Jeff Woelker : Chicago SEO, SEM, and Social Media Consultant

Yesterday, the ChicagoTribune’s urban entertainment site, Metromix.com, got a bit of a face lift. My initial thoughts – I like it. Let’s go through the pros and cons of this new design.

Pros:

1. No tables – To start, it’s a LOT better than the previous iteration, which was entirely table based and a hodge podge of information presented to the user.
2. Cleaner experience – The new version is much cleaner and has more dead space which makes the experience much lighter than before. And if you really want a clean, adless experience make sure to install AdBlock for Firefox. Sorry Metromix advertisers.
3. User Friendly URL’s – I like this a lot. The old site was pretty good about this, but the new information architecture is a bit more discoverable, although I don’t know why they needed to add “/content” on the end of each URL. Seems like they could have changed it based on the function: “/print” or “/email” depending on the user action, leaving “/” as the default url suffix. Examples: Big Ten Bars
4. Prominent Calendar – Although the old site did feature a calendar, it wasn’t featured as prominently as it is here. At least that seems to be my primary use for this site. Just hit Metromix and see what’s going on tonight, tomorrow night, or this weekend. Here are some other competitors in the “social calendering” scene: Gapers Block, Upcoming.org, Going.com, and Planyp.us.
5. Search Prep – This is the SEO nerd in me talking for this one. I’m impressed that they redirected all the old pages to the new pages. I’m not sure how involved the mapping process for that must have been, but I’m sure it was good times. In case you’re wondering what I’m talking about, this link was indexed in Google today and redirects to the new site right now.
6. What’s Nearby – I love this feature and it’s been a long time coming. When you look up a business, you can see what else is nearby. Here’s one of my favorite sushi places: Grande Noodles. Yelp has been doing this for a while now, so it’s smart for Metromix to incorporate this feature.
7. Sharing – They’ve also added a “share” feature to each page to post to Facebook, Del.icio.us, etc. as well as a feature to post your photos (ala Yelp) for your business. Both of these are nice features, but just a wee bit late to the game, although I suspect that is mostly due to the size of this project redesign.
8. Nice font – Unlike the Tribune’s choice of logo fontage, this one is much cooler.

Cons:

1. Already been done – Although I like the features Metromix is bringing to the table here, it’s nothing earth shattering. The website functionality will not end up being the big draw, it will be the content.
2. Stylesheets for mobile – If you disable stylesheets, which is how most sites appear on my cell phone, the site gets pretty ugly. Although most of the content is still there and easily readable, it’s kind of an ugly read.
3. Clean up your code – Looking at the code, I found some proprietary statements and some other stuff that I don’t think needs to be in there “Begin SiteCatalyst code version: H.0. Copyright 1997-2005 Omniture, Inc. More info available at http://www.omniture.com” or “/************* DO NOT ALTER ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE ! **************/”.And if you’re going to use style sheets, let’s do it across the board and not have inline stylesheets:
   <li style=“float:left;display:inline;height:12px;line-height:12px;”>
4. Video player doesn’t really fit – This is nit picking, but the overall look and feel is slick and then there’s this vanilla video player in the middle of the content. Perhaps a bit of styling can be applied?

So overall, I’m liking this site. Nicely done Tribune. Many of the dislikes I had here are resolved here. We’ll see who ultimately wins out in providing the best information for my nights out on the town.

There has been a lot happening in the local search spectrum lately: here, here, and here. It looks like some of the big players are really getting into local search, especially with the release of Google universal search (although I think Ask 3D is better), which mashes everything in the Google universe together in one data stream. So why all the hubbub about local search? Well, it appears that as Google acquires more knowledge, both from online streams and offline data, they are presenting more and more detail down to the neighborhood and street level so marketers are trying to continually jump in the mix as Google and other’s launch new features.

And as SEO rankings become ever more specialized and “the long tail” takes over, advertisers and marketers are looking for anyway they can get in front of the user with as few terms as possible. That’s where local search comes in. Here’s an example I’m quite fond of: chicago web development. As you’ll notice, those terms are pretty competitive with lots of optimization in both natural and paid search listings. Local search is the new backdoor to top SEO rankings. How did I acquire this listing? Well, it was as easy as creating a local business, entering my address in Chicago, and then selecting the categories for my business: web design, web development, etc. etc. Viola! I’m #1 with a HUGE piece of real estate at the top of the listings.

I’ve advised a few of my clients (and previous employers) on this and have seen it work wonders for them in highly competitive markets. In case you’re wondering how to get in on this, read over my previous post of how to set up a local business even if you don’t have a local business. So get on the local search bandwagon if you haven’t already.

It’s definitely worth the investment.

Image courtesy of ToastyToastyToasty

It appears my photography skills are getting better and better these days.

CTA Tattler – Blood on the Redline
KEXP Review of Ghostland Observatory show
Chicago Reader – You Shoot Page
Gapers Block – Farmers Market Photos

I’m planning on taking a course through the Chicago Park District this fall, but if you have any recommendations, I’d love to hear them.