Changes in the Industry like no other
It can be argued that no other profession has been so affected by the internet as Real Estate. I count myself lucky to have been in the industry right when it “crossed over” into the Internet age. When I got into Real Estate the agents were the true gatekeepers of information. Every two weeks, a book of listings within your county was published, and every Realtor received one. Buyers were primarily reliant upon their agent to communicate new listings to them in a timely and efficient manner. The only other source of Real Estate information was the circular in the local newspaper, published once a week.
Enter the internet, which enabled forward-thinking brokers to start placing listings online. As early as 1996, buyers were using the internet to find homes, especially if they were relocating to new areas. The advent of the internet was amazing, as it transformed the industry in a few short years. I saw amazing results from advertising properties online, and it didn’t take much for me to make the decision to pursue a career in online marketing rather than Real Estate. Stagnation?
Unfortunately, while the accessibility of property listings has increased, the level of knowledge and online marketing has not grown with the times. In fact, from shopping for homes the past few months, I am convinced that the learning curve for online marketing among many Realtors has stagnated. When Realtor.com came on the scene in 1997, they sold to Realtors, using ploys such as: “the average listing on Realtor.com receives “x” views.” I felt like the lone ranger trying to explain to my fellow Realtors that a lot of the sales lines were bad data improperly applied. It showed me a lot about the lack of understanding of technology in that industry. Some have only recently accepted that the Internet is here to stay.
Here is my recent experience from the past few months of searching for a home. They say that doctors are the worst patients. It may also be true that former Realtors who are now online marketing veterans may be the worst sellers or buyers.
Bad Photos – are you kidding me?
In this day and age of inexpensive, high quality digital cameras, you post low resolution photos that are pixilated and hard to see? Worse yet, you show laziness buy simply uploading everything you took a picture of?
If I had my house on the market, I would be going ballistic on my Realtor, as there are no excuses for :
Low res, pixilated photos
Blurry pictures
Pictures of toilets and mirrors
Less than 3 pictures uploaded for any listing
Cameras held at an angle, making everything look like it’s on a slope
pictures of beds, which I am not buying
No pictures of the items listed in the description. If there is a workshop – take a picture!
Each one of these things is something that can easily turn off a buyer. Not taking the extra time to take a good picture, not considering presentation, and not labeling photos will negatively affect the buyer’s decision as they shop online. Not enough information is one of the worst problems an online listing can have.
Realtors and Responsibility
Pictures are meant to present the sellers home in the best light. Can a little thought be made about the selection and the quality of pictures that are used? The responsibility of the listing Realtor is to represent the seller. This includes the responsibility of the online listing. EVERY part of that online listing should be attractive, explanatory, and sensible. Anything less is a disservice to the seller, who pays your commission. I am very surprised that more sellers do not get online to check their listings. I think more Realtors would be fired if sellers checked their listings.
Expectations
If the listing description highlights certain areas of the home, such as an in-law suite, over-sized garage, pond or other feature that can be a potential selling point – please, add a picture. There are so many homes that had excellent descriptions, but then no photos of any if the items described in the listing. The description is the first area we read, and it sets up the expectations, but then the lack of pictures is more than disappointing, it lessens the property.
When there are an almost unlimited number of pictures that can be uploaded, only loading two to three outdoor shots is inexcusable. If there is an in-ground pool, please add the picture. Someone may want to see it. If you have green or lavender bathroom toilets, you may want to go ahead and add it as well, just to keep expectations in line.
Anything less than 10 photos is a crime against the seller. For newer homes with more than 2000 square feet, 20 photos. Three or less is negligence. Negligence not only towards your seller, but to any buyer who is comparing properties.
Real Estate 2.0? When?
I am waiting for more social aspects of marketing to be implemented. While real estate was one of the earliest adopters of the internet (not without resistance) it has not grown out of a 90’s mentality of online marketing. The only things I can do are email the realtor, email the listing to a friend, or make a printable brochure. Some sites allow me to create lists of the properties I like with registration, which I liked, but I was still disappointed with the lack of flexibility in ranking, saving, excluding, and comparing properties.
