According to the 2011 survey a web developer in BC can expect to earn an average of $23.56 per hour. The low amount, useful for estimating Junior Developer wage expectations, is $14.00 hourly in the Vancouver and lower mainland region. An experienced web developer can see wages up to, and around, $30.41.

When I consider how long I’ve been in the industry I see $30.41 and immediately think that that is what I should be earning, as I have been a web developer for over 10 years. This also had me thinking about just what was expected from the job title of Web Developer. More important to consider is what we don’t do.

What You Know

In 10 years I have worked directly with PHP, javascript and ajax, mySQL and SQL, Coldfusion, ASP, and even C# and .NET. This is along with the minimal requirements as a Web Developer such as HTML and CSS. In the past 2 years I have worked primarily with PHP, CSS, Ajax and WordPress.

Rusty Lessons

If I work for a company and they suddenly ask me to work with Joomla or create a .NET application I will be forced to admit that I need to re-learn skills that I haven’t used in years. In much the same way as I have forgotten a lot of what I learned in High School since the 14 years I was last there, we only tend to retain a fluent skill set in our most recent activities.
Does this still justify a wage of $30.41?

So long as a reasonable amount of time is allowed for updating our skills then I would answer this with a resounding YES. If too much time has passed since last we used the requested skills then it would be appropriate for the wage to be lowered.

How Low Should the Wage Go?

So long as past experience can be used to quickly grasp current demands and technology then an experienced web developer wage should not dip below the wage median of $23.56.

The reason is because experienced Web Developers, even if required to learn a new language such as java, have the troubleshooting, testing, and logic that a junior or intermediate web developer simply do not have. With experience comes the ability to recognize patterns in code from one language to another and be able to quickly apply it in a fully functional manner.

• A junior web developer wage of $14.00 per hour makes sense as they are just learning to program, test, and troubleshoot their work.
• An intermediate web developer has learned the skills of a junior web developer and added logic, thus earning them $23.56 per hour.
• A senior web developer has learned all the skills of previous positions and added project management and systems analysis to their skill set, making them able to quickly adapt to changes such as new languages, technologies and meet greater demands then the previous positions can allow with such limited experience.

Final Thoughts

Nobody enjoys the question often asked at a job interview regarding wage expectations. After this article you should be able to reflect on your current skills to better determine what your wage expectation should be in BC, Canada. By using a regional census of web developer wages you will be better equiped to answer that daunting question and do so with confidence.

• Search Engine Optimization
• Caching
• User Profiles
• Custom Post Types
• Database Backup

While all of these would seem like fundamental features of the WordPress core the developers never seem to add them. Their logic may well be that there is no need to add it to the core when a perfectly good plug-in is available to do it for us.

WordPress Without Search and Replace

WordPress doesn’t include, at present, an easy way to manipulate page and post content en masse. This is something that surprised me considering WordPress uses a mySQL ISAM database. ISAM has always had the great ability to search within text fields for matching text, i.e.:

# A normal fulltext SEARCH matches ONLY UNIQUE strings
SELECT * FROM test WHERE MATCH (article) against ('Molde has the best football team in Norway')

# A BOOLEAN mode SEARCH matches words IN this example
SELECT * FROM test WHERE MATCH (article) against ('molde' IN BOOLEAN mode);

# A BOOLEAN mode SEARCH

SELECT * FROM test WHERE MATCH (article) against ('+molde -music' IN BOOLEAN mode);

Recently mySQL INNODB also allows text searching built in. This is a strangely important feature when you think about it. For the average user (most clients) changing all URLs from www.example.com to www.example.net is well beyond their capabilities. Even something more common would be a customer pointing out a spelling error for the word “WrodPress” but not remembering what page it was on. A quick text search/replace in the administration of WordPress would fix that in a hurry.

WordPress Popular Plugins in the Core

Every WordPress website wants to be seen so why not include a built in meta for SEO? They could even use the text search capabilities above to create an set code which will fill in the meta description and keywords based on common words and phrase sequences.

There is no sound reason why cache and built in database backup capabilities should not be added to the WordPress core. There are certainly enough plugins that could have code copied (with permission) to strip white space from a css file and javascript file.

As for a very demanded feature of user profiles I would think using two of the most long standing plugins S2Plugin and Members could easily be integrated in to the WordPress core.

