pandering or arrogant. These messages are there to help users get back on their feet and accomplish their task of completing the form, so the quicker and more helpful an error message is, the more efficiently people can traverse the company website.

Positive reinforcement Of course, when everything goes well, the form is submitted successfully and the person hops along their merry way to other parts of the site. Kind of. The only way that person knows for sure their data was submitted successfully is if the designers of the website took the time to build a message letting them know exactly that. Without confirmation, users will be hanging in the wind, wondering whether their information was received, processed, and accounted for, or whether it was promptly vaporized into digital space dust. Part of contingency design is letting users know when transactions are successful. This is exceedingly important for e-commerce sites when customer money (and loyalty) is always on the line. Most major retailers have excellent contingency design in this area—they are very specific about what went wrong, what went right, next steps, and how to get additional help if needed. Visitors of corporate websites are rarely as lucky. When developing forms, always include positive reinforcement. It does not need to be complex. See Figure 11-8 for a basic example—after clicking Submit, users are immediately presented with a message that lets them know all is well with the world.

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Figure 11-8. Simple messages such as this one let users know that forms were successfully submitted.

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Printing web pages As much as the Web brought the world advanced commerce technology, fresh marketing opportunities, near-instant communication, and overnight billionaires, it has yet to eliminate the communication medium used by generations—paper. Despite brilliant, highresolution displays, advanced editing features in PDF documents, and the crushing ubiquity of e-mail, people still crave (and largely prefer) paper-based content, from books and newspapers to hard copies of Word and PowerPoint documents. Paper reads better, feels better, looks better, and is a tangible thing that is owned. Even while the production levels of the paper industry slowly decrease,7 paper continues to dominate our lives, and the printer remains one of the most used pieces of equipment in the office. People regularly print e-mail, reports, presentations, and web pages. Some web pages, of course, are designed to be printed. Airline confirmations are a key example—travelers can log in, check their flight status, and print their boarding pass ahead of time. Map sites are also designed for printing. Google put considerable thought into the print preview pages of Google Maps, where users can manually tweak the map position before sending it to the printer. Other media and content sites (e.g., magazines, newspapers, and recipe sites) openly encourage their visitors to print content. As a corporate entity, expect people to print any given page from the website. This might be for personal edification and later filing, or to give to a colleague, or maybe to read on the airplane. Whatever the case, businesses should be ready for this and ensure that their content isn’t fuzzy, cropped, or missing altogether when sent to the printer. There are two key ways of optimizing web pages for paper: the print-ready version of a page and print-optimized CSS files.

Separate print-ready web pages The print-ready button (also known as “printer-friendly”) is commonly seen on commerceheavy sites, where pages are designed with the understanding that they will eventually be printed. Perhaps we’re all unconsciously expecting the Internet to implode and lose the data, or maybe we just like to put things in manila folders and filing cabinets, but when money changes hands, people like to have a printed receipt. Some pages even have no purpose except to be printed, like a shipping label using FedEx’s online system. Print-ready pages are, unfortunately, a throwback to old-school development techniques, and are rarely applicable to everyday websites, especially corporate sites. When websites were built with tables, the design was rigid; width and height definitions for every spacer pixel ensured that the design had about as much wiggle room as Hannibal Lecter in his straightjacket. Printing these pages, however, was a crapshoot. Layouts fell apart in different browsers, background colors disappeared, text overlapped onto images, and half the

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According to the December 2006 report from the Center for Paper Business and Industry Studies, production levels for North American and European paper companies are down several points in all categories. The full report can be found at www.cpbis.gatech.edu/resources/ stateofindustry/index.htm.

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CONTINGENCY PLANNING right side was usually cut off unless the user was smart enough to scale the design down using the operating system’s printer options. This rigidity demanded an alternative page for printing, and thus print-ready pages evolved. These pages commonly use very few tables and provide little visual adornment. Plain blocks of Times New Roman and a few images are all too familiar. To compound the problem, adding a separate “printer-friendly” button to a web page introduces usability hurdles. People are used to printing documents from the main menu of software; forcing them to use a nonstandard technique unique to that one site is an invitation for confusion and frustration. There are several scripts available to easily create print-ready pages. Most are JavaScriptbased, and are designed to strip out ads and images to generate a naked design suitable for printing. This sounds good in theory, but it suffers from the inherent limitations of JavaScript: unpredictable behavior across different browsers, plus the risk of being deactivated. For business websites, using web standards and a corresponding print-ready style sheet is far more appropriate. Because of the increased focus on the content, corporations have the luxury of moving past antiquated techniques and crafting CSS files that are far more usable and flexible in the real world. Usability problems are erased, and compatibility across different browsers is vastly increased.

Printing with CSS All of the work involved in print-ready pages is not necessary if a website is built using web standards, and specifically built without using tables for layout. Because web standards emphasizes the separation of content and structure, style sheets allow different templates for different media—in this case, one CSS file dictates the design of the content inside a browser window, and a separate CSS file determines what the content will look like when it goes to the printer. See Figure 11-9 for an example.

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Figure 11-9. This site, built using web standards, uses a dedicated style sheet to control the display of printed material. Notice how only the core information prints, and how space is not wasted on superfluous design elements.

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Implementing the printer-friendly style sheet CSS files are linked to the document inside the tag. There are different ways of doing this, but the most common way is through the tag. For instance, this single line of code might be used to reference the CSS file for the browser display: There are several important attributes. The rel and type attributes tell the browser that the link is for a CSS file, and the media attribute dictates where the style sheet should be applied. In this example, the CSS file is intended for screens (basically traditional browser windows) and projection environments (which is the term for browsers that operate in kiosk mode8). Linking a dedicated print style sheet is exactly the same, except the media attribute changes. The implementation does not get much more complicated than that. The harder work comes in actually developing and maintaining the additional style sheet, which includes choosing the page elements that stay and the ones that need to be hidden from the printer.

What stays, what goes At some point, you have printed a web page. Most likely, it looked terrible. You wondered why all the extraneous garbage in the navigation, sidebar, advertisements, and footer had to waste half a toner cartridge when all you wanted was the content. When a site is built using CSS for design, it’s incredibly easy to hide these elements from printers using a print style sheet. Typically, the first line of the print CSS file is dedicated to hiding the visual elements not needed for printing. For instance: #header img, #leftcol, #rightcol, ul#menu, #previousstuff, #commentform, #advertisements { display: none; } Deciding what actually stays and what goes may provide some consternation. Seriously consider what users want when they print a web page. 99 percent of the time, the content is going to be the focus, so do everything possible to remove the noise of the visual design and let the body copy hog the page’s real estate. Figure 11-9 shows the content taking center stage. Also consider items that rely on an interactive environment for context and functionality. The following items are useless in printed format:

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Opera is commonly used in stand-alone kiosks because it fully supports the functionality to do so out of the box. For more information, see www.opera.com/support/mastering/kiosk/.

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CONTINGENCY PLANNING Advertisements: As much as a sponsor probably wants their ad to appear in every possible medium, a visitor will never see an ad intruding on their content and take the time to reopen the page and click the link. The small chance of appeasing a single patron is far outweighed by the certainty of annoying everyone else. (This is especially relevant for animated ads, since only a single frame will even be captured.) Navigation: While there might be value in reiterating what section the content is from, there is zero value in printing a bunch of links that cannot be clicked. Hide all navigation items—even contextual pagination menus. Inline links: The anchor text of links inside the body copy should obviously be retained, but there is little point in styling them differently (which includes different colors and underlines). If the content is written naturally, and links make sense in context—for instance, I saw a funny picture today, vs. click here to see the funny picture—users will never know what they are missing. Forms. There is no value in printing a contact form that cannot function outside of a web page. This is where real contact information like e-mail, addresses, and phone numbers prove their worth on a contact page. There is a good chance that the final print-ready CSS file will be quite small. Since designers do not have to worry about styling every last pixel of the background image, header graphics, and fancy menu buttons, the bulk of the material will be spent defining typography and page size.

Sizing and measurement considerations In the digital realm, web designers are well acquainted with pixels, percentages, keywords, and ems, all common units of measurement found in CSS files. Some, like pixels, are fixed in size; others, like ems, scale with text resizing inside a browser. Because of the prevalence of these, designers often overlook units that determine physical dimensions, like inches and points, which are absolute values suitable for use when the final size of the medium— in this case, a piece of paper—is known. Browsers recognize the following absolute values: in (inches)

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cm (centimeters) mm (millimeters) pt (points; these are equal to 1/72 of an inch) pc (picas; one pica is equal to 12 points) Whenever possible, these absolute measurements should be used for print-ready CSS files. Pixels can theoretically be used since they represent a fixed size (0.28mm, according to the W3C9), but results will be far more consistent with everyday measurements.

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If you really care about the physical width of a pixel, here is the link: www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/ syndata.html#length-units.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Absolute units can be used for setting the dimensions of page elements. Consider the following CSS file that is designed for printing: #content { width: 7.5in; color: #000; } #content h1 { font: bold 12pt Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; } #content p { font: 8pt "Times New Roman", Georgia, serif; } By using these static units of measurement, the page will print nearly identically on lettersize (8.5✕11 in.) paper across different systems. However, since there is no guarantee that the person will be using letter-size paper, a smarter way of determining the printable area is to set flexible padding around the body of the document, as shown in this example: body { padding: 10%; } #content h1 { font: bold 12pt Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; } #content p { font: 8pt "Times New Roman", Georgia, serif; } This way, there will always be a healthy padding around the content, no matter what the size of the paper.

Doomsday page The final piece of contingency design featured in this chapter is for accommodating the worst-case scenario: the entire site is down. This is either scheduled or unscheduled. The user does not need to know the details of the crisis, but they should be assured that the staff does indeed realize there is a problem, and if possible, be given a rough estimate when the site should be back online. Some corporate websites have a consistent user community that regularly visits forums, administrative sections, and other areas requiring a login. This group should always be notified of site maintenance or planned downtime in advance. This will significantly reduce the number of panicked phone calls from users demanding to know whether the company went out of business, was sold to foreign oil investors, or was annihilated by a giant laser beam from outer space.

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CONTINGENCY PLANNING There really are no guidelines to the doomsday page. Helpful, friendly messaging is important, but the content and design is up to the company itself. Many of them, like YouTube in Figure 11-10, have fun with it.

Figure 11-10. Many companies, both corporate and consumer, have fun with their doomsday page.

Summary Solid, thoughtful, and well-executed contingency design is imperative to the success of a corporate website. Being able to anticipate different user actions and meet their needs in times of uncertainty goes a long way in building confidence and loyalty among visitors. A company that fails to pay attention to the small details of its website, intentionally or not, is sending a message of poor quality to the unfortunate soul who has the bad luck of running afoul of the system. Helpful content in error pages, well-designed search functionality, and thorough form errors can quickly set users back on the right path, spurring them to spend more time with your proper content.

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1 2 LEGALESE

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Although most of the denizens of the Web appreciate the cascade of free information that makes its way online everyday, most of that content is attached to corporate interests and copyright law. While companies and individuals regularly publish information for anyone to consume, the strict regulations surrounding the ownership of text, images, and more that govern the physical world generally translate right into the digital one. Unfortunately, the legal arena around the Web has always been a bit foggy. This is largely a result of the mixed ownership of content, how copyright is handled, how trademarks are protected, and how institutions shield themselves from lawsuit-happy lawyers firing threatening letters at anything that moves. Many corporations have taken it upon themselves to clear up any confusion about content ownership and protection by drafting their own custom declarations. Much of this heavy lifting occurs within tiny little links marked “Terms of Use” or “Copyright” or “Privacy Policy,” usually found in the footer of the site. These pages of legalese—which can be more obtuse than a PowerPoint presentation from the federal government—spell out in no uncertain terms who is liable for what. While it’s annoying that the Web has fallen into a state of rampant copyright infringement and malicious drive-by malware downloads, a business can take large steps toward protecting its online presence by adding some of this legalese to its website. This chapter is not meant as legal advice, nor is it a definitive guide on writing complex documents such as terms of use and privacy statements, which, for some sites, most definitely requires the assistance of legal professionals. It is designed to give companies an overview of the type of material commonly found in these documents, and a baseline for moving toward an official version for their own needs. It is also biased heavily toward the American legal system; since every country’s laws vary, it is beyond the scope of this book to address international law.

Intellectual property There are three different avenues for companies and individuals in the United States to protect their intellectual property: copyright, trademarks, and patents. Copyright and trademarks are directly related to the Web, patents less so except if the thing being patented is a new type of technology that affects how the Web is actually used. Most companies do not mention patents anywhere on their site unless to display the patent number under which their product is protected. Trademarks are used to protect logos, unique elements, phrases, and official names that have sufficient distinctive character by which the government recognizes the concept as being unique and wholly owned by the company. Typically, logos and other distinctive branding elements are trademarked—for instance, the Coca-Cola Company not only owns the trademark to the word Coca-Cola and its logo, but also to the design of the famous contoured bottle and the phrase “Make Every Drop Count.” The third means of protecting content is copyright. Copyright protects everything that goes into a website—text, graphics, diagrams, scripts, and so on. Copyright infringement is all too common, often resulting in lawsuits in which companies and individuals receive

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LEGALESE handsome compensation for having their work ripped off. Several of these lawsuits include high-profile companies.

Copyright Almost all web designers have seen painfully evident copyright infringement in their tenure. Sometimes it’s just an original logo being copped with a color change, other times it’s the actual graphical layout of the page, other times it’s entire passages of text. Unfortunately, the near-bottomless Web provides ample temptation for unscrupulous characters to rip off others’ hard work with a slim chance of ever being caught. Protecting a website from such transgressions is not difficult. Once a website is registered with the US Copyright Office,1 it is officially protected, and the owning company can file lawsuits at their own discretion. Unfortunately, simply adding a copyright notice to the bottom of a page does not grant the same power. A website must be registered in order to be fully protected.

Determining if copyright is owned In order to register a copyrighted work, the registering party needs to own every aspect of the collective work. For companies seeking to register a website, this includes every nook, cranny, bell, whistle, and widget of the website, including the content, plus any proprietary information; the design of the layout, plus the files (e.g., CSS files) and graphics used to create it; plus any scripts or unique code created, including the HTML. Smaller companies routinely outsource creative work, and if an agency or freelancer was responsible for the design, the company may not own the copyright. Similarly, there may be a discrepancy around the actual text if the business hired an outside copywriter to work on the site. There are different scenarios to consider when determining who exactly owns what copyright. If the company employed the writer, designer, or other creator full-time when the content was first drafted, then chances are the company benefits from a workmade-for-hire law, which essentially states that anything created while the employee was fully employed belongs to the company, not the employee. Many companies ask their employees to sign a piece of paper stating this, but it’s implicit in American business.

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If an outside contractor created the work (either design or writing), it only belongs to the client company if rights were explicitly transferred, or if it was created under a work-made-for-hire agreement (see the following “Work made for hire” sidebar for information about this). Otherwise, the contractor technically owns the copyright and licenses it to the corporation for whom the work was done. For stock photography and clip art, a copyright can be obtained if the artwork is used creatively in a way that constitutes an original work. For instance, a single photograph, even if purchased under a royalty-free license, cannot be copyrighted; however, if that photograph is combined with others into an original collage, that compilation—now an original work—can be registered. 1.

www.copyright.gov

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES While it might sound convoluted to track down copyright ownership for everything inside the website, keep in mind that this exact practice happens all the time in other creative industries like filmmaking. Because copyright infringement is so prevalent—and because it’s easy to break the law unknowingly—corporations must put in long hours of homework before trying to register their website. It’s usually best to work with a legal firm in this area, since they have a much deeper knowledge of the finer copyright law distinctions.

Work made for hire Many web design and copyrighting contracts contain a blurb titled “Assignment of Copyright” or something similar, where the owner of the copyright is explicitly stated. Under standard copyright law, the creator of the work (the designer or author) owns the final art, not the receiving company, unless the copyright is specifically transferred to the client in the contract. Many companies try to circumvent this by asking contractors to sign a work-made-forhire (often shortened to “work-for-hire”) agreement, which more or less states that everything the artist creates for the project—even material that does not get used—is owned by the client. Every full-time employee in the United States is technically under a work-made-for-hire agreement. Beyond that, the law becomes very explicit about what exactly can be included in a work-for-hire agreement. Section 101 of the 1976 Copyright Act includes the following:2 ■

A contribution to a collective work, such as a magazine or literary anthology

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A part of an audiovisual work

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A translation

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A supplementary work, such as an appendix, bibliography, or chart

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A compilation

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An instructional text

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A test

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Answer material for a test

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An atlas

Although this was written before the advent of the Web, websites, logos, and most design projects clearly fall outside this list. Work-made-for-hire agreements should not be used for website projects (either design or writing), as they would be very hard to defend in court. Unfortunately, adding work-for-hire clauses to contracts is standard practice for many companies, whether they are enforceable or not, and many contractors naively sign them not understanding what rights they are potentially giving away.

