Up until recently, article marketing used to mean writing a 'how to' article (preferably a keyword laden one) and pasting it into as many article directories as you can (like Articles Base, Article Directory and Article Dashboard).

Having your article duplicated on a multitude of top ranking sites meant that people had a better chance of finding out about you – not just through your articles but also through Google ranking.

The keywords in your articles would be rewarded by Google. And having your website address in your author profile of these directories was enough to significantly help your search engine optimisation (SEO).

So what's changed?

Google has been a bit of a mystery from the start. No one knows exactly what's going on in Googleland. So it's fitting that the latest dramatic change might be called 'Panda' or it might be called 'Farmer'. We're not really sure.

What we do know is that on 24 February 2011, Google did a major ranking algorithm update. For many, this has halved their sites’ visitor numbers. It started causing havoc in the US (because they don't have enough problems at the moment), but it's soon to work its magic in other countries, too. 

The main problem seems to be around unoriginal and duplicated material. Article directories have had a particularly rough time with this new change.

Some spectacular examples

According to Search Engine Journal:

"Ezine Articles and Suite 101 lost over half of their visibility, with Wisegeek getting devastated at a 93% drop. The percentage of loss as calculated by Sistrix placed some prominent sites such as Associated Content, Business.com, and Articles Base at over 90% of traffic which simply evaporated overnight….While major sites such as YouTube, eBay, and Facebook were considered net winners in the Google algorithm modification, some prominent publishing sites such as Ezine Articles, Buzzle, and HubPages were seen to lose considerable traffic."

Why is Google being so cruel?

The aim of this change is to remove poor quality sites from the top of Google’s results pages. Matt Cutts, Google’s head of spam, explains their intention in his update announcement post on the 24th of February:

"This update is designed to reduce rankings for low quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on."

Sounds fair enough.

But accidents happen.

So Google have asked those with “a high quality site that has been negatively affected by this change” to let them know about it. That is, if you can work out that your site has been unfairly affected by Panda. Or Farmer. Good luck with that.

And then there was April Fools…

April 1st didn't help things. This year, Google continued its proud tradition of April Fools’ Day pranks with a 'new' Gmail application and the unveiling of CADIE, a Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity. 

Billed as the world’s first artificial intelligence tasked-array system, CADIE had already scanned the Web and created her own homepage, which demonstrated the entity’s love of all things panda-related (see it here). We already feel foolish enough around Google. Did they really have to make us feel stupider?

Jokes aside – what now?

• Quality content is still king – best have your original, niche-driven content appearing on your own website. If you are too broad in your topic range, Google won't like you as much. 
• If you have lots of articles on your site, have a list of 'categories' on your home page which leads to those articles on a particular theme.
• Don't have too many advertisements on your site. Google won't like that either.
• Try reducing the number of article directories you use to the top ranking ones.
• Find other ways to get your website link onto other sites – ways that have a more natural relationship-building approach.
• Embrace social media – if you can bear it (excuse the Panda pun).

Being an authority in your area of expertise is still what everyone is banging on about. Most importantly, I feel, is being committed to it for the long-term. Apparently Google rewards those who 'keep calm and carry on'.

This post was written by Megan Hills. Megan is a writer, cartoonist and marketing consultant who is waiting for Google to blackmark anyone who uses Facebook or Twitter. Now that would be interesting. Find out more about Megan

When it comes to search engines, YouTube remains ahead of Yahoo!, safely in the number two spot behind Google (Ref: ComScore). Interestingly, what videos rank well on YouTube doesn't always rank well on Google, and visa vera. Considering YouTube is owned by Google, this is kinda weird.

Apparently, 'Google proper' relies heavily on inbound links (i.e. links off YouTube pointing to your videos). YouTube takes this into account too, but spreads out the love more evenly with other factors.

Keywords help your YouTube ranking a great deal – even more than on Google. You can insert them in:

• The title of your video
  Tip: have keywords at beginning of your video title.
   
• The description of each video and your channel
  Write your description like its a small blog post – don't keyword stuff it to the point of reading repulsion.
   
• Tags
  This is where you can shamelessly insert your keywords – but they MUST be relevant to your video.

For those more tech-savvy…

…look into adding a transcript to the description and use YouTube’s annotation feature to add captions or subtitles. 

Tip: To build up your e-list on your website you can use ‘annotations’ on YouTube to have a box that says “Enjoy more videos like this: subscribe (insert website details)”

Which keywords to use?

