And then there’s this demo of what your Wii Remote can do for you (complements of Johnny Chung Lee). Enjoy!

A usable CMS will:

• minimise the number of options
• be robust and error-proof
• provide task-based interfaces
• hide implementation details
• meet core usability guidelines
• match authors’ mental models
• support both frequent and infrequent users
• provide efficient user interfaces
• provide help and instructions
• minimise training required
• support self-sufficiency

While reading through his article I found myself nodding in agreement and more surprisingly thinking that we’ve come pretty close in meeting these principles with our own CMS. While we didn’t start out with these exact principles in mind prior to development, it’s clear our own frustrations dealing with a combination of usability and technical issues across a number of CMS platforms led us to develop a CMS that is closely aligned with these same principles. In many respects it’s a little scary how close we’ve come.

Now, as the owner of a CMS, it’s easy to start believing your own sales hype and get carried away. However, our own research and more importantly, feedback from users support many of these principles.

I hope to meet James from Step Two Designs soon and get his feedback on our CMS to see if he agrees. I’ll report on his findings here in the near future.

Here’s a favourite Splash Page of mine - Ginko Gardens

Splash Pages – Counter to ‘Usability’ and SEO best practice?

Much like hard copy brochure covers, splash pages typically contain very little content. Instead what you find is Flash animation, a striking image, a fancy tag line or a brief intro spiel advertising what the site is about. Throw in a logo, a keyword optimised footer and you’re done!

From a user’s perspective, splash pages are just one more click to make to get to the content they’re after. So they’re a big waste of time.

Splash Pages = Low Exit Rates

For website designers and online marketers, splash pages aren’t necessarily all bad news. For one thing, they can load pretty quickly (which given Google’s recent pronouncements is good news) and they usually offer a low exit rate.

Assuming few users leave the splash page and pursue their journey further into a website, that could have some SEO benefit. Search engines are known to value positively websites with low exit rates on their top web pages…

Is Google encouraging the return of the Splash Page?

So could Google’s latest pronouncement in favour of fast load times further encourage the use of splash pages? And doesn’t that run counter to usability best practice?

Imagine the web populated by useless splash pages. They would no longer contain Flash (as Flash increases load times), but they would be extremely content light to upload fast and would likely require users to click on to get to the content they’re after.

With savvy web marketers around… That scenario is not so hard to imagine.

Your thoughts?

Search Query Reports – Where the magic happens

So what’s a search query report? It’s a report containing nearly every searched term that triggered a Google PPC ad. You find it under the AdWord’s Reports tab and it comes loaded with heaps of information on user search queries.

Which keywords are converting? Which ads are performing?

Say you want to know which search query is your highest performer and which of your ads gives you the best return from that query… Search Query Reports deliver. You can drilldown to average position, clicks, impressions, CTR, etc, and at a glance identify the winners and losers among your ads and your keywords.

Spot negative keywords. Spot new ones too!

If you find your ads are being shown through irrelevant search terms, add these to your list of negative keywords. And should you happen to come across new keywords which led to conversions (if conversion tracking is on) you know what to do.

Give your CTR a boost!

The proof is in the pudding! When we tweaked the performance of a new account following our analysis of a Search Query Report, we noticed an immediate performance lift; a 20% sales rise coupled with a drop in our CPA!

You might not get this result every time, but with new accounts when you’re unsure about where you’re at, a Search Query Report can point you in the right direction.

A perfect SEM tool? Well… almost!

One thing you’ll notice when you run a Search Query Report is that Google spits out results in that show up as ‘## other unique queries. And no (before you ask), you cannot see what those ‘unique queries’ are… So what’s up with that?

Firstly, it’s labeled as a ‘unique query’ because that’s exactly what it is: ‘unique’. It may be a sentence long and could turn up once a year at best, so you’re not missing out! Google lumps these ‘one of a kind’ queries with the other one timers to save you the bother of sifting through the clutter.

Secondly there’s a server issue. Listing all one off queries would require heaps of memory – and even Google can’t carry that load!

That said… Give Search Query Reports a try and see how you go! It could make a big difference to your accounts.

A recent issue of B&T Magazine details how Sensis is investing more in its print product Yellow Pages than it has in many years. While online advertising has been on the rise at the expense of traditional advertising, Sensis is balking the trend with increased spend on paper advertising.

Using ‘metered ads’ (a US system), Sensis found that 65% of people made a purchase from a sample of 400 Yellow Pages print directory ads - a mighty conversion rate by any standpoint. Read the original Sensis media release.

Online users more likely to browse the Yellow Pages!

So the Yellow Pages convert… but who uses the print version of the Yellow Pages nowadays? According to Bruce Akhurst, Sensis’ chief executive, you’d be surprised:

“The fact is that regular internet users — people using the internet at least weekly — are more likely to use Yellow print directories than the rest of us”.

Weekly Internet Users Disagree…

Oh really? Just to be sure we surveyed the office to see if Sensis’ data reflected our reality - After all, going by Mr. Akhurst’s quote Amplify employees would qualify as ‘people using the Internet weekly’.

Our findings: Only two out of nine Amplify folk were daily users of the print yellow pages.

Do you use the Yellow Pages?

A poll of only 9 people of course means nothing. A poll of statistical outliers like the good people working at Amplify – well that REALLY means nothing. Mainly because we use these directories as laptop stands for workplace ergonomics. That said, we’d like to know what your search habits are. Do you use the Yellow Pages in print or do you find what you’re looking for using other means? Let us know!