And that magic ingredient is their toll-free number. I know, many online stores have it, but Apple’s toll-free placement is done in such a great way that I can’t say enough about it. This number is readily available on all of their pages, so for people who are a bit scared about buying online, the toll-free number is the safest route to ensuring the sale goes through and the customer doesn’t close the browser window or surf on to another site. I was shopping at the Apple Store in Luxembourg, but a different toll-free number is available on each of Apple’s 29 international stores.

I have included images to show how Apple is treating their toll-free number. These examples have been taken from http://store.apple.com the homepage of their US Store. Their toll-free number in three separate areas on each page: navigation, footer and URL. In the navigation, the toll-free number is located directly beneath the Apple Store logo. The US site differs from the other international sites because not only do they display their toll-free number under the logo, they also have included a call to action (Call 1-800-MY-APPLE). (see example 1). Of course, English is a much more compact language than other languages — “Call” in French would be “Appelez” — which is twice as long — so a call to action is included only on the US version of the site.

The toll-free number also appears in the footer. This time added a message to the number that is comforting way: “You can also order from The Apple Store by calling 1-800-MY-APPLE. ” Lovely. The footer, of course, appears on every page of the Apple Store.

Finally, the US site has something the other international sites don’t: a URL that includes their toll-free number. Because the number appears right next to the name of the domain, I would rate this as being somewhere in between casual to subliminal for the observer — but important enough to Apple that they built a directory around it.

Consumers love it when they’re treated in a special way. Apple, by giving them online and offline ordering options, makes surfing at their store even more enjoyable.

Frustrated and empty handed, I went online to make my purchases instead. I decided that despite the pricy price tag, there would be an i-Pod Touch or two under our Christmas tree this year. So I logged in to the store at Apple.com.

My first surprise was the choice. I could choose everything they had and they promised delivery before Christmas. At no extra charge.

“Sure,” I thought to myself with suspicion. “That’s never going to happen.”

Next, they offered to engrave my purchases with whatever personalized slogans I wanted on up to 2 lines. I tried a few different ones, and found that both the first name and last name fit perfectly on the first line, with enough room for a nice saying on the 2nd line.

And then they offered a special Apple gift wrapping service — complete with a card that I could either personalize online, or they would supply it to me blank.

“Wow!,” I thought to myself. “A personalized iPod Touch, already wrapped, complete with a card, in time for Christmas! This is great, if it all pans out the way they say it will.”

So I made the purchase and got my confirmation mail stating that my purchases would be delivered within 3 to 5 days of the purchase. 

“We’ll see about that,” I said to myself, fingers crossed. I hope they’ll be here by Christmas.

About 20 minutes lates, I got another surprise: a 2nd confirmation email saying my shipment was on its way and would be delivered within 1 to 2 days.

“Right,” I thought to myself. “This must be a mistake. Nothing happens this quickly.”

But at Apple, it does. This morning, my package arrived, having been dispatched from the Netherlands! My purchases are neatly wrapped (I haven’t opened them to see if they’ve really been personalized) but the entire process was much easier than buying in a crowded store.

The online shop was filled with everything I needed to know about the iPod, together with comparisons, a multitude of images and a delivery chart that clearly shows that most of their products, including personalised ones, will be delivered to a non-post box address if ordered before a certain date. In the USA, that date is December 21st. In Luxembourg, it is tomorrow at midnight.

Apple has always been exceptional with their design, advertising and products. Exceptional is how they can also describe their online shopping experience.

I can’t wait to tell all my friends.

 What the big surprise is, however, is how much more people are using search to get at the things they are looking for.

Here are the facts: in September, Americans conducted 9.4 billion searches. In October, that number increased to 10.5 billion searches. That is 1.1 billion searches more — and those are just in the USA.

So what does this mean?

The search engines are serving up easy answers — to sometimes complex questions. The pain vs. gain factor when it comes to searching is decreasing faster than ever before. Search is hot — but that’s something that we all know.

But what we don’t think about enough is where the searching is being done from. It’s not just limited to office or home computers any more. It is being done more and more with Blackberries and mobile phones like the iPhone. And high-capacity services on the net like games, video and music are contributing to the increase in searches as well. ComScore reported earlier that nearly three-quarters of American internet users watched an average of 158 minutes of online video in May. To put it into perspective, that’s one full feature film and a half hour sitcom online each month!

Wow. Ten point five BILLION searches. What are you doing about it? Have you taken a good hard look at the key words you use to describe your products are services? Are your page titles in order? Does your site validate? Have you changed your product mix? How are you trying to convince the searchers that your site merits their attention? How are you fine tuning the way that you are promoting your brand?