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Registering a copyright When you are confident that all copyright issues are resolved, the website can be registered with your native country. In the United Kingdom for instance, websites can be registered with the UK Copyright Service.3 In Australia, there is no formal registration at all, and the government simply encourages work to be marked as copyrighted when it is created. In the United States, websites are registered with the US Copyright Office. While trademarks and patents can take a long time to register (sometimes years), registering a copyright in America is a comparatively simple and fast process. Registering a site in the United States can be done by the company itself, or through a legal firm. In essence, three things need to be submitted: the completed registration form, a copy of the work, and payment. Websites can be registered through either a Form TX (published or unpublished nondramatic works) or Form VA (published or unpublished works). Websites that are text-heavy (like most corporate sites) could fit into Form TX; websites that focus on visual graphics (like a photography portfolio) would use Form VA. This is an admittedly fuzzy distinction, but it’s the best the government has to offer. While a work is technically protected under copyright law as soon as it’s created, without documentation from an official registration, a copyright dispute can easily degenerate into a grade school–level “he said, she said” argument. Since the cost for registration is so cheap (currently $45 in the United States), there is little to stop a corporation from taking the necessary precautionary steps. In the United States, a copyright lasts for the duration of the author’s life plus 75 years for individuals. Under work-made-for-hire laws, the length is 95 years from the first publication or 120 years from the date of its creation, whichever is less.

Copyright infringement Unfortunately, we live in a world of questionable scruples, where copyrighted material is routinely (in some cases, even predictably) lifted and copied elsewhere. Copyright infringement is not limited by any medium or scope—often, small logos or icons are stolen; in other cases, design templates are lifted.4 In more extreme cases, entire designs along with huge blocks of content are copied wholesale. See Figure 12-1 for a particularly egregious example.

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www.copyrightservice.co.uk Panic, a software manufacturer specializing in Mac OS X utilities, has a special section dedicated to the stunning number of icon, photo, and design infringements they have dug up across the Internet, available here: www.panic.com/extras/ripoff.

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Figure 12-1. The screenshot on the far left represents the original website. A Google search for the first sentence returns four direct competitors who lifted the entire two paragraphs completely, changing only the product name.

Unfortunately, deceitful web designers are often to blame. Many companies have been ignorantly sold an “original” design, only to find it was stolen from another site. Despite the fact that they had no idea that their freelance designer had less moral fiber than most third-world government officials, the company is still liable for damages if the copyright holder ever pursues legal action. In order to confidently pursue legal action, however, the copyright must be registered. Officially submitting the document to the government has several key advantages: Once a website is copyrighted, there is an official date of registration. Any copyright infringements occurring after this date are easy fodder for legal action since it can be easily proven whose content and design was registered first. Without registration, pursuing legal action can be very difficult. While it is possible, it’s kind of like playing the lottery—a lot of people try but turn up empty-handed at the end of the day. If a work is registered at least three months before the infringement (or within three months from the time of publication), the original party can collect statutory damages; otherwise, only actual damages can be reconciled. Statutory damages are calculated damages, and can often run very high—up to $150,000 per offense. The law also states that if the “infringer was not aware and had no reason to believe that his or her acts constituted an infringement of copyright,” then the amount is reduced to $200 per offense.5 Actual damages, by contrast, are damages actually incurred from the copyright infringement. This is usually a nominal amount, and difficult to calculate. Thus statutory damages (which are the kind the RIAA claims when suing individuals for downloading MP3s) are the favored weapon of lawyers. Pursuing legal action against infringing parties requires legal help. As stated before, companies often do not know that they are using another business’s design or content, and will be more than happy to change this once they are informed that they are in fact breaking the law. Even companies that know they are using someone else’s work often back down after receiving a strongly worded letter from a lawyer’s office. Companies that refuse, or claim the copyright belongs to them, require further legal action.

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In the United States, these numbers are found in Title 17, Chapter 5, Section 504, located here: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000504----000-.html.

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Adding a copyright notice Almost every business includes a copyright notice on the bottom of its website. This means nothing more than the fact that someone took the time to type it out. Unlike a trademark notice, a copyright symbol is not restricted to content that has been registered, so a copyright notice offers no indication of whether the site has actually been filed with the government’s office. Typically, the copyright notice is a subtle addition, often in small type that is not immediately obvious, such as the example in Figure 12-2. The design makes little difference. As long as the copyright notice follows correct structure, it can look however the developer wishes.

Figure 12-2. This website includes a small copyright notice—“Copyright 2007 Sigma Investing”—on the bottom.

A proper copyright notice includes three things. The first is the actual word or symbol (©) for copyright. Although only one is necessary, some sites include both, which can be beneficial for international sites since the letter C within a circle is universally recognized as the copyright symbol. The best way to represent this HTML entity on a web page is © or ©. (Simply copying the © symbol into an HTML page will invalidate the HTML—the character needs to be properly encoded.) The second thing that needs to be included is the date of the copyright. This should always be the current year if the copyright is still valid. Many companies fail to update this, and innumerable sites exist with an embarrassingly outdated year. To illustrate, in the survey of homepages detailed in Chapter 5, 80.5 percent of the businesses included a proper copyright notice on their homepage, but of these, nearly 40 percent were out of date, some of them three or more years behind.

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The best way to keep a copyright year current is to use a script that dynamically calls the information. This way it never needs to be manually updated. For instance, if running PHP on a site, the script would be simple: Copyright Sigma Investing The code is equally simple in ASP, and can also be done in JavaScript with something like this: <script> var mydate=new Date() var year=mydate.getYear() if (year < 1000)

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES year+=1900 document.write(year) Finally, the copyright line needs to include the holder of the copyright. This should be a legal entity—a real person or an actual business, not a pseudonym or a made-up business name. If the copyright is actually registered, this space would be reserved for the holder of the copyright as it appears on the form.

Some copyright notices also include the phrase “All rights reserved,” but this is no longer necessary. Most countries are members of the Berne Convention,6 which requires copyright protection be granted without any formality of notice of copyright.

Terms of use Part of the evolution of the Web is the increasing reliance on lawyers. It’s only a matter of time before a growing business requires the services of a legal professional who can consult on many fronts, but is primarily used to craft wordy, often convoluted pages of legalese that are commonly tagged “Terms of Use” on a website. The Terms of Use section covers, or attempts to cover, how visitors are allowed to use the site, from how to structure incoming links, to how the content can be reused, all the way to notice of possible legal action resulting from improper use of materials. As you can imagine, sometimes this can get out of hand. Typically, the Terms of Use (sometimes called Terms and Conditions) section covers the following topics: Use of the site: Basically, this is a brief welcome message and a definition of what using the site actually entails (essentially, downloading and viewing content). Copyright: This is a brief statement of copyright stating that visitors cannot rip off text or images without express written consent from the company. This is fairly standard, and usually easy to read. If a special license is applied to the content (see the next section), make sure its language does not present a conflicting copyright message. Privacy policy: It is not uncommon for a privacy policy to be wrapped into the terms of use, especially if it is short and clear. This practice depends on the company and its legal counsel; more involved privacy policies are often relegated to their own unique page. These are covered in the next section. Disclaimer: Basically, this states that all content (including text, images, and downloads) is covered as is, and the company is not responsible for out-of-date content. It also states that changes can be made by the company at any time.

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The official title is the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, whose contents can be read online at www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/index.html.

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LEGALESE Limitation of liability: This states that the company is not responsible if anything bad happens to the visitor while the site is being viewed. This blanket statement absolves them of everything from malicious software downloads to the user’s motherboard melting into a pool of silicon. User-submitted content: This blurb removes the company from any responsibility involving user-submitted content, such as in chat rooms, forums, and other public arenas. It covers stuff such as misleading information and adult or otherwise inappropriate content. It often claims anything submitted to the site immediately and completely belongs to the company, and they can use the material however they see fit, including self-promotion. Indemnification: In essence, this protects the company from legal action from its visitors if the visitors themselves are in a legal bind. For instance, if you get sued by a right-wing watchdog group for quoting an article written from a left-wing perspective, you cannot in turn sue the website from which the article was procured. Jurisdiction: Occasionally a company will dictate the jurisdiction in which legal encounters will occur. This is usually a state or town. Linking: Many companies explicitly state a linking policy, which can often get quite ridiculous. Some companies try to dictate the anchor text (the Olympic committee did this on its site), or only want links that reference the company in a positive light (the old Cingular wireless website demanded this, and it was carried over by AT&T when Cingular was purchased), or restrict linking only to the homepage (Verizon is guilty), or require written permission (FOX News and many other sites7). The issue of linking to only the website’s homepage makes particularly little sense, since the nature of the Web is to link documents, not just entire domains—which is why search engines index every page on a website, not just what the company wants the public to see first. Termination: This is another blanket statement that states the company can revoke access at any time or change the website without notifying its users. This is only a small slice of the content commonly found squirreled away in corporate Terms of Use pages. Writing one takes a sharp legal mind to construct the right phrasing. Simply copying from another site is possible, but not recommended—a business that takes their online presence seriously enough to add terms of use to their site should hire a lawyer to draft the text correctly. This is especially true if the corporate site relies on usergenerated content, since that is sometimes beyond a company’s ability to monitor effectively.

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The Boston School of Electrolysis has one of the more entertaining terms of use regarding linking (www.bostonschoolofelectrolysis.com/terms.php): “Any business, corporation or individual person, persons or parties seeking to establish a link or assigned usage of domain registration to or with Apodictic Incorporated that you please send your request for an application and email it to [email protected]. Your cooperation is appreciated and a symbol of respect and honesty that demonstrates your good character. Written requests for links to BostonSchoolofelectrolysis.com are seriously considered and approved 99% of the time.”

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Try to keep the language of the terms of use as plain as possible. There is no point in making the content look like legalese, with convoluted terms (severability always raises some eyebrows) and ALL CAPITAL LETTERS THAT LOOK IMPORTANT BUT ARE ACTUALLY VERY HARD TO READ. Since the concept of terms of use on a website is not going away anytime soon, incorporating regular, human-readable language will encourage people to actually consume and understand what is being said.

Special licensing of content Some companies choose to offer their content through a specific license that dictates how the content can be used, from distribution to editing to republishing. These licenses do not conflict with copyright attribution—the company still retains full copyright to all material, and can change the license at any given time—but they can conflict with the terms of use if these already determine how the content can be used. Most companies will not choose to license their content for competitive reasons. On the other hand, nonprofit groups, churches, and other organizations may want to offer their material to the public at large legally, and the GNU and Creative Commons licensing schemes are the best avenues for this.

GNU Free Documentation License The GNU Free Documentation License (or GFDL) is a copyleft license that provides anyone the ability to acquire, edit, redistribute, and repurpose content as long as the GFDL is applied to the derivative work. This applies to both commercial and noncommercial interests. It is the complement to the GNU GPL, which is the software equivalent. Copyleft is a term derived from copyright (even using a variation of the traditional copyright symbol, as shown in Figure 12-3), and is intended to remove editing and distribution restrictions from published work. Copyleft is a legal licensing scheme that allows the author the ability to essentially give away their content to the public—an act hindered by traditional copyright restrictions—while forcing any derivative works to be licensed under copyleft as well. Copyleft is the defining characteristic of the GFDL and several variations of the Creative Commons licenses, covered next.8

Figure 12-3. The copyleft symbol is derived from the traditional copyright symbol.

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For more information on copyleft, see “What is Copyleft?” at www.gnu.org/copyleft/ copyleft.html.

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Creative Commons Many corporations would be understandably nervous about applying a GFDL license to the content on their site. In most cases, the material is marketing-heavy and represents considerable effort to separate the brand from the competition. However, the company may apply one of the variations of the Creative Commons license,9 which lays out more explicit usage parameters for content. For websites, an author can choose one of six licenses:

1. Attribution alone 2. Attribution plus Noncommercial 3. Attribution plus No Derivative Works 4. Attribution plus Share Alike 5. Attribution plus Noncommercial plus No Derivative Works 6. Attribution plus Noncommercial plus Share Alike Most corporations would be interested in either license involving no derivatives. This means that anyone can redistribute the content as long as the author is properly cited (the attribution) and the work is not altered in any way (no derivatives). The noncommercial tag simply restricts this license to noncommercial use only.

Terms of use structure Typically, the Terms of Use page is linked from two locations. First, the footer of the site presents an opportunity to reference the link persistently across the site without being obnoxious. People expect that type of link on the bottom of the page; in fact, if someone were to specifically look for the terms of use, the footer is probably the first place they would look. Beyond that, terms of use should be linked whenever it makes sense in the context of the page. For instance, if the visitor is signing up to be a member of the company’s forum, they should be required to read the terms of use—which often includes provisions for usersubmitted content—before becoming a member. The terms of use should encompass only one page. Long pages can be made more usable by providing an inline table of contents, like Sun Microsystems did for their terms of use (shown in Figure 12-4). The links simply go to a block of content further down the page that has a complementary link to send the visitor back to the top of the page.

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www.creativecommons.org

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Figure 12-4. Websites with long terms of use can use a table of contents and inline links to help users jump to their area of interest.

Privacy policy The Web has introduced a whole new set of privacy issues. Because information is stored electronically on networked computers, the theft and misuse of that information becomes much more appealing to those looking to turn a profit at the expense of others. E-commerce took years to fully gain the public’s trust, because there always seemed to be some story about credit fraud, identity theft, and lost information. Couple that with the complete breakdown of e-mail security and the problem of spam, and it’s clear why privacy remains a hot point of discussion.10 The reality is that most companies are on the level, and very, very few abuse the information they keep about their customers and their website visitors. However, to gain consumer trust, even the most ethical and responsible firms need to explain their policies and how they are maintained. A few companies do use the information for legal but

10. The Forrester study “Privacy Concerns Cost eCommerce $15 Billion,” by Christopher M. Kelley, shows that not only are the vast number of respondents “somewhat” to “extremely” concerned about privacy, but well over half believe that the government should regulate online privacy laws. The study can be read here: http://web1.forrester.com/ER/Research/Brief/ 0,1317,13484,00.html.

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LEGALESE less-than-savory purposes, like mining traffic information for targeted marketing, selling e-mail addresses to marketers, and more. Whatever the case, every business should have a privacy policy statement that outlines exactly how the information is being used. Privacy policies (sometimes called privacy statements) do not have to be written by lawyers unless the company thinks there may be some legal tripwire that needs to be identified. For instance, if a business collects e-mail addresses for a newsletter and then resells those addresses to a direct marketing firm, that information needs to be clearly laid out in the privacy policy without any ambiguity. In this case, an attorney practiced in writing legalese will be able to craft language that leaves nothing to interpretation. A privacy statement should always be written in as plain a vernacular as possible. There is a very good chance that people will seek this information and read it with acute interest, because many are legitimately concerned about how their information gets used. Clouding policies behind heavy language will earn little trust. A privacy policy should span whatever length is needed to accurately transcribe the company’s practices. A single paragraph can be enough, but there are times when several pages are needed.11 No matter what the length, it should cover a few key items of interest: Outline exactly what information is stored: For simple sites without interactivity or e-commerce options, this may include nothing more than traffic logs in the server. Beyond that, explain that anyone signing up for a newsletter has their e-mail stored, and anyone making a purchase has their shipping address and possibly their credit card information saved as well. Detail how that information is used: As an example, inform readers that generic server logs—which do not contain any private information—are used to improve the website design by analyzing traffic patterns and browser statistics. Explain how e-mail addresses are used. If they are not utilized for anything beyond their primary purpose (such as a newsletter), explain that; by contrast, if they are sold to the Canadian mafia as fodder for their Viagra spam cannons, explain that as well. For more sensitive information (credit cards), reassure the reader that the information is secure and never shared. Always let customers edit their information: This is especially true for any sites harvesting user-generated content (such as a forum), but any site that includes login or membership functionality should allow people to make any changes they want. A privacy policy should state that this is possible, with guidance on how to do it.

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Clarify the unsubscribe process: Users should be able to remove their information— especially their e-mail address—from your system at any time, for any reason. Again, the privacy policy is responsible for explaining how that can be done. Provide a means for receiving updates: Inevitably, a privacy policy will change. Probably not drastically, or even functionally, but occasionally language is altered to reflect new policies. Explain that the privacy policy page is always the best way to get the most current information. Forward-thinking companies with an itch for transparency may provide a means for subscribing to privacy policy notifications, either by e-mail or RSS.

