I have kind of a big butt. Don…

I have kind of a big butt. Don’t hate ladies. Don’t hate.

I have the same last name as @…

I have the same last name as @paulfeig That’s it.

Painfully hungry. Where can I …

Painfully hungry. Where can I find a decent plate of schnitzel in this town?

If you’re not watching #PartyD…

If you’re not watching #PartyDown then what the hell is wrong with you? #SavePartyDown

I’m in a shame spiral of Cherr…

I’m in a shame spiral of Cherry Coke Zero and Peanut Butter Cups. Next stop skid row.

Not Writing

They say it’s better to not have a blog than to have one where you don’t bother writing anything. I’m not sure if that’s true, but if it is, then I guess it would be better if I just got rid of the site. I don’t think I will though.

Should I be sad?

How is it that so many people have no idea what the word transgression means?

Google_Search_Trend

The Most Important People on the Web

Pssstt . . . They’re your users.

Google Webmasters support:

Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.

SEO Should Follow Contingency Design

I recently finished reading Defensive Design for the Web, by 37signals. The guys at 37 signals are great user interface designers and application builders. While reading the book I thought of a few connections between the worlds of contingency design and SEO, and how contingency design can help every SEO be both user oriented and search engine friendly.

Contingency design is always user oriented, and SEO tends to be very bot oriented, so the two might seem disconnected. Look a little closer though and you’ll see where they meet. Search engine robots are designed to provide searchers with the most relevant and useful results possible. Contingency design is also similarly user oriented, making it easier for users to decipher websites and helping them take the right path when they veer off course. Writing a website shouldn’t be uniquely focused on attracting search bots. Using tactics like incessant bolding of words and keyword stuffing within site content won’t do much for a user looking to get actual information out of your website. Getting the user to your site is important, but what you deliver for the user once he or she arrives is so much more important.

The bottom line is that no matter how much search traffic you attract, not delivering with well crafted, pertinent content will just lose your site credibility with users. Write a site for people, and search engine optimization will happen naturally.

Optimization and Analytics Learnin’ Goin’ On

I took the first step toward doing a lot more reading by getting my cable turned off today. Ok, so it’s not really turned off . . . yet. The cable will be gone in October, to be replaced by something to download and store video. The thing that really excites me about letting go of the boob tube is the reading I’m going to get done now that I’m losing a distraction. I’ve got about 6 books in the cue at the moment that I wanted to share. All of them are geared toward optimization or analytics.

• Web Analytics An Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushik
  I’m already peeking into this one, and I’m sure the insights will be really great. I follow the Occam’s Razor blog (as you can see in the blogroll) that Avinash publishes. He’s a wise fellow when it comes to the analytics, so I’m expecting plenty of insight.
• Advanced Web Metrics With Google Analytics by Brian Clifton
  I’m not as familiar with Brian’s work, but I’ll be paying more attention now that I’m reading this book. I use Google Analytics quite a bit, so this should be some great info.
• Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions by Tim Ash
  I’ve been working on my landing page optimization skill and really trying to stay in tune with the latest on the subject. Hopefully, this book just improves my base of knowledge and prepares me for any new developments.
• Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets by Andrew B. King
  I’m really curious about the secrets. Seriously though, I’m just hoping to get some knowledge and a different perspective on things.

I’d love to know if anyone has a book they’ve read that they really likes, please let me know. Now, I’m off to get in some mindless entertainment from my cable before it goes away.

Tags: analytics, books, optimization