Do you read newspapers anymore? Seriously, do you? If you haven’t, do you at least look at them? Alright, if you’re still answering no, pause reading this (I expect you to return!) and take a minute to go inspect one.

Notice anything? Anything catching your eye?

I honestly haven’t read a newspaper in…well, a few years, but I do look at them as I pass them on newsstands. Why? It’s for the exact same reason I told you to check one out: their eye-catching ability.

Newsies can teach people in SEO web design a thing or two — especially when it comes to designing above the fold.

Designing Above the Fold in Newspapers

There’s this concept that newsies have called, “above the fold.” This is all the news that you can see when the paper is still folded in half.

Why is this such a big deal? That’s their free advertising! As people walk by a newsstand, they’ll see everything above the fold — and if the people in the newsroom have designed the paper properly, it’ll pull the casual readers in and make them buy a paper.

They employ catchy headlines, great photography and witty openings on all of their work above the fold. You need to use many of the same techniques in your web design.

SEO Web Design Above the Fold

You can apply this same concept to SEO web design. When people stop by your site, they’re going to spend a few second there, no more — unless you can entice them.

Look at your site when you first land there. What do you see without scrolling down?

If there isn’t something compelling on your homepage, starting from the very top, then you’re in trouble. Everything above the fold (in this case, it’s everything that shows up without having to scroll), should serve a purpose.

Designing Your Website with SEO in Mind

Say it with me, “Everything should do something.”

Do you have navigation above the fold? Do you have something to let people interact with you? Is there compelling text? Is it colorful? Is it eye-catching?

You only get one shot at impressing most people, don’t squander your opportunities. Just like how newspapers are drawing people in simply by the headlines, pictures and designs above the fold, your site should be too.

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to get some casual reading done — well, casual for me. (Meaning I wasn’t reading Shakespeare, Milton or Chaucer — all fun, but not ‘casual.’ [Though, I do need to go through the Canterbury Tales again…]) I checked out some other SEO companies online.

Wow.

That’s really all I should have to say about that. “Top 10 rankings guaranteed in 5 weeks or your money returned.” “We’ll get you to the first page in Google in a month, without question.” “You’ll rank so high the Almighty will want to read you from Google.”

Sweet Methuselah’s beard, promises like these are signs of a company that you should avoid at all costs. Honestly, anyone who is promising you a top 10 ranking in any sort of timeframe, or even at all, is a shady character.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a 1,342 times, SEO is about techniques and best practices, but there are no guarantees. Come on crappy companies, stop making ridiculous promises like this!

iProspect, an SEM firm, has just finished a survey that holds some interesting tidbits for the SEO/SEM industry.

The main highlight is that 68% of search engine users typically click results on the first page of search results, compared to 62% in 2006, and 60% in 2004. You read right, 68%!

If that’s not convincing enough to get some good SEO going on your site to rank on the first page of the SERPs, consider that only 8% of search engine users review more than the first three pages prior to clicking on a result.

On the one hand, we have over 2/3 of people clicking on something in the first 10 results and on the other hand, 92% of people will only go three pages deep maximum — if you’re not at least in the top 30 for what your trying to rank, you’re out of luck.

Granted, this just enforces exactly what we’ve been saying at Amodon, you need to have good SEO, good content and great design so that people will come to your site, you’ll rank high and the search engines will take notice.

But we’re not ones to say we told you so…but…well, you know.

Here’s a few other interesting things from the post:

• 49% of search engine users who continue their search when not finding what they are looking for change and/or re-launch their search after reviewing just the first page of search results, up from 40% in 2006, and 42% in 2004
• 37% of online users associate appearance at the top of search results with a company’s leadership within its industry or category, up slightly from 35% in 2006 and 33% in 2002

Saving money on business expenses is almost always something that business owners are trying to do (except for those owners who don’t care about money, but they’re a strange lot anyway). One of the easiest, and most effective, ways of saving money is by diversifying spending on marketing expenses. At first, this seems the opposite of saving, since diversifying inherently means doing things multiple ways, but stick with me here and it’ll all make sense, I promise.

Save Money By Targeting Specific Demographics

The thing with traditional advertising and marketing is that it’s passive and only attempts to target specific demographics. For example, placing an ad in the phone book will certainly increase the likelihood of people seeing your ad, since most houses today have phone books. However, the people who look through the phone book might not necessarily want your product or services, since this is everyone who has a phone book, not a targeted group.

You can remove some of this problem by using television or radio ads. Each of these mediums have a bit more interactivity, since people can choose the genre they like. Consequently, your ads can target genres, but they can still get more precise in their targeting.

Online you can cater to the exact people who you know are interested in hearing what you’re saying. If you’re talking about the firing of Bob Lobel or offering trips to Waycross, Georgia, you can specifically target them on the Internet. This way, you know the people who come to your site are interested in what you have to say and sell.

Emphasize Good Marketing Spending Can Save Money

That’s the fantastic thing about having a good website: the people who are interested in your products will find you — if your site is set up properly. You can’t just toss up content and hope that it’s going to get the job done; you need to make it so that people can find you.

This is why it’s good to get SEO help from a professional firm. The short-term investment in getting a good site will make you money in the long-run. Acknowledging that the Internet is the next big advertising medium isn’t that hard. You just need to know what to do with that knowledge.

Once you recalibrate your marketing spending to bring more emphasis online, you will see a greater ROI. It’ll bring narrowly targeted people to your site who are already excited about what you have to say — and they’re already closer to buying. Get out there and get cracking!

Ah yes, Google is tweaking the rules for their ads starting on April 1st (no joke!). Now the display URL will have to match the destination URL of the advertisement.

The implication for tracking URLs is not good. Tracking URLs are important when you’re doing display advertising so that you get credit for the clicks that you get. However, consumers don’t like to see ugly tracking URLs, especially if they aren’t have absolutely nothing to do with the display ads.

We’ve all been there when we see a display link, “www.blah.com/12343/5455/4/ahe/ddhi/adi.html” and think, “This has what to do with a trip to Tahiti?” Yup, that link doesn’t actually have anything to do with Tahiti, it’s just an ugly tracking link. Google now wants you to realize that’s an ad you’re clicking on, not an actual site.

Consequently, if your display URL is “www.google.com/adwords,” your destination URL is “www.trackingurl.com/google123″ and the landing page is “www.trackingurl.com” it is unacceptable.

Yeah, that’s right, the world’s getting a little more difficult for people doing display advertising. It turns out that good content is still the way to go. This way the links that display on the SERPs are the links to your site, so you’ll get the credit. The credit won’t go to some crap page that you  have set up simply for this ad, but it’ll go to your site.

Taking a longer-term view on this, you’ll get more money from people going to your site than people who click on your ads. Doing display advertising is good, but it’s only a small supplement to a good website. Don’t get lazy, make your website good and you won’t have to worry about the changes the Google makes concerning ads.