I for one am waiting for the ability to add comments to listings. I would love nothing more than adding what I liked or didn’t like about homes, and I am sure that it would help to make some homes more attractive. I am also sure that the comments would also shock some sellers into reality when buyers can be directly honest about the home and the outrageous prices that some are asking for what they are offering.
Some comments I would have left:
The house photo is at a weird angle because of the mobile homes and cars on blocks in the neighbor’s yard.
This home advertises 2 full baths. The second bath is in the basement and has no walls.
The separate 3 car garage and workshop makes this house well worth the asking price.
The pool and the outdoor chimney are amazing, but the yard was too small for us.
URL Addresses
At my previous company, we went to extraordinary lengths to create search friendly URL’s in order to have the database of homes spidered by the search engines. Ultimately, each property had its own short, unique URL, based on the MLS number. We celebrated. Simply searching by using the MLS code in Google would result in the property page showing up in the rankings. Unfortunately, the client had no idea how great an accomplishment this was, nor the implications. Now, the average URL that I cut and past from real estate websites are well over 50 characters . . . Check this out (if you can):
These tend to break. I send these URLs by email, Instant Messaging, and SMS. My wife and I share URL’s incessantly, as it seems we change criteria every week. Sometimes, our friends help out, but rarely does anyone use the “Send to a Friend” option. Could it be that they are not visible or too cumbersome? My opinion is that people do not use these forms because the policy is not clear about using email addresses gleaned from the website. Every send to a friend form that I viewed had no clear policy or explanation of how the emails would be kept, used, or maintained.
Final Thoughts
Having been in the real estate industry and cutting my teeth on real estate websites in the 90’, it frustrated me beyond belief to see the lackluster attempts at online marketing. I would dare say that the majority of buyers are looking online before they ever contact a Realtor. How a Realtor sells a property, the pictures they use, and the description they provide, are all keys to how well they will do their job. It’s a business card. It’s an opportunity for the Realtor and their seller to shine, yet most do not seem to take the time to learn the tools or create effective presentations.
Sellers Need to Demand More
Maybe it’s the area where I live, that many Realtors seem to uncomfortable with a digital camera and creating well-crafted, marketable property descriptions. I am sure that there are Realtors out there who take the time to build an amazing online profile of the houses they list. As a seller, I would demand nothing less than a professional listing with clear, hi-res pictures that present my home in the best possible light. Anything less would be unacceptable.
A friend pointed me to a Realtor’s blog where he has created the Bad MLS Photo of the Day. I like his style, and I am sure that he will have a never-ending source of content.
Matt Bailey is the owner and founder of SiteLogic and has over a decade in the web marketing industry. He focuses on consulting and training to help companies take control of their websites and marketing strategies.
At the recent eMetrics conference in Toronto, Canada, I heard a number of people talk about site engagement. They all seemed to have their own idea of what it was exactly, but for the most part, it all had to do with time on site and page views.
Time on Site/Page Views Engagement
I heard the Director of Customer Intelligence and Analytics for a certain major software manufacturer say that they have such a successful site because people spend so much time on it, and look at so many different pages. I have my own idea about what that is called, and it is not engagement.
I think people spend a lot of time on his website because they have purchased the new operating system, are having problems with it, so they go on the the site to find help. They look at so many pages because they can’t find what they need.
Is that engagement?
Are visitors really engaged with your website when they are unhappy?
As an analyst it is always very tempting, and easy, to tell a client, “Look at that, people who searched for this term spent 10 minutes on our site, and looked at 20 pages. They are really being engaged on SuchAndSuch.com.” But let’s break that down. 20 pages in 10 minutes. That is an average of 30 seconds on each page. That is a decent amount of time on a page, but it’s a lot of pages. Did they find what they were looking for? Are they being engaged?
If this an e-commerce site, did it result in a sale? If they didn’t buy, they didn’t find what they were looking for. Were they engaged?
