Small Re-designs Can Make Big Changes Happen

On Nov 19th, Google announced that they have redesigned Google News, so that it will fit better on smart phone screens. It’s a small change in the realm of Google changes, but one that will be welcome by people who like their news and like their smart phones. For some it will make accessing their news a little easier and cleaner on their mobile device of choice.

And really, that’s what we all want out of our internet experiences: ease of use. Think about the last time you had an upgrade to a piece of software and it went a little haywire. I recently had an upgrade to my browser imposed upon me, only to discover there is a little bug in it that means I may or may not have to click three or four times on a link to get where I am going. They are losing me and I’ve been loyal to this browser for a few years now. It’s back to ease of use.

What if your client can’t find you? They use a search engine and your company doesn’t show up in the first few links. Worse than that: your company isn’t on the first page. How hardcore are you when searching? Do you ever reach the third page of search listings? Again, this is an ease of use issue.

We all get to the point where we think that it takes big changes to make a difference. It’s like when you tried to lose 20 pounds and the first week you decided to drop everything from your diet except vegetables and work out twice a day. It’s not sustainable to lose weight that way, and it is not sustainable to try to make business changes that way either. But when successful companies like Google show us time and again that small changes make a difference – that keeping up with your clients’ wish lists can be done by approaching one item at a time – you start to think about it in achievable chunks.

SEO practices can be implemented in small chunks. It isn’t an all or nothing affair in the land of internet marketing. Making Twitter work for your business, increasing hits to your website, driving traffic through search features and even backdoor practices, like Danny Sullivan’s approach to reading the Wall Street Journal through Google News are all possible, but if you try to implement them all by yourself and all at the same time, you may start to feel the room spin a little. They each have benefits and, used all together, can reap some spectacular rewards, but like the Google News redesign, one or two small things can make significant changes, increasing the ease of use factor for your clients. All without any spinning for your business.