Hi & welcome to this brief, In a Nutshell Video, on Website Usability.

Today’s video is a demonstration of a Usability Issue So Bad, That it
 Violates Google’s Adwords Policy

Who am I?

I am Greg Mate of Search Engine Academy Montreal.

• A Certified Master SEO Instructor, 2006;
• Internet Marketer & SEO Consultant, 2004;
• & Certified Usability Analyst, 2011,

Please feel free to get in touch 1-514-426-4000 https://www.searchengineacademy.ca/

The Search Engine Academy is a Global Alliance of Certified SEO Instructors, providing hands on SEO workshop training around the world. Please fell the to check out https://www.searchengineacademy.com for more info and for classes near you.

So lets get going, there are the 2 sections of this video are:

Why Usability is Crucial to Your Website – 30 Seconds
Live Website Review – 5 minutes:
  Demo the Usability Issue &
  Proof – Violates Google’s Adwords Policy

Why Usability is Crucial to Your Website

Okay the reason I want to explore Website Usability with you is because, how people feel about your brand and products or services is of course very important.

And weather you realize it or not, Website Usability can positively or negatively affect a person’s feelings towards your company.

I have seen a person during a website usability test exclaim that they “hate the company” and that they would never “do business with them” all because they found working with the website too frustrating.

The issue found here is something Google takes serious enough to suspend a site form its Adwords Campaign.

Live Website Review

OK here we go this is when I found this morning so it’s my dad’s birthday coming up, its a big one we’ve got friends and family coming in from out of town, he will not let me say in this video how old he is going to be so sorry about that haha.

So I was thinking I would it be cool to maybe have a banner printed out  “Happy Birthday Dad”

So I printed a banner a long time ago, I think it was with the ink jet printer don’t remember anyway so I did the search for “printing a banner with a laser printer” and the first thing that came up of course is an ad with “Banners Starting at $9.99″ that’s probably cheaper than that I am then going out and buying the paper and printing it in myself.

So I clicked on the ad and cool the landing page is about banners, good.  Well the page says “banners starting at $13.34” hmmm wait a minute, where is the $9.99 from the ad? So I scroll down here some more 20 x 36” banner $13.34. So scrolling down more I don’t see $9.99. I look in the pricing and specifications and not to be found.

So I go back up to the top of the page and do a search for $9.99 and look there’s nothing on this website that’s $9.99.

So what does this mean and how do I feel about this? I need either the ad is wrong, or the landing page is wrong or, it’s a con job to get me to click, hopping I’ll still buy from them? Well if it is a mistake, does that mean that they’re going to make a mistake with my printing too?

So how does that make you feel or me feel right? So I start to have second thoughts this company. So presumably and I will the “Get started” button I can do what I want to do which is order a banner. But what about this user experience but it’s also now, will I now place an order? Have they done something that’s going to make me not want to do business with them, there’s a good chance I may go back to my original page and figure out how to print a banner myself.

So the other important point I mentioned is a conflict with the Google Ads Policy.

I did a search for Google Ads Policy and I figured out that Misrepresentation will be what I’m looking for from everything here on the right.

Scrolling down and found Unavailable Offers which reads:

Examples: Promoting products that are not stocked; promoting a deal that is no longer active; promoting a price that is inaccurate; call-to-action in the ad that isn’t easily available from the landing page

Specific example: Ad reads “Buy tablets from $40,” but upon clicking on the ad, the user finds no tablets available for purchase at $40

So here we are there is a clear violation of the Google’s Adwords Policy so our friends here at Vista Print are or not only making the user unhappy, but you could make the big G unhappy too.

Here is a link to Google Ads Policy

Please feel free to share this video with only your best friends, and most respected colleagues.

I would love to hear your feedback if this was of any value to you.

Peace out from Montreal.

The post Video – Usability Issue So Bad, That it
 Violates the Google Ads Policy appeared first on Search Engine Academy.

In work and play I enjoy trying to look at things from a slightly different, hopefully unexpected, way or angle.

In the ad below Mercedes Benz (or their ad agency) found a effective creative way to demonstrate their complex suspension system called “Magic Body Control” which will scan the road ahead to allow the car’s suspension to predict and adjust for potholes and bumps keeping the car stable.

It seems we humans are able to see objects as stationary even if our bodies are moving, while the chicken cannot. So to demonstrate how the suspension tries to keep its passengers from moving, this ad demonstrates how the chicken keeps its head stationary – not sure if just for symbolic reasons not “upside down”.

The post Creative Fun Video – Which Was 1st the Chicken or Mercedes Benz Ad? appeared first on Search Engine Academy.

The more your content is customer focused, the more you tend to deal with their problems and solutions.

More than ever today’s Marketing, not to mention Social Media Marketing #SMM, is more about “Don’t tell me how good you are, tell me WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR ME!?” (something Marketing Guru’s stated long ago). The same old in your face “We are the Best..We Are the Oldest etc” is a turn off to customers and prospects.

Feel free to try it let me know what you think.

Cheers!
Greg

The post Announcing the Me Meter – Use it to Monitor the Customer Focus of Your Content – On and Offline appeared first on Search Engine Academy.

Well after a long day of slideshows and coffee from paper cups I was not only ready, I had a few extra minutes to spare before my commuter train trip back home so I sashayed over for a closer look.

There before me were 5 or 6 various games one could attempt in an effort to win a all expense paid weekend (week?) vacation at any of the hotel’s properties worldwide.

I evaluated and chose the game where I felt had my best chance of winning, with one hand put the colored fish in to the like colored tins, with a 1 minute time limit.

It was fun at the outset, even though I was slowed down by 5 or more seconds having to ask which tin a light colored fish belonged in (it was the dark purple tin) and there were some oohs and awes from the crowd that eventually came to see what I was up to as I masterfully flipped the colored fish into the appropriately colored tins.

Well at the end of the minute I was 5 or 6 short of getting them all in, I had a smile on my face, I had relaxed a bit, I had fun. Which is probably what the hotel intended. Hotels are often filled with stressed out folks be it from traveling, doing business etc.

I’m sure they also hoped to get people thinking about choosing there other properties worldwide when they next had the opportunity.

So now here I was now ready to fill out a card to drop in the box to register for the prize draw.

Well it turns out there will be no prize draw for me, as I then learned you had to complete the task – in this case get all the fish in the tins – or you were “not eligible to register” but instead I could have “a coupon for a free drink at the lobby bar today only.” Really?!

Well of course by now I didn’t have time to have a free drink at the bar. So not only did I not complete the event, I did not get a chance to win a prize, and I did not get a free drink.

I walked out of there feeling that all the effort the hotel made to engage me, and the effort I made to participate with them, was wasted.

Moral of the story, like with Social Media Marketing, do make an effort to engage your customer, just be sure to think of the consequences, anticipate the possible outcomes good and bad, plan for them and be ready to deal with them to avoid disappointment and dissatisfaction, in spite of your best intentions.

Cheers!
Greg
May 27, 2011

The post Don’t Blow Your Opportunity to Engage Your Customers & Prospects appeared first on Search Engine Academy.