Successful Visitor Engagement
Now let’s look at another scenario. The average visit to a site lasts 10 minutes, and has 2 page views. That is 5 minutes on a page. They are obviously either reading, or watching video.
Who is more engaged? 20 seconds on a page, or 5 minutes on a page.
Now for the big question. If a visitor to your site is unhappy, and leaves unhappy, were they engaged?
I believe that engagement is something more than page views and time on site. It is deeper than that. It comes down to whether or not a customer on your site is successful , and found what they came for.
If a visitor is successful, they have been engaged.
If they are happy when they leave, they have been engaged.
If they found information they needed, they were engaged.
If they bought something, they most likely were engaged.
Measuring Visitor Success
Now you’re asking “Well, how do I measure engagement now?” That’s a good question. There are many companies out there offering to tell you if visitors are happy and engaged. Usually by using annoying pop-up surveys which defeat the purpose of wanting people to be happy.
You need to figure out what the purpose of your site is, then find out how you can make people happy. After that, you can start to find out whether or not people are engaged.
Are you still measuring engagement as time on site and page views? Or are you doing something new, exciting and different?
Ben Bailey is an internet marketing analyst at SiteLogic focusing on SEO and analytics.
The ROI of Search Engine Optimization, Usability, and Analytics.
I’ll tell you why I love what I do. I love helping other people be successful in their business. And this industry provides the tools for making an impact. Right now.
SEO, Usability, and Analytics are the best investment that you can make for your online business. If you have never looked at optimization, usability, or ‘real’ analytics research for your website, then you have missed a wide-open opportunity to get the most out of your website.
These three factors have always resulted in success on many websites, and when combined, they are even more powerful in their results. Even websites that experience at least one of the three: search engine optimization, usability, or analytics; will experience a drastic change for the better, as each one provides significant direction to improve your website.
Regardless of the purpose of your website, selling stuff, getting leads, or page views, utilizing these three methods of website improvement will pay off far beyond your investment in a specialist, in-house training, attending a seminar, or however you choose to get it done.
Analytics = 900% to 1200% ROI Forrester research showed that a company that brings in a dedicated analyst can result in a 900% - 1200% ROI. That’s something to get excited about. In my experience, that return can usually be experienced within the first few months of implementing the changes that the analyst recommends. The biggest problems will be identified first.
Usability = 80% to 200% increase in desired metrics.
According to Jacob Nielson, usability improvements six years ago averaged 135%, now it has fallen to 83%, (it’s higher when you look at specific metrics). The main reason is that designs are getting better than what we were accustomed to viewing in the 1990’s. However, from personal experience in usability, website sales in ecommerce sites can improve dramatically simply with a usability review. I have worked on some projects were the ROI of the usability changes was over 4000%. It’s amazing some of the obstacles that are placed in front of users, but never tested or reviewed with live subjects.
SEO = (the wildcard) 40% to 4000+%
Search Engine Optimization is the real wildcard. Some sites respond very quickly to simple on-page optimization techniques an there is an immediate change to improved rankings and increased visitors. Other sites require more attention and additional off-site or on-site optimization help, or even a full marketing campaign in order to see results. It really is determined on a case-by-case basis. However, you can’t get around the fact that a simple optimization project on a website can result in increased rankings.
The full impact of SEO cannot be fully measured, as factors such as “the long tail,” ranking positions, and tracking systems make it very hard to calculate the true return from an SEO campaign. Not the least of which is that SEO campaigns have grown far beyond what they were in the past. Simply placing keywords in the title tags is not the primary concern of the Professional SEO. Search Engine Optimization has become more more integrated into the entire marketing process, which makes ROI in this area very hard to nail down as a general rule-of-thumb for all types of websites.
Combined Campaign = Exponential Results
Amazingly, when any of these disciplines are coupled together, the ROI factor increases. SEO combined with Usability provides amazing results and will usually result in a change of website navigation and architecture. Usability combined with Analytics will usually produce SEO-type recommendations and improvements, along with significant awareness of the visitor and their tendencies on the website. You may not like what you learn about people’s opinion of the site after that type of review. However, implementing those changes will provide a dramatic return on the investment.
