F Shaped Reading Pattern of Web Content
Posted by reviews on Sep 3, 2007
A study recently conducted by Jakob Nielsen and Kara Pernice showed a startling reading pattern of web users. Instead of being the assumed line by line, left to right pattern, readers often glance through the content in an F shaped pattern. This is of particular importance to website designers that are concerned about the readers clicking on ads or reading specific information on a page.
Using special eye tracking equipment (as seen below), they studied the reading patterns of 238 web users. The equipment includes cameras and infrared emitters, which are hidden behind the dark areas above and below the screen. In addition, they had a webcam mounted on the side to capture the users facial expressions.
As the web user reads the page, they often read the first, and sometimes second, paragraph, but then glance along the left side and down, thus making an F shape. A heat map is displayed in the images below. The red, indicating the most heavily viewed area, while yellow indicates the even less, and blue displaying the least viewed area. You will then notice the pattern of the letter “F”.
In the next image, which is an About Us page, you will notice that the reader did not read further than two paragraphs before beginning to skim. Unless the very beginning of the next paragraphs grab their attention or they find the first two particularly intriguing, you will probably lose them on this page.
In the next image you will see how they viewed a common shopping cart design.
Notice how the reader fixated on the numbers? They also just glanced over the imagery on the page. This may be something to consider in your websites, particularly if is an ecommerce site.
You may also notice that the users only glanced at the cross-selling offers. Any attempts to cross-sell would have to be eye catching and immediately obvious of its value to the user. This study could be very pertinent to all webmasters and marketers trying to sell a product or an idea.
Press Coverage:
USA Today
‘Sneak Peek’ Into Net Surfers’ Brains
Poynter Institute
What Makes Web Images Attractive
If you wish to order their new book, you may use the following link: Eyetracking Web Usability (Voices That Matter)
Also, you should check out their other highly regarded book Prioritizing Web Usability (VOICES)
Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Terms and Acronyms
Posted by reviews on Aug 31, 2007
302
Adsense
Algorithm
Anchor Text
Anchor text refers to the visible text for a hyperlink. For example:
< a href=”http://www.reviewerofsites.com/” >This is the anchor text< /a >
ATW
- AlltheWeb (search engine)
Authority
A website that is considered by Google or other search engines to be trusted and usually given a high PageRank.
BackLink
A web page that has a hyperlink to one of your pages, usually the home page.
B2B
Business to Business
Blog
BOT
Abbreviation for robot (also called a spider). It refers to software programs that scan the web. Bots vary in purpose from indexing web pages for search engines to harvesting e-mail addresses for spammers.
BOTW
Best Of The Web (Directory)
- Cache
- CAPTCHA
- Completely Automated Public Turing Tests to Tell Computers and Humans Apart
Cloaking
Cloaking describes the technique of serving a different page to a search engine spider than what a human visitor sees. This technique is abused by spammers for keyword stuffing. Cloaking is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.
Canonicalization
Click Fraud
Conversion
Conversion refers to site traffic that follows through on the goal of the site (such as buying a product on-line, filling out a contact form, registering for a newsletter, etc.). Webmasters measure conversion to judge the effectiveness (and ROI) of PPC and other advertising campaigns. Effective conversion tracking requires the use of some scripting/cookies to track visitors actions within a website. Log file analysis is not sufficient for this purpose.
- Content
- Context
- Relevance of one element of a web page’s content to other elements of web page’s content.
CPL
- Cost Per Lead
- CPM
- Cost Per Thousand
- CPS
- Cost Per Sale
- CPC
- Cost Per Click (Google’s PPC Program)
- CTA
- Content Targeted Adverstising - It refers to the placement of relevant PPC ads on content pages for non-search engine websites.
- CTR
- Click Through Rate
- CVC | CVC2
- Card Verification Code
Data Center
Dedicated Server
Deep Link
A hyperlink from another website that is pointing to one of your website pages, other than the home page.
Directory
A web directory lists web sites by category and subcategory.
- DMOZ
- Directory MOZilla (a directory)
- DNS
- Domain Name System
Domain Name Doorway Page
A doorway page exists solely for the purpose of driving traffic to another page. They are usually designed and optimized to target one specific keyphrase. Doorway pages rarely are written for human visitors. They are written for search engines to achieve high rankings and hopefully drive traffic to the main site. Using doorway pages is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.
