Web Optimization Blog

The National Federation of the Blind is beginning to make inroads with corporates in a way that the federal government probably never would have. Regardless of how it came about, Amazon's commitment to work with NFB is a smart business move on many levels.

First, of course, is the benefit of making their site accessible to ALL people.

Second, given NFB's willingness to use the courts to press their case, Amazon has taken themselves out of the lawsuit path.

Third, a more accessible site is a more search-engine-friendly site.

Google's spider does not “see” pages, it reads them, much the same as a screen reader does for the visually impaired person. Amazon is in a commodity business with lots of competitors - if it can attract more paying customers through natural search (as opposed to paid search) than its competitors, the results will be visible at the bottom line.

I won't be surprised to see more announcements like this one in the near future.

Debbie Pascoe

Tags: NFB, National Federation of the Blind, Amazon, spider, search, accessibility

Emarketer has just released a study about worldwide adoption of broadband, and, as usual, is crowing about how those numbers are growing. The study defines broadband as an internet connection of at least 200 Kb in at least one direction, and includes all forms of broadband, including ADSL, satellite, fixed wireless, powerline, fiber, WiMAX, and cable.

They cite the US with 54.6 million households and China with 46.6 million households, which makes it seem like China is almost equal to the US in broadband adoption. Of course, the devil is in the details. That 46.6 million for China represents only 12.6 percent of total households. Even the US number represents only 45.9 percent of US households, according to this study.

Their analyst, Ben Macklin, is quoted as saying: “Greater bandwidth availability doesn't merely represent technology and infrastructure opportunities — it is opening up a wide array of opportunities for online marketing and content distribution, too, As consumers get more, they will want more, and that will be will be one of the key drivers of global broadband expansion in the coming years.”

An absolutely true statement, but.........

If marketers, in their excitement about the possibilities broadband brings, neglect to provide a website that is accessible by all, including the broadband “have-nots”, they will be limiting their own ability to increase profits, reduce expenses, and utilize their web asset to its full potential.

Debbie Pascoe MAXAMINE, Inc.

Tags: broadband, adoption rates, DSL, ADSL, WiMAX, cable, satellite

Thursday, March 22, 2007 - While the web around us gets bigger and bigger, our personal protection bubble is getting smaller and smaller.

A federal judge in Philadelphia ruled against the provision of the 1998 law that would have made the knowing provision of pornography to children a crime.

Technology Review: U.S. judge blocks 1998 law criminalizing Web porn that reaches kids

A few observations:

First - the notion that the nine-year old law is unconstitutionally vague is probably a valid one. Congress, in its zeal to do “something”, has on more than one occasion passed legislation that is not specific enough.

Second - while the responsibility for a child ultimately falls on the parent, the advent of the web, and the attempts of so many factions to intrude into our lives, makes this a daunting task. Marketers want to be in your face every time you even think of a product or service. They want to follow you around on the web. They want to push ads to you on your mobile phone - ads you will likely end up paying for, since data downloads and text messages are not free....I see a class-action lawsuit brewing in the distance.

The social web has made this even harder. There is no fool-proof software or method for a parent to keep people away from their children.

If, after all appeals are exhausted, COPPA fails, that means it was a poorly drafted piece of legislation, and not that the notion of providing protection for children is bad. Congress should go back to the drawing board and work harder to get it right.

Tags: COPPA, congress, legislation, children, privacy, social web

Broadband over the powerlines is starting to make more noise and is moving closer to reality than ever before. But what does it really mean, and does it have staying power? The smashup will see utilities and telecoms become both competitors and partners.

Utility companies realized years ago that, if they could re-use their existing infrastructure, they could increase revenues and vie for total control of the customer - power and telecom over the same set of wires.

This realization led to leasing of transmission and distribution rights-of-way to others for laying in fiberoptics. Then came the notion of broadband over power lines. A big benefit it has over DSL, cable, and now wireless is the ability to deliver synchronous service - upload speeds would be the same as download speeds. The technical challenges, though, were significant. One issue - how do you get around or through transformers - is more problematic in the US, than in Europe because of the differences in the way the utility grid works. As a result, BPL uptake in Europe is developing faster.