After attending last week’s Search Engine Strategies, I saw first-hand that the (possible?) recession, while on some people’s minds, is not going to stop business, and it won’t stop online marketing. Savvy marketers will take this opportunity to improve the customer experience and get the most out of their websites.
This is why I love what I do, and why I focus on these three areas first when marketing websites. Most companies want to run headlong into the social media game, when they have not even taken the first steps to get the most out of their own websites.
Improve the experience at home first, and then invite others over.
Matt Bailey is the owner and founder of SiteLogic and has over a decade in the web marketing industry. He focuses on consulting and training to help companies take control of their websites and marketing strategies.
As many of my friends know, I also run the Website Accessibility Blog. It started as a hobby and a passion, and is
now a full-fledged voice in the accessibility community. I rarely cross-post article between the two blogs, but this was one that I felt merited the additional attention to a differnt audience.
Many times, in my speaking on various subjects, I do not get the opportunity to delve into accessibility and the importance of it. Recently, I was able to observe some user accessibility testing of a large application, and was fascinated with the people and their stories. What follows is a steam of thoughts and observations that I had while observing these tests. Actual user testing is strange – dealing with humans brings out all of the random factors.
First Issue: User Interaction with JAWS
One of the testers was a diabetic. She was blind and used JAWS, a screen reader, to navigate sites by listening to the links, content, and options. From the diabetes, she also suffered from carpel-tunnel-like symptoms, called trigger finger. The tendons in her fingers were shortening and becoming increasingly inflexible, which happens to many diabetics. Her hands were scarred from multiple surgeries on those tendons. The issue I observed was that some of the keystrokes combinations were very difficult for her to perform. Certain hand movements were difficult, slightly painful, but it was a surprise to find an unintended consequence to key combinations.
This is more of a JAWS issue as the program is made for blind users to use key combiunations to navuigate websites and applications, but sometimes does not take into account any physical disabilities that may also be in play. She relied on simple keystroke commands, but the navigation sometimes required her to use some complex key combinations, which were difficult.
Second issue: Usability v Accessibility
The developers of this software application tested many methods of improving accessibility. Each option was tested and evaluated. However, in the actual user testing the JAWS users expected certain behaviors, such as error handling, which were typical of using the web in combination with Internet Explorer and JAWS. When those specific events were improved in the application, the users were not pleased with the different behavior. Even though the application was more accessible, the users did not expect the more accessible behavior. They were used to overcoming the obstacles of poor accessibility and expected that behavior. Because they expected something different, they were not prepared for the more accessible method, and some actually preferred the less-accessible behaviors.
his is one case where expectancy, a key component of usability, affected the judgment of users in using a new system. The developers now had a dilemma of keeping the more accessible code, which improved many functions, or to change the code back to the typical less-accessible counterpart, simply because users were used to the issues that they typically cope with.
Third Issue: Vendor Claims
Here is where I can rant for days. Software applications that claim to be “accessible” but really aren’t. And usually, there isn’t even a good case that could be made for the “accessible” claim. Because a screen reader can toss out a few works? How can you describe your product as accessible when you don’t even use proper markup of page elements, frames, and critical navigation items?
As an example, this software produces reports that are navigated across multiple frames. The frameset lacks any “noframe” descriptions, so the user only has the title of each frame, which is barely descriptive. The main navigation is a tree structure that has no labels or descriptions, and the only method to expand the tree navigation is mouse-dependant. The navigation labels in the actual report lacked any sort of descriptive text. “Void” was the label for the print function. Many other labels were non-existed, misleading or simply absent.
This is accessible? How can you possible claim to be an accessible product when your application does not even take the simplest steps for accessible mark-up?
