One of the big “a-ha” moments many of our SEO clients experience occurs when we talk about how websites, serving as virtual stores, differ from their brick and mortar cousins.

The simplest and most basic difference comes from the fact that brick and mortar stores generally have one “official” entrance while websites, through the virtue of search engine indexation, can be “entered” at almost any point.

Say a searcher is looking for, let’s just go out on a limb here, “sour cream”. (Known here in the UK as “soured cream” – a fact I recently discovered.)

In the online world, a searcher would simply type the query into Google for example, and Voila!, millions of web pages (4.08 MM to be exact)  having something to do with “sour cream” would show up.

In the “real world”, however, the pattern is different. A shopper would generally enter through a store’s main entrance and begin the “search”. In my case it was Tesco, here in Swansea last Sunday, when I was shopping for “sour cream” (we were craving chicken fajitas).

With brick and mortar stores, people are familiar with the concept of browsing, knowing that while most stores have a similar organizational pattern (e.g. products requiring refrigeration are generally located together, as are breads, vegetables, wine), it can still take a while to “learn” that organization when one is a new shopper at that store.

For example, my “sour cream” experience at Tesco on Sunday took more than 45 minutes. At first I browsed for the “soured cream” myself, then I asked for help from an employee who took me to the “salad cream” section (salad cream appears to be a mild mayonnaise people put on their salads), then I browsed some more on my own, then I asked another employee who helpfully said it was in the “milk” section. Once there (again), I frantically examined each shelf on the “milk” aisle until I found the sour cream. All this took place whilst also hearing the countdown to the store closing time and fearing our chicken fajitas would not, in fact, include the critical ingredient.

In short, there’s an element of patience and perusal associated with brick and mortar shopping – until, that is, you learn exactly where the sour cream is and can make a beeline for that aisle the next time you need it.

Online shoppers are not that patient.

(Read the full article…)

View related topics: client-expectations, search-engine-rankings, SEO, seo-success, Web Usability

If you’ve been following our blog posts over the last couple weeks, you’ll already know that we loved the SXSW (South by Southwest) Interactive Festival. Here are a few more pictures from our trade booth on the Exhibition Hall floor:

Our friend Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering stops by to chat with Lance Loveday, joined by Jessica Hagy of ThisIsIndexed.com.

We held a drawing for a magnum of Silver Oak Cabernet wine, and the lucky winner was Dave Dauber, pictured here holding the prize bottle (front, 2nd from left). He’s joined here by the CLM team and his friend Gene Rodgers (far left). Dave and Gene produce The Gene and Dave Show, which is “a glimpse into the lives and lifestyles of people with disabilities through entertaining, interviewing, and informing.”

John Evans and Amy Greer talk with Nikki Silva (far right) of The Kitchen Sisters - “offbeat, original, award-winning storytelling.”

Lance greets David Glenn (right) of Small World Labs, and enterprise social networking provider.

OK, We Promise That’s It For SXSW

All in all, a terrific time was had at SXSW! Next week we’ll get back to our regular, informative blog posts on topics pertaining to online marketing.

I’m not a big fan of TV. But my wife and I decided to cancel our satellite TV service effective next week, so I’ve found myself watching more TV than ever recently, trying to squeeze the most out of my remaining days. I guess Cinderella was right: You don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.

Anyhow, my wife and I cracked up the other night at a TV commercial that’s had me laughing ever since. The commercial involves two characters: a guy and a llama. The guy (who looks suspiciously llama-like himself) chews on a Starburst, which makes him look exactly like the llama chewing cud (or whatever llamas eat). Then you see the guy’s arm feeding the llama a Starburst, which it continues chewing. Then when the shot switches back to the guy, you see a llama’s arm (Leg? Paw? Hoof?) reach up and feed the guy a Starburst. It’s unexpected and funny, which makes it memorable. I’d argue that it’s a rare example of a TV ad that does a brilliant job of branding.

It did this by appealing to multiple senses. Most TV ads use both video and audio, thus playing to our sense of sight and sound. This ad went further by playing off the unique chewiness of Starburst candy in such a funny way. It was easy to imagine being the funny-looking guy, chewing the candy yourself (touch), savoring the flavor (taste) and inhaling the aroma (smell) with your llama-esque nose.

The essence of branding

Branding has been on my mind a lot lately because I just finished reading “Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy” by Martin Lindstrom. It’s a fascinating book that provides great insight into how branding really works in the minds of consumers. It also explains how most companies get branding wrong by continuing to focus on stale advertising tactics and logo design instead of engaging consumers’ senses and emotions. The author conducted research using brain scanning technology to see how consumers really react to various types of stimuli associated with brands. It’s a very compelling read that yields some eye-opening takeaways about how human beings are wired.

… Read the full article on Search Engine Land >

Wow.

I have heard time and time again about how great, awesome, cool, mind-blowing SXSW is. The part of me that is the cynic (90%) was deviously hoping to dispel all the hype by attending SXSW and then giving my own point of view.

Well, I just got back, and I’m sorry to say all of the hype is well-founded.

The Conference

I was not able to attend very many sessions, but what I did attend was eye-opening, and there wasn’t even standing room. The CSS3 panel I checked out was so packed I had to sit in the aisle, and yes, it was worth it. I won’t go into what’s on the horizon with CSS in this post, but let’s just say my jaw dropped. Oh, and by the way, the latest IE 8.x release is finally fully CSS 2.1 compliant. What year is it? But seriously, kudos to Microsoft for this. Now we can all actually start moving forward….

The Music

I play guitar. Well, I thought I did before checking out the local music scene. Friday and Saturday nights I saw guitar players that are truly world-class, and they were playing in local bar bands for tips. If you ever get the chance to take in Austin’s local music scene, take it. I still get chills thinking about it.

The People

The people at SXSW Interactive just seem to get it. I really enjoyed talking to everyone who came by our booth. It was refreshing and very motivating to talk to such forward and positive thinking professionals.

Conclusion

Don’t miss SXSW next year. Don’t miss the top minds in our industry, inspirational people, and nonstop entertainment. It’s a motivation machine.

One of the best parts of any conference is meeting new and interesting people, with the added bonus of discovering synergies along the way.

At SXSW, the number of cool and interesting people is exponentially higher than at virtually any other conference I’ve attended.

But since I can’t mention them all here, I’ll just pick my favorite one from today.

Being a long-term NPR fan, imagine my excitement at meeting Nikki Silva, one of The Kitchen Sisters this morning. She was here at SXSW, promoting their new book Hidden Kitchens Texas and looking for online insight for their website.

And even more interesting is the fact that she and Davia Nelson published this most recent book using Blurb, one of CLM’s clients.

How cool.

Speaking of cool, I’m popping off now to head over and see Lance’s SXSW session: Kick Ass or Suck: Escaping Internet Mediocrity, starting at 5pm in Room 19B. If you’re around, come on over and say hi.