As you would when thinking about keywords for your website, ask the obvious question: What would you type in 'search' to find your video?

Here is a nifty shortcut to finding the right keywords for your video: search on YouTube “How to get (inset your keyword/key phrase related to your video topic)”  What results come up? 

How other people respond to your videos affects your ranking

This includes such activity as: 

• viewing your channel 
• viewing your videos 
• rating you (i.e. number of likes)
• making comments 
• subscribing to your channel
• becoming your friend
• Sharing your video with friends

You need interaction

Remember YouTube is social media. That means engagement. If you participate you get rewarded in your rankings. If you jump in, post a video and disappear you are likely to have wasted you time. It's about earning trust in a community.

While wandering around other people's channels you also learn what videos are out there – and what videos aren't. That is, you discover what is missing out there in the YouTube marketplace – what holes you can fill.

So subscribe to other people's channels in your niche, rate their videos, make comments, share other people's videos with friends who would appreciate it, etc. In short: Engage!

BIG TIP:
Building a community means that you are also likely to have more inbound links – i.e. links form outside of YouTube pointing to your videos. Inbound links help tremendously with your ranking.

BIGGISH TIP:
Boost your inbound link number by having your video links on Digg, Reddit, Buzzfeed.

• Have playlists on your channel
  In other words, organise your videos (and/or other people's videos that you like and are related to your topic) under keyword-savvy category names to attract your audience.
   
• Flagging
  This is being a whistle-blower, telling YouTube when someone else has posted something outside the rules. You are likely to be rewarded for being a snitch.
   
• Embeds
  Putting a video on your website using the embed code (rather than just a hyperlink), also helps to raise your ranking.

How long has your video been there?

Being the more recent video helps your ranking. But of course, the longer you are there the more views and subscriptions you may have earned. So the idea is to keep posting videos – be the newest, but also be the most popular.

This post was written by Megan Hills. Megan is a writer, cartoonist and marketing consultant who has never been to the summit – but she has been to 'me'. Find out more about Megan

Following my two previous posts on YouTube: Making a business-ish video and Set up your YouTube account with a good user name, it's time to put that baby onto YouTube and let the world see it.

Why are we bothering with YouTube again?

Because it's very, very popular. Here's the latest stats that I nabbed via Mashable (social media news and tips):

As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who rack up an estimated 92 billion page views each month. We spend around 2.9 billion hours on YouTube in a month — over 325,000 years. And those stats are just for the main YouTube website — they don’t incorporate embedded videos or video watched on mobile devices.

Social media-related YouTube stats are just as impressive. YouTube says that on average there are more than 400 tweets per minute containing a YouTube link. Meanwhile, over on Facebook over 150 years worth of YouTube videos are watched every single day.

Steps to upload your video:

1. Go to YouTube
2. Create an account if you don't already have one
3. Log into your account
4. Make sure your video file is saved on your desktop for easy access (saving it somewhere outside of iMovies/Windows Media Player/etc. ensures you can access it)
5. Click the 'upload' button on the top of the homepage (next to 'browse')
6. Choose a video file (make sure it's the right format – here's a list of some well-known formats that YouTube supports):
   - WebM files – Vp8 video codec and Vorbis Audio codecs
   - MPEG4, 3GPP and MOV files – Typically supporting h264, mpeg4 video codecs, and AAC audio codec
   - AVI – Many cameras output this format – typically the video codec is MJPEG and audio is PCM
   - MPEGPS – Typically supporting MPEG2 video codec and MP2 audio
   - WMV
   - FLV – Adobe-FLV1 video codec, MP3 audio
   Note: videos must not be more than 15 minutes and no more than 2 GB in size
7. Click the Upoad Video button (click 'browse' to find the file on your computer, when you find it click 'upload video')
8. Enter the details required (title, description, category, tags – more info on this next post!)
9. Click 'save' – everything will be saved (title, etc.) when your video has finished uploading. When the bar is full (be patient, it can take awhile), your video is up and available on YouTube

Uploading from Windows Movie Maker.

Make sure you save the file as a wmv file to your computer, then upload from YouTube.

Apple Mac shortcut: Uploading from iMovie

1. Go to iMovie on your computer
2. Selected your video in 'Edit Project'
3. Click on share from the menu bar
4. Drop down and select 'YouTube'
5. Enter your YouTube account and password details
6. Option: enter title, description, tags here (don't worry, these can be changed in YouTube later)
7. Select HD for best resolution
8. I like to select 'make this movie personal' so if you've made a mistake you can change it before the world sees it, you can make it public once you are happy with it on YouTube
9. Select 'next'…and you are on your way! 