This last issue was the one that made me the angriest. The vendor of this application is seemingly unimpressed with the customer’s repeated requests for an actual accessible product. They simply seem to shrug their shoulders and claim that it is “accessible” when it is clearly unacceptable. It makes me wonder how this claim can be made and if there are any laws being broken. I am also sure that many vendors make the claim of being accessible without even understanding what accessible means, much less having the user testing to back it up.
What I learned
Even the best programming cannot account for human accessibility and usability testing. Testing is critical to developing any site or application, as there will be many factors that were simply not considered in the development. My favorite part of the testing was the interaction and conversations with each of the testers. I enjoyed getting to know them, their stories, and their opinions about website accessibility. I feel as though I learned more from these amazing people than any book could have contained.
Matt Bailey is the owner and founder of SiteLogic and has over a decade in the web marketing industry. He focuses on consulting and training to help companies take control of their websites and marketing strategies.
Search seems to be at the top of mind for companies and entrepreneurs that develop sites and expect the world to come, much like the proverbial mousetrap. Unfortunately, the best designed and optimized website will not see the light of a monitor unless there is something that draws users and provides a good experience.
While search gets the headlines, there is a lack of the ‘nuts and bolts’ activities that make businesses successful, both online and offline. Most site owners believe that simply building a site, optimizing it for “gold terms” and building a PPC campaign will be enough. Yet, there is a great divide between the goals of the site owner and their market. The market can have very different needs. A site that is built to meet the owners’ needs is not a site that will meet the visitor’s needs.
A few months ago, Gord Hotchkiss published a two-part article, Top 10 Rules for making B2B Search more successful.” The article challenges this type of thinking and provides an outline to the very activities that are most often overlooked in a search marketing campaign. Often overlooked, these activities can also be the most rewarding in developing a campaign.
Just by looking at his first two of his Top 10 Rules, you can get a sense of where it is going and how far from the mark one can be when market (user) research is left out of the site development and marketing process.
1. Know Who is the Buyer and Who’s the Influencer
2. Realize What the Intent of the Researcher Is
If you are developing a campaign to a specific market, and you have not done research on that market – such as actually talking to that audience, you could be missing a large part of the marketing process. Regardless if you are marketing to a B2B or a B2C audience, simply talking to a group of your target audience about the information they desire, the needs they have, and the answers they seek, can provide you with directed content and multiple strategies. You will learn that a typical market is a group of people with varied interests that cannot be sold the same way.
Here’s my visualization of this concept:
The more a business listens to its customers and market, the better decisions it will make when creating a webiste to suit their needs. Through usability testing, interviews, and most of all - listening, a site will have clear direction for growth. Additionally, there wil also be a clear pursuit in the analysis of those goals. By finding what is important to the users, the analytics will either support or disprove that goal. Either way, it provides an analytical framework to judge the activity on the site.
I find in my travels and consulting that many companies do market research. However, the concept of actually interacting or even (gasp) talking to individuals in their target markets is very undervalued. This is the one to many concept of thinking followed by corporations prior to the web (The ClueTrain Manifesto - a must-read if you haven’t read it yet). With the advent of one to one communications; blogs, forums, and citizen marketers, companies have to talk to their markets of they want to succeed.
One of my favorite books about market research is Paco Underhill’s Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. Although it details the retail shopping experience, it provides significant insight into the mind of a buyer and the information they seek. If businesses online used even a fraction of the research that is used in building an offline retail experience, the quality of thousands of websites would dramatically improve.
Matt Bailey is the owner and founder of SiteLogic and has over a decade in the web marketing industry. He focuses on consulting and training to help companies take control of their websites and marketing strategies.
Here at the World Headquarters of SiteLogic, I become the focus of some very destructive user testing. No, not website user testing – this is much more exciting, and makes much more noise.
As I posted in the 5 things you may not know, I am on a sizeable plot of land here in Ohio. When I bought it, it was very overgrown, as it hadn’t been maintained much in about twenty years, so it requires a lot of effort to reclaim the land. Unfortunately, it is grown over with briars, wild rosebushes and other invasive plants that aren’t native to the area. This makes maintaining much of anything very difficult – It takes me about a day with my chainsaw to clear about a 10’ x 10’ area of these thickets and briars.