Duplicate Content
Dynamic IP
EPC
- Earnings Per Click
FFA
Free For All - FFA sites post large lists of unrelated links to anyone and everyone. FFA sites and the links they provide are basically useless. Humans do not use them and search engines minimize their importance in ranking formulas.
- GAP
- Google Advertising Professionals
- Google (a search engine)
- HTTP
- Hypertext Transfer Protocol
- HTTPS
- HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure
- IBL
- Inbound Link (see Back Link)
- KDA
- Keyword Density Analyzer
- KEI
- Keyword Effectiveness Index
- Keyword/Keyphrase
- Keywords are words or terms which are used in search engine queries. Keyphrases are phrases consisting of multiple words that are used in search engine queries.
- Keyword Stuffing
- Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of adding (many) keywords to a web page for the benefit of influencing how a search engine ‘perceives’ the page. This is not for the benefit of human visitors.
Link Building
The process of finding or acquiring backlinks to your website or sites.
Link Farm
A link farm is a group of separate, highly interlinked websites for the purposes of inflating link popularity.
Link Juice
Link Popularity
Long Tail
LS
- LookSmart (a PPC Directory)
- LSA
- Latent Semantic Analysis
- LSI
- Latent Semantic Indexing
Matt Cutts
Google Employee in charge of preventing or limiting SPAM in the Google search engine results pages. His blog.
- Monetize
- Nofollow
- Noindex
- OBL
- Outbound Link
Organic Results
Page Rank (or PageRank)
PageRank is a numerical weighting (0 to 10, 10 being the highest) based upon the Google link analysis algorithm.
PFI
Pay For Inclusion
- PPC
- Pay Per Click
- PPR
- Pay Per Rank
- PPV
- Pay Per Visitor
- PR
- Google PageRank™ is a numerical weighting (0 to 10, 10 being the highest) based upon the Google link analysis algorithm.
- PR0
- PageRank Zero - the lowest actual PageRank given by Google.
Proxy
- PSA
- Public Service Ad
- PubCon
- Reciprocal Link
A two way hyperlink between websites.
Robots.txt
- Robots.txt is a file which well behaved spiders read to determine which parts of a website they may visit.
- SEM
- Search Engine Marketeer
Search Engine Marketer
Search Engine Marketing - SEMPO
- Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
- SEO
- Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimizer - SEP
- Search Engine Placement
Search Engine Positioning
Search Engine Promotion - SERPs
- Search Engine Results Pages
- SEs
- Search Engines
- SES
- Search Engine Strategies (a conference)
- SEU
- Search Engine Usability
- Sitemap
- Shared Server
- SMM
- Social Media Marketing
- SMO
- Social Media Optimization
Snap shot
SPAM
- Sites Positioned Above Me
Spamdexing
Spamdexing was describes the efforts to spam a search engine’s index.
- Spider
- Also called a bot (or robot). Spiders are software programs that can scan the web, normally following hyperlinks (links) throughout a website (via internal links) and to other websites (via external links). They have many different purposes, including indexing web pages for search engines to finding e-mail addresses for email spammers.
- SSL
- Secure Socket Layer
Static IP
An IP address that does not change.
Subdomain
- Text Link
- TLD
- Top Level Domain
- TOS
- Terms of Service
URI
Uniform Resource Identifier
URL
Uniform Resource Locater
W3C
- World Wide Web Consortium
- Webmaster Tools
- Wikipedia
- A is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization. It is the largest, most extensive and fastest growing encyclopedia currently available on the Internet.
Y!
- Yahoo! (a directory)
Web Surfers Resist Search Engine Sponsored Links
Posted by reviews on Aug 25, 2007
According to a recent poll by Penn State, web surfers do not trust search engine sponsored links. Print Goes Wireless published an article recently, stating that “consumers are distrustful of search engine sponsored listings and click on such links fewer than twice in every 10 searches, new research has revealed.” Those are some horrible statistics! This only shows that Adsense website owners need to be always changing with the consumer mindset. If it means tweaking their website layout to flow better with the ads or improving their content so the visitor will more likely trust, or even appreciate, the link, then the webmaster must keep working on imaginative ways of developing their sites.