11. Buy.com’s privacy policy is almost 7,500 words and 6 printed pages.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Privacy policies are a sign of the times. Because there is such a concern for how information is handled, especially on the Web, it is more important than ever for corporations to be proactive in their messaging and approach, and to explain their policies in the clearest language possible. Many readers make an effort to educate themselves on the host’s policies before giving information away. For more information about website security and information privacy in general, there are numerous websites and books designed to guide businesses toward more responsible action. For news, Privacy.org is a great starting point;12 for more detailed resources, the Anti Spam League has a fairly dense website as well.13 The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also provides a good place to learn more about privacy on the Web.14

Summary While legalese is an annoying and often troublesome area for businesses to contend with, it is a necessary part of conducting business on the Web. When a corporation makes an effort to polish its language and eliminate ambiguous loose ends, it comes across as a far more professional and competent organization, regardless of whether the user agrees with the terms of use or privacy policy. Always make sure that the copyright information is correct and properly structured, and always ensure that the general legalese that many take for granted as small links in the footer receives the proper attention from legal professionals.

12. www.privacy.org 13. www.anti-spam-league.org 14. www.ftc.gov/privacy

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1 3 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Imagine a vast library without any light, where all the books are on the floor, many are in pieces, and on any given day thousands simply disappear without warning while thousands more are thrown on top without any heed for categorization. This, in a nutshell, is the organizational model of the Web. By design, it fails to adhere to any hierarchy—it’s just a mountain of text, images, and multimedia. Because these millions and millions of documents lack any semblance of order, the decentralized system of the Internet makes search the one viable answer for information retrieval. As the Web continues to expand at galactic speeds, search engines become an increasingly necessary part of daily online life. The incalculable number of manuscripts strewn across a pitch black library is more manageable if you can move quickly enough to read every word of several hundred millions books in half a second, and then instantly distill that information into a meaningful ranking of relevance. Today there are four ways people find content on the Web: Typing a URL directly: This is a direct line of thinking, and a conscious direction to arrive at a particular destination. Sally types URL, Sally gets website. Clicking a referring link on another site: By clicking inline and contextual links (including advertisements), the user is following a linear path of interest—they are tunneling down a rabbit hole influenced by the link choices of the referring authors. Selecting the site from a search engine results page: This is the unbiased, broad query—the big “what’s out there?” question. Results are ranked by relevancy using complex algorithms. Using social networking and social media sites: As socialization becomes more influential in how people use the Web, content is increasingly graded by crowd wisdom. This is especially true in social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and Ma.gnolia.com, where anyone can see what the user base is linking to. None of these are particularly better than the others. From a marketing perspective, all need to be tackled with varying amounts of time and money. While a company has explicit control over every word and pixel on its own domain, the other three can only be influenced. This influence is exerted from conscious, proactive effort. Companies must aggressively pursue ambient findability, the art and science of promoting their domain through organic means. While a small number of people might link to your corporate website because it’s relevant to whatever random bit of text they wrote, a passive stance will never be enough to sway the tide of traffic toward your domain. This does not mean advertising. Traditional banner advertising is a deliberate attempt to build traffic through calculated placement, based on metrics like daily visits, target demographics, and click-through rates. Ambient findability is like gardening. Incoming traffic is nurtured by planting seeds of interest, tending to them, and waiting (patiently) for traffic to grow naturally. Ambient findability relies on people finding the site by serendipity; the idea is that when enough seeds are planted around the Web, there is a greater chance people will find the link in just the right context.

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S E A R C H E N G I N E O P T I M I Z AT I O N Currently, search engines represent the culmination of ambient findability in action. A query’s results are boiled down from millions of possibilities into a manageable list of the top ten (and beyond) best possibilities. It’s a simple concept everyone understands. The reality, however, is that a company cannot wait for people to look up the precise string of keywords that match its business—they have to actively pursue means of appearing in the top results for approximate keyword combinations so they are still viewed as a recommended choice. Because people trust search engines almost to a fault, this is one of the best ways for a company to spend its marketing effort. Search engine marketing—and more precisely, search engine optimization—involves strategic planning and tactical implementation. Many steps toward better placement can be taken with the current website, but just as many require working outside the domain. This chapter will cover how search engines view websites and how they rank results, what steps can be taken to improve your placement in results pages, and how to test your hard work at the end of the day.

What it is and why it matters Before Google, search engines like AltaVista were buggy and unreliable. Metadata spammers loaded their pages with junky keywords to obfuscate their true content, and search engine ranking systems were too dumb to tell the difference between legitimate information and falsified junk. Today, search engines are more sophisticated. They base their rankings on site popularity, taking into account factors such as the number of incoming links, the source of those links, and the context surrounding them. Search engine marketing (SEM) is actually a combination of crafts related to procuring a favorable position in a search engine results page (SERP). Part of the work comes from search engine optimization (SEO), which defines the steps taken to organically grow a site’s relevancy by building links, writing strong content, submitting to search sites, and so forth. The complement is search marketing, which involves actually laying out cash for paid positions, mostly pay-per-click (PPC) ads. (See Figure 13-1 for the difference in these two disciplines.) This chapter will cover the basics of SEO. There are many myths about search engines, especially Google. The most egregious claims that attaining a top position in the organic results requires actually paying the search sites. This is categorically false. If it were that easy, the biggest businesses would own the best keywords, regardless of whether they were relevant to their products or services. Obtaining a top spot in a SERP requires worthy content coupled with time, effort, and skill—not a bucket of payola.

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People trust search engines because of the objectivity of the results. When someone types in “external hard drives,” they get a list of recommended destinations, formed by the Internet community at large, and then filtered through Google’s algorithms. Even the top ten results have a mix of content, from analysis to editorial to commercial.

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Figure 13-1. Google’s results page shows a mix of paid and organic results. The blocks with a number 1 show the PPC ads, which cost money; the block with a number 2 shows the organic results, attained by following SEO strategies.

Studies continually demonstrate that users are likely to click an organic result over a paid result.1 To compound that, other studies show that appearing in the top ten results is a dramatic competitive advantage, and appearing in anything after the third page is nearly worthless.2 In fact, a study from iProspect revealed some more interesting statistics:3 62 percent of people click on one of the top ten results. 90 percent of people click a link within the first three pages. 41 percent of people will change their query if they do not find a satisfactory result in the first page of results. 88 percent will do the same after the first three pages. 82 percent will start a new search using additional keywords because they trust the search engine to deliver the correct results if given more detail, rather than trust their original choice of keywords.

1. 2. 3.

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iProspect, “iProspect Search Engine User Attitudes,” April–May 2004 (www.iprospect.com/ premiumPDFs/iProspectSurveyComplete.pdf). Oneupweb, “Target Google’s Top Ten to Sell Online” (www.bb2e.net/google_topten.pdf). iProspect, “iProspect Search Engine User Behavior Study,” April 2006 (www.iprospect.com/ premiumPDFs/WhitePaper_2006_SearchEngineUserBehavior.pdf).

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S E A R C H E N G I N E O P T I M I Z AT I O N Clearly, appearing in the top ten results matters. This is where SEO comes into play, and where an investment of effort and patience can have huge dividends.

Why the emphasis on Google? In a nutshell, Google is the one to beat. Any broad search study will show Google dominating market share, although different tests disagree on how much. In April 2007, comScore showed Google leading the pack with 49.7 percent; Hitwise, from the same period, attributed them a 64.13 percent share. None of the competition, at least at the time of this book, is even close.4 To add insult to injury, Google also powers the search results of other major websites and software vendors: browsers such as Firefox and Opera, plus other search engines such as Excite, AOL, Netscape, and more. Google basically reinvented the way search engines work. Just about every other provider has modeled their techniques after the giant, which is why the effort of optimizing a site for Google often cascades to competing search engines. Their innovative approach boils down to ranking results by link popularity. (This does not preclude link quality; in fact, the quality of the link, which we’ll explore in this chapter, has just as much influence.) Because Google continues to adjust its algorithms to produce better results, the world keeps coming back to find reliable answers. This constant tweaking places Google firmly in the crosshairs of SEO experts. It is harder than ever to crack the top ten, but despite this, their system continually proves to reward sincere and honest effort on the part of website developers. This objectivity in ranking is what makes SEO such an interesting game. Everyone has exactly the same chance of ranking number one—it’s just how the many optimization tools are used that determines who gets there.

Laying out an SEO strategy When a company decides to embrace SEO in an effort to complement its marketing effort, it has embarked on an “SEO campaign.” Like any advertising or broader marketing crusade, it is a two-pronged effort: strategy and tactics. Common SEO methodology is well known among search professionals. What separates successful campaigns from failing campaigns is the strategy behind the effort. While anyone can drive a car in the dark, having a map, headlights, and street signs sure helps get there faster without disaster. Effective SEO strategy demands iterative testing in order to refine it. Like advertising, SEO requires long-term commitment in order to see remarkable results; while spikes in revenue can happen periodically, they are the exception to the rule. However, unlike ad campaigns that are grounded with insertion orders and print schedules that run several

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Enid Burns, “U.S. Search Engine Rankings, April 2007,” SearchEngineWatch, May 31, 2007 (www.searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3626021).

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES months ahead of publication, an SEO campaign can stop on a dime to change direction. These are the four steps to a refined SEO effort:

1. Strategize. 2. Execute. 3. Analyze. 4. Optimize. The medium is flexible and fast moving. Companies investing in SEO need to adopt the same traits, because the competition is fierce, and without well-constructed strategy, the best tactics in the world will not produce near the revenue potential.

Envision the end result The first aspect of any strategy planning is figuring out the end goal. When there is a clear target in the distance, it’s a lot easier to take accurate aim. In regard to SEO, this is based primarily on keywords that define the nooks and crannies across the Web where people will find you. Consider keywords you think are relevant to your business, plus keywords that the user is going to type in looking for a product or service like your own. They are not always the same.

Three levels of keyword detail Every business has keywords that describe its products or services. Rarely is this a collection of single words, but rather strings of words that detail the company and its offerings. For instance, a company like Rockstar Healthcare Staffing is in the competitive field of nurse staffing. Other companies in their industry are savvy about SEO. Cracking the top ten of the first results page is a challenge, but there are a number of keyword combinations for which Rockstar Healthcare Staffing can still optimize. When writing down the words for which you want your site to perform well, consider three levels of detail, based on string length and keyword density. These will be referenced through the rest of the chapter, and into Chapters 14 and 15 as well, because determining the keywords that best describe your company can impact many other marketing activities. Level 1: Long, low-traffic descriptions. These are the multiword phrases that precisely describe the company and its services, but are generally too long to gamble on an exact string match. In our example, Rockstar Healthcare Staffing might describe themselves with the following phrases: A national healthcare staffing firm for traveling nurses Provides traveling nurses job opportunities with good pay and benefits Offers personal and career growth for nurses through healthcare staffing opportunities

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Keyword selection Sometimes, it’s not immediately obvious what keywords will draw the most traffic from search engines. Every company speaks its own corporate language, where terms like “per diem nursing” may have context and meaning. However, for an external audience, those proprietary phrases mean little. The marketing effort should incorporate a blend of niche terminology with text that is broadly recognized. In either case, the best way to identify keywords is by examining patterns in different areas—the competition, the media, and the search engines themselves. ■

Analyze competition: See what the closest competitors are writing on their websites. Pay particular attention to companies that practice good writing for the Web. Unambiguous text is favored among readers, so look for key terminology that still resonates within the marketing message.

■

Read industry media: The news media effectively lives in the world between businesses and customers. Media writers are often responsible for translating obtuse or industry-specific lingo into plain language their readers understand. Look for this and build from it. Blogs are also valuable, since they can provide a subjective, personal perspective that newspapers and trade publications avoid.

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Keyword research sites: There are several sites that allow you to research which keywords command attention in search engines. Wordtracker is an independent, subscription-based service that evaluates keywords and generates a report estimating the effectiveness of the proposed optimization campaign.5 In addition, signing up for Google AdWords6 and Yahoo Search Marketing7 (even though it costs money to do so) provides insight into keyword popularity by how much they command in the PPC realm.

All three are loaded with keywords, but they have a slim chance of being typed word for word directly into a search engine. However, direct matches are not the point of level 1 descriptions; when a company can summarize its activity into a few succinct clauses, it creates a foundational language that should be used habitually for the website’s body copy, metadata, and external links. It also establishes a pattern for keywords and keyword phrases that reappear inside level 2 and level 3.

13 5. 6. 7.

www.wordtracker.com http://adwords.google.com http://marketingsolutions.yahoo.com

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Level 2: Medium, competitive strings. Once a company has crafted a series of brief descriptors from level 1, those can be distilled into powerful keyword strings for which the website should rank highly in search engines. It is increasingly important to optimize for phrases, not single words, since studies routinely confirm that people usually type more than one word to find what they are looking for. For instance, a study on the BBC website showed 64 percent of all queries were more than one word,8 and a study by Clickstream on the entire Web in general showed the average phrase length to be 2.57 words.9 Level 2 phrases are the meat and potatoes of an SEO campaign. They are the keyword combinations on which a company in a competitive field like Rockstar Healthcare Staffing needs to focus. Using the descriptions crafted in level 1, several potent keyword strings can be extracted: US traveling nurse staffing National healthcare staffing nurses Nurse staffing good pay benefits Level 2 phrases, as well as close approximations, represent the ideal combinations people will use to find you. These are the nucleus of ambient findability. They are the golden mean of descriptive accuracy and realistic search engine matching, as shown in Figure 13-2. Obviously, the more influential and inimitable keywords that can be used here, the better the chance of meeting people’s expectations and finding more qualified leads. For instance, a regional company should optimize for their location. If the search engine market is crowded for “nurse staffing good pay benefits,” emphasize “nurse staffing good pay benefits new jersey,” so when someone defines their region as “new jersey,” Rockstar Healthcare Staffing will top the list, and the visitor will be a more qualified prospect simply because of the words they chose for their query. Level 3: Short, uber-competitive phrases. For most companies, these are the holy grail of SEO. Topping a SERP for a competitive single- or two-word phrase is the end goal—that’s where the bulk of traffic is going to come from. The key, however, is to resist focusing too many marketing dollars on these elusive spots. By relentlessly optimizing for level 2, the SEO effect will cascade down, and with continued work, a website will rank as highly for “nurse staffing” as “US traveling nurse staffing.”

8.

9.

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Paul Huntingtion, David Nicholas, and Hamid R. Jamali, “Employing Log Metrics to Evaluate Search Behaviour and Success: Case Study BBC Search Engine,” Journal of Information Science, 2006 (www.publishing.ucl.ac.uk/papers/2007Huntington_etal.pdf). WebSiteOptimization.com, “Clickstream Study Reveals Dynamic Web” (www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/clickstream/).

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Figure 13-2. Phrases that are shorter are more competitive.

Referring sites Success in search engines requires building a network of links. A significant aspect of SEO strategy is identifying other websites that are relevant in content and will provide highquality links back to your site. These may include alliances, forums, blogs, and more. The list is different for every industry, but any marketing leader in the organization should be able to point to a dozen or more sites to start. It is also important to plan actual text that should be used for the links themselves. Consider the three levels of keywords in the previous section, and which words you want to reference your website. We’ll cover how the links should be actually constructed later in the chapter.

Focus on ROI Too many SEO campaigns are half-baked. Where search engine fanatics focus on the mechanics of the process, starry-eyed marketers think appearing in the first page of results will solve all their problems. Unfortunately, neither is the panacea of online marekting. For optimization to truly bring success to the organization, the leaders of the project need to always consider the ROI of the campaign.

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Simply put, driving herds of new visitors to a website is not enough to fill the coffers. At most, you’ll score some quick logo impressions, get a couple people to bookmark the site or grab the RSS feed, and possibly make a sale or two to cover the bandwidth bill. This is not smart marketing. The goal of any campaign is to drive conversions—transforming casual, anonymous browsers into actual sales or qualified leads.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Conversion paths should be defined across the entire website. The homepage is most important. Consider Figure 13-3. The well-designed page clearly describes the company’s product and purpose, and the right column offers an immediate means of trying the service without any hassle. For people researching e-mail marketing software, this is a huge time-saver; for the company itself, there’s no better way to collect qualified leads than to have people volunteer their information.

Figure 13-3. This homepage tries to capture qualified leads immediately.

Every SEO campaign should be complemented by an equally detailed plan on leveraging the new traffic into conversions. Sometimes this means capturing information, other times it means driving people right to the online store for direct sales. Part of SEO metrics is finding out the ratio of visitors to conversions, and how much each conversion costs versus how much one is worth.

