Twitter Users By Age c. of Nielson

Here’s what I think:

1. Teens use social media outlets to dialogue with groups of friends. They prefer images, videos, and real time conversation to occasional text updates, especially when they can get “real time” text updates via text messaging services. This makes sites like Facebook and content-rich social media sites more popular option for this demo.
2. Working people use social media to communicate with a network of acquaintances. They are generally busier and don’t have time for a full update or conversation. Text-based social media sites like Twitter are perfect for this demo because they aren’t overwhelming in terms of bandwidth (literal and figurative)..
3. The Nielson data set is skewed. (Who came up with “the terrible twos” to “just under-cheaper-car-insurance age” as a reasonable demographic? 2 – 24 years old. Right, those are all teens )
4. Teens do use Twitter, particularly if their friends do, too. Group participation can make even a mostly text-based site like Twitter meaningful for the teen demo.

To put things in the old instant messenger parlance (the admitted inspiration for Twitter.com): teens are chatting. People at work are posting away messages. If you want to talk to your friends about their lives, there are much better options than Twitter. But, if you want to make people feel connected to you without actually having to say very much, a 140-character soapbox may be all you need.

Bing and Yahoo to Merge Search in 2010

As news of Microsoft and Yahoo’s search partnership deal has darted around the blogosphere and across the world, SEMs and SEOs are coming to terms with the realities:

1. BingHoo has gained some search market share, but not enough to really threaten Google’s dominance in the short term.

[The Most Important Facts, and Some Opinion, Techcrunch.com, 07.29.2009]

2. Yahoo is out of the search game.

[It's Finally Over..., SearchEngineLand.com, 07.29.2009]

3. Bing will be the new Yahoo search engine starting in early 2010, and will profit from ads displayed.

[Yahoo gives up, Wired.com, 07.29.2009]

4. Yahoo will assume online advertising and relationship management services for both companies.

[It's Finally Over..., SearchEngineLand.com, 07.29.2009]

5. Microsoft just bet heavily on “Middle America”, Yahoo’s primary demographic, and wants their input into their Bing search algorithm.

While these are all worthwhile insights, the most interesting to me is the last. In a period of economic downturn, Microsoft has chosen to shell out vast sums for a 10 year partnership which gives them open access to Yahoo’s search functionality, the single most powerful revenue generator for the site. What remains to be seen is how the Yahoo user base will shape Bing’s evolution, and whether Yahoo’s search will be completely integrated or remain slightly separate.

Bing was hot right out of the gate, and continues to fare well with users looking to make purchases, but recent research shows users choose results at roughly the same rate from all 3 major current search engines in a blind test. Microsoft seems to be betting that there is a demographic overlap with buy-motivated searchers and Yahoo’s enormous user base, but this is questionable in the short term, what with global economic depression felt particularly in the middle-income manufacturing belts of the US. The current stereotype is that people go to Yahoo to “waste time” — how does Microsoft turn that into a buy? Extended sales pitches targeted directly to your Yahoo user patterns? Across weeks at a time? Will BingHoo turn into the new place to subtly place the seeds of brand for travel, shopping, health and local search?

As an SEO, determining what constitutes a bottleneck for your client’s website is a high priority. After identifying SEO problems, you can define strategies and tactics to overcome them. These days, we see the most common SEO bottlenecks occur in the accessibility-useful-intuitive portion of a visitor’s conversion path. Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, this concept was first introduced for website prioritization by Bryan Eisenberg. While Eisenberg mostly sticks with a modified sales funnel metaphor, I think a bottleneck model is currently more relevant, as really any part of the SEO process can have a dramatic effect on ROI.

SEO Conversion Path Bottleneck

One of an SEO’s many jobs is to reduce the number of people who “bounce” from the webpage at a bottleneck, by specifically addressing the five high priority optimization levels seen above.

The 5 Levels of SEO Explained

1. Functional

— The website has a goal or goals which all visitors can complete. (Exists for a purpose and “works” in the most basic sense.)

2. Accessible

— The website can be found by search engines and other entry points. (Has “SEO 1.0″ in place, i.e. title and meta description tags, as well as “alt” attributes for images)

3. Useful

— The website fulfills its intended purpose and is easy to use and navigate. (Relevant, info rich, “gets the job done”)

4. Intuitive

— Visitor personae goal paths are established and easy to achieve. (Aesthetically pleasing, attention-drawing, multiple navigation scenarios, “happens by itself”)

5. Persuasive

— The website converts visitors to sales or leads with good content, products, and copy, images, and videos. (Call to action.)

I find these levels helpful when thinking about how to prioritize a website’s opportunities, as it provides convenient categories into which you can sort your many options.

Turning Your Conversion Trickle Into a Flood

Conversion Path without SEO Bottlenecks

After you determine where the bottlenecks for a website are, attack them! It doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get a flood of conversions, but the odds are much higher. Additionally, by dealing with the first 3 levels (functional, accessible, useful), your site’s “rating” for the intuitive and persuasive levels will naturally rise. With the right content and the right product, there’s nothing to stop conversions pouring in.

Well, after a long medium-hard slog we’ve got a new website up and running on a flexible Wordpress platform.  We’re really amazed by what the open source community continues to create, and love the collaborative aspects of setting up this project.  Installation is silky smooth using our preferred webhost, BlueHost.com.  In coming days we’ll be commenting on emerging trends in SEO, web marketing, creative graphic design.  Stay posted!

All the best,

The Propel Team