If you’re not asking these kinds of questions, your site will sooner or later get ignored. And with so many searchers looking for answers, not being found is unacceptable.

For more details on the ComScore findings, see http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1908.

As the French would say, “Incroyable!!!”.

How can you determine what language strategy you should follow for your website?

For new websites, you need to be sure who you are trying to do business with. If you are only interested in doing business within your neighbourhood — or expanded neighbourhood, then employing a single-language strategy can make sense. But when you want to sell your goods to folks in other countries, you need to make selections based on different criteria that makes sense from a business point of view.

Don’t do something for nothing

Many companies initially set up their website in their own language. Later, based on customer needs or sales strategies, they expand the language mix to fit the targeted sales (and marketing) territories. That language strategy should then be extended to the website. Once it is, however, you need to make sure you have the infrastructure to support the new languages as they come on board. This includes localised product /services information, customer support services (including telesales, if necessary) and documentation. If you don’t have the right people in place to make sure the website matches your sales and marketing strategies, it is best to concentrate on the languages where you do have that support. We’ve all seen blooper television programs where signs are mistranslated. Mistranslations and spelling errors can take your site from being a contender to being a laughing stock. I am reminded of a Chinese Airline who gave their clients models of an airplane mounted on a stand. The plaque on the stand read: “Putting the world at your foot.” They had great intentions, however errors like that make people (who read English well) LOL!!! So if you’re going to put in an effort, make sure you get your ducks in a row before you begin.

If this is Tuesday, this must be Belgium

Companies based in Europe have a tougher time than large single-language countries like the USA or Great Britain. Maybe you’re company is located in Belgium. As Belgium has two official languages (Dutch and French), a website trying to provide services beyond its local neighbourhood would need to consider a dual language approach. And as Belgium has a large English speaking population (due to a strong international presence including NATO and the European Union as well as many international corporations), English would be a great third choice.

Talking Italian

Actors do it all the time. Jean Reno and Penelope Cruz are and language switch hitters — expanding their audience with their flexible language skills. So take a lead from them. If you have the skill, use it to expand your territory.

Whatever your business or reason for being on the web, don’t overlook the power of language.

For more information on Internet World Users by Language, please see http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm

Six years ago, a grand old house somewhere in Germany, was being restored. That house, as it turned out, used to belong to her grandparents.

Six years ago, a woman went browsing through an antiques store and came across an interesting leather portfolio, containing souveniers, many photos and a wedding contract. She thought it was interesting, and was surprised to have found it, such interesting pieces of some strangers lives.

Even though the leather pouch was lovely, our buyer didn’t really have a need for it and placed it out of sight, out of mind, somewhere in her house.

But she recently came across it again, and she leafed through the contents one more time. Looking at the pictures, reading the postcares. And she became worried that she may be holding a history that might be lost to a family for good. So recently, she set about trying to track down the family. Through the Internet.

It’s true that the family in question did not have a run-of-the-mill name like Jones, Smith or Wagner, but the little twist that comes into play is the family member that our antiques afficianado found was actually living in the Far East. But by chance, he was part of the Rotary Club there. She wrote to the club, who passed on the note and, well,  the family are now re-united with some pieces of their past.

Twenty years ago, tracking the family down wouldn’t have been easy. You would have needed to travel to (in most instances) the place where the couple was married to begin the tracing. But with the internet and the access there is (sometimes free) to family trees, her job became a piece of cake.

Many people prefer to be anonymous when it comes to the Internet. Here’s a great example of why being public can be great!

I always was amazed with that commercial, probably because where I grew up, the tallest building was a mere 13 stories, so a race to the top of a CN Tower or Empire State Building was an incredible idea.

What does this have to do with SEO?

Everything. Your website also needs to be in shape in order to get to the top of the search engines.
By doing the research and finding out what the people who are surfing are actually looking for in a website like your’s is one of the most important steps that you can take in your quest for being the best. If the language describing your products or services isn’t written in the way the folks out there are thinking about when making a search, the sad fact is that they’ll never find you. If you have lots of products that have nearly the same functionality and you haven’t taken the time to determine the differentiations that a buyer is looking for, it’s going to be hard to make a sale.You should take a good hard look at your website and then look at your competitor’s sites too. Make some analysis and determine Think about websites that you really love, and find out what is the X-Factor that makes the difference. Discover how you can set yourself apart from the crowd of websites, while finding ways to get the crowd to come.

