Information Architecture design is about making the about making the complex appear simple.

This from Steve Jobs in 1984:

When you start looking at a problem and it seems really simple, you don’t really understand the complexity of the problem. Then you get into the problem, and you see that it’s really complicated, and you come up with all these convoluted solutions. That’s sort of the middle, and that’s where most people stop….

But the really great person will keep on going and find the key, the underlying principle of the problem—and come up with an elegant, really beautiful solution that works.

More about Experience Design here

Its analagous to the steps of competence in NLP:
Stage 1 - Unconscious Incompetence because this is where we don’t know what we don’t know.
Stage 2 - Conscious Incompetence where we do know what we don’t know.
Stage 3 - Conscious Competence because this is where we know what we know.
Stage 4 - Unconscious Competence which is where we don’t know what we know - “second nature” from being a conscious to an unconscious functioning
http://www.microdot.net/nlp/learning-strategy/stages-of-competence.htm

You find the elegant solution, because at a conscious level you keeping PUSHING to get it, but also because your competencies in the complex are so ingrained, that you are attuned to recognizing the the beauty in the simple solution, at a an unconscious level.

Think Blink!

Oh and another thought on the Simple > Complex > Simple train. Joe Sugerman on copywriting:

A rule of thumb … is to explain a complicated product in a simple way and explain a simple product in a complex way

The Adweek Copywriting Handbook

You can measure engagement. More importantly, engagement can be optimized. The case study shows how we used multivariate and targeted content delivery to optimize engagement. The final outcome of the page optimization was to drive an incremental revenue gain of 55% to a key user segement.

The Audible.com Case Study

A lot the material about social networks is familiar from Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point”. While Malcolm looks at the sociological aspects, I didn’t fully realise the mathematical systems underlying social networks ie. Scale-free networks Concepts like Dunbar’s number (the number of people we can maintain a first name relationship with) are also grouped under the Social Network theories.

What IS interesting is that this ties together not only viral marketing and the concepts in the “Tipping Point”, but also the web, and of particular interest search engine optimisation, and link-building or social media optimisation. There has been a lot of talk about semantic hubs on the web, and network theory helps to make this all clearer. It also ties in with semantic web structuring or “silos”.

Semantic relationships are mapped in the WordNet database, which is presented visually in the Visual Thesarus and this experiment at Sydney University. While we are exploring Semantics in search engines, here is a good summary of how Google is currently using Semantic suggestion

Now that the new QS has been released, there are no longer min bids.

Here’s a sweet and simple lesson on getting a perfect QS

AdWords - First Page for a Penny

From Rand at SEOMOZ. I agree - keep it natural…

We’ve talked about how search engines index, examine and measure text - I can assure you that the metric of density is absolutely, 100% unused by any of the major search engines.

And this from way back in 2005

The notion of keyword density values predates all commercial search engines and the Internet and can hardly be considered an IR concept. What is worse, KD plays no role on how commercial search engines process text, index documents or assign weights to terms. Why then many optimizers still believe in KD values? The answer is simple: misinformation.

http://www.miislita.com/fractals/keyword-density-optimization.html

A semantic system cannot be called “semantic” if it does not encapsulate the knowledge of languages.

From this very basic fundamental requirement, we have to exclude all those fancy algorithms that rely on collecting statistics of links, symbols, words, clicking behaviors, and so forth. Statistics is a tool, not a model of a solution.

To go the distance, we need a deterministic model of a language processing solution. We need algorithms that match the meaning of concepts (rather than mere words) and emulate “understanding.”
Semantic Search: An Antidote for Poor Relevancy

There are “over 200 SEO factors” that Google uses to rank pages in the Google search results SERPs. What are the search engine optimization rules?
Here is the speculation - educated guesses by SEO webmasters on top webmaster forums. Should you wish to achieve a high ranking, the various confirmed and suspected Google Search Engine Optimization SEO Rules are listed below.
Google Ranking Factors - SEO Checklist

Web strategy - setting the broad goals

Why create a strategy?

This focus of this series is not about how to develop a web strategy - that’s a whole book in itself. But you need to recognise that a web strategy itself should set measurable targets.

Before I start I should say that I’m working from the perspective that your web strategy is part of your marketing and sales strategy, with the goal of increasing sales (and increasing sales right now), is not always the case. In some cases the web strategy is not sales-driven at all. There is still a process associated with the web site, its just that it may be harder to analyse directly with web statistics.

In particular, whilst web statistics can provide some insight for websites “Community” objectives, qualitative measures such as surveys, focus groups, and interviews may often provide a more informative measure of success. “Branding” goals also have to use more qualitative measures, as the goals are often about changing the perception of your clients and markets. Whatever the strategy, don’t let any marketer kid you that you can’t measure the impact of your website, within the marketing strategy.

If we keep it really simple the web strategy should be aimed at giving you measurable targets in two key areas:
1. Getting qualified visitors to your website [marketing].
2. Getting those visitors to undertake particular actions [conversion] leading to the main goals.

For the majority of you, the main goal of your web strategy will be: Increase Sales. And to measure the success of the strategy as you implement, you use the traditional paradigm of the marketing campaign and the sales pipeline.

Marketing campaigns

Your web strategy needs to set measurable targets for “qualified visitors”, and set out the marketing campaigns for attaining those targets.

Remember the goal here is not raw visitor numbers. The goal is to attain qualified visitors that are potential clients.

The first thing you need to do is work out where the website fits into your general marketing plan. Your marketing plan may include a mix of marketing; from traditional marketing (e.g. direct mail, radio, press, television, billboards), guerrilla marketing (e.g. product placement, grass roots, giveaways), and new media marketing (search engine marketing, pay per click etc).