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Regular review and analysis SEO strategy is not like a refrigerator—it doesn’t get turned on to work without maintenance for the next ten years. Because search engines are being constantly tweaked (Google, for instance, changes its algorithm several times a week10), campaigns have to be closely monitored. Sites that formerly ranked in the first page of results can completely disappear from the search engine indexes without warning. Similarly, a page struggling to crack the top 30 might find itself suddenly sitting pretty at number 5—not from anything the developer did, but because the search engine’s labyrinthine ordering calculations underwent a change that affected that particular site’s ranking. When it comes to SEO, it’s difficult to get too granular in the data. Because there’s a lot of cause and effect in Web traffic patterns, one number can have a profound effect on another number two months later. Consider the following list of metrics that should be tracked monthly: Total number of unique visitors Visitors from search engines, organized by search site Top search phrases, and where your site ranks for each Time spent on website Average page views Bounce rate (how many people left the site before clicking to a second page) Keeping a regular, detailed journal on this information can illuminate interesting trends and directly influence future SEO efforts. For instance, you might find that a particular search string for which you worked hard to rank highly brings in little traffic, despite its prominent position. By contrast, another phrase, which had little SEO behind it, is bringing in a surprising number of qualified leads even though it appears on the third page of results. Many companies only evaluate SEO performance on a quarterly (and sometimes yearly) basis. On the Web, three months is an eternity. To see true success, the campaigns have to be agile, reviewed at least every month, and revised at the drop of a keyword to take advantage of trends in the market, current events, and the maneuvering of competitors. Analysis is impossible to conduct without good stats-tracking software. Many hosting companies provide weaker statistics software that reports rudimentary information like referring links, number of hits, and top search queries, but they cannot match the level of detail found in proper analytical applications. Following are a few popular examples.

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WebTrends WebTrends is the godfather of analytical software.11 It’s been around for years, helped define the industry, and works with just about every platform. The company’s products are

10. Saul Hansell, “Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine,” New York Times, June 3, 2007 (www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/business/yourmoney/03google.html?_r=1&oref=slogin). 11. www.webtrends.com

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES expensive but exceedingly detailed, and offer the user every conceivable feature, including the ability to generate detailed reports—complete with fancy pie charts and line graphs— on any detail across any time period, like a single keyword’s performance across a sixmonth period back in 2003. Because it installs directly on the server, the program can read the server’s log files to review the visitor traffic information prior to its installation. Since every server produces log files from the second it’s turned on, WebTrends acts like a giant telescope looking back to the origins of the universe. The company offers a very detailed support section on its website, and even conducts training sessions on its products. For large companies looking to install a true enterpriseclass analytics system, WebTrends is the leading choice.

Mint Mint is a newer service, released in 2005.12 Like WebTrends, it provides very detailed information for just about any metric a designer, marketer, or developer could want. In fact, for most companies, Mint might report on every detail they need to track, just without the custom reports for which WebTrends is known. The biggest drawback to Mint is the implementation of the system. It only works on Apache servers running PHP and MySQL. It also collects information via JavaScript, not server log files. This means it cannot see historical information, only what it tracks after being turned on, which may be a drawback for companies wanting to dig deep into their site’s history. These disadvantages are counterbalanced by the software’s plug-in architecture, called Pepper, which allows developers to develop widgets to expand the core functionality. For instance, the Secret Crush Pepper integrates with common blog software to see which visitors are most active, and the QuickTime Check Pepper provides a quick look at how many visitors have Apple’s QuickTime plug-in installed. There are dozens of these plug-ins available. Mint is a great solution for those looking for an inexpensive ($30) analytics program that tracks just about every nuance possible.

Google Analytics Over the past few years, Google has been expanding its free software offerings to include a suite of tools for marketers, developers, designers, SEO specialists, and more. One of the most celebrated releases was Google Analytics.13 This free web analytics tool is welldesigned, comprehensive, and easy to use. Like its brethren, it has its advantages and disadvantages. First, it works only with JavaScript tracking, which means historical data is not available. However, the installation is dead simple. There is no database or server-side software to set up as with Mint; just add the JavaScript tracking code inside the tag of the document, and the numbers start 12. www.haveamint.com 13. www.google.com/analytics

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S E A R C H E N G I N E O P T I M I Z AT I O N rolling in. All the information is stored remotely on Google’s servers, and is accessed by logging in to its site. As with the other tools, the information is vast and relatively simple to access. All of the core info is there, including visitors, search strings, and length of visit. As you can see in Figure 13-4, the clean user interface presents all of this in easily digestible dashboards.

Figure 13-4. Google Analytics offers detailed website analysis for free.

SEO tactics Once the optimization strategy is defined, it’s a matter of tactical execution. In SEO, there are many, many things that can be done to support the campaign, from internal content tweaking to external link building to continued keyword research and competitive analysis. Successful campaigns are a blend of these channels—relying on any single device is like driving an 18-wheel truck on only one tire. Methods for SEO can be placed into one of two broad categories: SEO-specific tweaks made to the website itself (internal), and tactics outside the domain (external). Beyond that, it’s just a cycle of research, strategy evaluation, and campaign monitoring to ensure the effort is actually driving desired marketing results, not just upping the number of visitors.

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Internal strategies In the world of sailboat racing, the amount of time spent checking gear, equipment, systems, and the boat itself often rivals or exceeds the actual time on the water. In order to

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES race effectively, crews obsess over every detail of the craft—cleaning, fine-tuning, and triple-checking all possible problem areas before launching into the water against rival crews. A team that races unprepared has lost before they’ve started. SEO is not too different. In order to compete, companies need to agonize over every detail of their site, from the most minor slices of content to mission-critical metadata. When the actual web page is humming with slim code, proper keyword density, and finely honed text, the site is ready for prime time. Having these aspects polished to a shine before aggressively pursuing external strategies will only make later processes faster and easier, because the second search engine spiders begin crawling the site, they will find the best markup possible. Web pages are built from visible and invisible content. Visible content includes everything a normal user agent like a browser would display to the reader, such as text, images, and multimedia files. Invisible content, by contrast, is everything the user does not see, but which is still important to the page, like metadata, alternative content for images and multimedia files, and class and ID values. Search engines consume actual text inside the HTML, so they index the page as the culmination of visible and invisible content. But while plain HTML text is discernible by both user and spider, images can be understood only by a human and mean nothing to a searchbot unless proper alternative content is provided. While internal SEO strategies revolve around what search engines discern, that content has to first take into consideration everything people see.

The importance of metadata Metadata is commonly defined as “data about data.” While this is a clever turn of phrase, it fails to encapsulate the purpose of metadata, which is to accurately describe content through summarization and unique identification. Just about every kind of digital document has metadata. Common image files like JPEG and PNG store color profiles, dimensions, and a thumbnail version. A Microsoft Word document contains page length, author, date of origination and last modification, word count, and more. A web page is simply another type of document, and it also uses metadata to describe its contents. Images and word-processing documents have the benefit of third-party software adding metadata behind the scenes. You never have to count pages or manually add the date of modification to a Word document; Microsoft conveniently appends this automatically. Web pages, however, are built from scratch. The meta information has to be manually crafted, and its depth and breadth are dependent exclusively on the amount of effort the author wants to invest. Documents with strong metadata have many advantages. First and most applicable, search engines like Google and MSN rely on this information to help index and order websites. However, it is used by a website’s internal search functions as well. As a pillar of information architecture, it is widely advocated by web professionals as a key component to proper development because it enhances the intrinsic nature of the document; whether the actual metadata contributes to SEO is less important than the web page being a good corporate citizen in the web community.

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The overindulgence of keywords helps no one, least of all people looking for an honest company. Important keywords can be added just as effectively using normal language. Getting the right keywords in the title is critical. Search engines rely on these to properly index websites, and people rely on them to identify the nature and business of the company. Earlier in the chapter we covered the three levels of keyword identification. Titles

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES should incorporate level 3 words and phrases without question, and level 2 if room permits. In the preceding title, there are three level 3 keywords: healthcare, staffing, and nurses, and one very important level 3 phrase: traveling nurses. The order of keywords in a title can make a substantial difference in ranking as well. The most important words should be as far in front as possible. There is anecdotal evidence that ranking systems give more weight to the first few words, and people scanning a results page will latch onto words bolded to the left instead of the middle.14 There is an ongoing debate whether to include the company name—the general recommendation is that it should be present, but at the end, and that the stronger keywords should get bigger play at the front of the title tag. The concentration of keywords is important because there is a finite amount of characters available to a page title. The W3C recommends a limit of 64 characters.15 Google displays about that without defaulting to an ellipsis. MSN and Yahoo are a bit more generous with around 70 characters, but this number seems to fluctuate (at one point, Yahoo was showing 120 characters), so make sure to stay within the safe zone of 60 to 64 characters, including spaces. Description meta tag. Almost every document type that supports metadata enables the author to include a description. For web pages, this is a vital bit of content that can significantly impact rankings. However, unlike the http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-starcity.asp <description>How do Americans get ready to work with Russians aboard the International Space Station? They take a crash course in culture, language and protocol at Russia's Star City. Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMT http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/06/03.html#item573 Obviously, it’s far better to ask the CMS to do the heavy lifting. The precise details of feed creation within specific software go beyond the scope of this book, but all feeds, no matter what format or content, should be processed through FeedBurner.

Burn the feed FeedBurner is a free service that transforms any common RSS stream into a standardized, ready-to-consume format compatible with any feed reader on the market.10 FeedBurner

10. www.feedburner.com

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OUTBOUND MARKETING does not exactly offer a cerebrally deep function, but the advantages of using the service are numerous: It creates an easy URL for reference. For instance, the URL for my blog is http:// feeds.feedburner.com/graphicpush. In its native state, prior to FeedBurner’s processing, the URL is http://www.graphicpush.com/?rss=1§ion=news. It measures statistics that would otherwise be unavailable. At a glance, you can see the number of subscribers, the feed-reading software they are using, visited links, and more. You can see an example of these metrics in Figure 14-10. It offers advanced functionality, such as splicing in feeds from social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, adding comment counts, adding a special image to the feed, and more.

14 Figure 14-10. FeedBurner allows you to track all types of metrics about an RSS feed.

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Add the feed to the site After crafting an RSS feed and running it through FeedBurner, you have some premium content that is just begging to be syndicated. In order to bring this into the world, you just need to add the link to the website. This is done in two primary areas: the metadata and the body of the content. The metadata. Using the element, developers can add a link to the RSS feed inside their metadata. While this link does not appear in the visible body of the page, it causes a small icon to appear in the address bar of a browser, as you can see in Figure 14-7. When a user clicks this icon, their browser—whether Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari, or Opera—will subscribe to the feed. The tag is easy to add, as you can see in the following example: Adding the feed to the metadata of the document also enables feed discovery, where various applications can detect the feed and offer to process it. The Bloglines service, for instance, will automatically detect the feed when it is given a website’s standard URL. Inside the body. Common anchor tags can also reference feeds. For instance, the following bit of HTML will send users directly to the FeedBurner page: Subscribe to AwesomeBiz's News Feed If the RSS was not processed through FeedBurner, it would send people right to the raw XML output, which some browsers render as readable content, and others show as plain code. When adding a visible link to the feed, carefully consider the terminology. People unfamiliar with the technology will not respond well to terms like RSS or XML; they mean nothing to the average web user. Instead, use language that describes the action that feeds perform—in most cases, a word like subscribe is ideal, because if a user is using an application like My Yahoo, then they will be comfortable with the concept of subscribing to a website’s content. And finally, use the proper feed icon, available at www.feedicons.com. The world is standardizing around this graphic (shown in Figure 14-11) as it does not use words and is therefore not dependent on the language of the website.

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Figure 14-11. This graphic is the standard for representing content syndication feeds, no matter what format or language.

Summary Outbound marketing can be huge for a company’s general marketing efforts if used effectively. The key to a successful campaign, whether e-mail or RSS, is strong content that will attract and grow a dedicated readership. Also, the importance of testing different designs in different e-mail clients, as well as testing subject lines and content ideas, can reveal telling results that will ultimately lead to better material and an increased readership. And finally, digital marketing offers precise metrics to see who is reading what, what links are being clicked, and what content is drawing the strongest reaction.

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1 5 ONLINE ADVERTISING

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES The Web has delivered on many of its promises to the business world. New opportunities for generating and collecting revenue, better communication with customers and shareholders, increased transparency with the public, a network of affiliates, and the opportunity for deep brand development through new media are all part of the revolution of doing business through the Internet. In addition to this newfangled interactive realm, successful companies still need to be sound in traditional aspects. Good business plans, clear marketing goals, and solid products and services still pave the road for success. Customer service still counts. Public relations means more than it ever did, and advertising—no matter what medium it’s created for—is still very, very important to driving revenue. On the Web, companies have plenty of options to get their name out there. Pure word of mouth mingles with search engine results, which blend with search engine marketing, which then reinforces traditional advertising, which complements online banner advertising. Viewed as a holistic effort, the sheer number of opportunities is tantalizing. Smart marketers will pick and chose their media buys and PR initiatives, tailoring their annual marketing programs to target precise demographic niches. For instance, corporations looking to advertise on the Web can purchase media space, invest in paid search results, become active in e-mail marketing, and much more. A traditional marketing agenda for a medium-sized business might include a 6- or 12-month insertion order into a few magazines, a direct mail campaign or two, and possibly some trade show support. That same budget applied online could be diversified to gain far more exposure. This intention is not to replace or discount traditional advertising. People still read newspapers, still receive traditional mail, and still drive along highways to see billboards. The point is that companies pushing a large portion of their creative resources to the online world may get a much bigger bang for their buck. This chapter is about stretching your marketing dollar across the online world. It covers determining target markets and planning a campaign, reviewing different media options for purchase, implementing various media, transforming a click to the website into a goal conversion, and finally, analyzing the performance of the campaign.

Campaign tactics Leo Burnett once said, “Plan the sale when you plan the ad.” Leo is an advertising legend, and is single-handedly responsible for dozens of famous campaigns; he’s also the founder of one of the largest ad agencies in the world. His deceptively simple statement should be at the core of any advertising. In fact, on the Web, this perspective has never been truer; the medium allows for near-instant gratification and unprecedented sales opportunities, and companies should always be thinking about the end goal when crafting a strategy. Effective advertising comes about by asking the right questions. In the foundational stages of the marketing plan, you need to ask three important questions:

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ONLINE ADVERTISING 1. What are my marketing and sales goals? 2. What demographics do I want to put myself in front of that will help meet these goals?

3. What media avenues will most effectively expose my message to the right people? These are tactical questions. They do not take into account creative ideas. Most of the work in advertising comes before actual idea generation—a headline, after all, is not created in a vacuum, but is the distillation of hours of research and planning. All of these questions can be addressed with hard answers and real numbers so the campaign can be evaluated objectively.

Defining goals Before gallivanting out into the world with a big blinking ad that screams, “Look at me! I exist!” you must define why you’re advertising to begin with, and the specific, quantifiable goals the new ad material will help accomplish. Keep in mind that general business goals are not always the same as advertising goals. For instance, it’s one thing to say “I want to increase overall revenue by $500,000 over the next year.” That’s ambiguous. Revenue growth comprises countless factors: quality of the product or service, length of time in market, capability of the sales force, and the effectiveness of advertising. By contrast, an advertising-specific goal would be “I want online sales to increase by $500,000 over the next year, and I want at least 50 percent of that directly driven by online advertising.” When setting a target, it’s critically important to be able to measure the effort’s success. In the first example, if the company’s online advertising generated $300,000 in online revenue, the campaign would have been regarded as a failure; in the second example, it would have been an unquestionable success. Bottom line: the more specific the goals, the better.

Brand and name exposure Out of all the goals, this one is the hardest to define and measure with pinpoint accuracy. For companies without a lot to offer on their own website, brand relevance is an important feature of the competitive landscape, because that gain in mindshare eventually leads to more business. For instance, consider a small company—we’ll call them Telecomosity—that manufactures commercial telecommunications systems. These guys build the cables, routers, and switches, and they offer a great product that beats the competition on both quality and price. Traditionally, when they are considered for a large project, their sales team can win the deal about half the time. This is a great success rate. However, the company’s primary marketing problem is not how to sell their products and services—they clearly know how to do that—but actual exposure in the marketplace just to get considered for projects. Telecomosity is watching 95 percent of the industry’s opportunities pass by simply because the contractors did not know enough about the company (or know about them at all) to add them to the short list of considered vendors.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES In this case, our small but hungry company needs to beef up its brand’s presence in the marketplace. This is accomplished through repetitive, long-term media exposure like advertising, e-mail, sponsorships, and more. Telecomosity, in order to foster name recognition, must aggressively pursue any opportunity to promote its logo and a link to its website. How is this measured? If nothing else in the company changes over the duration of the campaign (for instance, no new sales staff is added), the company should find itself being considered for more deals simply by virtue of acquiring brand familiarity with commercial contractors. Telecomosity’s advertising goal might be to double the number of unique visitors to the website and increase the number of closing opportunities by 30 percent. Brand exposure can also be roughly measured with web analytics by tracking raw impressions. As an example, a banner ad might be loaded 20,000 times over three months; this would indicate it was seen (although maybe not clicked) 20,000 times. Another example might be a promotional e-mail. If the campaign of 10,000 saw a 25 percent open rate, auspicious marketers would believe their brilliance was seen by 2,500 recipients. The beauty of online advertising is that every one and zero that processes the trillion clicks people make every day is tracked and archived, so something as intangible as brand exposure can still be approximately calculated. Ideally, a company like Telecomosity looking to set a goal of brand exposure would combine as many metrics as possible. The combination of increased banner ad impressions and amplified sales activity is promising; it suggests a cause-and-effect relationship that can be tested in different blends.