Summary

While WordPress is known for its 5 minute install and friendly user interface for beginners it leaves much lacking in its core. Each update barely touches on what would benefit the massive community the most and many minor updates seem added on a whim. With hundreds of thousands of plugins to choose from, many that duplicate the functionality of another, WordPress developers appear to ignore what people want the most.

This approach to a content management system tells me that WordPress will have no long term future except with the most hard core fans.

Where to go from here

As developers we need to always look to the future. If we don’t then technology and consumer demands for the shiniest toy will leave us in the dust. So where do we go from here?
Myself, I’m looking towards some brilliant PHP Frameworks that, on their own, have many of the abilities I cited above already incorporated – most noted are the Yii Framework and Code Igniter Framework.

WordPress Div Structure Diagram

WordPress DIV Structure Advantage

This WordPress DIV structure diagram uses the three most common layouts: 1-column, 2-column, and 3-column. By using the basic Header -> Main -> Footer approach we can easily swap any layout into those three containors. We can, for example, build a home page using a full width, 1-colum layout but use the 2-column header. What about putting navigation on the left side running vertically? We can use the WordPress DIV structure standards to do that with ease:

• Lets use the 3-column header and use the middle box for ad space
• We’ll remove the NAV containor because we won’t be using it.
• Using the 2-column layout we can replace the second column name with NAV instead of Sidebar
• Add the footer

That’s it. The easiest way to think about using the WordPress DIV structure diagram is pretend you have a pile of paper all cut up into the boxes and containors in the diagram. So long as we use the same Frame Header -> Main -> Footer we can place those cut pieces of paper in any order and shape we choose to create our website layout. A WordPress theme with dozens of unique layouts using a standard.

A DIV Structure Standard by Name

The WordPress DIV structure standard displayed here is more then just a puzzle with infinite design potential. It creates a very important standard in web development – Naming Conventions . By using the structure with the designated HTML Div naming conventions we bridge a often overlooked gap between the designer and the programmer. The designer won’t ever need slice the theme into a working wordpress theme. A simple XHTML CSS theme is all that is needed. The programmer can take that and add in the neccessary code to make it work within wordpress with relative ease.

By using this diagram the designer and programmer can work in tandem with each other. A programmer can begin programming all the WordPress functions because they will have the fundamental wireframe used from the WordPress DIV structure standard. The designer can create the theme in Photoshop or whatever tool they prefer, slice it to XHTML and send it to the programmer. By doing this the delay caused while the programmer waits for a complete design is eliminated.

The Designer

• Designs the theme
• Gets approval from client
• Slices design into XHTML using the DIV structure with naming convention standards
• Sends it to the Programmer/Developer

The Programmer

• Creates the theme frame from the wireframe – based on the DIV standards
• Adds custom and built-in WordPress functions
• Splits the XHTML Design recieved into Header -> Main -> Footer
• Places WordPress code into the template
• Tests the template

Both the programmer and designer know that the header has a clickable logo, banner ad, and a search bar within the header. They both know that the ID or Class name in the css is going to be logo, header_more, and header_right. They can both use .post{} within the CSS to define how wide the post containor will be. They use the same naming standards and, thus, are on the same page.

This is the basic WordPress DIV structure standard and custom classes and containors will be added for additional features such as Banner Sliders, related posts, sidebar navigation boxes, and much more, but the important outline and framework of the design is established universally between the designer and programmer.

Design Standards Are Future Proof

The other, less thought about, advantage to building a set of standards is when looking to the future. With a design standard any programmer or designer can quickly go into the WordPress theme months down the road and quickly, and efficiently make adjustments to any element without have to search endlessly. How often do we find ourselves going back to a website that didn’t have a standard set and found, in the CSS file alone:

.bg{color:#fff;}
.background{color:#cfc66;}
.conbg{color:#fff;}
.boxbg{color:#fff;}

And lets say the client asked us to change the text color of the sidebar, or post entry to red. Which of those style classes to we use to make that simple change? We will need to waste time testing each one until the results we want are displayed, or use other tools to eliminate the other classes. With a standard set we can simply open the CSS file and change exactly what we need quickly, and without searching:

.sidebar{color:#fff;}
.sidebar h1, h2, h3 {font-size:1.7em;}
.post{color:#ccffad;}
.entry{color:#3c66cc;}

As you can see, using a WordPress DIV structure standard is far easier and more efficient both pre-development and post-development. If the client wanted green headers in the sidebar we know exactly where to find it.

I hope you enjoyed this WordPress DIV Structure Standard article and find ways you can use it to benefit you and your company. I’d like to give a special thank you to Walter Matyas, as this fantastic designer played an integral role in establishing these standards.