Note: This upload can take a few minutes from your computer and sometimes up to a couple of hours before being able to access on YouTube.

Tip to avoid 'the two black line' problem:

Prior to uploading your video, make sure you have saved the file as 'fit to screen'. Otherwise your video will end up having a thick, vertical black line on either side of your video.

Next post…

…we will be looking at ways to lure people to look at your video, to become a friend and subscribe to your channel.

This post was written by Megan Hills. Megan is a writer, cartoonist and marketing consultant who knows more about videos than she does about tubing. Find out more about Megan

Following from the last post: Making a Business-ish Video, you are going to move from the director's chair to that of 'film distributor'. 

In this post we'll look at setting up your YouTube account.

Here are the 11 easy steps required:

1. Go to YouTube
2. Click on the big blue 'create an account' button (they make it pretty easy for you)
3. Type in your email address.
4. Type in a username (there's more info about that below).
5. Click from the 'Location' menu where you are
6. Type in your date of birth
7. Click your gender
8. Check the first box if you want those who have your email address to find you (it just means that others will be able to find your account by searching with your email address)
9. Check the next box is you want to receive YouTube's promotional material
10. You need to accept the terms and conditions
11. The next step may ask you to link your YouTube account with your Google account (if you have one), just involves signing in with your Google password.
    Or you'll need to set up a Google account – so go through the process of creating a password for that (remember to go to your email inbox to verify the account).

Profile

You can click on your profile and add all kinds of extra information about yourself.

Settings

Click on 'Settings' and you can add a title for your channel, and put in Channel Tags (those handy key words and phrases that will help people looking for good videos in your area of expertise).

Note: you have far fewer characters available in this section than your actual video tags so be specific to target your niche. You can use the free Google Adwords keyword tool to help you identify the best keywords for you. Post on choosing keywords for your video tags to come, so stay tuned! But in the meantime…you can check out my other post: SEO and Keyword Research: Goldilocks meets The Devil.

Choosing a username

There are some handy things to know about choosing a user name. I typed in 'MeganHills' and found that it was already taken. So I tried MeganTV' (afterall, YouTube is like having your own TV show) but that was taken. So I tried MeganHillsTV'  and it was available! That sounds much better than 'MeganHills1' (which was also available). 

Best not have personal videos mixed up with professional ones, though. So keep that in mind if you are using your personal name as a username.

Business name-wise, I could have tried MyMarketingThing if that was my only focus. But I have two other blogs (My Cartoon Thing and My Burnout Thing) and my (low-profile) consultancy, wordmix. So I decided to try MyThing, not available but MyThingTV was available. Snap! 

My partner, Jeff, has a business called Ethical Practice (business training for health practitioners). EthicalPractice was taken, so he nabbed MyEthicalPractice. Not a bad second option. 

Ultimately, you want your YouTube username to be short and catchy. You want it to be memorable.

Don't have any videos yet?

You can still post other people's videos on your channel to get going. But make sure the videos you choose to promote are related to your niche and have something useful to offer. Their quality affects your reputation.

What username would work best for your business? 

Let us know about your experiences with selecting a YouTube name.

Next post…

We will be looking at how to upload your video. Livin' the dream, baby!

This post was written by Megan Hills. Megan is a writer, cartoonist and marketing consultant who likes the idea of hosting her own TV show called 'Warren'. Find out more about Megan 

This post is about making you making a video. Yes, you. And not a family film or a goofy tape to send into a bloopers show. A proper business-ish one.

A video to pop onto YouTube, your website, your blog site, your e-news, etc. A video that serves as a marketing vehicle, so to speak.

The saboteur's assumption 

Most people who don't get around to making a video are shackled with what I call 'The Tarantino Complex'. You think you have to be a Hollywood director with a supa-schmick camera and killer sound equipment (maybe even a grip and a best boy) before considering it.

Mais non! You don't need these things. There are plenty of people making useful, well-played videos using just their laptop (the ones with a camera).

What you really need for a successful video is…

…useful information and some imagination.

The horror of the home page video

Let's say you wanted to create a video to introduce your business. It's the sort of video you would put on your home page. Sounding snazzy so far. The mistake most people make at this point is to simply talk to your camera about what you business does and title it 'Welcome to (insert business name)'. 

