Google Is The Number 1 Search Engine

How Did Google Becoming The Number One Search Engine.

I will come back and update this soon.

Sub Domains or Sub Folders

Analysing Use of Sub Domain or Using Sub Folders

I had a request come in about a consulting job where the prospect had a very large online store and was using 17 or so sub domains to sell a variety of products. The prospect has not tried working with a marketing agency before and was a little clueless on the starting point but was very clear on the end result. 

The end result was to make more sales conversions. This is a good goal to have but is it achievable with what is ultimately a mess of a project? I think yes that is a realistic result but a result that can be achieved in 2 to 3 months once the dust settles on the move of the site structure. 

A sub domain vs a sub folder.

A subdomain is a website domain that is a variation of a main domain for example this blog is a subdomain of blogspot. It looks like this - everwebs.blogspot.com with blogspot being the domain and everwebs being the subdomain.

A sub folder is a folder dedicated to a category or topic, like our candles example if Blogspot sold candles their folder structure would look like this - blogspot.com/candles/

Blogspot is the domain and /candles/ is the folder.

The Project:

The original consult before my involvement was to move all subdomains into website sub folders on the main branded domain. I can see the logic in this and from the brief, it all looked like our natural process and would be a bit of work but completely doable.

On the first call to the client, I spoke about the pros and cons of the move and stated that there will be some time for the dust to settle before an ROI could be measured and everyone understood this. Once the session had finished I went to work mapping all subdomains to the main domain created the site structure and set up all the mapping document so that everyone no matter what technical level could easily read and understand the movement and the reasoning why.

Once I had that map document completed our next session was booked with the prospect. I presented the strategy planning documents and then the mapping document and explained each step everyone understood the process. So far s good smooth sailing but the prospect had some hesitations around sub folders for a good reason.

The reasons were that each industry is kept separate from the main domain, visitors to one of these subdomains are shown one price and when they are logged in if they have a buyers account they see another price. The other issue is that some products overlap with industries so that means that they appear on more than one of the subdomains. Jeepers ok lets get to the point, the prospect has different prices for these crossover products on each subdomain so if all subdomains were placed on one domain visitors could search industry category 1 and see all products listed there but then if they selected on the site industry category 2 they will see all of that categories products and prices.

Now if you have kept up with me you would see the issue there. The issue if you are not keeping score is that people will see for example a wax candle in category 1 selling for $4.99 and then when they select category 2 that same candle will be selling for $2.99. This is a problem and one that needed to be identified well before the task fo domain mapping had been started.

There is a workaround to keep each domain separate when mapped to the sub folders but its a big task. This is a spanner in the works, The best move here is to leave the domains as they are.

Did I just agree to that? No but after assessing the prospect's situation regarding this new information it could be best to just leave subdomains and carry on optimising the page load speeds and conversion rate per page. 

In conclusion, I believe that we have made the right suggestion to the prospect but had we known the information around wanting to kee each subdomain as a separate entity from the main brand we would of not recommended sub folders. 

This lies with me to create the new structure and do my best to keep each sub folder separate from the main domain as best I can. Great start to the working week. 

Removed From computers

Why I Remove Myself From Computers Once A Week

I find a great deal of happiness playing around on computers, going to work each day to work on computers and then at home working on websites, building things and gaming I spend a bit of time on the computer.

When you break it down to the nitty gritty about just how much time you spend on the computer it can really show you how much time you spend online. I spend around 40 hours a week in front of the computer as a minimum. That is scary and while I dont feel like I do the quick calculation from the last three weeks shows me my average is 40 hours in front of the computer. 

I made a bit of a commitment to remove myself from the computer once a week and go and explore the city or take my beautiful girlfriend out for some happy couple activities. This weekend we took off Sunday to go outside and get away from the hustle and bustle of the city by visiting our favourite hills cafe Mason & Bird in Kalamunda.

You can Find Mason & Bird here.

Following on from our meal we walked a small trail just nearby the cafe and then took a walk to the town square to window shop at the houses for sale listings on the various real estate agents shop fronts. Funny story we visited 4 real estate store fronts and found the following very funny:

1. store A had house image listings upside down
2. store B had such dark tint that you couldnt make out the words or see the details
3. store C had just an image of the houses with no number and lots of duplicate listings
4. store D had electronic listings that were turned OFF 

What a waste of time looking at those listings or like me do you see an opportunity there to call those real estate agents and offer some marketing services? haha perhaps they will get a call from my sales team on Monda morning. I find the marketing principles used in the suburban places like the foothills much less competitive to the main city principles, there is no hustle no quality checking and just no real hunger t be the best. That said lets move off my tangent.

Leaving the Kalamunda town square we took a nice long drive around the backend of Kalamunda and Lesmurdie and decided to come back to the popular Zig Zag drive so we could reset the brain a little as we drove down each zag of the hill the views were more and more amazing. The Zig Zag has some amazing views overlooking the city of Perth,

From there we went to the back of Darlington and up to Mundaring taking in the tall trees and windy backstreet roads that separate the million doller houses settled on each side fo the street. We are thinking about buying a property in the hills but we have some requirements for this dream house that might make it mission impossible. We are in no rush and just beginning the research phase.

From Jundaring we took a long windy road through Stoneville u and down the hilly streets to Red Hill where we watched the time pass by at the side hook lookout. A perfect way to spend 10 minutes watching everything from atop Red Hill. We drive the way home windows down wind blowing in our faces and the sun blazing on our skin, what a way to reset the mind after a long week.

I've had a long week of drama after drama and putting out fires so the escape to the hill has been a welcome one. My partner also coming off a hard week has thoroughly enjoyed our little getaway this weekend and has a big test to do later tonight that she will be preparing for in the evening.

Why did I remove the computer? well, it was time to getaway, just shut it all off and get outdoors feel the wind on your face and have a mental reset. I would usually be in and out of my home office working and tinkering with something online and this was the perfect getaway that I needed to reset before the new working week starts.

Take time out and make sure that switching off means getting out and away from technology for a break. If you can relate to this feel free to drop a comment, I feel amazing after that little trip.

Thanks for reading.