Increased sales One common problem with many campaigns is their lack of completion. Too many companies craft beautiful, traffic-generating ad campaigns, but then do nothing with the increased number of people on the website. On the Web, this is a cardinal sin. Referring back to Leo Burnett’s quote, it is just as important to map out the entire sales process—of which advertising is only the beginning—from initial exposure to the thank you page after checking out through the shopping cart. Increasing sales is a classic advertising objective; in most media, that is its primary function. A sales goal is determined by extrapolating historical data into a projected number, and then factoring in potential marketing influences like increased ad spending. If there is not a lot of previous data to pull from (two years is the minimum, more is ideal), then it becomes less of a goal and more of an educated guess. For instance, say an online bookseller called The First Page has seen moderate revenue growth of 10 percent each year for the last five years. Last year, they did $300,000 in sales with no advertising. Based on historical data, they would be slated for revenue of $330,000 in sales. While this is respectable, it’s not really enough to grow the business. The owners want to boost the revenue to $450,000 in the next year—a 50 percent jump. It’s an admirable goal.1 1.

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Please forgive the simplicity of this example; by design, the numbers are all nice and even for explanatory purposes. Understand that real-life sales goals will be similar in theory, but in all likelihood far more complex in execution.

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ONLINE ADVERTISING But in settling on their target, The First Page needs to go into far more detail. Simply throwing a bunch of advertising at the market and hoping for $150,000 of pure profit is not a smart way to run a campaign. More specific numbers are needed. The average sale at The First Page is $25. Last year, the company saw about 12,000 transactions. To make the 50 percent jump, the website will have to yield an additional 6,000 transactions. Assuming that 1,200 will come from the natural 10 percent growth the company has traditionally experienced, the owners are going to rely on new advertising tactics to pull in those additional 4,800 sales. The owners are willing to invest $50,000 in advertising, which works out to roughly $10.42 spent to win each of the 4,800 new transactions. If about 5 percent of people exposed to the advertising will actually make a purchase, then the $50,000 has to reach a minimum of 96,000 people. With all this in mind, The First Page has the following goals for the next year: Increasing revenue 50 percent to $450,000 is the overall business goal. Generating $120,000 ($450,000 goal minus $330,000 projected organic revenue) from the campaign is the specific advertising goal. Yielding 4,800 additional transactions through the website. Assuming a 5 percent response rate, get exposure to at least 96,000 people. Now it’s a matter of strategizing on how to allocate the majority of that $50,000 budget to reach 96,000 people over the next year. This is where the creative marketing strategy comes in. Later, this chapter will detail some of those possibilities.

Lead generation Like sales revenue from an online shopping cart, lead generation is a game of numbers, albeit slightly more intangible ones. Because there is no hard sell at the end like our average of $25 in the previous example for The First Page, the actual revenue generated from a lead can swing wildly. Companies who do not have a shopping cart must focus on the cost per lead. (Actual revenue from leads is another story entirely, and beyond the scope of this book, because it mixes in factors like sales cycle and average deal size.) Companies looking to advertise with the explicit intent on gathering qualified leads are focused on cost per lead. This is the amount of cold advertising cash spent to generate a single qualified lead suitable for a follow-up communication. This relative value of this number is totally dependent on the company’s business and offerings—for some, $5 a lead is spendy; for others, $100 a lead is a bargain. Much of the process breaks down like a traditional revenue goal: there is a defined budget, a target number of leads, an average response rate, and the strategy needed to get those numbers to jibe. Like generating sales, the advertising budget has to be creatively stretched to maximize incoming leads.

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Target demographics There are some big consumer-oriented businesses that appeal to a wide range of people (Amazon.com, Target, Ford), but the vast majority of companies—especially those operating in the B2B realm—operate in a tight niche and have a very clear definition of their ideal customer. Before launching any ad campaign, it’s imperative to understand these target demographics. Media purchases, ad design, and copywriting will all align to appeal to these desired audiences.

Profiling current customers The first step toward drafting a holistic portrait of your future audience is defining the one you currently have. In this area, physical storefronts clearly have the advantage: storekeepers can spend all day observing their customers, from the way they dress to how they move about a store to how much they usually spend. Likewise, companies that sell services or products unsuitable for online shopping carts have an advantage, because even though a lot of marketing is done through the website, they still have to engage the client one-onone, and in doing so can easily create profiles of purchasing parties. Online vendors, especially those with an e-commerce system, are at a disadvantage. While it is possible to glean some information from web analytics (such as peak traffic, transaction times, rough geographic trends, etc.), it’s difficult to craft an accurate sketch of the typical customer because a lot of the nuance and intangibles that occur in a personal sale simply do not exist. In this case, companies can poll their visitors and ask questions that aid in fleshing out a demographic. When defining their customer base, companies should think about the following: What type of customer not only spends the most money, but also is the most profitable? What group of customers comprises the majority of the business? What do these customers have in common? Defining people and businesses is largely the same activity. Profiling the ideal human customer is remarkably the same as profiling the ideal business customer. They are both categorized by their spending habits, sales cycle, favorite products, and more.

Regardless of how the current customer demographic is profiled, companies must always continue to market to their existing customer base. It is much cheaper to tempt a past customer to return for a second purchase than drum up new customers, so every marketing budget must include provisions for gaining exposure to people that have already proved some degree of loyalty.

Defining desired demographics Understanding your customer base as it stands provides a point of reference when outlining the target audience of the upcoming ad campaign. Taking into account everything you know about who is visiting the site and responding with sales or leads, ask hard questions

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ONLINE ADVERTISING about the ideal audience for the forthcoming year. Do you want to grow the same market? Do you want to expand into a new market? Do you want to attract a new geographic location, or a new age group, or even a new income level? Combine the current customer profiles with this new direction and start drafting short descriptions of the ideal customer. Our example bookstore, The First Page, from the previous section, specializes in paperback fiction, so we might list the following: Working women, 21 to 38 years old, married or single, no children, with small amounts of disposable income and time to spend reading chick lit Single men, 18 to 35 years old, who remain avid readers of science fiction Older women, 35 to 49 years old, either housewives or widows, with a love for murder mystery novels and time to kill reading them The pattern of customers starts to take shape. The First Page needs to advertise to the fiction enthusiast, the middle-class working person who likes to spend their evenings in the grip of a good novel. When defining your target demographics, a similar clarity should start to develop.

Adding personas A common technique in web design is the creation of personas. These are fictional caricatures based on the habits of real visitors, fleshed out with as much detail as necessary, to help designers and information architects put themselves in the shoes of their audience to better understand how they would use the site. This same concept can be used in advertising as well. For instance, the management at The First Page knows that murder mystery novels are the site’s top sellers, and that most of them are shipped to the Midwest. Using this skeleton of information, they start to draw their first persona, which might look like the following brief example:

Theresa Jones is a 43-year-old administrative assistant to a region manager for a large printing company. She is married, but has no children. Her husband is in sales, and he travels constantly across the Midwest. She likes to cook, is annoyed by housework, and prefers to read books by Sue Grafton and Barry Zeman in her spare time. Her job keeps her pretty busy, but during her lunch hour she cruises the Internet. She occasionally plays poker with neighbors, but is a terrible bluffer when she drinks too much wine.

Illustrating a character like this goes beyond high-level bullet points. Companies will often create three or four such characters, each unique enough to represent different demographics of customers. Personas help marketers get in the heads of their desired markets to decipher web surfing habits, purchasing power, and pet peeves. When reviewing designs and strategies, they often may think, “What would Theresa think of this? How would she react?”

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Personas are not for everyone (some people find them uncomfortable), and they should not dictate the campaign or ad design. They can, however, offer a different perspective.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES They are simply another tool for marketers and designers to make the most from their advertising dollars.

Advertising channels Once your goals are settled on and the target demographic is defined, it’s time to investigate different advertising channels to see where your hard-earned cash will have the most ROI. By going through the exercise of outlining goals and describing target markets, you hopefully have a clear picture of the strategies needed to meet those goals. We’ll explore the following options in detail in the next section, but the following list includes some common avenues for online advertising that can contribute to the greater campaign. The trick is building a comprehensive program that allocates the budget to various channels. Banner advertising: The Web’s stalwart medium, traditional banner advertising has been around as long as HTML-supported graphics. While it can be expensive, there are deals to be had, and the exposure can be worth the money. E-mail marketing: Another long-standing channel, e-mail marketing can have tremendous ROI when used effectively. Text link ads: Similar to banners, websites simply purchase links on a website. These are plain HTML anchor tags, which might be less glamorous than banners, but have their own particular influence. Paid search results: Paid search results appear as supplement to a search engine’s organic results. Sponsorships: Generally more money overall, sponsorships offer businesses the opportunity to sponsor webinars and other high-traffic events that can generate a lot of click-through. When evaluating these different options, think about a couple of key factors. The first and most important number is the budget. You can only spend what you have, and once it’s gone, you’ve either profited or learned a painful lesson in the art of fiscal juggling for advertising. Second is stretching that cash to maximum effect, which often means looking for deals, creatively evaluating opportunities, and ruthlessly terminating losing marketing programs. Third is endless testing, testing, testing—and then tweaking the advertising to drive the absolute maximum ROI. Next, you’ll see how an example budget might be used to tackle these different channels, mixing in alternative advertising to help drive the most traffic to the site.

Compiling an advertising program While it’s important to be aware of different marketing opportunities, companies should not feel obliged to follow every one. It’s too easy to chase ill-defined or nonperforming advertising. While a balance should be maintained across a spectrum of media, there are always programs that simply do not work, and will eventually result in a loss. (And keep in

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ONLINE ADVERTISING mind these losing propositions are not always obvious. Sometimes a company just has to lose cash several months in a row before pulling the plug and diverting funds to betterperforming avenues.) Reexamining our online bookstore The First Page, we have a budget of $50,000 for one year. Obviously, large sponsorships and expensive banner advertising is out of the question. Instead, the owners need to think more creatively, and try to spread their cash wisely to reap the most amount of traffic. Consider the breakdown of expenses shown in Figure 15-1.

Figure 15-1. A breakdown of The First Page’s $50,000 advertising budget

As you can see, the money is spread to many grassroots areas. The biggest expenditure comes from paid search, but other ventures make up a healthy variety of tactics. In fact, 20 percent of the budget is tagged for traditional SEO methods and some printed promotional coupons, which will bolster the online efforts through alternative messaging, and hopefully reach an even wider audience. Let’s examine some of the programs in more detail: Paid search: Representing the largest chunk of the budget, the owners of The First Page have decided to target paid search results as the largest expense. Because the medium has unlimited possibilities and can be tweaked daily to pursue wellperforming keywords, the team will spend $1,500 a month on Google AdWords. This will constitute the bulk of their time as they analyze performance and then refine keyword selection. Text links: Using a text link service like Text Link Ads, The First Page will allocate $500 a month toward small links on anywhere from five to ten different niche book sites. E-mail marketing: While this constitutes a major chunk of the budget, The First Page anticipates a high return on their investment. About one quarter of the budget will be used with an e-mail service (covered in Chapter 14), and the rest will be spent on mailing lists to complement their existing, homegrown customer mailing list. Both the internal and external lists will receive promotions and specials.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Banners: While this is a more traditional means of advertising, and banner placement can be expensive, The First Page has identified several smaller websites where its marketing dollar will purchase maximum exposure. This is one channel that will be rigorously tested in the first few months to evaluate its effectiveness. Printed coupons: In order to entice current customers to make another purchase, the company is going to print several thousand coupons to slip into outgoing shipments that will offer specials on upcoming purchases. Traditional SEO: Recognizing the value of balancing its search engine marketing efforts, The First Page is going to contract an SEO specialist to help score higher results for some key search terms the company has identified, as discussed in the exercise in Chapter 13. This marketing program is simplified for explanatory purposes, but it illustrates the need to diversify the channel selection. The law of diminishing returns must be abided. Any one program receiving all of the funds is unlikely to have as strong an effect as multiple programs maximizing the exposure in the marketplace. In the next section, we’ll cover major tactical and technical decisions that need to be made about each of these media—notably paid search, banner advertising, text link advertising, and e-mail marketing.

Creating effective online advertising The brief history of advertising features as many examples of campaign failures as it does successes. In marketing to the masses, nothing is for sure; complete debacles have arisen from poor timing, inferior design and copywriting, misreading the target audience, and failing to properly test ideas before letting them sail into public waters. This failure rate is especially high in the online world, where legions of experimenting marketers have left a pile of failed tests and analysis behind in their quest to incite clicks. On the Web, many of the old rules of advertising no longer apply. Ads become less about elegance and information and more about direct response. Because every piece of creative is instantly testable with a library of statistics, marketers obsess over the placement of a button, the phrasing of a call to action, and the font choice in the body copy. When something works, they use it again—but with a shift or a tweak to drive even higher performance. Today, experienced marketers better understand what people respond to. Even when advertising to an incredibly jaded and dismissive web-based audience, certain tricks of the trade—which, oddly enough, are often rooted in classic advertising—can still generate more response than ads created without consideration for market analysis and user behavior. This section covers four primary areas of online marketing: paid search results, e-mail marketing, banner advertising, and text links. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some are more expensive, some work better with certain products, and others need to be carefully optimized to see any ROI.

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Paid search results Google has a lot of supporters and detractors. Some people dismiss it as a fad of the next Internet stock bubble; others consider it the model of future business. Regardless, one thing is for certain: the company has single-handedly reinvented how companies advertise on the Web. Through its AdWords program, businesses have a way to promote themselves to target audiences without making huge financial commitments, and websites that were formerly too small to attract advertisers now have a means of serving relevant ads to their readership.2 Companies are finding the medium so effective that Forrester found 91 percent of companies “using, piloting, or expecting to pilot” paid search programs, second only to e-mail marketing, and widely eclipsing traditional banner advertising, RSS, podcasting, mobile marketing, and more.3 Paid search results (also called sponsored search results) are really a two-pronged strategy. When an advertiser creates an ad, it appears on the search engine results page, as shown in Figure 15-2. So successful is this model that both Yahoo and Microsoft have copied it nearly wholesale. The former now offers Yahoo Search Marketing,4 the latter Microsoft adCenter.5

Figure 15-2. All three major search portals offer paid search options.

How it works Creating a paid search program is relatively simple. After you sign up through the vendor’s site, you select some rough target markets, write the ad, choose keywords, set the bid amount, and then establish the maximum number of clicks per day. The program is activated when a user searches for the keywords you defined. Your ad appears in the Sponsored Results section of a search results page (highlighted in Figure 15-2), and depending on the bid amount, might be at the top or bottom of the list. If the user clicks the ad, they are taken to the web page you defined when creating the ad, and you are charged the bid amount. If the ad is not clicked, you are not charged. You also 2. 3. 4. 5.

www.google.com/adwords Brian Haven, “Interactive Marketing Channels to Watch in 2007,” Forrester, March 27, 2007 (www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,41208,00.html). http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com https://adcenter.microsoft.com

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES define the maximum amount of money spent in one day, so if the bid amount is $0.50 per click, and you set a daily allowance of $10.00, the ad will continue to appear until clicked 20 times; after that, it will not appear until the next day. The pay-per-click model of sponsored search placement goes against almost all previous advertising fee structures, where media placement was a fixed cost, whether or not anyone saw the creative. Even the most profligate companies are enticed by only paying for exposure that is actually used.