Bor-ring.

Like any marketing material, it's useful to focus on a common problem and the special way you solve it. And like any form of social media, it's best if you don't look like you're 'selling' yourself. It's more a matter of presenting yourself as 'helpful-friend-meets-Liberace' (i.e. friendly and useful person who also happens to be rather entertaining).

Unless, of course, you work in funeral homes. Gotta bring down the tone of the show a notch there. 

Main things to remember:

• Why should they watch?
  Explain what problem you solve and what makes you special. 
   
• Keep them watching
  Say you're going to offer something at the end to keep them watching right through.
   
• Keep it under 3 minutes
  Concentration spans can only extend so far in this crazy, madcap world.
   
• Give them something to do
  At the end, inspire your watcher to sign up to a course, sign up to e-news and get a free e-book, buy within a certain timeframe to get a special, etc.
   
• Urge watchers to be viral 
  "Found the video useful and/or fun? Then let your friends know about it"
  …who hopefully tell their friends…who then hopefully tell their friends…who….

Lights, Sound, Action!

Yes, it helps to have good lighting for your video. This can mean a room with good sized windows on a sunny day. You could even film outside, let the gods turn up the wattage. Or you can invest in cheap construction lights from your local hardware store.

But good sound is vital. If the audio is like a washing machine the folks out there are going to hit the escape button faster than you can say: 'And I'd like to thank…'.

Keep them engaged with engaging facial expressions and body language – while still coming across as natural (this takes practice). Look straight into the camera. There's nothing worse than appearing shifty on your video. And reinforce important points with text graphics. This is usually pretty easy to do with standard software that's probably already on your computer. At the end, promote your website address and any other necessary contact information.

But if you want to get fancy-like…

Buy a camera that records in a format that’s compatible with your computer. And preferably one that allows you to plug a good quality microphone into it. You may even be so bold as to record sound separately. 

When it comes to software Windows Media Player (PC) and iMovie (Apple) are fine. But, again, if you want to be a fancy-pants, I've heard Jing (PC) and ScreenFlow (Apple) are the way to go.

Me?

Yes, I know. I should have made a video of this post. I promise to pop it up…when you least expect it…

This post was written by Megan Hills. Megan is a writer, cartoonist and marketing consultant who preferred to volunteer for backstage duties in the school play. Find out more about Megan 

You know those guys in goggles and white jumpsuits on the tarmac waving paddles at airplanes? 

A 'landing page' is like one of those guys. Waving at your target market – showing them that you are their guide for a secure place to rest and have their needs met.

Imagine how annoying it is when a whopping big airplane ignores all your expert waving and goes to land somewhere else.

Let's not have your landing page experience this public rejection.

What is a landing page exactly?

Okay, a landing page is one way to create sales from pay-per-click ads and e-mail campaigns – or even from social media (like a Facebook profile page). It is sometimes known as a 'lead capture page' 

Here's how a landing page works in conjunction with an AdWords campaign:

1. A person searches for something on Google 

2. They click on your AdWords ad which matches those search words they used (AdWords ads are usually on the right hand side of the search results page – more AdWords info here)

3. The person who clicked on your ad finds themselves on your landing page – a page tailored to their exact needs….

A landing page could be considered a full page advertisement online. A full page ad with a coupon box. Why the coupon box? Because giving your visitor a way to interact with you is what the paddle-waving is all about. 

A landing page generally involves luring your visitor to fill out a form of some kind. This might be to receive a free report, a free e-book, or a free sample of a product. Or the form may promote an actual sale of a service or product.

The form asks the visitor for their an email address – maybe perhaps a name and telephone number as well. Enough to 'capture the lead', add the visitor to your mailing list and get some kind of relationship started.

Some people build an entire business on a landing page, by-passing having a website altogether. 

4 'hard' landing page questions:

1. What are you offering?

2. Who do you wish to appeal to?

3. Why would they be interested in your offer?

4. What do they need to do to participate/buy?

Once you've nailed the answers to these questions, you can start working on a layout for your landing page.

What does your landing page need to be?

'Focused and simple' is the key to creating a successful landing page.

What was that again?

Focused and simple.

One more time…

Focused and simple.

Yep, you've got it!

7 nifty tips…

The visitor needs to know what’s being offered quickly and easily. 

1. Write down 5 great reasons for your visitor to take action, put them in bullets and pop them at the top of the page, next to your main photo or even above it.

