Just before the holiday we received my oldest son’s current school progress report. (Thankfully he is a good student and always does well.) This reminded me of a useful tool I’ve found to help measure websites with regard to best practices for search engine optimization (SEO) and web marketing. The tool is the Website Grader.

This tool essentially scans your site for common HTML related to best SEO practices. It combines that data with other data from around the web, such as the web ranking in Google, the number of inbound links on your site, and where your site stands in relation to social media. It then generates an overall grade and a summary report.

Using a tool like this can help you gauge your site’s current rank and determine where you can most effectively put additional resources and time to improve the SEO of your site, and also to get more inbound traffic and converted leads.

Here are some screen shots of what you can expect if you use the tool to generate a report.

After entering your URL, you get a summary grade for your site:

The grader tracks on-page SEO:

It also tracks off-page SEO:

It determines whether you have a blog, and if you do, grades it:

It analyzes what’s happening on your site with regard to social media:

It helps you track information about your competitors’ sites:

Finally, the grader looks at the forms on your site that help convert visitors to leads:

Recently a client asked us for our opinion on a Digimag (or whatever-you-call-it) service called Ceros. I’ve seen this technology grow in popularity over the years, and I have to admit Ceros has taken it to a higher plane. Their product and experience is rich with video, animation and interactivity – but so what.

I can see how print publishers would really love for this page-flipping technology to take off. Their print advertising windows are closing quickly, yet their online advertising windows are not opening fast enough. With Digimags, they are offering an online add-on, attempting to close the deal with the advertiser on that expensive print inside cover or center spread.  In my opinion, this is just another way of putting off the inevitable transition from print to true online publishing – publishing that is centered around knowledge exchange, content that takes place on a variety of platforms and advertising programs based on audience relevance and brand engagement.

Furthermore, is there really a mass audience for Digimags? Nxtbook Media, another digital magazine service, has an interesting real-time map illustrating how often Digimags are read across the globe.  While this is a cool use of Google’s API, showing a reader or two per second – this map is an insult to a publisher’s intelligence.  According to their site, 1.3 million people read a Digimag per month.  That sounds like a lot – but it pales in comparison to the number of people who read online magazines every day.

Digimags are not the panacea for publishers’ woes.  They sacrifice the standards and best practices of web publishing. The content has poor search visibility; there is no room for user-generated content; you need to click and enlarge to read; and you have to drag your electronic paper around to navigate.  Perhaps their future is better suited to a different device, such as the Kindle, as stated in this article.

Finally, producing an issue of a Digimag can cost as much as $100 per page.  Why not put that towards building a sustainable online magazine for your audience and your advertisers?

Okay, imagine you’re on a trip and every sign you come across, instead of indicating “Turn Here,” has a two-paragraph explanation of exactly what to do. It describes the radius of the turn, the precise speed at which the turn should be approached, and so forth.

Now imagine your website as a road. What directions are you giving your visitors? Are you getting them from point A to point B quickly and effectively? Too often, websites are filled with verbose copy that will never be read. So in an effort to get our websites in shape we need to trim the fat.

Don’t write too much. People won’t read it.
A study by Jakob Nielsen found that people read only 20 to 28 percent of the content on a webpage. And they read only 50 percent of the words on a webpage that has 111 words or fewer. If you write tons of text, don’t expect anyone ever to read it. Since people don’t read in depth on the web, we need to use techniques that promote easy scanning of pages so users can find what they are looking for.

Use subheads and bold text. They are scanned more easily.
You just did it. You scanned this blog quickly and are now reading this text. If you weren’t interested in having people scan pages, you could easily have skipped this section. Research shows that people scan pages for topics that interest them. Subheads and bold text help break copy up and highlight content so it’s easier to scan.

Start with the ending. Put your most important points at the top.
Since most visitors won’t get down to the end of that paragraph you’ve written, why put your most important ideas at the bottom? Start your paragraph with your conclusion and then provide the details to support it.

Use labels.
Don’t focus only on the written words. Focus on how the design helps the visitor scan the page more easily. Use labels at the tops of blocks of copy to highlight what each block of copy represents. Is it a case study? Is it a set of instructions? Do you want your users to complete a task? Let them know with small labels or directions.

A website is more than just an online presence. Properly created by a professional team, it becomes a valuable investment. Take care of your website, and it will take care of you and your brand for years to come.

So, what are you doing to tend this precious resource? You’ve probably put a lot of effort into coming up with a great design and assembling a marketing team to realize your vision. But have you taken the time to ensure that your site has been built using the most up-to-date standards and best practices?

Many small business owners don’t even consider questioning the coding quality of their websites, simply because they don’t know what to look for. But in a rapidly changing landscape like the web, you’d be well served to stay on top of best practices for a few key reasons:

1. Using Standards Creates Consistency
   If your site is cleanly and consistently designed, it makes a good impression. As a developer, I know that at some point everything I’ve coded will be looked at by at least a handful of other coders. By using standard naming conventions and familiar patterns, you can make the work of the next coder easier and provide a clear road map. This saves you time and money—and ensures that your enterprise looks professional.
2. Future Proofing
   Websites built with solid standards tend to look and act much the same for years, even as technology advances. A well-designed site is likely to weather changes in platforms with grace. Once you have created a solid foundation by becoming W3C compliant (more about this below), your site should be able to bridge the gaps between different and newer versions of web browsers, as well as devices such as PDAs and cell phones, with greater ease.
3. Your Site Looks Great….So should the Technology Driving It
   What use is a beautiful site that frustrates the user with error messages and layouts that are broken from browser to browser? Although it’s easy to get caught up in analyzing the visual aspects of a site, that same quality of critical analysis needs to be applied to the coding. Both parts need to be in sync.
4. Leaner Code Means Better Performance
   Greater visibility on search engines is key to successful growth. And the less time those search engines spend hunting through your HTML code for your content, the more time they can spend indexing your content and keywords. Separation of style from content by way of an organizational format called CSS (”cascading style sheets”) is the almost universally preferred method of achieving this enhanced visibility.

Now that you know the benefits, it’s time to take action. You can either enlist the services of your favorite web design agency or go it alone. If you do, here are some helpful resources:

Basic Web Standards:
http://www.w3schools.com/quality/default.asp

HTML/CSS Best Practices:
http://www.htmldog.com/
http://www.alistapart.com/topics/code/htmlxhtml/
http://www.alistapart.com/topics/code/css/

W3C Validation:
http://validator.w3.org/
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Website Optimization Tools:
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

Just One More Note On WC3 Validation
W3C validation is one of the simplest ways to check whether a page is built in accordance with current web standards, and provides one of the most reliable assurances that future web platforms will handle it as designed. Validation actually saves money. Creating web pages or applications according to a widely accepted coding style makes them easier to maintain, even if the maintenance is performed and the evolution is overseen by someone else. And last but certainly not least, validation is a sign of professionalism.

Until next time, check out some of our best practices at www.loewydesign.com/work/recent/