Further, the article states, “in that study, participants clicked on the results identified as ‘organic’ on more than 80 per cent of their searches rather than sponsored links even though many of the organic results were actually rewritten sponsored links. So his goal was to determine whether integrating sponsored links into organic results would increase the click-through rate, but this did not happen.” This is very interesting and goes against much of the thinking of Adsense webmasters. Instead of using block ads, perhaps the better method is to integrate the ads into the content itself, such as having keywords link to an ad. We’ve seen this on some websites and forums, but they don’t seem well integrated and usually have a double line under the word. This seems to be very annoying for the reader if they happen to roll their cursor over the word, which would then display an ad image or more ad text.
The other unavoidable problem is with the advertisers themselves. If their advertisement leads the visitor to a page loaded with eye-popping, bold print that seems like a poorly designed web page, at best, or a horribly conceived ad, at worst, then the the visitor will be more annoyed than happy with the result of their click. Advertisers must take the time to make visiting their site worth it.
As web surfers become more savvy and discerning in what constitutes a worthwhile site, including those of advertisers, then the pressure falls back on the Adsense site and the advertisers to offer up something better.
5 Great Tips to Increase Your Adsense Revenue
Posted by reviews on Aug 24, 2007
If webmasters want to monetize their websites, the best way to do it is through Adsense or a similar program. There are plenty of webmasters that are finding it hard to earn decent amount of money via their websites. However there are the other ones, the ones that seem to be raking in the money. What makes these webmasters different from the rest?
The successful ones often can provide some great tips for making money via their websites. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. It’s time for you to learn from the successful ones and not repeat their mistakes.
Here are 5 great methods to improve your Adsense earnings.
1. Concentrating on one format of Adsense ad. The one format that has worked well for is the Large Rectangle (336X280) size. This format tends to have a higher Click Through Rate (CTR). The benefit of this ad format is that it look like normal web links. People are used to clicking on this layout since it is visually similar to most websites that they commonly use when browsing the internet. They may not know they are clicking on an Adsense ad.
2. Location, location, location! Do not put Adsense on the bottom of the pages of your site. Put them at the top, center, or sides, where people can see them more quickly. You will be surpised at how much a location matters.
3. Create a custom palette for your ads. Choose a color that will blend with the background of your site. If your site has a light blue background, try to use light blue as the color of your ad border and background. The idea to pattern the colors to make the Adsense ads look like they are part of the various web pages. By blending the ads with your content you will increase the likelyhood of people clicking on the ads.
4. Content is king! Keep them coming back for more with relevant and interesting content. If you can’t think of something interesting to write or add to your site, hire someone to write for you. Also, write something in which you know something about. The Digital Point Forum has people wanting to write original content, and at reasonable prices.
5. Some have found that less content means a higher CTR. The belief is that you are leaving your readers wanting more and that they will click around looking for more information. Unfortunately, others disagree with this theory. You may want to experiment.
Generate Tons of Traffic for Your Site!
Posted by reviews on Aug 20, 2007
1) PPC Traffic
Pay-Per Click traffic with Google Adwords and the like can bring good, traffic however it can be a very expensive method of bringing visitors to your site.
2) Writing Articles
Writing articles and submitting them to sites or Article Directories can be a great way of generating backlinks and possibly some targetted traffic to your site.
3) Social Networking websites
The first one that springs to mind is StumbleUpon. However, the traffic from stumbleupon is not targeted.
Here’s a huge List of Social Networking websites
Yahoo Answers! - This is an excellent resource to get traffic. It is indexed daily and you will have a very good chance of getting some targetted traffic. It is nofollow, so you will not get any link juice.
5) Blogs, Forums, Press Releases
The more ways you can announce your website or talk about your product, the better. If you can generate some buzz and get people talking, you will find an increased number of visitors.
6) Forum Signatures
Take part in related forums. The more active you are, the more other users of the forum will likely see your posts and therefore your signature.
5 Tips To Boost Your Adsense Revenue
Posted by reviews on Aug 2, 2007
Google AdSense program has made it easier for webmasters to make money through a website. Webmasters who run an AdSense campaign will display Google’s contextual Ads relevant to the content of their sites and thus encouraging visitors to click the ads and earn money for each ad click.
However you will earn very little AdSense revenue if you don’t know how to optimize your AdSense ads on your website. Here are some tips to increase your AdSense earning:
1. Focus on one Adsense ad format. The Large Rectangle (336X280) ad format seems to work better than other ad formats because this format tends to result in higher click through rates (CTR). Another reason is that the ads will look like normal web links that visitors use to click on them. It doesn’t matter whether the visitors know that they are clicking AdSense ads or not, as long as there are clicking, you earn AdSense commission.