2. Write from the visitor’s perspective (i.e. what their key concerns are and how you can help).

3. Make sure it is super-clear what you want them to do to take up your offer.

4. No technical web design gizmos (you can’t assume what apps your visitor has on their computer and you don’t want long download times).

5. Keep your visitor on the page – avoid links to more information because you tend to lose them when they leave.

6. Back up your claims with traceable testimonials.

7. The key photo, bullets and headline should all appear 'above the fold' – visitors shouldn't have to scroll down to read them. 

The more costly an item is, or the more unique it is, the more content will be needed to convince a buyer to opt-in

The subscription area

If possible, just ask for an email address so you can start as many new relationships as possible and get more registration info down the road. If you need – and I mean really NEED – more information for what you are selling: 'phone number', 'title' and 'company' is doable (if relevant). Just remember: the more details you ask for the less they are likely to opt-in.

Extra tip:
Have a big button with an enticement ‘Sign up now’ or ‘buy now’ – whatever is relevant (not just ‘submit’ or ‘click here’)

The subscription process

If someone leaves a field on the form blank, make sure it's easy for them to fix it. Clearly indicate the field they left blank, and explain what they need to do. Don't wipe the whole page blank and make them start over.

Look at the resolution page, or what is sometimes called the ‘encore’ page. That's the page you get after someone has submitted their information for that PDF download or made a purchase or subscribed to a newsletter.

DON’T leave them with: "Thank you, you've been subscribed." At the very least, have a link with: "Return to Home Page" Better still, you can offer them a subscription to your newsletter, give them an incentive to take a survey, etc. 

How do you gauge its success?

A visitor doing what you want them to do (i.e. fill out your form and submit) is known as 'a conversion'. The success of your landing page can be measured by its conversion rate – i.e. the percentage of visitors who complete the desired action. 

Testing

Prior to launch, ask those you know in your target market about your page.

• Don’t tell them what it’s about first

• Give them five seconds to look at the page 

• Ask them what their impression of it was

• Ask them what they remember from it

• Ask: "What would make it clearer for you?" 

Testing different content elements live

You are able to change your landing page anytime you want to see if another approach might work better. Here are some elements worth playing around with:

• different subject headers

• how many fields you ask for in your request form 

• the length of your copy 

• your Pay Per Click target phrases

Change one thing, and assess. Then change another thing, and assess. Don’t change too much at once or you won’t know what’s working and what isn’t.

If visitation averages just a few seconds, and you aren’t attracting the subscriptions you are after, then it's obviously not grabbing their attention.

Test in all browsers. Make sure your page looks okay in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari (recent versions, not just the latest version).

There’s no guarantees

People don’t want to be hounded. This means they won’t sign up for just anything. The more specific the offer, the higher the response rate and the closer you will be to attracting the people you want to reach. 

This post was written by Megan Hills.  Megan is a writer, cartoonist and marketing consultant who enjoys take-off and landing equally. Find out more about Megan

(Cartoon in homage to the great Garry Larson
and his 'School for Gifted Children' masterpiece)

This 'mobile-optimised' post leads on from the previous posts: 

• Should your website be smart phone savvy?
• How to Have a Mobile-Friendly Website.

This is the last consecutive post on this topic, promise!

And I'll be brief.

Why? Because I only know a bit about this. Even though this is now the third post on the topic I must still declare myself a nappy-wearer in the realm of smartphone savviness. But my research has gleaned the following….

First question: Should you have a mobile-optimised website or a standalone app? 

In other words, do you need mobile-savvy website (that can be read on a desktop computer aswell) or a mobile-only application?

Note: if you don't own a smartphone so aren't up on this 'app' biz, ask a buddy who does have one to take you through the paces on theirs.

If your visitors are particularly 'tech-savvy' readership, you might want to consider investing in a standalone mobile app. 

If you already have a website with lots of features, ask: Are these features useful to those looking at your site on their mobile? If so, you might want to stick to simply making your website a little more mobile-friendly (or 'mobile-optimised'). 

Choosing someone to mobile-optimise your site (or build one from scratch)

The process of hiring someone to design and build a mobile-friendly website is not dissimilar to hiring someone to design and build a standard website. 

Of course you want to choose someone who knows what they are doing. So look at their website:

• Do they talk about 'mobile-optimisation' on their site?
• Do they have samples of their work?
• Is their site mobile-friendly?