Strategies for ROI The disheartening reality of search marketing is that many businesses lose money month after month and eventually give up on the program. Search marketing is not easy. It has a learning curve, and requires a diligence for which most small businesses do not make time; in a perfect world, your company would employ a full-time search marketing strategist. Search consultants understand these economics and make a lot of money selling their expertise to companies who cannot afford to retain that knowledge in-house. That being said, it is possible to be extremely successful in sponsored search placement. Everything boils down to cold numbers, and the path to profit becomes clearer with every new set of data—the challenge is keeping up with the data and making adjustments on the fly to capitalize on trends before the competition does. Marketing agility and a tenacious attitude toward success will carry marketers far. Turning the system on and then letting it run for 12 months without maintenance is a practically guaranteed path to failure. Because the medium is so personal, it’s difficult to offer quantifiable steps toward success. However, there are a few strategies that can help companies new to the technology hit the ground running and make the most of their investment early on. Set specific, measurable goals. Earlier in the chapter, we discussed setting specific goals for the advertising campaign. When entering the world of paid search, have a complete subset of those goals ready to test against, and make sure they can all be quantified down to the umpteenth decimal. Search marketing has its own set of metrics, so be prepared to aggressively track the following: Impressions: How many times your ad appeared Clicks: How many times your ad was clicked CTR: Short for click-through rate, or clicks divided by impressions Cost: The cost of the keyword Average cost per click (CPC): Calculated by dividing cost by clicks Above all, however, be prepared to track goal conversions. Since every click sends the user to your website, it’s critical to track behavior inside your domain, from the duration of the visit to page views to how many people actually convert, whether it be a sale through a shopping cart or a lead through a contact form. On top of that, understand how to integrate that granular data with the broader goals of the overarching campaign. Obsess over keyword choice. In Chapter 13, we discussed strategies for developing keywords for SEO efforts. Paid search strategy is not much different. By analyzing common

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ONLINE ADVERTISING keywords used in the media, by competitors, and in your own site, you can create a list of words and phrases by which you want your ad to appear. The more, the better. And the more specific, the better. The more search variations an ad appears by, the better you can intelligently appraise click-through rates, cost per click, and goal conversions. Analyze keyword and spot performance. After aggregating performance data, traffic patterns will become immediately obvious. Certain keywords and spots (the position of the ad in the list of sponsored results) will prove to be top performers, while others will utterly fail to convert anything. The idea here is to test, test, and then test again to unlock the most potent combinations. It's highly likely that keywords that glimmered with promise will quickly lose their luster, and throwaway terms will be quickly refined into high-performing gems. Similarly, many amateurs in paid search will bid highly for the top spot in listings, but seasoned professionals understand that some of the more qualified traffic (in other words, traffic that results in goal conversions) comes from some of the lower, less expensive spots. The bottom line is cost per conversion. In search marketing, there is one number that will always be bolded, underlined, and blinking at the bottom of the analysis spreadsheet: cost per conversion. Because some ads are expensive, and it will take many clicks before you gain one goal conversion, it’s important to evaluate what a goal conversion actually costs. This could be anything, depending on your numbers—$5.00, $25.00, $50.00, or more—but it has to be weighed against what the conversion is worth. In other words, if the cost per conversion is $40 and the average sale is $30.00, a lot of money is being lost and the campaign needs to be steered toward more profitable waters.

E-mail advertising E-mail advertising is a young medium that has been subjected to rampant abuse, hundreds of studies, government regulation, and more in its short lifetime. Because billions of e-mail messages are sent every day, any company wishing to leverage the medium must do so with the intention of respecting users while offering something of true value. The last thing any reputable company wants is to be regarded as a spammer. At the time of this writing, e-mail marketing is by far the most popular means of online marketing. Because of its ubiquity, designers and marketers have a large precedent from which to pull advice and gain influence—the finer nuances of direct response tactics, as well as best practices for effective design, have been established.

Plan e-mail marketing goals E-mail marketing is marketing by the numbers. As we explored in Chapter 14, every possible number can be tracked, from open rates to click-throughs. While this is nice to know when sending newsletters, it becomes imperative in advertising. Ad designs and content must be tracked, tested, revised, and sent back through the cycle to evaluate top to bottom all over again. The potential ROI of e-mail doesn’t magically happen after the first blast—getting results takes meticulousness, curiosity, and determination.

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The first and most important part of establishing a campaign is setting the goals. Marketers need something to shoot for. For instance, a company selling services through its website

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES will be looking for leads; it wants people to be so enamored with its offerings that they fill out a form for more information. A site with an e-commerce section, by contrast, might be more interested in actual sales; a visitor will ideally arrive from e-mail, fall in love with a particular product, and then make a spur-of-the-moment purchase. To accomplish their goals, companies must follow three components to planning a campaign: Step 1: Calculate desired number of conversions. At the end of the day, this is the bottom line that measures the success of the initiative. Goal conversions mean everything in online marketing, and failing to reach the established quota is a black mark on a campaign, which must undergo deliberate revisions before let back into the world. As an example, a service-based company is launching a campaign with a list of 25,000 addresses. They want 250 qualified leads. Consider Table 15-1. Table 15-1. A simple chart outlining projected goal conversions for a service-based company

Number of e-mail addresses

Projected click-through rate

Projected conversion rate

25,000

20 percent (5,000 visitors)

5 percent (250 leads)

In this simple scenario, the business starts with 25,000 e-mail addresses that will receive the same advertisement. If 20 percent (5,000 people) actually click the ad to the website, and 5 percent of those visitors (250 people) actually become qualified leads after filling out the detailed contact form, then the company has achieved its goal. The cost per conversion is then calculated by dividing the total cost of the campaign by the number of goal conversions. (For instance, if the total cost of the e-mail blast was $3,000, then the cost per conversion was $12.) The same process could be applied to a company actually selling something on its website. In that case, the one additional step to consider is that the cost per conversion stays below the average transaction so that the campaign remains profitable. Step 2: Procure a targeted list that will result in conversions. E-mail marketing is nothing if not a gamble. One of the most difficult variables to account for when planning the program is the quality of the list to which the creative will be sent. There are several ways to procure a list. The most immediate is your internal customer list. Furthering the example of The First Page, the bookseller has a homegrown list of e-mail addresses through which customers have accepted to receive additional notifications and promotions. This is the absolute best place to start in e-mail advertising. These customers are more likely to return to a company with whom they have had a positive experience rather than arbitrarily seek out an alternate shop. They will be especially tempted to make a purchase if the offer they receive is exclusive and substantial, such as a free next-day shipping offer, or a blanket 25 percent off the entire order. The alternative is to purchase a list. This can be done two ways. The first is from another website or media source who has built its own registry. For instance, the magazine Murder Mystery Monthly might sell the e-mail addresses of its subscribers (or at least the

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ONLINE ADVERTISING addresses of those who have agreed to receive special offers from third parties), which is a sweet package of ridiculously qualified leads. The second option is to go through a list broker like American List Council.6 The account representative will act as a consultant, listening to your specific needs, and then aggregate different options from which to choose. The latter is more expensive, but opens the door for exclusive and potentially higher-quality material. When evaluating different address lists, keep two things in mind. First, only use opt-in addresses, of which there are three different levels: Single opt-in: User willingly provides their e-mail address. At some point, they start receiving material in their inbox. Confirmed opt-in: User provides their e-mail address, and then receives an e-mail reminding them they just did this, but no action is needed on their part. At some point, they start receiving material in their inbox. Double opt-in: User provides their e-mail address, and then receives an e-mail asking them to confirm the subscription by clicking a link, clicking Reply, or performing some other action that tells the company that this person is definitely aware that they are now going to receive stuff. And at some point, they will start receiving material in their inbox. And finally, never harvest naked addresses from websites, and do not add personal contacts unless you have written permission to do so. Simply compiling a catalog of found addresses is strictly prohibited by the CAN-SPAM Act, not to mention just plain bad form. Step 3: Plan the actual selling path from e-mail to conversion. Before starting on the creative design and copywriting, outline the path that will lead to a goal conversion. This does not have to be complex—draw it on a napkin if you want. The idea is to think the process through, and then write it down. The selling path should be short. For lead generation, two steps are ideal: a jump from the e-mail to the landing page, and then a click on the Submit button on the landing page. E-commerce is a bit more click-intensive, but marketers should make every effort to keep the process simple.

Effective creative When it comes to igniting the path toward a goal conversion, there is no hotter fire than good creative for the actual e-mail advertisement. Strong design and copy can make all the difference in the success of a campaign. While it always helps to hire experienced individuals to craft the best work, it also helps to know what makes designs successful to begin with. A lot of these best practices align with e-mail newsletters discussed in Chapter 14, but pure advertising still carries its own set of rules. The From field and subject line. Perhaps the most important parts of the e-mail are, unsurprisingly, the From field and subject line. For the former, ensuring that the brand or company name stands alone is important. Do not add weird product titles, or personalize it with a salesperson’s name—recipients want to see a name they recognize and trust.

6.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES The subject may be more important than anything else, as it serves as the tiny hook responsible for reeling in the user’s curiosity. The key is to focus on user benefits, and entice the reader to click further by mentioning whatever offer is in the ad. Ardently avoid words that send spam warnings blaring like sirens for a tornado—FREE, life insurance, mortgage, and Viagra are all at the top of the red flag list. Finally, keep the subject short. Six words are plenty, and none of them should be space-wasting articles (the, an, a) or superfluous modifiers (very, incredible, world-class, unbelievable, amazingly mind-blowing). Figure 15-3 shows two e-mail messages from competing companies. The first has a clear From field, but a weak subject; the second uses a From value that’s more difficult to decipher, but boasts a much stronger subject.

Figure 15-3. These two e-mail messages contain both good and bad From fields and subject lines.

Copywriting. After the From field and subject line, the actual copy inside the ad is the single most influential element. It informs the reader about the opportunity, explains the benefits, and then directs them toward the next step, all within a tight headline, a few bullets, and a simple call to action. Text is almost never long, unless it’s intended to be. As an example, take a look at Figure 15-4. The advert on the left is text-heavy by design, to make it look like a real article; by contrast, the ad on the right is readable in about 10 seconds. Each represents a different strategy—the one on the left will probably get fewer but more qualified clicks; its counterpart will get more clicks but an inflated bounce rate.

Figure 15-4. The ad on the left is text-heavy by design; the one on the right can be consumed in just a few seconds.

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ONLINE ADVERTISING Design. Finally, the design of the ad wraps everything together and gives the text a space in which to live. Good design can dramatically increase click-throughs, just as bad design can route an entire campaign into the trash. It works in tandem with the copy to provide a compelling story. And like copy, it can be (and has been) tested ad nauseum. Here are some tips to help craft the most effective creative solutions: Design text to be large, readable, and scannable. Do not use weird fonts. Sticking to typefaces that are legible and familiar may ultimately undermine some esoteric design decisions, but it will result in content that is far easier to consume. The designs should be relevant to the content. If advertising a sale on books, show a picture of books; if marketing a new seminar, a picture of the speaker will help. When it comes to images, less is better. Many users turn images off to reduce download time, and some clients like Gmail have images off by default. The call to action should be large and click-friendly. Links that look like fat, pushable buttons almost always perform better than simple text links. Make the ad as big as it needs to be. There is no magical ratio or perfect dimension. Sometimes, it is a tidy 400✕400 pixel square;7 other times, a tabloid-like 600✕1000 pixels. On a final note, the upper-left corner is the magic quadrant for e-mail ads. Because of preview panes in e-mail clients, you never know exactly how much of the creative will show. Figure 15-5 visualizes the two most common e-mail client setups.

Figure 15-5. The preview pane can be horizontal or vertical.

The preview pane quandary is especially prevalent in B2B environments, where professionals are using enterprise-grade e-mail clients like Outlook and Lotus Notes. In a study by EmailLabs,8 nine out of ten B2B respondents said they had access to a preview pane; of these, seven out of ten actually use it; 75 percent use the preview horizontally, 25 percent 7.

8.

400✕400 is actually a common size for e-mail advertising. So common, in fact, that many spam filters flag anything meeting those dimensions. To circumvent this, some designers create their designs at 400✕399 pixels. Loren McDonald, “Designing Emails for the Preview Pane and Disabled Images,” EmailLabs, October 28, 2005 (www.emaillabs.com/email_marketing_articles/designing_emails_ preview_pane_disabled_images.html).

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES vertically, but the majority of all respondents keep the preview pane open about 2 to 5 inches, which means just about every message is cut off to some degree. (In consumer marketing, it’s less of an issue because web-based clients like Gmail do not support previewing e-mail.)

Banners Banner advertising has been around since the dawn of the Web. For many years it was the alpha and omega of online advertising, and many companies of the first Internet bubble of the late 1990s based their business plans (if they had one) on selling ad space to compensate for the legitimate services they were giving away. For every business that succeeded (like Yahoo), a dozen failed. Back then the demand for banner advertising simply wasn’t able to fill the abundant supply of space. Today, companies have multiple advertising channels to choose from, and banners are now a small piece of the greater puzzle. In fact, many contemporary sites actually restrict the banner space available for purchase, preferring instead the more lucrative income of contextual advertising like Google AdWords. Even Yahoo, once the king of the banner business, features only one major ad on their homepage—the rest is comprised of small text links, logos, and faux articles leading to corporate-sponsored material. Although the banner business still accounts for billions of annual marketing dollars, its presence is waning. Paid search and e-mail marketing have long since dethroned it. But good banners can still drive amazing traffic, and the format offers a few key advantages, like the following: Capacity to be deeply analyzed: Punctilious banner management software schedules ad rotations, tracks impressions and click-throughs, and more. Marketers are provided all of these results to help them improve their creative. Proven success: While banners may seem like a medium worn thin, they do deliver results, which is why firms keep investing in them. Allowance of creative freedom: Unlike plain-text ads or paid search, which rely entirely on text, banners can be designed to visually appeal to the audience. This includes a variety of ad sizes, animation, and a spectrum of typography and color choices. Platform for rich media: More than any other medium, certain sites allow banners that use Flash, video, and more to capture the reader’s eye. This provides for more immersive user experiences, where products and services can de detailed within the ad, or the user can play with the ad before committing to a click. While these are strong arguments for advertising with banner graphics, the medium is weighed down by a few significant negative factors. These aren’t deal-breakers, but rather reinforce the need for a diversified, multichannel campaign like the example for The First Page earlier in the chapter. Some of the points of concern for banners include the following:

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ONLINE ADVERTISING Restrictive specifications: Often, banners are limited to a very small file size, and animated GIF files can get very ugly very quickly with too much compression. In addition to the limiting footprint, banners are always constrained to a predetermined pixel size. Reader burnout: Unsurprisingly, readers are so accustomed to the ubiquitous 468✕60 banner that they have learned to tune that space completely out. Difficult to contextualize: Without significant planning on the part of both the advertising party and the media site, the random rotation of banners is likely to place them in web pages with irrelevant content. Again, these are not enough for companies to dismiss banners altogether. Today, driving a successful banner campaign is entirely possible, but it requires far more deliberation and foresight than in days gone by. Simply slapping up a spinning logo with a beveled Click Here button is not enough. Companies wanting a significant return for their efforts have to dig deeper into the Web, find the sites that appeal to their market, and work with the publisher to craft an effective schedule. Most websites that host banner ads are more than willing to craft customized programs for their patrons—the trick is finding the domains most worthy of your hard-earned ad budget.

Find the right sites A company’s marketing team should understand the other websites their demographic typically visits, from major media sites to blogs. When outlining a banner-based campaign, compile a list of the top ten most promising sites for qualified traffic. You might fill out this list by doing the following: Identify previous success: If you have built a banner campaign before, distinguish the top performing sites from that run, and start your list with those that have been good to you in the past. Consider online versions of traditional media: Think about trade publications, magazines, and newspapers your demographic consumes. Many of these have an online presence. For targeting a geographic area, it’s tough to beat a local newspaper’s website. Use search engines: Using a few keywords from your current campaign, employ search engines to illuminate potential hidden gems. For instance, a search for “murder mystery novels” might turn up a book review site with a small but dedicated audience—perfect for budget-conscious marketers. Think small and big: Not everyone is going to just read blogs and niche forums all day. Think about large portal sites that might appeal to your audience, and more importantly, the subsections of those major sites that will appeal to your desired slice of traffic. Big sites tend to generate large amounts of clicks, although many are unqualified. Smaller sites, by contrast, offer fewer clicks but more interested prospects. The best tactic is a blend of both.