Interact with your Visitors with Website Usability

Website usability can be defined as your visitors ability to interact with your website. This can be achieved by analyzing how your visitors will be using your website. They best way to do this is to put yourself in the visitors shoes and ask yourself some fundamental questions:

1. Does the website portray the company image professionally?
2. Is the website navigation easily identified?
3. Are website forms simple, and easy to use?
4. Are page elements, like images and text, separated enough to set them apart so as not to confuse the eye?
5. Does the page structure and layout make sense?
6. Is page scrolling eliminated as much as possible?
7. Are articles, blogs, images, and sub navigation clearly identified and directly related to the page in which they reside?
8. Can the page be cleaner and still deliver?
9. Can the client know about your business within 5 seconds of landing at your site?

Every Page is a Landing Page

Google indexes all pages of a website now, not just one. This means that every page now has a snapshot and summary in Google search results. When a visitor clicks on the link it is important that every page is viewed as a landing page. A landing page is the resulting page that appears when a user clicks on a link from an outside source, like Google or Yahoo or from a call to action on your website. It is for this reason that it is essential that every page represents your company and offers a clearly defined call-to-action. A call-to-action, simply, tells the visitor what to do and why. A few examples of a call-to-action might be:

• Contact us
• Sign Up
• Buy Now
• Get a Quote

Good User Interface Design controls the visitor

From the moment a visitor arrives at your website your website user interface controls what the visitor is meant to do. There should be no questions at any point as they navigate through your content and pages. Clean, clear, concise is the objective for good user interface design. Some tips are:

1. Unless the page is an article, limit the written information available to the visitor to only the important details.
2. Only use images when they compliment, or relate, to the topic at hand.
3. Use familiar objects, shapes, and icons for easy recognition
4. Any call to action should be the first visible part of a page
5. Call to actions should be clearly defined and, where applicable, written with easy to follow steps
6. Use colors and backgrounds sparingly. Too much will distract the visitor

While there are many other elements to consider these are listed to give you a basic understanding of the concepts. People, generally, don’t want to spend time on your website unless you are a news or article based company. They want to get in, purchase, and get out quickly. A great user interface will allow your visitor to find what they are looking for in under 5 seconds and any forms or transactions won’t take them more than one minute to complete.

Ranking vs Usability

The bottom line is that it really doesn’t matter if you are on page #1 or #5 in Google. If you don’t have a website people want to use they will simply move on to the next company, ultimately your competition. So let us look at a real scenario:

If you have a rank of 1 in Google and get 10,000 website visitors but have a poor user interface design your conversion rate will be less then 2%. Closer to 1%, in reality. That’s100-200 visitors that actually use your website. So what happened to the other 9,800? They found somewhere else to go, a more appealing and simple to use website. Those 9,800 have potentially also told 10 of their friends not to use your website.

Lets place you on page 3 of Google. You now receive 5,000 visitors but have a great user interface design. When people arrive at your website they enjoy how easy it is to find information and find your call-to action elements. Due to your website usability you are able to convert 10% of all your visitors to solid leads. That’s 500 people now using your service.

As you can imagine, take a clean user interface and a high Google Rank and your conversion, and profits (or rate of investment) will begin to soar.

The Encyclopaedia Wiki describes link farming as follows:

On the World Wide Web, a link farm is any group of web sites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group. Although some link farms can be created by hand, most are created through automated programs and services. A link farm is a form of spamming the index of a search engine (sometimes called spamdexing or spamexing). Other link exchange systems are designed to allow individual websites to selectively exchange links with other relevant websites and are not considered a form of spamdexing.
Search engines require ways to confirm page relevancy. A known method is to examine for one-way links coming directly from relevant websites. The process of building links should not be confused with being listed on link farms, as the latter requires reciprocal return links, which often renders the overall back link advantage useless. This is due to oscillation, causing confusion over which is the vendor site and which is the promoting site.

Link Farm Benefits

The benefits of link farming, or adding inbound links, is being able to see almost immediate results. Many clients don’t understand website optimization and ranking. They are generally content with seeing their website climb in the ranks over a period of weeks instead of Months. Instant gratification.

Link Relativity

Search Engine Optimization companies know what you want and aren’t afraid to charge you for it. Especially when the results of their efforts occur so quickly. In reality, these companies play on the ignorance of their customers. Mostly, they promote links on websites that have nothing to do with your business, service or industry. Not even your targeted region!