While people were busy solving the technical issues of BPL, wireless internet emerged in a big way. Why would I be tethered to a copper wire when I can be completely free to access the internet from anywhere at any time? Of course, wireless networks are still building out their infrastructure. One way to do that is to use BPL to backhaul the signals.

Many of the possible applications of BPL are under the covers, not obvious to consumers. The implications to our daily lives, however is significant.

Major players (Google, Motorola, Goldman Sachs, IBM) are investing in BPL. Is it out of the question that we could see a telecom/electric utility merger or acquisition in the next 3-5 years?

Tags: BPL, broadband, power lines, wireless, telecom

In July, 2004, I blogged about a fabulous article I found in Darwin magazine about the do's and don'ts of calculating an ROI. Darwin has since been purchased by CIO magazine, and I challenge you to go to their internal search function and find this article....but that is a topic for an entirely different post.

A thread on the Web Analytics forum has prompted me to revisit that article, called “The TAO of ROI”, and it is still as relevant as it was 2 1/2 years ago.

The basic question is how to calculate the ROI of a web analytics implementation, with people suggesting various ROI mechanisms. This is where things go off the rails, and where the TAO of ROI comes in. In her list of “don’ts”, author Sandra Winters says “(Don’t) Use ROI for independent projects when the project fits into a bigger picture.” Precisely.

Web analytics is vital instrumentation, just like the gauges in your car. And like those gauges, web analytics help organizations understand what's working and what's not, and aids in decision-making.

If websites were automobiles, then what's the ROI of the speedometer or the gas gauge? You can kind-of-sort-of figure out how fast to go - just look around and do what everybody else is doing. And you should be able to figure out how far you can go on a gallon of gas. If your vehicle starts sputtering, pull in to the next stop....if you make it that far. If you get a ticket, or run out of gas, well that's just the cost of doing business. Since there is no direct ROI calculation for either of these analytical devices, they can't be that important.

Regardless of their size, companies that have incorporated the web into their business practices can not function without some form of web analytics.

That said, web analytics does not, in and of itself, cause your revenue to go up, your leads to increase or your site to attract more visitors. If it did, you wouldn't need a marketing department or sales people. You wouldn't need to buy keywords or put up billboards or purchase ads of any kind. You wouldn't need to concern yourself with the quality or usability of your site. You only need to get your web analytics implementation working correctly and ensure the quality of the data it is giving you.

Sounds pretty silly, doesn't it? Web analytics is a vital part of a bigger picture. It is right to consider the cost of ownership. The calculation of its ROI must be done in the bigger context.

Debbie Pascoe MAXAMINE, Inc.

Earlier this month, the National Federation of the Blind, together with three blind Texas employees, filed a suit against Oracle, charging that the software is not usable by visually impaired people. Specifically, the suit targets Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Workforce Commission, the agencies that the employee the three people, as well as the state's acting chief technology officer.

Several bills are on the Texas books that require accessibility by all persons. In fact, according to the Georgia Institute of Technology, fourty eight of the fifty states have some form of focus on accessibility, whether it is guidelines, policies or actual statutes on the books.

Section 508 only places restrictions on government agencies. In this, the US lags behind other countries whose accessibility legislation applies to corporates as well.

From here, it appears that the NFB is not waiting for the federal government to catch up.

It is noteworthy that the suit the NFB filed against Target is pinned to a California statute. I'm not sure that two makes a pattern, but if I were going to make a prediction, I'd predict that the next suit filed - and there will be a next suit - will also be in a state with legislation on the books. This issue is not going away.

I've been following a thread on the Web Analytics Forum about interactive agencies. A participant wants suggestions from the group so she can build a short list. Her stated need is “Agencies that have helped you decide if your business need/objective was best met by a web site and if so, how to design the site very specifically to meet those needs”.