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Think quality of clicks over quantity of clicks. The best value comes from domains that balance uber-targeted content with high volumes of traffic. For those promoting Web 2.0 software, a blog like TechCrunch is hard to beat—the traffic is immense, the audience is dedicated, and the advertising opportunities are plenty.9 For those advertising cookware, a social recipe site like BakeSpace is tailor-made—manufacturers could not ask for a more receptive audience.10

Maximize the advertising opportunity Finding a dream site on which to advertise is only half the battle. You must work with the publisher on creating an ad plan that will maximize your dollar’s reach; leaving the placement and rotation decisions up to a publisher who knows your product or service about as well as they know the Latin names of equatorial fauna is an almost guaranteed path to frustration. Ad sizes and placement. There is a tremendous amount of research in how size and placement affect an ad’s performance, and while averaging every analysis out might reveal a few minor trends, there are so many conflicting studies that it’s difficult to religiously adhere to any one and expect phenomenal results. However, they do agree on a few points that can be applied to just about any campaign: Don’t use pop-ups or pop-unders. Just say no. Users hate them, and they are fast becoming a dying breed. Ads on the top of the page get seen more, but result in fewer clicks. Ads on the bottom of the page are ignored. Ads on the bottom right also see little action. Size does matter. In general, the bigger the ad, the better the traffic. Small “button” graphics (120✕60 is common) are virtually ignored. Ads that are contextual to the main copy do well. One eye-tracking study showed that ads sized 300✕250 pixels that were embedded into the copy saw better results than ads outside the primary column of text.11 Scheduling. This is another area most publishers are more than willing to work around. Typically, ads are sold two ways: by CPM or by time. CPM (cost per thousand) refers to the number of times a banner actually appears on a web page, and is sold in units of 1,000 impressions. Smaller sites might charge $10 per unit; larger sites $100 or more per unit. Often, the space is sold in packages of 100,000 impressions. Other sites will simply charge a flat fee by time. The minimum is typically 30 days, but discounts are sometimes available up to a year. When working with publishers, be conscious of the rotation schedule. Usually your ad will be mixed in with other companies, which is simply how most websites work. However, some website owners will agree to exclusive placement on a select spot of a particular page or section.

9. www.techcrunch.com 10. www.bakespace.com 11. Steve Outing and Laura Ruel, “Observations on Advertising,” Eyetrack III (www.poynterextra. org/eyetrack2004/advertising.htm).

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ONLINE ADVERTISING And finally, keep in mind that a long-term strategy works best for advertising programs. Yanking the ad after only a month of disappointing performance is not reasonable— constant exposure and a cycle of creative (you can always swap out new design and copy ideas to test) is the most successful means of driving traffic. Couple with additional sponsorships. Traditional printed magazines often offer their patrons the opportunity to couple their ad with special promotional opportunities. This might include placement in a special advertising addendum, pasting “sponsored by” and the advertiser’s logo to a particular section, and providing the opportunity to publish advertorials. You just have to ask. Even better, devise a creative solution yourself and propose it to the website’s ad coordinators. You will be surprised at how often people will happily try a new idea. Price. Keep in mind that the price is almost always negotiable. For large sites (think WebMD or Yahoo), advertising salespeople have a quota to meet, so they will always be willing to cut a volume discount if it means filling ad space. Smaller publishers (think blogs) have the same problem on a smaller scale: because they attract so few advertisers, they are often very willing to offer a special rate for a long-term commitment.

Creative considerations There are as many banners as there are websites, so you can only imagine the range of creative work that has graced the Internet over its short life. Despite the importance of placement, size, and rotation, the most successful online campaigns possess several key attributes. Typically, these mirror the qualities of successful design material in general, whether traditional print advertising, e-mail ads, or landing pages. For banners, there are three ingredients key to tasty success:

1. Simplicity 2. Clarity 3. Brevity The best ads are simple—short copywriting, crisp design, obvious call to action. Strong colors help too, as does easily read type; as with e-mail, avoid obtuse fonts that are difficult to read at a reduced size. The call to action is always very important. You can’t just tell the user about the mystical benefits of your offering—you have to point them in the right direction so they can learn more for themselves. As you can see in Figure 15-6, even a painfully obvious Click Here boosts click-throughs.

Figure 15-6. The design is thin, but bold colors, clear type, and blatant call to action can help drive click-throughs.

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Text links When you think about it, selling text links is a natural progression of advertising on the Web. Marketers, tired of trying to force banners and e-mail blasts down their users’ throats, want something subtler and less expensive; publishers, tired of having their real estate consumed by a blockade of advertising, want something less intrusive but still profitable. Enter the text ad: a simple line of copy, linked back to the advertiser. Simple, successful, and cost-effective. Today, text ads take several different forms. There are several companies who broker them, and many websites that sell them individually, but the implementation is a bit different for each type, as you can see in the following list: Contextual ads: These are blocks of text ads generated by JavaScript. Their subject matter is dependent on the copy within the web page. For instance, a blog focusing on customizing cars will automatically host ads for companies selling kits, rims, stereo equipment, and more. The idea is for the advertising to be relevant to the reader without the publisher seeking out companies to patronize their website. The best-known and most pervasive program is Google’s AdSense.12 In-text links: A relatively new format, these programs use a bit of code to automatically scour a web page, find the juiciest keywords, and link them to an advertiser. These special links are marked by a double underline, and contain a JavaScriptgenerated pop-up containing plain text, images, Flash-based content, video, and more to preview the advertiser. The most popular vendors are Kontera13 and Vibrant Media.14 (It should be noted that the Web community has reacted very negatively to in-text advertising, and that most publishers refuse to carry these types of ads, claiming they cause confusion between legitimate hyperlinks and sponsored links. In all reality, in-text advertising might be a passing fad, but for now, it’s just another marketing option.) Traditional text links: Refuting all technology except humble HTML, plain-text links are just that—simple, HTML-based anchor tags purchased by the advertiser. These not only provide marketing exposure, but legitimate SEO benefits as well. Publishers advocate them because text links do not require special scripts, and the designer can control the visual display and placement of the links. Text links can either be purchased individually through the website, or by using a broker like Text Link Ads.15 To make the most of the medium, carefully consider word choice. The overarching guidelines are not unlike writing subject lines for e-mail or ads for paid search placement. Avoid weak articles, focus on keywords, and always reinforce the benefit to the user. Simply using your brand name is not enough. “The First Page,” for instance, would be a weak ad; “Huge selection of low-priced mystery novels” would be much better.

12. 13. 14. 15.

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ONLINE ADVERTISING Text links provide an effective supplement to other advertising channels. They rarely require a large outlay of funds, and vendors can purchase space on very niche websites. Because the public is so burned out on traditional banners and other heavy-handed advertising, using smaller and less obvious links can actually work to your benefit, especially if the links are relevant to the content on the publisher’s website.

Landing pages Now that your hard-earned marketing dollar has been poured into online advertising and traffic is starting to accelerate, what do you do with all of these new prospects? Simply sending them to the homepage won’t do—that’s like inviting people over for a party but then leaving them to socialize at the end of the driveway. Instead, businesses have to welcome this influx of business with custom landing pages. Their aim is to reflect where the user arrived from, inform them of where they have landed, and then transform them from a visitor into a conversion. Landing pages are most commonly used in conjunction with paid search placement, but should ideally be coupled with all forms of online advertising—e-mail, text links, banners, and so forth. Let’s consider our bookseller The First Page. They’ve optimized their search engine efforts and purchased media around the phrase “low-priced mystery novels.” Directing people from the paid search ad to the website’s homepage will only result in confusion—they will immediately wonder why this seller, who was promoting its mystery novels, is also hawking science fiction, mainstream bestsellers, and more. They just want to buy low-priced mysteries. So the brilliant marketers at The First Page craft a simple landing page that talks about the volume of mystery books in stock, along with a list of the top ten bestsellers, and then a testimonial or two from satisfied customers. Finally, the company offers a special discount code for free shipping. From here, users can take two paths: they can purchase one or more of the recommended books immediately, or start searching the site for something more specific. It’s not a perfect plan, but it gets people into the site, and gives them incentive (free shipping) to make a purchase.

Strategies to entice visitors The point of a landing page is to entice a targeted stream of visitors better than any other page on the website. Because users clicked the link in a very specific, known setting, they should be treated with content that anticipates their interests and drives them toward either making a purchase or becoming a lead. This means creating different landing pages for different segments of the traffic. Consider a competitive field like enterprise communications. A major technology seller might have online advertising and custom landing pages for any one of the following:

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Business e-mail servers Enterprise instant messaging Integrated VOIP systems

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES There is never a one-size-fits-all model. To maximize the conversion possibilities of incoming traffic, you must diversify entry points into targeted, niche pages that welcome newcomers with open arms. For instance, Figure 15-7 shows an excellent landing page for a company purchasing search placement for the term “secure instant messaging.”

Figure 15-7. A well-constructed landing page with a clear call to action

So what separates a good landing page from a bad one? First, the term good has nothing to do with copy or design. Rather, it is entirely dependent on the page’s performance. A well-performing landing page—that is, one that maintains a high conversion rate—might have copy that makes any reader with a third-grade education cringe and design that keeps graphic artists up at night shivering in fear. Or it might have copy crafted tighter than an industrial coil and design that makes mere mortals weep before its beauty. It’s never certain unless subjected to testing. What counts is the number of people who actually click through, not how many advertising awards it wins.

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ONLINE ADVERTISING There are, however, a few tips that drive better performance. These are not guaranteed, but they have historically proven to aid in conversions: Limit the navigation: This is a hard one to quantify since every website is designed differently, but the idea is that the fewer exit points a user has, the higher the chance they will perform whatever action is intended on the landing page. This does not mean provide no navigation. A landing page should not exist in a vacuum, detached from the main website like an orbiting satellite. Match the design: Since there is a good chance the user will click away to explore the rest of the website for a bit and then return to the landing page to complete the offer, make sure the design is integrated with the look and feel established on the rest of the domain. Simplify everything: Simplify the message, the copy, the design, and the call to action. No one should have to think too hard. Add a testimonial: Like adding fresh herbs to a tomato sauce, a testimonial can add that extra flavor that helps drive sales from a flat line to a pleasant upward curve. Make them comfortable: If your company is part of the Better Business Bureau, or has a special security seal, or has won awards, or was featured on Oprah, or is part of the Inc. 500, proudly display that information on the landing page to help build a level of comfort and familiarity-by-association for someone who has never heard of you before. Clarify the call to action: Make the call to action crystal clear. Again, no user thinking, just user doing. Never have more than one call to action—don’t dedicate half the page to buying the product and the other half to signing up for the newsletter. Drive home what you want, and let the user give it to you. These are not rules by which to live and die. They are guidelines. There are hundreds of online advertising experts that will tell you 100 different things each about what makes a landing page succeed. But since their success depends completely on the company’s offering and their target demographic, the only way to determine what delivers the best results is through testing.

Summary Online advertising is no longer a banner-only world. To succeed in promoting products and services through the Web, companies have to diversify their media purchasing to different advertising channels. E-mail, banners, paid search placement, text links, and more all constitute viable means of marketing. Inevitably one will perform better, and companies will sway toward the medium that drives the most traffic. However, in order to convert that traffic into sales or leads, those same companies have to construct dedicated and targeted landing pages that help users go from wide-eyed newcomers to legitimate customers or prospects. The big number at work is goal conversions. Everything else is designed to support that.

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A P P E N D I X RESOURCES

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES This book would not have been possible without the research, testing, and publishing of hundreds of other marketers, designers, and authors who have graciously shared their wisdom. While there are countless books, blogs, articles, and analyst groups that could have made it into this appendix, this list has been designed to highlight the most useful material available.

General web design Books CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions, by Andy Budd, Simon Collison, and Cameron Moll (friends of ED, 2006). Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, by Steve Krug (New Riders, 2005). Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites, by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville (O’Reilly Media, 2006). The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, by Jason Beaird (Sitepoint, 2007). Prioritizing Web Usability, by Jakob Nielsen and Hoa Loranger (New Riders, 2006). The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web, by Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag (Peachpit, 2005).

Websites 456 Berea Street: Blog about web standards and development best practices (www.456bereastreet.com). A List Apart: Well-known online magazine for designers and developers (www.alistapart.com). Boxes and Arrows: Well-written and in-depth technical articles on information architecture, usability, and more (www.boxesandarrows.com). Digital Web Magazine: Articles on web standards, accessibility, usability, and more (www.digital-web.com). Godbit Project: Discusses design for churches, which often shares best practices with general corporate design (www.godbit.com). Typographica: Blog dedicated to new fonts, examining classic fonts, and type in general (www.typographica.org).

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Accessibility Articles “The Problem with Automated Accessibility Testing Tools” (Webcredible, www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/ automated-tools.shtml). “To Hell with WCAG 2,” by Joe Clark (A List Apart, www.alistapart.com/articles/ tohellwithwcag2).

Books Accessibility for Everybody: Understanding the Section 508 Accessibility Requirements, by John Paul Mueller (Apress, 2003). Building Accessible Websites, by Joe Clark (New Riders, 2002). Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance, by Jim Thatcher et al. (friends of ED, 2006).

Websites Accessify: Blog on the latest accessibility happenings (www.accessify.com). Dive into Accessibility: A primer on implementing accessibility features into a website (www.diveintoaccessibility.org). WATS.ca (Web Accessibility Technical Services): Testing and accessibility studies with many good articles on the subject (www.wats.ca). Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI): Home of the W3C accessibility arm (www.w3.org/WAI). Webcredible: UK-based accessibility consultancy with good research and best practices (www.webcredible.co.uk).

Further resources Common Look and Feel for the Internet standards: Official home of Canada’s accessibility law (www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf2-nsi2/index-eng.asp). Contrast Analyser: Software that tests color ratios for accessibility (www. paciellogroup.com/resources/contrast-analyser.html). CSS Analyser: Web-based service that tests color contrast in a CSS file (www.juicystudio.com/services/csstest.php). Disability Discrimination Act 1995: The complete text of the United Kingdom’s accessibility law (www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1995/Ukpga_19950050_en_1.htm). Section 508: Full details on US accessibility laws (www.section508.gov). Watchfire WebXACT: Many free online tools for testing accessibility (webxact. watchfire.com).

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES WAVE 3.0 Accessibility Tool: More free tools for evaluating a website’s accessibility (www.wave.webaim.org/wave/index.jsp). WCAG Samurai: Group led by Joe Clark that published errata clarifying WCAG 1.0 (www.wcagsamurai.org). Web Accessibility Toolbar: Downloadable browser toolbar for testing website accessibility (www.visionaustralia.org.au/ais/toolbar). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0: The complete WCAG 1.0 spec (www.w3. org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0: The complete WCAG 2.0 proposed spec (www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20).

Corporate Blogging Articles “Does Your Company Belong in the Blogosphere?” by Katherine Heires (Harvard Business Review, hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/5111.html). “Does Your Small Business Need a Blog?” by Karen E. Klein (BusinessWeek, www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/may2006/sb20060515_027053.htm). “Looking at the Best-of-Breed Blogs,” by Paul Gillin (BtoB, www.btobonline.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770601023). “The Top 10 Things You Should Know Before You Blog,” by Carole Matthews (Inc., www.inc.com/articles/2005/07/blogging.html).

Books Blogging for Business: Everything You Need to Know and Why You Should Care, by Shel Holtz and Ted Demopoulos (Kaplan Business, 2006). The Corporate Blogging Book, by Debbie Weil (Penguin Portfolio, 2006). Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel (Wiley, 2006). Strategies and Tools for Corporate Blogging, by John Cass (ButterworthHeinemann, 2007).

Websites Business Blog Consulting: Advice, tips, and best practices for corporate blogs (www.businessblogconsulting.com). Global Neighbourhoods: Blog about social media, culture, and technology (redcouch.typepad.com). Technorati: Recognized hub of all things blogging; tracks millions of blogs (www.technorati.com).

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Search Engine Optimization Books Google’s PageRank and Beyond: The Science of Search Engine Rankings, by Amy N. Langville and Carl D. Meyer (Princeton University Press, 2006). Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site, by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt (IBM Press, 2005). Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day, by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin (Sybex, 2006). Search Engine Visibility, by Shari Thurow (New Riders, 2007). SEO Book, by Aaron Wall (self-published, 2007; www.seobook.com/buy-now.shtml).

Websites Search Engine Watch: Informative site with many articles, statistics, and analysis on the search community and technology (www.searchenginewatch.com). SEO Book: Good SEO advice from a recognized expert (www.seobook.com). SEO Chat: More SEO articles, advice, and best practices (www.seochat.com). SEOmoz: A knowledgeable and deep resource for SEO experts (www.seomoz.org).

Further resources and tools SEO Analysis Tool: Many tools to analyze and measure ranking potential of a web page (www.seoworkers.com/tools/analyzer.html). SEO Tools: A wide variety of free tools for SEO (www.seochat.com/seo-tools). URL Trends: Display search engine information about a website (www.urltrends. com).

Marketing Books on marketing High Performance Marketing: Bringing Method to the Madness of Marketing, by Naras Eechambadi (Kaplan Business, 2005). The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, by Chris Anderson (Hyperion, 2006). Measuring Marketing: 103 Key Metrics Every Marketer Needs, by John Davis (Wiley, 2004).

