Here is the transcript:
Hi & welcome to this brief, In a Nutshell Video, on Website Usability.
Today’s video is a demonstration of a Usability Issue So Bad, That it Violates Google’s Adwords Policy
Who am I?
I am Greg Mate of Search Engine Academy Montreal.
- A Certified Master SEO Instructor, 2006;
- Internet Marketer & SEO Consultant, 2004;
- & Certified Usability Analyst, 2011,
Please feel free to get in touch 1-514-426-4000 https://www.searchengineacademy.ca/
The Search Engine Academy is a Global Alliance of Certified SEO Instructors, providing hands-on SEO workshop training around the world. Please fell the to check out https://www.searchengineacademy.com for more info and for classes near you.
So let’s get going, there are the 2 sections of this video are:
Why Usability is Crucial to Your Website – 30 Seconds
Live Website Review – 5 minutes:
Demo the Usability Issue &
Proof – Violates Google’s Adwords Policy
Why Usability is Crucial to Your Website
Okay, the reason I want to explore Website Usability with you is because, how people feel about your brand and products or services is of course very important.
And whether you realize it or not, Website Usability can positively or negatively affect a person’s feelings towards your company.
I have seen a person during a website usability test exclaim that they “hate the company” and that they would never “do business with them” all because they found working with the website too frustrating.
The issue found here is something Google takes serious enough to suspend a site from its Adwords Campaign.
Live Website Review
Okay, here we go. This is what I found this morning; so it’s my dad’s birthday coming up, it’s a big one we’ve got friends and family coming in from out of town, he will not let me say in this video how old he is going to be so sorry about that haha.
So I was thinking I would it be cool to maybe have a banner printed out “Happy Birthday Dad”
So I printed a banner a long time ago, I think it was with the ink jet printer don’t remember anyway so I did the search for “printing a banner with a laser printer” and the first thing that came up, of course, is an ad with “banners starting at $9.99″ that’s probably cheaper than that I am then going out and buying the paper and printing it in myself.
So I clicked on the ad and cool the landing page is about banners, good. Well, the page says “banners starting at $13.34” hmm wait a minute, where is the $9.99 from the ad? So I scroll down here some more 20 x 36” banner $13.34. So scrolling down more I don’t see $9.99. I look in the pricing and specifications and not to be found.
So I go back up to the top of the page and do a search for $9.99 and look there’s nothing on this website that’s $9.99.
So what does this mean and how do I feel about this? I need either the ad is wrong, or the landing page is wrong or, it’s a con job to get me to click, hoping I’ll still buy from them? Well if it is a mistake, does that mean that they’re going to make a mistake with my printing too?
So how does that make you feel or me feel, right? So I start to have second thoughts this company. So presumably and I will the “Get started” button I can do what I want to do which is order a banner. But what about this user experience but it’s also now, will I now place an order? Have they done something that’s going to make me not want to do business with them, there’s a good chance I may go back to my original page and figure out how to print a banner myself.
So the other important point I mentioned is a conflict with Google’s Adwords Policy.
I did a search for Google’s Adwords Policy and I figured out that Misrepresentation will be what I’m looking for from everything here on the right.
Scrolling down and found Unavailable Offers which reads:
Examples: Promoting products that are not stocked; promoting a deal that is no longer active; promoting a price that is inaccurate; call-to-action in the ad that isn’t easily available from the landing page
Specific example: Ad reads “Buy tablets from $40,” but upon clicking on the ad, the user finds no tablets available for purchase at $40
So here we are there is a clear violation of the Google’s Adwords Policy so our friends here at Vista Print are or not only making the user unhappy, but you could make the big G unhappy too.
Please feel free to share this video with only your best friends, and most respected colleagues.
I would love to hear your feedback if this was of any value to you.
Peace out from Montreal.