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.

Google describes Google Search Console as a tool “to help make fantastic websites that our systems love showing in Google Search”.

I have to wonder if Google is softening up over the years as it is talking warm and fuzzy words like “we sought to learn more about you [the users of GWMT]” and “to make sure that our product includes everyone who cares about Search, we’ve decided to rebrand Google Webmaster Tools as Google Search Console.”

Link to Google’s blog post announcing the change http://seom.im/1BclYAf here is the link to the new Google Search Console http://seom.im/1PWSME0

The post Google Webmaster Tools renamed Google Search Console appeared first on Search Engine Academy.

It affects 90% of all searches – there were over ONE TRILLION SEARCHES ON GOOGLE IN 2012

“The artificial intelligence dream is being built inside Google” they are trying to reach “a human level understanding of language” according to Amit Singhal of Google “understanding better what users expect from Google, what they are asking , and then fulfilling it via algorithms”.

Here is the link to the BBC video hummingbird algorithm interview with Amit Singhal.

Interestingly, unlike the previous Panda and Penguin updates this update seems to have gone unnoticed. Because a search for “acid reflux prescription” that a month ago listed a page of drugs to treat the disease, Google now says the results have information about treatment and if you even need drugs.

Our search queries have changed over time as we have become experienced searchers, and also due and Mobile technology.

Indeed, while search phrase length continues to increase, we are searching less for “movies” and more for “movie playing this weekend in Montreal”  on mobile they may be a bit shorter but all searches are getting more natural, more like the way we really talk.

Now if you have heard me mention the importance Natural Language Processing, or maybe you remember it as Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), in our Advanced SEO Workshop and have applied the technique you may have noticed more good results following this new update.

Which means Google is now even better at understanding concepts and the relationships between them, rather than simply the words. This is about the theme of a page. This is a page specific influence.

Your web pages must talk to your customers in the language they use, which is the language they use to search with. However since your customers may use different synonyms – car, auto, automobile or vehicle –  be sure to use them in your web copy as well.

The post BBC VIDEO: Google Hummingbird Algorithm Affects 90% of Searches appeared first on Search Engine Academy.

Bring your most burning questions about effective link building, link reputation, link diversity and SEO.

Your 3 panelists for this event are:
Greg Mate of Search Engine Academy Montreal SEO, Quebec
Steve Scott of Search Engine Academy Tampa, Florida.
Nancy Wigal of Search Engine Academy Washington DC

All seats are free but register early to reserve your spot.
Enrollment is limited to the first 500 attendees.

Registration closed…

Happy tax deadline day Canada!
Cheers! Greg

The post SEO Link Building Webinar – Question & Answer Panel – Wed May 2, 1:30 PM EST appeared first on Search Engine Academy.

You can see the upcoming Montreal class dates here http://seom.im/HFpXMp and the upcoming dates for our workshops and seminars here http://seom.im/1q0zhQK

Cheers!
Greg

The post SEO Training – Celebrating 10 Year Anniversary Worldwide with Discounted Tuition appeared first on Search Engine Academy.

1. Fear of not marketing effectively (38%)

2. Fear of never being able to retire (33%)

3. Fear that they are not staying abreast of new technology (20%)

wrote Rick Spense for The Financial Post appearing in the Montreal Gazette today.

Lets face it, its as fast a paced world as ever, and knowledge is king. Fear number 3 (behind on new technology) can effect Fear 1 (lack of marketing prowess) and of course both fears have an effect on Fear #2, the ability to retire, early or at all, and comfortably or even more than comfortably

Amongst other things, Spense correctly points out that tracking results from marketing is imperative and of course farely easily accomplished electronically. Forgive my Yellow Pages Advertising Agency background but phone call counting services are great for tracking online and offline results as well.

SEO is of course technology that can help eliminate Fears 1 and 2, and there need not be any fear involved. Simply participate in any of the Certified  1, 2, 3 and 5 Day SEO Workshops where you will learn the Basic Essentials of SEO right up to the most Advanced SEO Techniques and quash those fears with Increased Web Site Traffic by attaining higher Search Results Rankings.

Have no fear, we have upcoming course dates  http://searchengineacademy.ca/workshop_dates.htm

The post How SEO can take the fear away – Top 3 Fears from Entrepreneurs appeared first on Search Engine Academy.

Troubles for Netscape began in 2000, when under market pressure, it released version 6.0 before it was properly debugged.

For more details about this announcement visit the Netscape Blog
http://blog.netscape.com/2007/12/28/end-of-support-for-netscape-web-browsers/

For a history of Netscape follow this link on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape

Have a great day!

The post The End is Near for Netscape Browser appeared first on Search Engine Academy.

Then, who knows, maybe one day a week you will click on a sponsored ad and the SE will make some money.

But how determined are they? The last time I checked, a blog post I made, was indexed by Google in 9 hours (by the time I checked). It was ranking in 21 hours – again by the time I thought to check.

So how about you? The SEs devour blogs, when did you last feed them?
This type of information, and much much more awaits you if we see you at one of our workshops for some Toronto SEO training at the SearchEngineAcademy.ca in April!

The post Google will be all over this post. appeared first on Search Engine Academy.

Barry and I had a great time with the students who really dug in and participated in the class and the group projects

Joining us were John Alexander, co-founder of the Search Engine Academy, who presented the magic of keyword and behavior research, and Bob Gill www.i2bglobal.com who worked with us in the Advanced Workshop presenting SEO database workarounds and more technical topics.

Check out the testimonials to see what our past students think of our courses
http://searchengineacademy.ca/testimonials.htm.

We will have some video to show off soon too.

Enough with the snow…have a great day.

The post Was the Toronto SEO Workshop worth it? appeared first on Search Engine Academy.

Nov 12-13 is the 2-Day SEO Basic Essentials Workshop. Nov 14-16 is the Advanced 3-Day SEO Workshop. The 5-Day All Inclusive SEO Course runs Nov 12-16.

There is limited seating. The fast approaching registration deadline for these Search Engine Optimization Training Courses is 5pm Nov 2, 2007.

These are interactive workshops – not seminars – one will learn a proven 6 step method to gain top search engine rankings and web site traffic.

For more information visit the Search Engine Academy Toronto & Montreal web site.

The post SEO Workshop boasts John Alexander as special expert SEO instructor appeared first on Search Engine Academy.