Link Farm and Back Link theory

The theory behind back links, or inbound links is rather simple. It is believed that the more links that point to your website the more popular you are. For the most part, this is actually very true. However, what many SEO companies do is outsource, or use programs to place links on any website or directory that will accept them. Many of these websites are, by definition, link farms.

Taking Advantage of Clients

What is further bad practice is the use of outbound links to websites that have no relevance to your company at all. Usually these can be found on links titled something like “These are some of our friends” or similar. In fact, when SEO companies use this method they often take advantage of their own clients websites to, effectively, create a link farm!

What Google Says

Your site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

• Links intended to manipulate PageRank
• Links to web spammers or bad neighbourhoods on the web
• Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
• Buying or selling links that pass Page Rank

What you can do

The best suggestion I can make, when working with an SEO company, is to have them send you all inbound links to your website that they create.

• Check them carefully.
• Be certain that all the websites are related directly with yours.
• Ensure that those websites are relevant to yours.
• Don’t let the link be your competition.
• Ensure the page isn’t loaded with links (over 20 and flags should start raising).

How Long Should It take?

There is no definitive answer to how long it will take to start seeing results from a good SEO company. That should not even be your immediate concern. Your immediate concern should be whether or not your website will cross search engine guidelines and affect your long term potential. Getting to the top fast using a bad approach is far worse then getting there slowly using a good method.

Of course, if you only plan on being in business for a couple of years then, by all means, use instant results. It’s only yours, and your business’ reputation on the line.

The Unrelated Reality

Unrelated Media believes that you could be the number one person on any Google organic search and still make a poor return on your investment. If you don’t have a good user interface design then it really doesn’t matter what your rank is, or what page you are on in Google. People will always use the website that is quick to answer their needs, easy to navigate, and very easy to read over a poor design every time. User interface design is a whole other article to be written. It doesn’t matter your rank or page – if you want your website to convert customers you will need to give them the desire to use your website in the first place!

In WordPress themes my biggest pet peeve is overloaded functions.php files. Most themes come with hundreds of options in the administration panel and are generally all coded in the functions.php file. I’ve witnessed a WordPress theme functions.php file size in excess of 100Kb. That’s larger then most images you would put on your site!

This isn’t even including any functions specific to the front end of the website theme. I’ve seen large blocks of code dedicated to easily referenced functions that the theme developer can access in his/her templating. Such things as front-end navigation alterations, or footer modifications.

unnecessary overhead

The reason it’s a pet peeve of mine is entirely due to the unneccessary overhead all that code causes. Here is some of the overhead I’m referring to:

1. Every page – from administration to front-end pages, loads this file. So if it’s 100Kb of pure administration functions the front end still loads it!
2. editing the WordPress functions.php file can be a headache – especially if poorly commented.
3. Troubleshooting the functions.php is made much more difficult, especially if you aren’t certain of the cause of any error.

Keep It Clean and Tidy

WordPress offers the ability to easily get rid of all that overhead. All it requires is a touch more effort on the theme developers to create quality themes. By that, I mean a more structured and cleanly coded approach:

• Create two folders in your theme root labeled “Theme_Admin” and “Theme_Frontend”
• Each unique function is placed in it’s own file in it’s respective folder. So if you have 80 shortcodes simply create a file called theme_shortcodes.php and place it in your Theme_Admin folder.
• Make use of WordPress conditionals, most notably the is_admin().
• Reference your functions with require_once (TEMPLATEPATH . '/ Theme_Admin /theme_shortcodes.php'); or similar

It’s true. That’s all it takes to speed up front-end loading of your site, and back-end loading because you will only be loading the scripts you need, when you need it. Taking this approach will shrink your 100Kb functions.php file down to less then 20Kb easily.

The additional bonus is being able to troubleshoot and simply read and access your code far easier. A simple example, using the custom TinyMCE Buttons class is:

is_admin() Example

//load admin functions here
if(is_admin()){

//load custom buttons class
require_once (TEMPLATEPATH . '/Admin/class.new_tinymce_btn.php');  

//create an instance of the class
$t = new add_new_tinymce_btn('|','green',get_bloginfo('template_url').'/scripts/buttons/green_button.js');
$s = new add_new_tinymce_btn('|','blue',get_bloginfo('template_url').'/scripts/buttons/blue_button.js');
}

Summary

As a WordPress theme developer you might not care about clean code as long as people buy your themes. What you may be unaware of is that most people that buy themes are developers who intend on modifying it to suit a purpose. People will see your code so why not make it as clean and easy, all the while optimizing size and load times?