Fortunately for me, my brother is an engineer at Rayco Manufacturing, which makes heavy duty land-clearing equipment. He put me on the list for testing a new land-clearing “mower”, and this week was the week that they brought out this machine for testing! This thing makes short work of overgrown brush and small to medium sized trees (and a few big ones). What makes it so incredible is that it mulches up everything, including the trees, so that there is nothing left but freshly mulched dirt. Of course, I took video . . .
Christmas came a little early, and all this week we’ll be pushing this machine to the limit. I have a very muddy terrain, as it has been raining non-stop for the past week, but it hasn’t slowed this little beast down. I’ve been able to test it as well, and I thought I broke it a few times, and was worried sick about it, but I was simply confirming the “bugs” that they didn’t tell me about. Thanks a lot, brother!
Website User Testing
What does this have to do with website testing? Hey – I can draw an example from anything.
I’ve consulted with many firms and worked with them to establish testing and measuring programs, but very few, if any, regularly talk and interact with their end users. A few more have actually tested their websites with users, but not many more. The bottom line is that just because it is a website does not mean that user testing is not necessary.
Do You Know the Flaws?
My brother is an engineer that works on the tractor part, but they were testing how the tractor uses the mower, the problems in the compatibility and how to improve it. Too many times it is assumed that a website, especially a new one, has been built well. However, without user feedback, there is no way to know what major flaws may rest just under the surface.
Everything may look pretty and work on paper, but nothing can substitute actually getting behind the wheel (or joystick) and seeing what it can do. Until you put it in extreme conditions and see how it reacts, you will never know the proper expectations that you can have for performance. This test was for mud and brush, next week this machine will undergo the heat and dust in Texas. This way, they will know how to sell and set expectations for different regions around the country.
Who’s Fault is it?
Unfortunately, most website owners are more willing to criticize their users for being ignorant than assuming responsibility for a poorly architected site. Unfortunately, the web is very democratic, users vote with a simple mouse click. If they can’t figure out your site, they can simply and easily leave. The value of user testing is to learn the expectations, and develop a continual plan of improvement based on actual user feedback, supported by analytic data.
If your site is being “improved” by a company without data to back up the changes or data in place to measure the changes, then there is really no reason to continue. Why pay for changes that will not or cannot have effective measurement to determine if the changes were worth the price?
User testing is destructive by nature. It first destroys your pre-concived notions about your site, it then destroys parts of the site itself in order to make it better.
User testing – it can’t be beat. Especially when it is 7 tons of metal, treads, hydraulics and spinning metal teeth . . .
Matt Bailey is the owner and founder of SiteLogic and has over a decade in the web marketing industry. He focuses on consulting and training to help companies take control of their websites and marketing strategies.
Do you ever read an article about some research that stays with you for days, maybe weeks? That happened to me this month as two articles, seemingly unrelated, stayed with me throughout the Thanksgiving holiday.
Jacob Nielson and the Digital Divide
The first, by Jacob Nielson, discusses the current state of the digital divide. An interesting exposition of the state of the divide, which is not one of “have’s and have-not’s.” The cost of computers is coming down significantly. The cheapest new computer today is significantly less than the Apple Mac that I bought for college in 1988, and significantly more powerful. The goal of mass-producing a $100 laptop is about $50 short, but still a force in development. The economic divide has been closing quickly, but it won’t be the significant divide that we face.
The Usability Divide
The next divide that Nielson covers is two parts of a usability divide, that of the elderly and of low-literacy users. The elderly are the fastest growing population segment, and also have the most disposable income, yet very few sites are accommodating a senior audience in design or in accessibility. The low-literacy user is another significant part of the population. Nielson feels that this is the most significant usability problem on the web today; as he cites that almost 40% of the population has lower literacy skills.
