Some Changes at UserEffect.com
Pardon a bit of a housekeeping post, but I wanted to announce a few changes to the User Effect website. I've decided that it's high time we had a proper home page - the original company site evolved out of my usability blog, and I opted to originally keep the site blog-centered (the home-page was the blog). Companies grow, though, priorities change, and I need to start treating the business more like a business.So, long story short, you'll now see a "Home" link on the left of the top menu, and the "Blog" link has been moved to the opposite end. Please rest assured that all past blog post URLs, RSS feeds, etc. will continue to work in exactly the same way. For those very few people who read the blog by going straight to the home page, please bookmark the blog page for future reference.
Another site-wide change you may notice is that I've removed the Blogroll on the lower-left. This was a tough decision - I firmly believe in linking out to good content and supporting industry friends. Unfortunately, I ran into two problems. One, I realized that the "Resources" page was really just a collection of 3-4 links that would work better as sidebar. Two, I've been trying to practice what I preach on this site, and have been applying more user testing. One consistent finding is that visitors think that the blogroll links are links to page on this site - when they click through, they invariably get confused. Since the test users came from my target market, this represents a serious business issue. In lieu of the blogroll, I'm going to work to be a better blogosphere and social media citizen. I do believe in promoting good content and will continue to support blogs and resources that I think have value.
Mike Maddaloni - The Hot Iron
· Tuesday, July 7As someone who lost a link on your blog roll - no worries. I'll even keep you on my blog!
I would add a photo of yourself to your site.
mp/m
Dr. Pete
· Tuesday, July 7@Mike - Yeah, you were one of the links I sincerely felt bad about. I really like the concept of a blogroll, but so many things about the execution were causing me problems. I think part of it was that it looked exactly the same as my other navigation links on the left, which was understandably confusing. A lot of regular folks still don't really know what "Blogroll" means, so they were just reading the links.
David Hopkins
· Tuesday, July 7Personally, I liked the low-commercial theme to the old site. I think this will probably turn away some enquiries, but I also think that it will help funnel higher quality leads. I find the best leads are the ones that specifically want to use you because they like the professionalism of more scholarly sites as opposed to being bombarded with cheap slogans and fluffed up sales copy.
Interesting finding with the external blogroll links.
Not sure about adding a mug shot to your site though. You may end up getting deluged with enquires from females :P
Dr. Pete
· Tuesday, July 7@David - I think the problem is finding a balance. I'm finding that there's definitely such a thing as being not commercial enough, especially since I have a business to run. The site is getting solid traffic and positive attention, but for every 100 people who have heard of it or me, only 1 knows that User Effect offers usability services, and only 1 out of 10 of those people has any idea what those services are. I'm trying to strike a balance between educating and selling, which takes some experimenting.
Among the very real dangers of adding my photo to the site, I doubt that one is among them ;)
David Hopkins
· Tuesday, July 7Yeh. I understand that. Your new homepage is obviously sales oriented but at the same time it is informative and not in the same vein as those affiliate swindle pages - it has some dignity. One observation though is the line, "Let us help you make the most of people power." When I see "let us help" I always find it sounds a little desperate. Maybe I am in the minority there though.
I am facing the same problem with my site. I want to make it more obvious what I do at the same take as making it less commercial.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap
· Wednesday, July 8Since your business leads are likely to come from those landing on your home page, moving your blog is a wise decision. Those of us who just want to read your blog know how to find it.
Although I was surprised at first about your readers not knowing what a BlogRoll is, after some thought it would appear that unlike my blog, you have managed to reach fewer bloggers and more of the general public.
What most don't realize is what a huge variety of awareness their visitors will have so the more simple you make it the better the results are likely to test.
I am opposed to the generic advice to add personal photos everywhere on principles of privacy. No doubt you already have intelligent women who admire wisdom wondering about your availability without the need of a photo.
I would agree with David that the word help is usually best avoided. I found it killed CTRs when used in ppc advertising.
Dr. Pete
· Wednesday, July 8@GrowMap - If I had a nickel for every intelligent woman who admired my wisdom from afar, I'd still be completely broke ;)
I think it was less an issue of my blog readers not understanding the blogroll concept and more one of my target audience not getting it. That's another aspect of the disconnect - my blog audience and my prospective customers are fairly different, in some respects. I think that's a challenge a lot of small businesses and professional bloggers face.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap
· Wednesday, July 8Hi Pete,
You only need one intelligent woman so that one nickel wouldn't go very far, would it? She wouldn't care if you were broke. There are many things in life far more important than money.
Yes, I agree that your readers are likely to be people who already know quite a bit about usability or are very interested in expanding their knowledge while your target audience may know very little about it when they first come across your site.
This reminded me to go check the deadline to participate in your Win a Usability Library contest. I've been planning another post on usability for a long time so that will provide me with the motivation to finally get it done.
I did mention usability issues in the guest blog post I submitted to Merchant Circle that should be published in the next couple of weeks so now is a good time to feature that topic.
I have a similar challenge in my blog. Most of my readers are bloggers while the readers I really wish to reach are small business owners.
Emily Brackett
· Thursday, July 9I was interested to hear that you're removing the blogroll. I have one on my blog, but have wanted to remove it, because it's valuable real estate. So far I've kept it, more out of the "etiquette" of that's what bloggers do. Maybe this will be the tipping point?
Dr. Pete
· Thursday, July 9@GrowMap - I look forward to your entry. I think the challenge of how to connect the audience you naturally reach to your ideal target audience is one that most businesses face at one time or another.
@Emily - I don't want to give the impression that removing the Blogroll is the best solution for everyone, but it made sense for me at this point. With the new nofollow guidelines from Google, I know some people are also questioning how to best handle external links from an SEO standpoint. In a perfect world, I believe in linking out and supporting good content (even if it's from a competitor), but practical considerations often dictate the shape that takes.
James Bird
· Thursday, July 9Great to meet and hear your comments at the Chicago SEO meetup. I decided to google you to read your blog. I am also a bit surprised to hear your users didn't know that a blogroll was going to take them to a different site. Crazy.
With testing in mind do you have any ideas about testing wordpress mostly as in a great and simple plugging for A/B or even crazier multivariate them testing within wordpress. Just something I've always been looking for and didn't know until now that you were the usability guru.
Dr. Pete
· Thursday, July 9Hey, James - good to meet you as well. I'll ask around about WordPress testing plug-ins, but I generally use Google Website Optimizer for the sites I work with. It doesn't take a ton of coding knowledge to implement.