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WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers, by Seth Godin (Simon & Schuster, 1999). Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, by Guy Kawasaki (Kaplan Business, 2006).

Books on social behavior These books are not marketing-specific, but they delve into the social behavior of groups and individuals, which helps marketers and designers make smarter decisions about how to position their corporation. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books, 2007). Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow, 2006). On Bullshit, by Harry J. Frankfurt (Princeton University Press, 2005). The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books, 2002). The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki (Anchor, 2005).

Websites ClickZ: A deep resource for all things web-related, with many good statistics and analysis (www.clickz.com). Copyblogger: Great advice on writing with clarity and professionalism (www. copyblogger.com). How to Change the World: Blog of Guy Kawasaki, focusing on new marketing trends (blog.guykawasaki.com). MarketingSherpa: Subscription-based website with many case studies and marketing statistics (www.marketingsherpa.com). Seth Godin’s Blog : All things marketing from one who has built his career thinking outside the box (sethgodin.typepad.com). Campaign Monitor blog: Great technical advice and best practices for e-mail newsletters (www.campaignmonitor.com/blog).

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INDEX

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INDEX

Numbers and Symbols 200 OK status code, 246 301 Moved Permanently status code, 246–247 302 Found status code, 246–247 404 Not Found status code, 245, 248, 250 500 Internal Server Error, 250

A tags, 305 About section career opportunities in, 120–126 company culture in, 119 company history in, 118 company overview in, 116–120 Contact page in, 135–141 content of, 113–141 investor relations in, 129–135 link to, 112–113 management profiles in, 118–119 news/press releases in, 126–129 purpose of, 112 services/products overview in, 117 absolute measurements, 265–266 access keys, 51–52 accessibility, 15 benefits of designing for, 40–41 color considerations, 47–49 Flash and, 59–60 forms and, 53–56 graphics and, 57–58 laws/lawsuits, 41–45 multimedia and, 58–60 planning for, 41 real-world scenarios, 45–57 resources, 371–372 search engine optimization and, 41 standards-based development and, 45–47 supplemental navigation for, 49–53 SWFObject, 59–60 tables and, 56–57 testing, 63–65 types of disabilities, 38–40

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W3C guidelines for, 42–44 web design and, 38 accessibility statement, 61–63 accesskey attribute, 52 acronyms, 27 AdSense, 364 advanced search pages, 254 advertisements, in print-friendly pages, 265 advertising. See online advertising advertising budget, 351 advertising channels, 350 advertising goals, for e-mail campaigns, 355–356 AdWords program, 353 alt attribute, 57, 303 AltaVista, 287 alternative text, 303 analytical software, 295–297 anchor tags, to reference RSS feeds, 340 anchor text, 305 annual reports, 132 Anti Spam League, 282 Apache servers, banning IP addresses on, 217 architecture, 38, 68 blog, 206–209 organization of content, 68–74 visualization of, 70–74 See also site design archives blog, 208–209 newsletter, 331 Arial typeface, 32 article sites, 306, 308 ASP.NET applications, hosting requirements, 18 Atom feeds, 338 audience, writing for, 28 Author link, 50 author meta tag, 301 awards, 167, 169, 175, 187

B Back button, 75, 77 banner advertising, 286, 350–352, 360–363 best-of-breed, 27

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INDEX billboards, 97–98, 104 blindness, 39 Blogger, 199–200 blogging policies, 215 blogging resources, 372 blogging software, 198–206 Bloglines, 336 blogs, 7–8, 99–100 adding to site menu, 206–207 architecture, 206–209 archive pages, 208–209 benefits of, 197 best practices, 205, 214–215 business processes information on, 195 comments, 206, 216–218 content for, 210–215 best practices, 214–215 original thoughts vs. reactionary writing, 214 topics and themes, 213–214 writers of, 210–212 factors of successful, 192 growth of, 192 interface for, 209 moderation of, 216–218 personality and, 195–197 platforms for, 198–206 custom applications, 205–206 Drupal, 204 ExpressionEngine, 204 hosted, 198–201 locally installed, 202–205 Moveable Type, 202 Textpattern, 203 TypePad, 201 WordPress, 204 purpose of corporate, 193–196 risks of corporate, 196–197 board of directors, in About section, 118–119 brand exposure, 345–346 branding homepage and, 94 on Web, 4 website redesign and, 10

breadcrumb links, 80 broken links, 244 browser windows, launching new for external links, 77 bullets, 28 Burnett, Leo, 344 business products-based, 146 services-based, 147–148 business goals, 345, 347 business-to-business (B2B) marketers, 316

C CAD drawings, 238 calls to action, 98, 160–161 CAN-SPAM Act, 321, 324, 357 captions, table, 57 tag, 57 career opportunities, in About section, 114, 120–126 cascading style sheets (CSS) adoption of, 56 CSS-based design, 10 e-mail newsletters and, 327 printing with, 263–266 typefaces and, 33 case studies, 158, 167, 170–174, 178 delivery of, 180–184 finding, 178 interactive, 184 listing, 178–180 story length, 184–185 client base, reaching out to, 6 clip art, copyright and, 271 CMS Movable Type, 201 color blindness, 39, 48–49 colors accessibility and, 47–49 contrast, 33 Colour Contrast Analyzer, 47 comments, blog, 216–218 Common Look and Feel for the Internet standards, 45

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INDEX communication benefits of open, 192 via blogs. See blogs one-way stream of, 192 Web and, 192 community, 5–6 community building, through forums, 231 company culture, in About section, 119 company history, in About section, 114, 118 company information. See About section company overview in About section, 114, 116–120 on homepage, 92–93, 96, 104 company philosophy, in About section, 114–115 competition, 22–23 contact forms, 138–141 for resume submission, 124–125 for support, 235–236 contact information, 7, 115 Contact page, 135–141 e-mail contact, 138–141 information on, 136–138 layout of, 137–138 link to, 136 content clarity of writing and, 24–30 collecting and managing, 73–74 design considerations for, 22,30–33 keywords, 23 organizing, 68–74 rating, 45 search engines and, 23 text as foundation of, 22 see also Web copy content attribute, 310 content licensing, 278–279 content management systems (CMSs), 16–17, 198–206 Contents link, 49 contextual ads, 364 contingency planning doomsday page, 266–267 form errors, 257–261 introduction to, 244

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for printing web pages, 262–266 for redirects and error pages, 244–250 site search, 250–257 contrast, 33, 47–48 conversion paths, 294 copy. See content, Web copy copyright, 271–276 infringement, 273–274 on homepage, 105 registering, 273 work made for hire, 272 copyright meta tag, 301 copyright notices, 275–276 copywriting, 98, 320 corporate blogs. See blogs corporate information, 7–8 corporate jargon, avoiding, 25–27 corporate news on blogs, 194 on homepage, 99 corporate websites functions of, 2–8 redesigning, 8–14 survey of, 103–105 See also websites cost per conversion, 355–356 cost per lead, 317, 347 coupons, 352 Creative Commons license, 279 CSS custom applications, for blogging, 205–206 Custom Search Engine, 252 customer acquisition, 316 customer appreciation, 6 customer lists, 176, 178 customer profiles, 348–349 customer retention, 316 customer satisfaction, online support and, 224 customer support best practices for, 237–240 contact forms, 235–236 content for, 238–239 e-mail addresses for, 236–237 function, 5–6

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INDEX importance of, 222 instant messaging for, 234 internationalization issues for, 240 options for, 225–237 dedicated support contact, 234–237 documentation, 230 FAQs, 225–227 forums, 230–232, 234 knowledgebase, 227–229 phone numbers, 234–235 ROI of, 223–225 customers access to, through forums, 231 dialog with, via blogs, 197 finding and using, for third-party validation, 171–174 testimonials from, 174–175 Cynthia Says, 64

D description meta tag, 300–301 direct mail, vs. e-mail advertising, 316 direct marketing, 316 directories, 306 disabilities, types of, 38–40 Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), 44 dividend history, 130 dmoz.org, 306 DOCTYPE, 46 documentation, in customer support section, 230 Domino platform, 205 doomsday page, 266–267 DreamHost, 18 drop-down menus, 79 form-based, 78 for site navigation, 56 Drupal, 16, 204–205 dyslexia, 40

E e-mail contact via, 138–141 for outbound marketing, 316

e-mail addresses concealing, in forms, 139 on Contact page, 136 for customer support, 236–237 e-mail advertising, 355–360 content of, 357–359 vs. direct mail, 316 e-mail links, for resume submission, 123–124 e-mail lists, purchasing, 356–357 e-mail marketing, 317, 350–351 e-mail newsletters archives, 331 content of, 317–321 design of, 324–330 images in, 326–329 layout, 329–330 legal issues, 321 links in, 320 opt-out mechanisms, 321 for outbound marketing, 316–335 publishing, 331–333 reporting and metrics, 333–335 sign up for, on homepage, 101–102 structure of, 325 styling of, 327 subject lines for, 318 subscription management, 321–324 unsubscribing from, 323–324 writing style for, 320 earnings statements, 134 EDGAR database, 133 <embed> tag, 59 ems, 265 enterprise, 27 epilepsy, 40 error handling, in forms, 257–261 error messages, 245 form, 259–261 status codes, 245, 247–249 error pages, 244–250 executive blogging, 212 ExpressionEngine, 17, 204–205 eye-tracking studies, 107

381

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INDEX

F F-shaped pattern, of user attention, 107 Fangs Screen Reader Emulator, 65 FAQs, 5 content of, 225–226 in customer support section, 225–227 design of, 226–227 usability of, 225 fax numbers, on Contact page, 136 featured products, 105 Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 282 feed discovery, 340 FeedBurner, 338–339 fields in contact forms, 139–141 required, 55, 140–141

tag, 54 file compression, of large PDFs, 230 file structure, for Web site content, 73 financial reports, 132 Firefox browser, 65 first impressions, 90 First link, 50 Flash, 10, 14–16 Flash accessibility, 59–60 Flash-based navigation, 80–82 fold, 105–106 fonts common types, 33 serif vs. sans serif, 31 Form 3, 133 Form 4, 133 Form 5, 133 Form 8-K, 133 Form 10-K, 132 Form 10-Q, 132 Form TX, 273 Form VA, 273 form-based drop-down menus, 78 forms accessibility and, 53–56 contact, 138–141 customer support, 235–236 error handling, 257–261

382

print-friendly pages and, 265 problems with design of, 258 required fields, 55, 140–41 submission of, 54 testing, 258 forums administration of, 232, 234 in customer support section, 230–232, 234 platforms for, 232 purposes of, 231 Forward button, 75 founders, in About section, 118–119 FreeMind, 72 front-page billboards, 97–98

G Georgia typeface, 32 global navigation, 49, 74, 76, 104 globalization, 22 GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), 278 Go Daddy, 18, 212–213 goal conversions, 151, 356 homepage and, 93–94 tracking, 354 Google, 41, 353 Custom Search Engine, 252 importance of, 289 myths about, 287 Google AdSense, 364 Google Analytics, 296–297, 335 graphics, accessibility and, 57–58

H header tags, 304 hierarchical breadcrumbs, 80 hierarchical diagrams, for site architecture, 72–73 history feature, 75 Home link, 49 homepage anatomy of, 95–105 billboards on, 97–98 branding and, 94

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INDEX company overview on, 92–93, 96 corporate blogs on, 99–100 corporate news on, 99 featured products and services on, 100 functions of, 91–93, 95 goal conversions and, 93–94 impression created by, 90 lead conversions and, 294 login option on, 102–103 navigation and, 92–95 newsletter signups on, 101–102 press releases on, 99 search field on, 96–97 subscription link on, 321–323 survey of companies’, 103–105 testimonials on, 101 usability considerations, 105–108 hosted blogging platforms, 198–201 Blogger, 199 WordPress.com, 200–201 hosting considerations, 18 .htaccess file, 217, 246–247, 249 HTML, valid, 46 HTML 4.01 spec, 56 HTML form, search box as, 253–254 HTML format, for case studies, 180–184 HTML platform, vs. Flash, 14–16 HTML site maps, 84 HTML tables accessibility and, 56 design of, 131–132 HTML tags, correct use of, 53–57 HTML-based forms, 139–141 HTTP status response codes, 245–250

I IBM, 3 idea mapping, 70–72 image maps, server-side, 78 images alt attribute for, 57 alternative text for, 303 in e-mail newsletters, 326–329

high-resolution, 156 product, 155–158 slideshows, 157–158 in-text advertising, 364 inaccessibility, 15 incoming links, building, 305–309 individual product descriptions, 150 individual product pages, 154, 156 industry circle, 308 industry news, on blogs, 194 information corporate, 7–8 provided on website, 5 providing needed, 28 information repository, forums as, 231 inline links, print-friendly pages and, 265 inline styles, 327 instant messaging (IM), for customer support, 234 intellectual property, 270–272 interactive conversations, 4 interactive demos, 158 interface, for blog, 209 internal pressure, for website redesign, 9 internal search function, 252 introduction pages, 107–108 invented words, 27 investor relations, in About section, 115, 129–135 invisible navigation, 51 Invision Power Board, 232 IP addresses, banning on Apache servers, 217 IP.Board, 232

J jargon, avoiding, 25–27 JavaScript drop-down menus and, 79 forms and, 78 nonintrusive use of, in forms, 56 job entry listing, in About section, 122 job lists, in About section, 121 job openings, in About section, 125

383

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INDEX

K keyboard shortcuts, access keys and, 52 keyword research sites, 291 keywords emphasizing, 304 levels of, 290, 292–293 for paid search, 354 placement of, on page, 304 search engines and, 23 for search engine optimization, 290–297 in title, 299 in URL, 302–305 keywords meta tag, 301 knowledgebase, in customer support section, 227–229 Kontera, 364

L tag, 53 landing pages for case studies, 180–184 for online ads, 365, 367 for products and services, 150–54 language barriers, customer support and, 240 Last link, 50 lawsuits, accessibility, 41 layers, 238 lead generation, 347 leaders, in About section, 118–119 learning disabilities, 40 legal issues, 270–282 copyright, 271–276 intellectual property, 270–272 privacy policy, 280–282 terms of use, 276–280 work made for hire, 272

tag, 54 leverage, 27 tag, 49 links to About section, 112–113 breadcrumb, 80 broken, 244

384

to Contact page, 136 e-mail, for resume submission, 123–124 global, 74 to homepage, 92 inbound, 293 incoming, 305–309 inline, 265 labels for, 82–83 local, 74 logo, 104 in newsletters, 320 outgoing, 304 placement of, 75–76 to product images, 156 to Products and Services section, 149 to RSS feeds, 340 secondary, 76 to shopping cart, 159 to third-party validation, 169 underlined, 48 See also navigation loading times, 15 local menus, 74 local navigation, 76, 79 login option, on homepage, 102–105 logo blitzkriegs, 177 logo links, 104 long tail, 22 longdesc attribute, 57 lorem ipsum, 31 Lynx browser, 65

M mailing address, in Contact page, 136 main sections, of website, 69 marketing blogs and, 193–196 direct, 316 e-mail, 317, 350–351 outbound, 316–341 search, 287–288 third-party validation, 166–188 See also online advertising

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INDEX marketing collateral, 158 marketing function, 2–4 marketing resources, 373 markup semantic, 47, 53 valid, 46 Markup Validation Service, 64 markup validators, 46 measurements, absolute, 265–266 Media Temple, 18 menu design, best practices, 77–78 mergers, corporate, 10 meta tag, 299 metadata importance of, 298–301 navigation aids, 49–50 in XML files, 85 mind mapping, 70–72 Mint, 296 mobile Web, customer support and, 239–240 mobility impairments, 39 moderation, of blogs, 216–218 modifiers, 27 money savings, from online customer support, 223–224 monochromacy, 39 Moveable Type, 202, 205 multimedia, accessibility and, 58–60

N name exposure, 345–346 navigation adding blog link to, 206–207 best practices, 77–78 breadcrumb links, 80 drop-down menus, 56, 79 Flash-based, 80–82 global, 49, 74, 76, 104 homepage, 92–95 importance of, 68 labels and, 82–83 local, 74, 76, 79 obtuse, 78

organization of content and, 68–74 placement, 75–76 print-friendly pages and, 265 redundant, 79 search-oriented, 96 secondary, 76 site maps, 83–86 supplemental, 49–53 See also links navigation aids, 49–50 navigation design, 74–83 navigation levels, 74 news delivery, via blogs, 193–195, 197 news releases, 7, 105, 126–129 newsletters. See e-mail newsletters Next link, 50 Nielsen, Jakob, 77

O