Just as in real life, it isn’t always easy to get into shape. There are lots of reasons why people don’t get into shape: they believe they don’t have enough time, they are embarassed by how out of shape they are and think that getting in shape would be to lofty a feat; they think it would cost too much money, there are many excuses.

The same holds true for webmasters and their websites: they may have obstacles too. But when you break it down into small steps to success, you will be able to achieve. And with each step, you’ll gain strength and soon you’ll be strong enough to climb a skyskraper.

Is it because the road to hell is paved with good intentions that we keep on dancing the Google dance, forgetting all about Phil?

Translation? I Google, you Google, we all Google. Don’t deny it. You don’t want to upset the Giant!

Fee, fi, foe, fum. I smell the blood of a Google bum. You Google, all right! and I don’t care why you do it. And as long as you keep on googling, you feed the giant. By doing so, you keep him at the top of the world and as he continues to grow and gain strength, no one will be able to make him fall from his throne. Like Zeus, the once-reigning god in Olympus, Google is the undisputed monarch of the search engines, at least according to Comscore. And since we are in Comscore’s yard we should probably take a look at the top ten search properties worldwide with the curios footnote that not everyone on this list is a search engine.

As you know without reading the list, Google is on top and is the undisputed monarch. It is really pointless to debate why. As I already said, it’s because you google.

You probably yahoo too, but how many times? Obviously you don’t yahoo enough, because Yahoo! is the second from the top. And if this was a 100 meter race, Google would have been across the line before Yahoo left the starting blocks.

But enough about Yahoo! and Google. Do you know what comes in third? If you say MSN you err.

The third from the throne is Baidu, a Chinese newborn, a giant of the search in its country. Preferred over Google, Baidu has a beautiful “about” story, with beautiful meanings – pretty much what you’ll expect from a Chinese search engine. The success of the engine has more to do with the language than with the search results, which are profoundly odd. Among the listed pages you’ll find privately-held pages from spaces.live.com pages that shouldn’t appear in the search results anyway. But it is not the English results that makes the engine so popular, so the debate stops here, (or at least until I learn Chinese) to be able to make a pertinent review.

Moving on to number four… MSN. Frankly, I don’t even remember the last time I used MSN to search. Was it five, six years ago? Hard to say. I am amazed this search engine is still in the top. I predict (me in the Web prophet role that I imagine myself to have one day) that by the end of next year, MSN will drop out of the top, unless a wonder saves its skin and brings it, um, live again.

NHN Corporation is fifth. This is a Japanese search engine and if you look at the Comscore top you will see that the difference in ranking between this fresh Giant of the search and MSN is pretty low.

eBay, which is not a search engine by definition is also used for search. It occupies a well-deserved 6^th place in the Worldwide search properties list. They are also letting us take a sneak preview of what the next generation of their website is going to look like right now, so this week may be a good week to do some searching there.

It is followed by Time Warner Network (huh?), Ask, Fox and Lycos.

Now that you’re up-to-date with what the search scenery really looks like, we can draw a few conclusions:

• Scoobies make the search go round – to paraphrase my colleague and good friend Astro Phil.
• Unless hakia and Powerset come up with a cure for cancer, Google will remain sovereign (because we google, don’t we?).
• We don’t have an English search trinity any longer: no Google, Yahoo! and MSN in the big triangle of life. Think Google, Yahoo! and Baidu now, and start translating your sites into Chinese.

Think that in one-two years we will all access the Web using handhold devices (PDAs, mobiles, iPods and so on). Of course we will want to get straight to the content of a site. Who wants to waste time waiting for heavy graphics to load? And who cares about fancy decorations on a site when all they need is to buy a book, or a tie, or an electronic device?

Each website has a purpose. The problems appear when the designers fail to understand this purpose.

You want to sell luxury villas, but your website has the cheapest-looking design imaginable. No matter how much SEO you will do on your pages, your website will never sell. Because it fails at sending out its message to the right target. All people looking to buy a luxury villa will rather trust such a site: http://www.thevillaagency.co.uk/ then something like this: http://www.poolsidevilla.com/

Luxury villas are all about comfort and aesthetics. If you fail delivering this message with your website, how do you expect people to buy?

The same goes for any industry: understand your market first, then design. And when you design, don’t flatter your own ego with needless elements of decor. Don’t use background colors that distract from the message.

Do you want to know the secret of successful web design? It’s called Web 2.0.

The Web 2.0 design style has some major characteristics – perfectly illustrated by Ben Hunt

• Simple layout
• Centered orientation
• Design the content, not the page
• 3D effects, used sparingly
• Soft, neutral background colours
• Strong colour, used sparingly
• Cute icons, used sparingly
• Plenty of whitespace
• Nice big text

Probably the most important lesson to learn from this article is “design the content, not the page.”
Because this is what Web 2.0 is all about: user-centric content.

