08-Mar-2010

Els Aerts

0 comments

Description tag: what is it and why is it so important?

What is a description tag ?

The description tag is a piece of html code that’s meant to give a short – you guessed it – description of a web page. The description tag is at the top of the page in the <HEAD>section of the code.

In code, a description tag looks like this:

<meta name="description" content="Short, riveting description of your web page." />

Not visible on your web page

The description tag of a web page is not visible on the page itself. That’s why a lot of companies don’t pay it much attention.

Google shows the description tag

Google likes the description tag. If a web page has a description tag, Google shows it, provided these 2 conditions are met:

  • Semantic similarity between the description tag and the content of the web page
  • Significant similarity between the user’s search query and the content of the description tag

Example 1
Google shows the description tag if it contains the user's query

I looked for ‘title tag’. Google shows the page’s description tag because it contains my query ‘title tag’.

Example 2
If the description tag doesn't contain the user's query, Google shows sentences on the page that do

I looked for ‘page title’. Because the description tag does not contain my query, Google doesn’t show it. Instead, Google shows a sentence fragment on the page that does contain the query.

Some more answers to frequently asked questions about the description tag

This article is about , , , Search engine optimisation, Writing for the web.

19-Feb-2010

Karl Gilis

1 comment

Experts don’t know everything, not even usability experts

Do experts know everything?

10 years ago I thought so. More specifically: I thought I knew everything.

Surely my usability expertise, my deep knowledge of information architecture would be enough to find and solve all the usability issues on every possible website?

Without research you can never truly know your users

10 years of user testing have made me a bit more modest. Okay, a lot more modest. Expert knowledge alone is not enough.

Does that mean I’m not a good usability expert? Hell no. I think I know more about web usability and information architecture than anyone else in Belgium. (Non-Belgian readers, please suppress that giggle.) Actually, that’s a lie: Els knows more about it than I do. See, I told I you I was modest.

And still, despite all of our combined expertise, we often say things like ‘That depends’, ‘We’ll have to ask your customers that’ or ‘We’ll have to test that’.

Why is expertise not enough when it comes to usability?

This article is about , Information architecture, Methodology, Usability.

16-Feb-2010

Els Aerts

0 comments

CMSs don’t manage websites – people do

Creating content is fun

The great thing about a content management system (CMS) is that it makes it really easy to create and publish content on your website.

So that’s what most webmasters and editors do: they create and publish content like there’s no tomorrow.

Cause it’s fun. And it’s what they’re being paid to do.

They’re often judged on the amount of content they produce. The number of pages and articles they put online. A nice and easy box to tick during the annual evaluation talk.

Managing content is boring

If you’re responsible for the quality of your company’s website, your main task should not be publishing new content. You should be managing and improving the content you’ve already got.

It’s less fun than creating new content. But it’s vital if you want to have a website that works.

It’s like Gerry McGovern says: “You’re not being paid to have fun. You’re being paid to run a good website.”

6 essential questions and tasks for a content manager

This article is about , , Information architecture, Writing for the web.

12-Feb-2010

Els Aerts

0 comments

4 examples of clumsy title tags

A little while ago, we talked about 8 tips for the perfect title tag.

Which provides us with a good excuse to also show you some examples of what not to do.

1. The root of all evil

Title tag: Roots

2. Must remember to enter title tag. Very important!

Title tag: insert title

The final homapge and more

This article is about , , Search engine optimisation, Writing for the web.

08-Feb-2010

Els Aerts

7 comments

8 tips for the perfect title tag

What is a title tag?

The title tag determines the name of a web page. Title tags are mostly visible in Google and in the browser.

Google
The page title Google shows is a page’s title tag. The same goes for Bing.

Your title tag = page title in Google

Browser
The title tag appears in the browser title bar and the browser tabs. When you add a page to your favorites or when you share a page via social media, the title tag is what apppears as the page title.

Your title tag = page title in browser

Is the title tag important?

You bet it is. The title tag is one of the most important things to get right if you want to do well in Google. It’s not the only thing but if you neglect your title tags you’re making it very hard on yourself.

8 tips for the perfect title tag

This article is about , , , Search engine optimisation, Writing for the web.

31-Jan-2010

Els Aerts

0 comments

Webdesign process: is the customer king?

Is the customer king?

You’re probably thinking that should be a statement instead of a question. Well… yes, the customer is king. And no, he isn’t really.

One of the main reasons a lot of websites fail to deliver is because they’re made according to the specifications of the company that ordered it. Don’t get me wrong. It’s good for a web builder or usability expert to find out what the customer wants. But it’s not enough.

We tell most of our customers at the start of a usability project that it doesn’t really matter all that much what they think or want.

What we think doesn’t matter that much either.

It’s not your customer’s opinion that counts, it’s his customers’ opinion

You don’t make a company’s website for that company. You make it for that company’s customers.

Their needs and expectations are what matters. A website can only be truly successful if it caters to the needs of its visitors, not to the needs of its owners or makers.

Finding out what visitors want is crucial if you want to base your functional analysis and information architecture on facts rather than feelings.

Companies know their customers

Yeah, right.

How can you find out what your customer's customers want?

This article is about , , Information architecture, Methodology.

18-Jan-2010

Els Aerts

0 comments

Product overview: do’s and don’ts

Product comparison: a must-have

If you’re offering 2 or more similar products or services, people should be able to compare them easily.