Whatever your mix we recommend that your website form a central part of your marketing campaigns creating a feedback loop on the site to gain information on those responding to your campaign.

We talk more about how to measure your marketing campaigns in a later article.

Sales steps

We think of that process as a virtuous path, in which your website visitors are encouraged into an ever increasing relationship with you.

Sometimes not all of the steps occur on the web. If someone hears about your business at a convention, or via a tele-marketing campaign, then the first point at which they come in contact with your message (touchpoint) will not be web-based. However if the customer comes via an affiliate program or a search engine then the touchpoint will be web-based. And at the other end of the pipeline, many businesses do not sell online, so the web-based section of the sales process may end at the once the person calls or emails the business (opportunity).

Defining the steps

So what are the steps in your sales process?

Since Increasing Sales is the result of a sales pipeline, the web strategy needs to set measurable results for each step in the sales process. In sales speak, taking a customer through the sales steps, which are defined actions. In sales-speak we are making a conversion.

Every business is different, so the conversion steps vary between businesses.

So rather be instructive lets look at some example:

Online retailer

Touchpoint - in this example, the main marketing method, is Pay Per Click, so visitors are coming in contact with the business mainly via clicking on results in search engines.

Landing page - every smart PPC campaign directs clicks to a landing page specific to that campaign and keyword set.

Browse or Search - assume the client is impressed with the landing page they then move into the Shopping area to browse or Search for products they are looking for.

Cart - if they find stuff they like and want to buy it now they will add it to the cart.

Proceed to checkout - customer commences the checkout process

Final payment - Bingo the sales is done!

Alternatives conversions - these are other possible “wins” that have not resulted in a sale, but still start you on the path to a relationship with the customer:

• Customer telephones to make the purchase
• Customer makes an email enquiry
• Customer joins a mailing list or member area
• Customer spends a long time on the site, reading FAQs, product descriptions (will they come back later?)

Note how we broke the Sales process into 3 section Cart, Checkout, Payment.  That’s because the sale is so often lost at the last minute, because of usability or trust issues. For more in-depth analysis we would look even deeper to determine the EXACT page in the checkout process where customers “bail out”.

Look for other measurements of success in the website; the alternative conversions.

Services company (no online sales)

Touchpoint - in this example, the main marketing methods are seminars, networking and natural search results in Google.

Home page or Download Page - every smart marketing campaign directs clicks to a landing page specific to that campaign, so if they conduct a seminar and offer “free stuff” they direct the attendees to a particular download page with a tailored message.

Browse or Search - assume the client is impressed with the home page they then move into more details about the services on offers.  This might involve FAQs, Service description pages, Testimonials.

Call, Email, or Enquiry - if they find stuff they like they will call you, email or complete enquiry form.

Alternatives conversions - these are other possible “wins” that have not resulted in a sale, but still start you on the path to a relationship with the customer:

• Customer downloads a free guide or other offering in exchange for some contact details
• Customer joins a mailing list or member area
• Customer spends a long time on the site, reading FAQs, product descriptions (will they come back later?)

Each to their own path

I bet you can already sense that these two businesses are going to have very different ways of looking at their web analytics, hence the subject of our next article: “Developing common-sense measurements for web success”

Organic searches deliver very good returns for clients but may take months to really start delivering leads. Of course once the results come in, search engine optimisation “keeps on giving”. If you want to get instant traffic to your website (and by instant we mean within minutes of starting your campaign) then we recommend you use a pay per click campaign (PPC) with Google Adwords.

Adwords can get pretty expensive pretty quickly (costing you anything from 1 cent to $10 a click), so how do you ensure the best return for each click? In this article we look at the importance of landing pages to converting your PPC dollars into measurable sales or leads.

Pay Per Click operates as it suggests, requires you to pay for each click you receive. So how does this work? You bid on keywords that will deliver your advert to a high or low position (based on the value of the bid) on the right or top of the sponsored section of Google. Of course these keywords should be relevant to your industry and be specific. Depending how competitive your industry is will determine how much you are required to pay.

Every keyword campaign should have a targeted landing page. Why?

Firstly - it makes measurability easier. For example you can easily measure the Bounce Rate on your landing pages. The Bounce Rate is the number of visitors who arrive at your landing page, and … well … just leave. If you have a high bounce rate, say 60% it tells you your design and copy are not persuasive OR it tells you your advert copy is not authentic, because its not backed up when the visitor lands on the click thru page. If you promise the earth and deliver the moon, your visitors will bounce off to your competitors sites like rubber.

Secondly - and more importantly, you have the power to control the “customer experience”.

• Consistency: Your aim is to give a consistent and smooth experience for the customer, so that the text in the landing page, reflects the promises you made in the advert.
• Prominent calls to action: Your calls to action should reflect the offers you have made in your adverts. And your calls to action can
• Profiled message: Your copy can be “customer targeted”. If you sell CRM software, and are targeting professionals by placing adverts targeting keywords like “Accountants CRM” then your copy can specifically explain the benefits for those markets.
• Geo-profiling: Adwords allows you to place advertisement in specific local markets. If you are targeting Australian traffic with a particular campaign, then you can adjust your copy accordingly, by using local references, examples, and currency.

Finally - you can use split-testing and other systems to test the effectiveness of your copy, design, and usability - with real customers.

Postnote: The copy and structure of the landing page also pays a part in how much Google charges you for your adverts.  Here are Google’s basic requirements for landing pages https://adwords.google.com/select/siteguidelines.html