We see the “insides” of lots of websites and how they function in the real world; whether Google can see them or not; whether they are usable by everyone, including people using assistive technologies; how they've implemented their privacy policy, and how complete their tag implementation is.

This view allows us to see clearly when form has been placed ahead of function. A lot of agencies know how to dazzle with gorgeous graphics, dancing dudes, and moving menus. Not as many understand how to marry that with visitor-centered usability.

Before interviewing your short list of agencies, I would encourage you to be clear on what you want to accomplish. If good natural search placement is one of your objectives, understand what site development techniques will work in direct opposition to that goal. For more on that see my previous post How to Hide from Google.

Big brands with world-known names that sell primarily out of physical stores can afford the luxury of developing “form over function” brand vehicles. Sites struggling for online mindspace against their competitors can not.

Plan for Success

Develop a scope of work that incorporates your needs with regard to natural search placement, usability, navigation, loaded page weight relative to your core audience's download speeds, ability to code for compliance with accessibility regulations (Section 508, DDA, WCAG). Develop specific questions and ask for proof points - examples of sites they developed that meet your criteria - to ensure that they can fulfill the requirements.

Don't let the whistles and bells that you will be shown get in the way of your ultimate goals. And don't let the appeal of working with a big-name agency cause you to overlook the smaller ones that can incorporate and meet all your requirements.

If you read this blog, you already know that broadband adoption rates is of particular interest. I have always taken exception to the loud exclamations about how great the broadband adoption rate is, when those exclamations overstate the upside and understate the downside - that is, now many people don't have a choice at all.

I have personal experience with this, having had overpriced, underperforming broadband access for three years because that is what is available in the country. Now comes mobile broadband - satellite broadband vendors, take notice, and get ready to lose customers.

Mobile broadband is so much simpler.

With satellite, you have to have a dish with an uninterrupted view of the southern sky — great in the desert, a challenge in heavily forested areas. Broadband is a card or a USB device, or even better, built into your new laptop.

Satellite is very large modems, confined to one geo-location, with real connectivity challenges if you also want a wireless network at the end of it. Mobile broadband is one device that can travel with you, and help you avoid additional hotel wireless or DSL charges.

And the icing - mobile broadband is less expensive all the way around. Satellite equipment and installation can run up to $750 and monthly rates are high - they believe they have a captive audience. Mobile broadband is one small piece of equipment - free or inexensive after the rebates, and a smaller monthly fee for all you can eat.

Mobile broadband is still relatively new and not well understood by its potential market, and coverages are still evolving. That said, this is the thing that will cause the next surge of broadband adoption at home and change the game for the satellite companies.

This week E-Commerce News published an article titled Report: Web Analytics Market Pumped for Growth, an interesting summary of a new Jupiter study, and commentary by various people in the industry. Some key projections for the next 12 months:

> 12 percent of respondents plan to upgrade or replace their Web analytics applications

> 22 percent plan to deploy new systems

> ~35 percent of SMB respondents plan to deploy a solution within the next 12 months

The industry is maturing and changing, and this is giving rise to diverging opinions among the industry participants about the definition of the space. For quite some time, the buyer has been the marketing department. Several people commented about the expansion toward marketing optimization and merchandising, and conjecture that the space is no longer properly named.

I agree that the industry is changing and expanding; that said, the issue of what to call the space has been solved by the market. For several years now, “web analytics” has meant any activity that involves determining what people do when they are online and attempting to influence their behavior.

At its core, “Web analytics=traffic”. Analysts and reporters have done an outstanding job of ingraining that definition into our collective conscious. It has never expanded to include search analysis, accessibility, quality, usability, or any of the other structural elements that are critical to online success. The web analytics vendors have benefited greatly from this.

Regardless of how - or even whether - vendors choose to expand the definition of what it is they do, people will still go to Google and, by a vast margin, type in “web analytics”, expecting to find companies that will help them better understand how to understand and influence visitors actions. Web analytics has earned a permanent place in the online lexicon.