Site Clinic: No Good Web Design Idea is Original, So Use It!

{ Original Post by Jackie Baker } One thing you'll hear me say over and over again in this column is that good usability and design comes before optimization. It can be all too easy to market online through optimization, link building, blogging, and social media ( to name a few) and see that immediate upsurge in traffic, but not see any change in conversions. Today we're taking a look at a stock photography website that is selling the...

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Site Clinic: You’ve Got Great Usability, Now Start Optimizing

{ Original Post by Jackie Baker } Before search engine optimization can be successful in driving conversions, not just rankings, you first need to ensure that your site is usable and compelling. Sure, a good optimization campaign may improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic. But those visitors are likely to leave as quickly as they came if the site is difficult to use. Dynamic-Living.com has done a great job of creating a...

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How to Fix the Bloated (Tables and HTML) Code that is Jacking Up Your SEO

{ Original Post by Stoney deGeyter } Yesterday I discussed code bloat by looking at how we can move style sheets and JavaScripts off the page in order to clean the coding up quite a bit. I this third post about cleaning up bloated code I wanted to address Tables and other typical causes of bloated HTML. Bloated Tables The most typical code bloat I find in sites I work with is created from an excessive use of tables on the page....

How to Fix the Bloated (CSS and JavaScript) Code that is Jacking Up Your SEO

{ Original Post by Stoney deGeyter } Last Thursday I started a conversation about how code bloat can effect your site's performance with the search engines. Today I'm going to map some specific types of code bloat and very briefly--non-technically--show you how you can eliminate the bloat to improve your pages performance for both visitors and search engines. There are generally four things that cause code bloat: On-page...

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Site Clinic: Navigation Usability Can Make Or Break Your Website

{ Original Post by Jackie Baker } When it comes to the front end of a website, there are two primary areas that can make or break your online success ... your content and your navigation. You need to have engaging content that speaks to your visitors and addresses their needs and questions. You also need to ensure that it is logically organized, easy to browse, and easy to search. Good navigation functions to both allow visitors to easily...

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How to Create Effective Site Navigation that Leads Visitors to Your Most Important Content

{ Original Post by Stoney deGeyter } When performing a site architectural review, one of the first things I look at is the site's main navigation elements. This includes top, side and footer navigation. Together, they all play an important role in both the ability of the search engines to properly spider your website, as well as allowing your visitors to find important areas and information quickly and efficiently. Site navigation can come...

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