So lets see some clean, well structured functions.php files from now on!

A website report is a way to see how well your website is doing. Through solid website analysis you can fine tune your reports to detail many important observations including, but not limited to:

• Website traffic
• Keywords used to find your website
• Where, in the world, your web traffic comes from
• Rate of investment for marketing strategies
• Percent of visitors using a specific web browser
• Errors on your website
• What pages people leave on
• What pages people enter on
• Average time a visitor stays on your site
• Most viewed pages

Using the information provided through your website reports can allow you to find trends, or even create a trend! Judiciously using website analysis lets you work with updated information to further enhance your website for your visitors. Website analysis and a website report are not exclusive of each other, but actually feed in to each other. One can not successfully exist without the other.

Due to an ever changing technology front, as well as visitors that can change on a whim, a website is never truly finished. Using analysis tools to provide reports allow you to keep on top of any changes and adapt your website accordingly.

Using Website Reporting: A Real Example

A simple example of using the information from a report is the dreaded Internet Explorer. A few years ago any website built had to be able to be viewed in Internet Explorer.

For those not familiar with the issue involved, let me say that the capabilities of Internet Explorer versus other major web browsers is the difference between Michelangelo painting the Sistine chapel with crayons vs paint. Or perhaps it is closer to building a house and using papyrus for support beams. Internet Explorer was not up to web standards and only now, in 2011, has it finally updated itself to be on par with other major browsers.

Thanks to the growing awareness of web users wanting access to all the content a website can offer (Flash, advanced javascripts, up-to-date CSS 3 and HTML 5) they began switching to more user friendly, and fully capable web browsers like firefox. Apple Mac users never need be concerned – you will always be ahead of the curve.

Due to this trend web developers began an initiative to, basically, boycott Internet Explorer and focus on developing updated, modern web content for the majority of web browsers, ignoring Internet Explorers inability to display said content. Now most modern websites design for the visitor, not the web browser. Thus, we see a large decline in people using Internet Explorer and more people enjoying the rich content experienced the web can truly offer.

Summary

You have the ability to collect an extraordinary amount of information about your website and it’s visitors. To continue to effectively serve your visitors it is important to use these tools to continually enhance your website. It is also good to take advantage of these web analysis and report tools to dynamically update your marketing strategy to better fit within growing, or receding trends.

The dictionary defines marketing as
“the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.”

Web development marketing is about advertising your products or services. It is marketing to people that may not, otherwise, know you exist. For the purposes of this article I will be focusing on methods of networking and advertising that are indirect in driving visitors to your website.

Website marketing can feel like an overwhelming task to begin when just starting out. To help ease clients into it I like to dig a little into their daily lives. The reason I take this personal approach is because many people are simply unaware of the resources they have!

Real World Marketing Example

Lets say you are selling a new coffee product. Consider where you have enjoyed coffee that is not retail specific (e.g. Starbucks, Tim Hortons). Perhaps you attend church and enjoy coffee after masse. You may even attend social gatherings at people’s homes where coffee is served. Now, you could simply tell others that you sell coffee and network in a traditional sense…

Humans are creatures of habit. They don’t often stray towards the unknown. My approach would be to take it that next step further. Why not serve your own new coffee after masse? Bring your own coffee to serve to others at social gatherings. Break their habitual comfort zones using an environment that your future customers are already comfortable in. You are breaking traditional networking while promoting yourself, and your products or services.

As the example portrays web development marketing is about thinking outside the box. It doesn’t mean you should leave out conventional methods, just expand on methods already available.

Where Do I Market?

There are two general ways of marketing:

Locally

Local marketing involves utilizing newspapers, and general mail delivery systems as well as taking advantage of local avenues to market your product or service like trade shows. It can involve buying a better description on Google Maps. This is where your business cards are personally handed out, or your brochures cheerfully given.

While certainly not limited to the above methods, local marketing is really about being able to have a more personal hand in reaching people.

Globally

Global marketing is less personal then local. It is less effective, but still necessary if your product or service reaches outside your city, province, state or country. It is also far more costly.

Common methods of marketing are to purchase Google, or Yahoo ads as well as promote yourself through other media such as videos. You are also going to want to shake hands with other websites that share similar content and mutually promote each other.

