Cre8tive Flow

Introduction

The biggest factor to consider on the Internet when planning marketing efforts are the search engines and the way they operate.  The major ones here are Google, Yahoo and Live/MSN.  They bring a lot of visitors to any web page and so it is important to know how to maximize that traffic.

For every other article in this series, it is possible to put down a few key principles that will have a major impact on your Internet marketing effectiveness.  This is not the case for Search Engine Marketing.

In our continued quest to give back to the search engine marketing and web design industries we serve, Cre8asiteforums has answered the requests from members who want to promote their web sites, products, services, wish to fill job openings or seek new jobs.

For a minimum donation of $25, your announcement will be posted in the forums in our Cre8tive Community Announcements & Jobs Board, where it stays indefinitely. (No tracking code; nofollow, no “juice”.)

Not only that, as an extra bonus, your announcement may be hand selected by Moderators to be added to our well trafficked forums homepage, under our Cre8asiteforums News section. (Certain restrictions will apply.)

So you have decided to start a business. Entrepreneurs are often action-oriented people. There is a natural tendency to want to start doing things immediately. However it is always wise to think before you act. What are the first things you should think about?

Vancouver-based business networking and technology forum Tazzu hosted Vancouver’s first official WordPress Camp last Wednesday, showcasing the great features of WordPress as both a blogging platform and a content management system. The event, which was expected to bring in about 30 people, had a turn out of over 90 at The Network Hub in Downtown Vancouver, but everyone was more than happy to sit knee-to-knee to learn, share and be inspired.

I was going to ignore all the commentary on the latest topic to rattle the windows in SEO/M country, but when Bill launched into the topic in the Usability forum, I couldn’t resist.

We visit the debate in Should Visitors Be Told To “click Here” Or, is Google Making us Stupid?

My take?

“Call to action prompts utilize “click here”, “buy now”, “more”, “learn more”, “submit”, etc. and honestly, PEOPLE are used to these signals. They know they’ll go somewhere if they click.

Another article has appeared on the topic of SEO and Usability and how these two different skill sets benefit each other. The latest, Usability and SEO. Which comes First?, written for Search Engine Watch by Eric Enge, caught my eye because he wrote:

“What I want to emphasize here is one key point: Usability comes first, and SEO comes second.”

It’s funny to hear that statement coming from a professional SEO.

My initial reaction to Bill Slawski’s Add To Cart Buttons – What do you look for? question was to think only a bunch of web design geeks would dare ask a question like “What do you like in a submit button”, or Cre8asiteforums was desperate for a new usability discussion.

Turns out he found a place with 111 ecommerce buttons and everyone’s acting like there’s a party going on.

I want mine beveled, with a bit hot fudge sauce.

With a Cre8asite Usabilty forum, and a forum that focuses upon how Web pages look on different types of browsers, including mobile devices (I’m a big fan of both forums), I was excited when I came across a new paper from Google which looks at usabilty testing of mobile devices.

I’ve recently written about a patent application from Google that discusses software that could enable people to search Google without using a browser, and Aaron, at soloseo, followed up with some of his experiences searching on a phone. I’m curious if others are enjoying the experience.