Website Redesigning and Web Page Readability

Website redesigning and web page readability has been thrust upon website owners due to Google recent algorithm changes such as Panda and Penguin. Content marketing has been revived as website owners attempt to promote their websites to regain lost rankings in search engine result pages. However when optimising web pages with search engine optimisation techniques little attention has been given to web page readability in order to engage the visitor into the conversation. The principle here is simple: present it well and it will be read.

What Is Readability?

Internet users today are in a hurry and don’t read anymore. They scan web pages picking up on keyword phrases that they’re interested in. So it seems logical to emphasis keyword phrases with font size, colour and boldness all the way to the end of your page that also will improve your ranking in search engine result pages.

If you make your content difficult to read the value propositions are are devalued as the lack of legibility causes friction and anxiety in the mind of the reader that are the basic inhibitors to conversions.  Readability is a valuable asset but often dismissed part of web site designing or redesigning and SEO.

Here are my tips.

1.People Scan Web Pages

You must first understand that visitors to your website don’t read every single word. They scan the page. You have basically seven seconds to capture their attention with good captivating content that’s emphasises the keywords and keyword phrases the visitors will resonate with.
My tip is enforce good writing, structure is a manner that attracts and keep in mind the scanning effect of humans.

2. Use a Hierarchy for Fonts

One of the better ways to meet scanning behaviour is to use a font hierarchy. That means that titles of pages should have a larger font size than headings and sub headings. Emphasising titles, headings and sub heading with boldness isn’t good to get the words to stand out. Use variable font hierarchy instead and get the words notices.

3. Use Headings

Structure you page with good headings and sub headings. Visitors to your page need to see the content structure in sections. Make your subheads large enough and descriptive enough so readers can determine whether they’ll actually take the time to read that section word for word.

4. Use Sub Headings as a Visual Aid.

Subheads are also a great way to logically outline your content and to cover the various arguments thoroughly and will help you create content that communicates and engages.

5. Use Design Elements

Eye path is very important design feature when you need to attract the visitors and lead him on a pre-determined path set up by you, the website owner: you guide the visitor to convert and buy your product or service.
Visitors in the Western World read from top to bottom, left to right. This is a very important concept to remember when designing websites. Tailor the website to your audience.

Start designing your content with important features on the left side on the page as that is where your eyes focus upon first: natural instinct draws them there. Use these design elements of eye path to create engaging pages:

• size 
• motion 
• colour 
• position 
• shape 
• paths of familiarity 
• attraction 
• relevance 

6. Use Images in your Content 

The web is getting more and more visual. Take advantage of that by using images to break up the flow of your content. Not only that, but you can use images to augment the text. You can tell a story or a joke with that image or make a connection for readers that they might not have made through the text. However bear this mind: the image must be totally relevant to the content of the page. If the image is irrelevant it could damage your content.

7. Legibility Matters

 Of course you need to use a font that’s easily legible. It really doesn’t matter that much as long as its legible, easy and comfortable on the eye. 

8. Resources 

There is a useful blog post that gives you a useful insight into levels of optimisation and details useful tips on how to optimise a website. Read it I think you’ll find it helpful

About The Author 

Vincent Sandford is Search Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation and Web Marketing expert at SEO Synovation a web marketing agency with staff in UK, The Netherlands and Italy. He writes articles, blogs for websites and is a regular contributor to SEO The Essentials, MarcheRustico, Vino Marche, Wine Tasting, Online Reputation Management and Tasting Italian Wine and Wine Tasting tips.

How to Research Keywords

Getting traffic to your website, article or blog means choosing the roght keywords in the title and in the content. Google in July 2012 let it be known that they only "give out the most commecial keywords" when users use any of their tools.  therefor by deduction there are many more keyword permutations in the market than you realise.

How to Research Keywords

Researching keywords for your web page, article or blog is fundamental in getting traffic to your submission. Keywords have a direct influence on the type of traffic a website will receive and will determine the level of profitability. Paying attention to what people are searching for is critical to keyword research.

Fundamental Concepts on How to research Keywords

Before I delve into the nuts and bolts of how to research keywords we must consider two fundament concepts:

• how Google returns query results
• and user behaviour.

Search Engines

When users insert a query into search engines they are not actually searching the entire web. They are scanning websites, articles, blogs and other documents that search engines have found, crawled and indexed. Search engines use the users query to scan all the words they have indexed (actually referenced) using hundreds of data centres and return the best match in an authoritarian order. Search engines are re-activating to past search queries and new queries are unlikely to be included in any result. Google can only return search results powered by past queries, in other words they are reacting to past historical data.

User behaviour

Users are unpredictable in the manner in which the create search terms in queries. Studies have shown that over 80% of users will re-create a search query if they don’t find what they are looking for on the first page. If you combine this with th fact that over 55% of users use more that three terms in their search queries and that 25% of all search terms have never been used before , that is they are unique. This means there are more keyword permutations exist than any keyword is giving you.

Tip 1

If you focus on multiple but low volume search terms you may get better conversion results than focusing on high volume competitive keywords. Publish web pages, articles and blogs often as each submission is a keyword net.

Tip 2

Look deep in your analytics for keywords that have found your website and use those terms for blog titles, article titles webpage titles, webpage descriptions, and starter ideas.

Keyword Analysis

Use these 4 ideas to create your own keyword list for a specific webpage, article or blog, Put yourself in the shoes of an internet user who is looking for the solution to a problem that your document may provide. Think about:

Use 3 or more terms in your query ( long tail keywords) - single keywords tend to be generic and thus don’t convert into sales. They are also very competitive as companies and marketers with large budgets bid very highly for them. Long tail keywords are therefore more specific and have less competition which means that they are cheaper and convert better.