If you hire someone, make sure they:

• analyse what your business is, what it needs to achieve and for who
• give you a 'wireframe' of the proposed home page and other key pages
  (i.e. skeletal version – no fancy design aesthetics – just a layout that indicates what goes where)
• make sure the proposed mobile-friendly navigation of the site is explained to you

Once all this is okay, they can then work on the creative look of your website's design. Make sure of the following:

• you are clear on what the pages will look like (not just the home page)
• that the design is in sync with your total business brand (i.e. what your business card looks like, letterhead looks like, brochure looks like, etc.)
• the builder/designer explains how the design will optimise your business

Then they build the whole shebang with fancy-pantz coding.

Once your site is built…

…make sure your site is tested on several smartphone platforms before launching that baby into the world.

This post was written by Megan Hills.  Megan is a writer, cartoonist and marketing consultant who can use all the help she can get in the mysterious world of CSS coding and HTML. Find out more about Megan

This post leads on from Should your website be smart phone savvy? which bandies the rumour that 70% of internet searches are now being done on a mobile device. Except it's probably more than 70%. 

I have to be honest about one thing…

We're not just talking smartphones. We're talking any mobile device with access to the internet. PDAs and palm-sized computers come to mind.

Yes, there's the iPad too, but this mobile device has a more generous screen. This post is about the little guy. 

As you can imagine, there's a lot of these small mobile devices out there. So if your website doesn't display well on them, it is possible you are losing business. Eeeekkkk!!!!

But don't panic.

Just because people are looking at websites on smart phones doesn't mean we all have to contort ourselves completely for the idle whim of technological advancement. Well, not straight away.

Unless your target market is in Indonesia.  

Explanation: The other day I heard on the radio (remember those?) that Indonesians use their smart phones for EVERYTHING, so creating apps for that area of the world is worth a thought.

The same rule possibly applies to a target market of anyone under the age of 18.

Smartphones are smarter than you think

Smartphones aren't called 'smart' because they are limited. They can actually do quite a lot – and manage quite a lot. This means, contrary to popular opinion, you can still have your important features and you can still have a lot of content.

But stripping back to the essentials on the first two or three tiers is worth considering regardless of whether it's seen on a smartphone or a desktop. Why? Because people are busy and they like the information they need to be succinct. Waffle is dead.

Is your site easy to use?

'Fast and simple' is apparently the catch-cry of the mobile audience. But its also the catch-cry of people generally, isn't it?

Make sure your site:

• is easy to navigate
• has small pages  
• promotes succinct information
• avoids superfluous graphics and features
• has sharp images that are also small enough to be fast loading

But in the end, it's up to you. You decide what is the most important content and features for your site. Well, actually your target market does. Listen to those guys.

Ultimately, you need to imagine how your visitor is going to interract with your site via a mobile device, particularly if they have big chubby fingers.

The Java Script debate

Increasingly smartphones can handle almost any website just fine, but apparently there are still some phones that don’t. Apparently Java Script has been a major hurdle in this instance, particularly for Blackberrys.

Java Script is a programming language that makes a page more interactive. It can activates drop-down menus, make animated images, pop-up windows, cause an image to change when your mouse rolls over it. That kind of thing.

According to various tech heads, we are entering a world where we can be more cocky about Java Script now. The iPhone supports JavaScript, as do other mobile devices. So there.

Still, if you don't need Java Script then you can have your web dude disable it. Why? Because unnecessary Java Script may reduce speed on mobile browsers. 

If changing your site all seems too hard, you can still go down the 'app' route. This involves creating a new site altogether but has the same key information and is – in no uncertain terms – mobile device savvy.

Over the last 12 months of so, I've been surprised at just how awful lookin' a lot of mobile sites are. The good news is that they are getting better. 

One tip: when it comes to designing you mobile site, ensure you keep with your brand 'look and feel' so there's continuity throughout all your promotional material.

What next?

So what if you want to alter your site, or create a new one, for the sake of mobile-friendliness?

Check out the next post…

This post was written by Megan Hills.  Megan is a writer, cartoonist and marketing consultant who finds the auto-correct function while creating a text mostly irritating, but sometimes amusing. Find out more about Megan

A smartphone is the Swiss Army knife of the 21st century.

It’s a mobile phone that offers more functions, including – but not limited to – Internet browsing. Think iPhone and BlackBerry, that kind of thing.

What other functions?