Designing the content doesn’t mean ignoring artwork, but understanding that images and animation ARE content. Therefore they should be used to bring value for the visitor and not to decorate.

To demonstrate how Web 2.0 design works I’ve chosen a random site: http://www.cravattificio.com/ - belonging to an Italian manufacturer and distributor of ties.

All major characteristics identified by Ben Hunt (minus the 3D effects and the nice big text) are there.

Cravattificio has a centered design and keeps the use of colors and images to a minimum. As a matter of fact, as you can see from the screenshots, the images are not only related to the content of the pages, they are content. There are no other images to distract the visitors from the purpose of the site. Everything is clearly structured. On the main page, the already classical 3-column design, which almost became a standard of the Web 2.0, gives enough information to make the users want to spend more time on site.

The site is also designed with accessibility in mind. Users can control the size of the fonts, either by clicking on the font-size buttons displayed on the site, or by using any other browser options. Can’t use a mouse? No problem: you can browse faster with your keyboard anyway. I could go on praising the design of the site forever. What else can you do when you see a site that respects web design standards, validates, is user-centric and goal oriented?

But the most important aspect of designing for the Web 2.0 is that the sites are SEO ready.

This particular site doesn’t need major SEO work anymore. All pages are already optimized. Sure, there’s always room for more, and for fine-tuning, but right now, the site ranks high in the search engines for its major keywords (for example cravatte personalizzate) and I can safely say that it deserves its place.

This is how SEO and web design should work to achieve online success. Here the designers win our praise, but the company wins the needed traffic for what it sells. And the visitors win an unique experience on a site that truly meets all expectations.

and you give back so much!

I would like to thank Kim for the “You Make Me Smile” award and give back the link love.

And this reminds me to write an entry about blog awards… with their pros and cons - particularly why you should be careful with some of them. This will not be just an SEO perspective. It also has something to do with community and relationships.

Awards: Handle With Care

Some of the awards (I do not mean now the “You Make Me Smile” award and particularly I do not doubt Kim’s intentions - go forward to the pros and you will see what I am talking about) were created as a subtle method to gain links from other sites. They are “link bait” in disguise. And you have to be really careful when you display them on your website/ web blog, particularly when they come from people you don’t know and especially when they seem to appear out of the blue and have nothing to do with you or what you do.

We don’t talk too much about those little artworks and graphics we display on our sites with pride every once in a while. Maybe we should, because you see, receiving a “blog award” is not always a reason to celebrate and reciprocate. I could give you a long list of cons, but I will reduce it to five important points.

1. Blog awards might be the cause behind search engines penalties and technorati penalties - as they are seen by both the SE and technorati as “linking schemes.” With all the linking scandals and with rumours amok that Google might even be manually penalizing link spamdexing (especially paid links, but who knows what they are up to next!) we should really handle link exchanging with care.
2. The site giving you an award might be a spam site, a penalized site, a scrapper site, a MFA (made for AdSense) site or anything similar that is under Google surveillance. You do not want to take a risk like this with a link back to such a site. Call it guilt by association, but once you link to a spammer, you, in effect, approve the spammer and…you become a spammer. Remember: Google shows no mercy. So take a careful look at the site that gives you the award. Look at every page and if you see anything that raises suspicion, do not link back! Save the award image on your own server and link to that location if you care that much about showing an award no one really cares about.  If you do link back, check out that link once a week. They may be setting you up for a future spam attack, so be warned!
3. Meme-type blog awards usually send out two link votes : one to the blogger that nominated you and one to the creator - because the image source leads usually to the original source of the award. In theory, it’s good to know where the award really comes from, but are you sure you want to give a vote to that site? Are you sure you want to associate your name with it? Sometimes you just have to bury your pride to stop your site from being deep-sixed.
4. Blog awards can make your site look messy and unprofessional, especially when they do not match the site’s theme, color scheme and design.
5. Using blog awards on private blogs is not that bad, but displaying them randomly on business blogs will seriously affect your credibility. Why? Because they are usually unrelated to your business, they lead your visitors to sites of questionable value. They are there to pet your ego and don’t usually add value for the users.

It’s not all about cons. In the blogosphere, these awards have a social role too, especially among amateur bloggers. They do not care about your high business standards and they ARE YOUR READERS too. If they choose to show their admiration through a blog award, it’s your social duty to respond and take the award as it came: from the heart.