2. Create a custom palette for your ads. Select a color that matches your website’s background. If your site’s background is white both, the color of ad border and background should set to be white too. Also the color of the ad title should be similar to coloe of the links in your website. This is to make your AdSense ads look like it is part of the web pages. Again, this will boost AdSense CTR.
3. Don’t place your AdSense ads at the bottom of your webpages because it is proven to be less effective. Displaying your AdSense ads at the bottom is like hiding your AdSense and thus leads to low CTR and AdSense revenue. Try to put them in the place where people can see them quickly. You will be amazed how the difference between AdSense locations can make when you see your earnings.
4. Try to place your AdSense ads near rich content as visitors main focus usually are your content. There are several ways to insert AdSense ads into your content and one of the ways is place your AdSense just after the end of your content.
5. Try to automate the insertion of your AdSense code into the webpages using SSI (or server side included). Ask your web administrator if your server supports SSI or not. How do you do it? Just save your AdSense code in a text file, name it as “AdSense text”, and upload it to the root directory of the web server. Then use SSI, call the code on other pages. This tip is a time saver especially for those who are using automatic page generators to generate pages on their website.
These are some of the tips that have worked well for some who want to generate hundreds and even thousands on their websites. There are other ways to optimize your AdSense that produce high CTR also. You can learn more tricks by reading in AdSense and webmaster forums.
Article Source: http://freewebcontent.org
Alan Liew is a full-time Internet marketer. He currently owns and operates http://www.online4income.com< a>> and http://moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com< a>>. Both of the websites contain guide and tips to help people start making money online.
Targeted Adsense Results Made Easy
Posted by reviews on Jul 28, 2007
Adsense is a great way to generate income for your website if you are willing to put up advertisements for other companies. Adsense is also a great way for a business to advertise at a low cost and generate more traffic to their site. Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on, it is important that Adsense results are targeted. I will discuss how this benefits both the advertiser and the business that is doing the advertising.
Let’s say you have a business and you are allowing advertisements for other businesses to be posted there through Adsense. The only way you make any money is if the advertisement is targeted towards something the consumers viewing your website are interested in. It only makes sense for the ads to be in the same ballpark as what you offer but not an ad that directly competes with what you are offering.
On the advertisers end, Adsense is a great way to get more traffic to their website. They also only pay for each click that links back to there website from the ones where the ads are posted. Behind the scenes, a lot of hard work and time are investing in advertising. What good does it do if no one looks at the ads? There would be no logic to advertising sports cars on a website that is for children or advertising chocolate on a website for diabetic supplies unless the candy is for diabetics, then we have something to work with!
Adsense from Google has a great system they work with. The more information a business gives them when they sign up either to advertise or to host advertisements, the better the target will be met. Google Adsense works hard to match advertisements with what the various websites are offering as well as the target age group. Their data is also based on what the consumers out there are looking for. They are very aware of consumer trends. The goal is to get advertisements of the websites that appear natural to the consumer. It is also out of respect. Who wants to go online for a pair of running shoes and see ads for adult products and websites?
Keywords are very important when it comes to Adsense. This helps the system match up advertisers and advertisement hosts by comparing the keywords. The more keywords you enter when you complete your application at Adwords, the more matches will be provided. Content on your website is important for getting advertisements to host on your website. In fact, the more content you have the more advertisements will come your way. This is because the robots of the Adsense program at Google will pick up on this additional content. You can also place more keywords if you have more content.
Section targeting is also a great way to get the results you are looking for. This method allows you to suggest particular portions of your text that is part of your website to Google. You can request that they generate advertisements for your website to host based on that material and content. Section targeting is very simple to implement as it only involves adding certain html comments to the html code of your website. You also have the ability to ask Google and the Adsense program to ignore particular portions of material and content on your website that you do not want to offer advertisements for.
Adsense can work very well for you as an inexpensive way to get more advertising for your business. This is done by paying other websites to host your advertisements. You will pay them a set amount each time a consumer clicks the ad from their website linking to yours. As an advertisement host, Adsense is a great opportunity to make money. The key for both parties to benefit the most is by targeting the results. This includes using keywords and coding to get particular ads and to prevent advertising for something you don’t want on your website.
Article Source: http://freewebcontent.org
Terry Detty, 42 years old, finds internet marketing his passion. In addition to marketing he enjoys reading, and occasionally goes out for a short walk. Press release services and news release services are effective website promotion tools.