It’s the vendor’s job to help people pick the product that suits their needs best. That’s what people expect, offline as well as online.

We’ve written about this before in ‘4 product comparison best practices’.

Don’ts

Hide the differences

A typical problem in product comparisons is that differences between products aren’t immediately apparent.

First Choice Power is a good example of a site that doesn’t tell people what the difference is between products but makes them look for it.

What’s the difference between Simply Better Price Plan 24 and Simply Better Price Plan? The description is pretty much identical.

On closer inspection I can tell the first one’s a 24 month plan and the other one’s a 12 month plan. They both promise a ‘guaranteed low price’. Is it the same price for the 24 month plan as for the 12 month plan? I have no idea.




More examples of do's and don'ts

This article is about , , Usability.

06-Jan-2010

Els Aerts

0 comments

Use pictures to direct the user’s gaze

You can influence where people look

Photographers know that the eye gaze direction of the person in a picture dictates the eye gaze direction of the person who’s looking at the picture. It’s in just about every book on photography ever published.

What does this mean for your website?

If you use pictures of people on your website, make sure they’re looking at something you want your visitors to look at as well.

Pictures of people looking straight into the camera bounce the viewer’s gaze right back. Sure, they draw people’s attention. But that in itself really doesn’t do anything for you, does it? Unless of course you prefer people to look at the pictures on your site rather than the ‘Buy now’ button. If that’s how you roll, be my guest.

3 examples to convince you

This article is about , Usability.

23-Dec-2009

Els Aerts

0 comments

10 most popular usability articles in 2009

These 10 articles were the most popluar ones over the past year. It’s a good mix of what we try to write on this blog: serious articles and less serious stuff, facts as well as meandering thoughts, good tips and bad examples. Thanks for reading them!

  1. Page fold: myth or reality
    A hot topic if ever there was one. Is the page fold a myth? Do or don’t people scroll? Everything you’ve always wanted to know about the page fold and page length.
     
  2. Stop the presses – we’ve got a new website!
    Don’t bore people with messages about your new website. It’s not just inappropriate, it could cost you customers.
     
  3. Screen resolution statistics and tips
    Which screen resolutions do people in Belgium use to surf the web? And what does that mean for your website’s layout?
     
  4. 48% of visitors on e-commerce websites don’t buy due to lack of usability
    iPerceptions’ research shows that 48% of the people on e-commerce websites doesn’t buy due to lack of usability. Even worse: 38,5% of the people who visit a website with the intention to buy, don’t succeed in doing so.
     
  5. 13 quotes that show the customer isn’t ready for a good website
    Sometimes a client says something that makes it clear to us usability professionals that they are simply not ready for a good website. 13 quotes that make our blood boil. Also read a lot: 14 quotes and explanations
     
  6. User-friendly error messages: 7 tips
    A lot of websites make usability mistakes on their form pages. And that costs visitors. On a form page that’s extra painful because if you lose a visitor there, you loose a very valuable visitor. A visitor who’s willing to make the effort to get in touch with you or perhaps even to order something. 7 tips for user-friendly error messages.
     
  7. 11 tips to turn your visitors into customers
    My colleague Karl Gilis’s presentation with 11 tips to turn your website visitors into customers. Lots of eye-opening examples. Warning: you may not always like what you see. But it is the truth.
     
  8. Google Maps: cases from travel websites
    Google Maps is great. But only if you use it well. People seem to put stuff on Google Maps pretty much without thinking about it. We show some good and bad examples from travel websites.
     
  9. Gender error
    According to Citroën I’m suffering from a ‘gender error’. Should I panic? Wear more make-up maybe? Stuff some of those silicon chicken cutlets down my bra? None of the above. It seems I simply forgot to tell them whether I am a MR, MISS or MRS. Phew.
     
  10. Browser statistics
    Which browsers and operating systems do people use to surf your website in Belgium? Is Firefox catching up with Internet Explorer? Is Chrome as popular with housewives as it is with geeks? And what about the Mac guys and girls? Are they going to take over the world at last?
This article is about , Usability.

22-Dec-2009

Els Aerts

0 comments

4 product comparison best practices

Everybody compares

Everybody who shops on the web compares. They don’t just compare products from different vendors, but also different products from the same vendor.

This comparison behaviour goes for visitors of both b2c and b2b websites.

Allow users to compare

Comparing is a top task so make sure it’s easy to do on your website.

If you make it hard to compare your products, there’s a good chance your website visitors will not become customers.

What do your visitors expect?

  • Main characteristics of the product or service on the product page, pereferably as a bulleted list.
  • An overview of the similarities and differences of comparable products on 1 page. It’s really annoying if you have to get out pen and paper to write down product characteristics and then look for the differences between the products.

What do you need in order to compare?

  • Clearly differentiated products or services. If you’re not sure what the difference is between product A and B, how is your customer supposed to know?
  • If you want to compare products in a meaningful way, you need to know what the deciding factors are for your customers. Seems easy, right? Wrong. In about half of the projects we do, the company doesn’t know what their customers deciding criteria are.

What if you don’t meet these criteria?

  • Make sure you do!

The choice is simple: adapt or lose customers.

4 product comparison best practices, with screenshots

This article is about , , , Information architecture, Usability.

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