Use appropriate terms in your keyword query for your niche market - It is useful to use keywords that best describe the product or service being marketed. Avoid gargon oor industry terms that are not widely known. Use location in the keyword like – toy shop in Long Island – as will target a précised local niche market for toys.

Use popular keywords as starter ideas - Using popular terms is one of the most important pointers of how to research keywords. You have to find out what terms people are using to find the kind of product or service you are marketing. You can use free tools like

• Word Tracker

• Google keyword research tool

• Google trends

• Google Insights

Use each of these keyword research tools with the same keyword phrase and dump the results into a spreadsheet, eliminate duplicates phrases, and then calculate the keyword efficiency index (KEI) . Perform  SEO the page .
Use low competitive terms - After finding popular, specialized and long tail keywords, you should drop those that are highly competitive and focus on low competitive and low volume keywords.

This post was brought to you by SEO Synovation a web marketing company.  To learn more on what they can do for you visist their website.

Levels of Web Page Optimisation

Every webpage should and must have an objective. It may be to introduce the visitor to the services you are offering to him to solve his problem. It may be to optimise his website to get traffic or to defend his online reputation or to increase his brand awareness. Whatever it was that brought the visitor to your website you must satisfy that desire.

Levels of Web Page Optimisation

Your webpage is about presenting your first impression. Research tells us you have seven second to capture the visitor’s attention: the first seven seconds of a visitor landing on your page are critical and must answer the visitor questions. Webmasters should optimise webpages of a website for thought sequences of the visitor to gain better results. The content should answer these three fundamental questions:

• Where am I?
• What can I do here?
• What do I do next?

 Also very page of the website should seek to answer this question:
If I am your ideal customer why should I buy from you and not your competitor?
The forth fundamental to design website pages is this:

• State a value proposition that solves propects problems
• State a clear call to action
• Encourage the prospect to navigate where you want him to go

The fifth and final fundamental to design website pages is design elements of eye path:

• size
• motion
• colour
• position
• shape
• paths of familiarity
• attraction
• relevance
• acceptance
• motivation

Types of Webpages

There are three types of web pages: home pages, inner website pages and landing pages. The goal of a home page is not to get the visitor to it but to get the visitor through it on a desired path to reach a desired goal. Inner website pages are usually an extension of the home page and compliment it to reach a desired goal: buy product, get an email address or subscribe to a newsletter.  Landing pages are usually an extention of pay per click campaigns and are specific to one product or services and to obtain a positive follow up or objectove
The goal of all web pages is to achieve the highest conversion rate possible. Achievements of the perfect website are constrained:

1.  by the broader initiatives of the organisation; 
2.  by your organizational capabilities; 
3.  by your overarching strategy.

 A useful model to apply when optimising web pages is depicted in this image Courtesy of Bruce Clay:

Seven Levela of Optimisation

 1. Element optimization. The most important elements on the search engine results page are the title and description. These are seen first by the searcher and entice him/her to click on your website. So these elements must conOther elements are image alt tags, bold important words and relevant content.
2. Page Optimisation. This is of course the most important element to consider. Creating unique content will enhance the visitor’s experience and favour search engines. This section considers design and layout of the page. On home pages there are competing actions for the products but you should consider promoting one principle product, service or actions which will be tied to the maximum profit generating factor. All other considerations are major but not the principle. Headings and sub headings become vitally important to encourage the visitor to stay on the page and read the compelling content you’ve written. Inner pages and landing pages are similar in design as their objective is singular to get the visitor to perform an action.
3. Path optimization. A page is merely a single step along a path It may start from the home page, or an email. Optimizing the path is more to do with matching the message and expectation of the visitor than anything else. Optimising at this level lets you leap ahead of competitors.
4. Segment Optimisation. Optimising for market segments is the domain of the landing page. Recent statistics released by Google show that 40% of keywords are unique. To construct a home page or an inner page that caters for multiple keywords or keyword phrases is a challenge that’s not always successful. Different respondents arrive with different needs and varying frames of reference. At this level up, you start optimizing different paths to cater to those different audiences. With this optimization, you can reveal tremendous insights about who your customers are andhow they view themselves and their interest in your company. These discoveries not only improve your conversion rate for specific paths — they can help optimize our segmentation strategy at a higher level too. Creating landing pages for specifi market needs will bring you greater conversions.
5. Campaign Optimisation. In 2012 there is a more fluid marketing environment; there are still different initiatives in the field that connect certain messages, offers, audiences, and tactics with common threads. At the campaign level, web page optimisation is matching the pages and paths with the right messages of the campaign, and using the front-line results to inform and improve overall campaign effectiveness. It requires coordination and continuity.
6. Operations Optimisation. Maximizing the efficiency of your overall landing page capabilities is the key here. The personal skills required in operations of web page optimisation are design, production and construction. Increasing the reaction speed of changes to web page alteration can dramatically increase conversions. Monitoring social media chatter may reveal shifts in demand that if acted upon swiftly will increase conversions.
7. Strategy optimization. At the very top of the pyramid, the focus is on optimising marketing strategy. At this level of web page optimisation there are directions that must be considered and are namely: which strategic segments do we follow and which segmented market has the largest growth.

To learn about what Vincent Sandford of SEO Synovation can do for your business email him or visit his website on web marketing.