Well, I use it to:

• take photos of my partner while he’s snoring on the couch, with introduced props for extra entertainment
• shriek like Aretha Franklin into the in-build microphone/recording feature
• pretend that I’m James Bond and scan other people’s business cards straight into my contacts list at networking functions
• thump on my djembe drum along to the virtual metronome
• see what I’m doing, via the flashlight app, while fumbling my front door key into the lock after an enjoyable tequila evening

But that’s just me. Back to the topic at hand: I heard from an SEO specialist that…

…70% of internet searches are being done via a smartphone.

“Jebus” I thought. “70%? Is no one using an old-fangled computer monitor anymore?” Well, 30% are. Or so it seems.

Being the kind of person who enjoys looking at experts sideways, I went home and Googled this statistic. Turns out, the claim was true – but old news. The 70% was reported way back in 2008.  Time is flying, as are our nimble phone-fetished fingertips.

What is happening now, stats-wise?

Smartphone vs. computer screen internet searching activity for 2010 is not so easy to search for – via your laptop, mobile, or clairvoyant channels. I tried all three and ended up at a virtual brick wall. But we can assume it is now more than 70%.

What does this 70% + figure mean?

My first reaction was: “Oh no! Websites need to be re-designed AGAIN!”
Why? To suit those incy-wincy itty-bitty screens. How do you navigate our beloved dropdown menus, for instance, on a mobile?

Note: Or will manicurists start promoting fingernails with ends like pen nibs?

So do you need to change your website – or get a mobile app – asap?

First, let's ask the obvious question: What kind of searching is most likely to be done on a smartphone? Here's some I've come up with:

• navigation through Google Maps is done by many a lost soul daily
• internet banking – again done by many daily
• accessing online booking calendars…yep, this is done by many of us daily

These are just three examples that might indicate how this search 70%+ searching figure on smartphones could be skewing reality a little.

But searching via smartphone will only increase

This is true. So the next couple of posts will take look at the low-down of mobile-friendly websites and mobile apps – and how you can talk to your IT technician about them.    

This post was written by Megan Hills.  Megan is a writer, cartoonist and marketing consultant who feels a little sad when, sitting in a cafe, sees one person playing with their phone while the other person is blowing air through their lips with boredom. Find out more about Megan

I'm going to keep this post simple.

Powerful content writing (i.e. writing for the web) generally requires a degree of simplicity. So this is going to be Zen-like in it's minimalism. This will be a post of few words. More like a meditation. A web writing meditation. Okay, I'll shut up now. On with the post…

I should mention that I've already written about keywords for web writing: Using keywords for SEO and other alien adventures. But this post is about writing style.

Below are four tips only, like the four seasons of nature.

(gong sound) 

Spring

Smell the cherry blossom? It's spring. The beginning of things. What do you do when a nice stranger comes to visit asking for help?

The important thing is to be helpful. Which means being nice back and trying not to talk too much. Your home page, and your next tier of pages, must be friendly, succinct and show that you are ready to assist. If they want more information, you will give them the hyperlink to it, won't you? It's only polite.

(another gong sound) 

Summer 

It's hot, damned hot. But for some reason we generally feel more active in the summertime. We jump from spot to spot like a frog in a lotus pond.

Your visitor will tend to scan your website text, rather than read it. So use headings, sub‐headings, and bulleted lists as lily pads for your visitor to land on – and to convey important messages quickly. Remember to keep your bullets (and the words in your bulleted lists) short but sweet.

(two gong sounds)  

Autumn 

Walk through the golden leaves in your visitor’s shoes. 

Your words need to be written from your visitor's perspective. So have text that speaks from their point of view. For example: 'Your family…./'If you would like…./If you are looking for…./Having…..feels good, right?'.

This is much more effective than speaking from your (or your company’s) point of view. For example: ‘We are…/We believe…/We recognise…’.

(a gong sound with haunting Japanese flute) 

Winter

It's cold out there. So invite your visitor in to stay awhile, and to wander around at leisure. Every room is heated. 

Use your text to lure the visitor from page to page via enticement lines and hyperlinks. The longer the visitor spends wandering about your site the more of a relationship develops and the likelihood of them contacting you.

Which means it's not a bad idea to end every page with a recommendation to contact you (with a hyperlink to your contact page).

(haunting flute starts up then fades…)

End of post. Thank you.

This post was written by Megan Hills-san.  Megan is a writer, cartoonist, marketing consultant who has nothing else to say right now. Find out more about Megan.