i2x Studios on Facebook i2x Studios on Twitter i2x Studios on LinkedIn i2x Studios on YouTube i2x Studios RSS Feed

Readability; It’s Not Just for Writers

I grew up a colloquial writer. It was one of my favorite things to do; to write how people speak, to write how people think. Often times I believe that the words we are using have become ineffective, useless in this world of “txt u l8r” and those blog-writing jargon cannons, foaming at the keyboard.

After reading Sabina Idler‘s article: 8 Guidelines for Better Readability on the Web my faith in the lost art of “wordsmithing” was restored and my conviction never stronger. Okay, okay. It may not be that dramatic. But still, if you’re not paying attention to this list, then you’re not being effective with your content.

Here’s the lowdown:

  1. Choose Fonts Wisely
  2. Font Size & Line Spacing Are Important
  3. Use High Contrasts
  4. Keep Lines Short
  5. Keep Paragraphs Short
  6. Get Straight To The Point
  7. Don’t Use Jargon
  8. Use Highlights, Lists, and Images

Click here to read the full article.

6 Big Myths About SEO

Michael Mothner, founder and CEO of Wpromote.com, writes an article to bring you up to speed on the what’s what of Google SEO. Chances are, what you think about how this behemoth scores data is outta date!

“In the world of online marketing, misinformation abounds–and it gets compounded exponentially by an incredibly dynamic and rapidly evolving world.”

  • Myth 1: Metatag Descriptions Help Your Rankings
  • Myth 2: The More Inbound Links, the Better
  • Myth 3: PageRank Still Matters
  • Myth 4: Google Prefers Keyword-Rich Domains
  • Myth 5: Websites Must Be ‘Submitted’ to Search Engines
  • Myth 6: Good SEO Is Basically About Trickery
Read the full article here.

Wpromote’s Mike Mothner Talks SEO on “Your Business” on MSNBC (Search Engine Optimization)

Why Running Ranking Reports Is a Fool’s Errand

Jill Whalen, from Highrankings.com, posts an article advocating a Galileo-type paradigm shift for most web professionals. Rankings do not matter. Search results are personalized by location, cookies, and previous browsing and search history. So, that means no matter what search ranking your SEO professional is reporting to you, there’s no way for anyone other than the person searching at the keyboard to see how the results unfold. Don’t buy into the “rankings!”

Why?

Because they don’t actually exist.

“The fact of the matter is that for many years there’s been no such thing as ‘a ranking.’ Oh, sure, there’s the ranking that a keyword had when someone clicked to a page of your site, but just because that page showed up #1 or #2 or #10 for one person doesn’t mean that anyone else saw your page in the same position in the search results. Someone else may have not seen your page show up at all.”

Read the full article on Highrankings.com