The Empowerment Divide
His final divide is the empowerment divide. The ability of the user population to find the information they seek. There is a significant lack of understanding of search in the larger user community. There is a lack of understanding of how to use advanced search functions, query reformulation, and choose the top search results without discernment. This group of people is at the mercy of those who have the default browser, the ISP, or the top search results because of their lack of initiative or skill to critically evaluate the information placed in front of them. Typically, the lack of initiative is because of fear.
College Students and Critical Thinking
In a related article, the Educational Testing Service released a report (PDF) about the abilities of college students to do many of tasks that Nielsen discussed about the empowerment divide. There is a surprising reliance upon Google for information, and most college students do not have the skills or the initiative to find information, focus the information or critically evaluate it. Essentially, the majority of college students tested lack the ability to use technology to solve information problems. There were over 6,300 students tested from 63 different universities and colleges around the country.
The lack of the skills necessary will affect these students as they attempt to enter the workforce, but a similar problem exists there. Irvin Katz, a research scientist with ETS. “It’s not only in academics,” he said, “but also in the workplace that people don’t have the necessary critical skills to access information.”
Website Evaluation
Two tests were significant. In the first, students were asked to evaluate several Web sites based on objectivity, authority and timeliness. 52 percent correctly assessed the objectivity of the sites, 65 percent correctly judged for authority, and 72 percent for timeliness. However, only 49 percent correctly identified the site that satisfied all three criteria.
In the second test, students were given a broad search term to refine. Only 35% of the students correctly identified the correct query reformulation.
These two articles point to a significant problem that we will soon be facing. There is an increasing divide between the technical elite and the rest of the user population. Very few students are coming out of college equipped to handle the responsibilities and tasks that they will be asked to perform in the workplace. If a student is wishing to work in the technical realm, the divide will be difficult to overcome if that student does not have the initiative to learn.
What can we do?
I believe that there are a few contributors to this problem. The first is the education system. Rather than teaching students to think by instilling critical and logical thinking skills, we are teaching to the test. Teaching names, dates and places with no context as to why they are important and the resulting historical significance. We now have generations of youth that understand how to use the technology, but haven’t the slightest idea how it works. Instead they are content to be used by the technology, in the words of Neil Postman in his book, Technopoly.
The final contributor is one that is as old as mankind. We are an impatient bunch and we really like to have things handed to us. Having a search engine answer our every question and whim allows us to get what we want, when we want it. It can be very easy to let that satisfy, as it takes work and curiosity to want to know more, or even to know why.
Yes, I have a concern for the future. As the ecomic gap closes,the critical thinking gap only shows signs of widening.
Matt Bailey is the owner and founder of SiteLogic and has over a decade in the web marketing industry. He focuses on consulting and training to help companies take control of their websites and marketing strategies.
Next Month, November 14, 2006 is World Usability Day. A day for celebrating those things that are easy to use and understand. A day to celebrate products that do not require extensive instructions in order to put them together or use. Because isn’t that what we really want? To NOT use the instructions?
I am celebrating a month early with the instructions on how to use my hotel alarm clock. Anything that requires this much instruction is certainly not intuitive - and not something I am metally prepared to deal with at 12:30 AM.
I’m in San Francisco for the DMA Conference this weekend. It’s shaping up to be a great time. The SEO Certification is taking shape and the level 2 modules are being planned this weekend. I think the level of education, the breadth of subject matter and the backing of the DMA will create one of the most comprehensive certification programs available on the market in the near future. This is an exciting project to be a part of, and I am looking forward to seeing it grow.
Matt Bailey is the owner and founder of SiteLogic and has over a decade in the web marketing industry. He focuses on consulting and training to help companies take control of their websites and marketing strategies.
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Matt Bailey is the owner and founder of SiteLogic and has over a decade in the web marketing industry. He focuses on consulting and training to help companies take control of their websites and marketing strategies.
Ben Bailey is an internet marketing analyst at SiteLogic focusing on SEO and analytics.
- a must-read if you haven’t read it yet). With the advent of one to one communications; blogs, forums, and citizen marketers, companies have to talk to their markets of they want to succeed.