An often overlooked approach is using video marketing through services such as You Tube and Vimeo. Small and medium business are often afraid to invest in having an After Effects motion designer, or video company make a commercial or short video. A commercial can be placed at the beginning of other videos, while a 5-10 minute video can help invigorate, or ‘pump-up’ people about your product or service.

Summary

Web development marketing is, above all, about reaching people. Thinking outside the box and breaking out of convention will help you draw more interest. Don’t forget that you are your greatest asset and so, too, is your everyday life and all you do in it. 

Unrelated Media provides consulting services that can help you break the mould and market your website, product or service. Simply fill out the contact form!

Utilizing social media networks allows you to be a ‘Pied Piper’ for your web service or web product. Playing the right notes on your flute attracts targeted visitors to your website, but it is still up to you to guide them in the right direction.

Rule # 1: Give Visitors a Reason to Return

The first rule of developing social interaction is to give your websites visitors a reason to come to your website more then once. Many companies use blogs with updated news and content to encourage visitors to check back often. It is important to keep any blog material relevant to the content of your website. It is also a good way to continue adding content rich keywords to your website over time, further enhancing your search engine visibility.

Rule #2: Social Marketing is Not So Specific

You are not promoting your newest vehicle. You are promoting the advantages of fuel economy, cargo space, and safety rating. Keyword here is ‘advantages’. Visitors can go many places to buy a vehicle, but they will come to you to learn more about the product. While they are there they’ll learn to trust your information and be inclined to purchase from you, not your competitor.

This also helps add credibility to rule #1.

Social marketing is a topic on it’s own, though still part of social interaction, and I don’t think I could write a better explanation then is had at Social Marketing.com

Rule #3: Promote Consumer Feedback

For good or ill, using consumer feedback is a valuable asset to social interaction. No matter what you could write about your product or services with rule #1 and rule #2 the general public do heed the advice and experiences of consumers. Review systems are often built using a rating system that allow for a brief written review. Consumer feedback also provides relevant copy for your website.

In some cases feedback gives visitors a reason to return to your website all unto itself. There’s an inherent curiosity to know what other people think and feel. It’s curiosity that made Facebook spread like a plague globally, as it’s very nature is to feed people with information about others. Twitter is a shorter example of this. With a quick sentence you can announce to thousands of people that your coffee was too cold at 9:00am from Starbucks.

These are the three golden social interaction marketing rules I follow. They are the foundation, the trunk of a solid tree. Like a tree they can branch out in many shapes and forms, yet they remain a part of the trunk. The key to social interaction in web development is planting a good seed, growing a strong tree, and not being afraid to creatively branch out. Always keep to your roots or your marketing strategy will quickly get out of hand.

• Website Target Audience
• Search Engine Spiders

For brevity lets simply state that keywords placed throughout the website copy, highlighted as is logical, gives search engines a more relaxing, yet very effective read.

Before I summarize my own approach to web copy, I highly suggest you watch this fantastic video of Ms. Gonzalez at the wordpress conference in Australia

Copy Writing for the Living

People, on the other hand, don’t read. They scan content. Making sure that the website copy can tell the story of the content within a glance is pretty important. What makes scanning easier for people are the following, researched rules:

• Single columns
• The human eye can average 12 words in a line at a glance
• Sub Headings: if you remove the copy below, does the page still make sense?
• Don’t use slang words, especially in the navigation
• Avoid the use of unnecessary words
• Keep the copy structure ordered logically
• Be blunt, straight forward in writing

A good visual example on writing copy sub headings and content is Magazines. At a glance you can scan through a magazine and have an idea of what it is about, what each article is about and whether or not you would return to buy another copy.

Copy Writing for the Machines

If you ever go to a search engine optimization company and pay them to put your website on the first page of Google you might be shocked to learn that the web copy they wrote is readable only to spiders (the term used to describe the program search engines use to scour your website). It doesn’t make all that much sense to people. Sure, they got you noticed in the search engine but when people click the link to your site they leave just as fast.

Something many people don’t think about, including most SEO companies that give you a ‘guarantee’ is that real people need to read, understand, and enjoy the content more then anything else. It does no good to be #1 in Google if your target audience can’t scan the content, or read the content and want to read more. People are impatient and won’t take the time to translate the website copy. People will quickly move on.

Web copy is first for the real people, second for the search engines. The only professional SEO company that understands this that I have met is SEO Visions, in down town Vancouver. If you are looking for professional copy writing for your web content SEO Vision are the people I would recommend.