Will Your Site Survive the Google Shrink Ray?

[JBloggs]

Time to clean up your act[/h3]This is an EXCELLENT ARTICLE from Copyblogger. Easily digestible and I hope you read it through then go and test your website from the link he provides for the instant preview.
Excerpt:
Snap judgments served here[/h3]With Instant Preview, potential visitors are going to make a judgment about whether or not to visit your site without even reading the content. It’s too small to see in the pop up window. They’re going to decide based purely on — (drumroll, please) — design.
artile: [COLOR= rgb(0, 0, 0)]http://www.copyblogger.com/google-instant-preview/[/COLOR]

 

[JBloggs]

Click the link on the copyblogger article to test your site, this is a great reference and a great article!!!
I cannot emphasize enough every single point Copyblogger makes. Like:
Time to clean up your act[/h3]I’ve said it in this space before. Sure, content is king. But if your handsome king looks like an ugly toad, who’s going to pay attention?
and
Headlines always matter[/h3]In a “snap judgment” environment, a great headline is one of the most valuable tools that can stack the deck in your favor.
and
How about typefaces? If you need more than two or three fingers to count the different typefaces used on your site, you’re in trouble.
and
Clear the clutter[/h3]Some pages are cluttered with so many ads, sidebar entries, social media icons and sign up boxes the visitor won’t want to see them full size. Why magnify clutter?

 

[Alibi Ike]

I didn't use the copyblogger site, but I did check my site just using the preview. It's not very clear. It is kind of obvious that photos need to show up very well. Text, unless in headline, doesn't show up at all. And it has to be 24 pt or higher to show up even then.
It's going to be overall feeling. Is everything else appealing? What shows up that would make someone click further? If the preview is used a lot, it's going to be color, photos & white space. As it is the preview looks like a really bad scan of a photo. But, if you have the option of running down a list of B&B's really quickly using preview, it's going to be the photos.
Which you have harped on since the flood, oh wise one. Woe to those who have not listened.

 

[Alibi Ike]

Interesting that the folks who have not really updated their sites in quite awhile seem to have the cleanest sites in thr preview. No fancy anything going on. Large font, photos, not much to distract.

 

[Copperhead]

Thanks for posting JB - this is just in time as we are compiling our list of what changes we want when redesigning our site.
I did notice, on a couple of sample sites, that flash photos just show up as a blank on the preview... that sure does not win over a click through!

 

[Emily Spiers]

Thanks for posting JB - this is just in time as we are compiling our list of what changes we want when redesigning our site.
I did notice, on a couple of sample sites, that flash photos just show up as a blank on the preview... that sure does not win over a click through!.

I did notice, on a couple of sample sites, that flash photos just show up as a blank on the preview... that sure does not win over a click through!

I noticed that, too. I wonder how that gets fixed... hmmmmm

 

[Copperhead]

I didn't use the copyblogger site, but I did check my site just using the preview. It's not very clear. It is kind of obvious that photos need to show up very well. Text, unless in headline, doesn't show up at all. And it has to be 24 pt or higher to show up even then.
It's going to be overall feeling. Is everything else appealing? What shows up that would make someone click further? If the preview is used a lot, it's going to be color, photos & white space. As it is the preview looks like a really bad scan of a photo. But, if you have the option of running down a list of B&B's really quickly using preview, it's going to be the photos.
Which you have harped on since the flood, oh wise one. Woe to those who have not listened..

I just went to Google and clicked the magnifying glass on mine and then it seemed to just work when the mouse went over other listings.

 

[EmptyNest]

Thanks for posting JB - this is just in time as we are compiling our list of what changes we want when redesigning our site.
I did notice, on a couple of sample sites, that flash photos just show up as a blank on the preview... that sure does not win over a click through!.

I did notice, on a couple of sample sites, that flash photos just show up as a blank on the preview... that sure does not win over a click through!

I noticed that, too. I wonder how that gets fixed... hmmmmm
.

Well Acorn had a little article about this in their blog posting last week. It doesn't show flash right now..but they said Google is working on it. So you can either put an image in the background of your flash or wait for Google do catch up with Flash :-( I am not going back and redoing all the sites I have done just for this feature. Sorry....in my case..Google can catch up
See here: http://blog.acorn-is.com/2010/11/educational-bytes-011-should-you-trash.html

 

[EmptyNest]

Thanks for posting JB - this is just in time as we are compiling our list of what changes we want when redesigning our site.
I did notice, on a couple of sample sites, that flash photos just show up as a blank on the preview... that sure does not win over a click through!.

I did notice, on a couple of sample sites, that flash photos just show up as a blank on the preview... that sure does not win over a click through!

I noticed that, too. I wonder how that gets fixed... hmmmmm
.

Deleted Duplicate post

 

[JBloggs]

Yeah that is not addressed in the article here, but yeah splash pages are not good in this preview. I will check a couple B&B's I know, I only looked at my own. ONE page for our county had a large almost POP up with their info jump out like a call out, I want to see how they did that! It was not purposeful I am certain, but it worked out that way!

 

[JBloggs]

PS I AM USING GOOGLE CHROME.
I have a call out on a diff google listing under amenities...hm...wonder how it picks which line to highlight? Does anyone know?

 

[Tom]

Thanks for the heads-up. Our site was already designed with mobile apps in mind, but this Google shrinklet is really, really small. Back in the day, you could assume most viewers were VGA, so 640 px wide was it, now it is more like 1050, but the Google shrinklet is 302 px. Well, if life was easy, what would be the point of living.

 

[JBloggs]

Tom I like your attitude! Happy Thanksgiving bro!