Meme-type blog awards have more social pros than SEO pros.

1. Most of them are a genuine sign of admiration and respect - especially when they come from your faithful readers and your online friends.
2. They create buzz about you and your blog (especially when a trustworthy blogger like Kim decides to introduce you to her readers) and give you valuable, relevant traffic.
3. They remind you to go back to your friend’s (reader’s) blog and see what’s new. For example, I have no idea when Kim changed the design on her blog, so obviously I needed a reminder to go visit.
4. They make a great communications bridge - people love seeing they received an award and they will come to say “thank you”, link back to you (as long as they don’t read my cons) and so on.
5. They make you smile… (I needed this last point for symmetry).

And now, to Mig’s personal pointers. Remember, these are just my tips. Take them as personal opinions and do as you please.

• If you are to display awards on your pages, display one award at a time, in separate entries. Do not transform your blog into a confusing showcase of animated gifs and graphics, with no continuity in topic, style, color, design. Make each award topic specific and that will increase the SEO value of your entry, and help you rank even for the link love you give… because the keywords you use in that link will also be topic specific.
• If you don’t want to link back to the site that gave you the award, don’t! Linking back should not be mandatory.
• If you create an award do not force people to copy a code from your site and paste it into the code of their sites “as is”. Every webmaster has the right to change code to ensure that his/her site remains standards compliant.
• Also, if you give an award, do as Kim did: be specific. Tell exactly why you are giving it. After all, when you give away that award, you’re telling your readers: “Look, this is a site I approve of. This is a blogger I really like.” Don’t disappoint your readers.
• If you really want to show your appreciation, it’s better link to entries you really like than giving away an award people will probably ignore.

For example, here are a few links you might enjoy, closely related to this topic:

Before You Ask for that Link, Know I’m a Relationship Blogger- Liz Strauss
Dear Emperor: A Test for Your Next Link Post - Liz Strauss… again
Why You Want To Link To Other Blogs - Dawud Miracle
Are You Abusing and Misusing Tags? - Lorelle VanFossen
On Linking Ethics - Richard Nokes

They will protect us against writing things that might harm and they will protect the ones we might hurt, at times unwillingly, through our words.

With the boom of the social media, these words could even protect us in the future.

You are whatever you publish online. Period.

No one is perfect. We all make mistakes. But the truth is that the Web is not the private playground of a teenager.

Imagine yourself naked in a public garden. This is the Web: no place to hide, people walking by, watching you, scrutinizing everything you choose to show them and seeing what you don’t want to show them too. Judging everything you do. Analyzing. Dissecting. Even taking pictures of you to show to their friends your silliest mistake or greatest accomplishment, the same way you would show curiosities from a gadget store or souvenirs from a distant country.

When you think that no one cares about what you do, how you act and who you are, remember that all your moves are watched by inquisitive eyes. You think you are alone. Think again.

Quantum Leap: There is no time, there is no space. You cannot erase your past from the Web.

In the old world, love letters could be burned, pictures could be ripped and shredded – or the targets of dart boards. In the web world, what you post today may be removed tomorrow, but it may already be in the hands of someone else, waiting to re-post it at some distant point.

I didn’t inhale.

This is what people fail to understand about the Internet. Some treat the Web as a place to go and have fun. They create accounts on obscure websites and they believe that they are protected just because they have a password. Maybe they aren’t even aware of those inquisitive eyes I was talking about. Wrong.

When you put it online, you throw privacy to the wind. That’s it. Face it. Assume it. Take responsibility and don’t be surprised when all your actions are revealed, when what you thought a “safe” way of spending time will turn into your worse nightmare. This doesn’t happen so often - yet.

Stories about people who didn’t even bother to hide their identity and compromised their whole future through irresponsible behavior are more common now.

David Rice and Naomi Broady got suspended for their Bebo life.

Even anonymous stories might get you in trouble – as it happened to the Queen of the Sky Ellen Simonetti.

And the web is full of stories about people losing their jobs because of stuff they publish on the Web, either on their blogs or on social sites.

The moral of the story? Don’t work and blog? Not at all.

Understand that with blogging and socializing there comes responsibility. Understand that with publishing something… anything, there comes effect. And create a set of personal rules guide your steps.

Three golden rules you should include (in addition to whatever else you want to put on your list):

• never publish something (not even under password protected login) that you wouldn’t want your children/mother to see;
• never publish information about your employer, colleagues, job;
• never publish a story without checking it twice, or thrice if necessary – just make sure you don’t pervert the truth;

“The pen is mightier than the sword” - Edward Bulwer-Lytton