Having said that, there are few key elements in Google + that would probably comfort the users and encourage them to explore the platform further, the first being ; a Facebook like Time line. Yes, we are now all used to Facebook and Google + has an absolutely similar looking wall where you share your status and get updates from people in your circle – so a first time user doesn’t really feel out of place.

There is no doubt about the fact that Google+ is probably “the most “ feature rich social platform at this point and it brings together the awesomeness of all the leading platforms that people are used to working with. However, probably as a result of putting too many of this good stuff together at one place, it is often a little confusing for new users.

I have been playing around on Google + for a day now and based on some of the posts I read and some shared by people on the platform here are some Google + tips that new users can find handy.

Circles :
An easy way to group your contacts. You can have a friend circle, a professional/office circle, a circle of acquaintances and more. There are some predefined ones, but you can create your own as well.

Fun With Deleting Circle:
Create a circle and then try deleting it. You will see a funny animation showing the circle roll off your screen.

Chat :
Google+ integrates the Google Chat but you need to enable it for the first time by clicking on the link to the left : “Chat with people on Google+”

The Chat feature is integrated and if you are chatting on Google Talk on your mobile and jump on to Google + , you will find the entire conversation there .

Privacy :
The more active you are on Google+ the more emails you tend to get. To control when you get an email and when you don’t, click on the Gear icon on the top right of the screen beside your name and go to Google + Settings. All the notification options are nicely laid out there for you to choose which ones you want to activate/deactivate.

Unlike Facbook, Google + offers great control over what you want to shareand with whom you would like to share stuff on your timeline. You can share your status messages with only specific circles, with specific users only or you can make it public. While making a post on Google+, you get an option to select your sharing settings.

Photos:

I love the way they display Photos in Google + .
You can also edit your photos right there. Go to the Photo Page > Actions> Edit Photo. You will get a bunch of filters that you can apply on the photos. You also have the options to rotate the photos.

Messaging :

How do I disable Resharing of my Google + Post
– If you’re sharing a post with a small circle of people, you can prevent resharing. Click the arrow at the top-right of the post and choose “Disable reshare.”

– If you type + or @, it shares the post directly with them, just like if you added their name in the sharing targets. You can also do this in a comment, to pull someone else into the conversation.

– Want to see who can see a post? Next to the dateline at the top of a post, you’ll see something like “Public” or “Limited.” “Limited” is a link — click on it to see who has access.

– At the top right of each post, there’s a little circle-and-triangle menu. For your own posts, this menu lets you edit or delete the post, or disable commenting or resharing. For other people’s posts, it lets you link to the post, mute it, block the person completely, or report abuse.

How to send a DM in Google+
– If you want to send a private message to someone, just create a normal post and share it only with them. It’s that easy to have a one-to-one conversation!

How to Format text in Google+
(*)bold(*)
(_)italics(_)
(-)strike-through(-)

Keyboard Shortcuts for Google+
j: In the stream, you can click ‘j’ to navigate down to the next item
k: Navigate up.
@ or +: mention someone in a post
q: While on the Home tab, press twice the q letter on the keyboard to search and add people to your chat list.
Tab: Scrolls through comments/users on a post
Enter – Hitting Enter when focused on a Post opens up the comment box.
Tab+Enter: Post comment

How to send Google + Invites
Double Click on a user in Circles to open the invite option

Also, if you have the gmail address for an user, you can write a post and share it with just that person. This will send an invite to join Gooigle+ to that person.

Notifications:
In Google + the notification alert is similar to Facebook with a small squareshowing the number of notification on top right, beside your profile. When you have any unseen notification it goes bright red. The cool part is you can click that red box to see the notification and take action ( post a comment, add an user etc) right from the drop down, without having to move to any other page.

Sparks:
This is where you can search cool content ( most likely determined by the number of +1s it gets) relevant to your interests. You can also save your interests for easy future access.

Hangouts:
This is probably the coolest feature in Google+, where you get to do group video chat. Unfortunately , I haven’t had a chance to test this one yet.

The post Exploring Google Plus Tips and Tricks appeared first on Adwords Consultant India : DigitalSRC.

SEO has evolved to great extent and now just getting good rankings for a website doesn’t finish a SEO consultant’s job. Client’s today are more ROI driven and if you really want your clients to convert the traffic that you deliver you will often need to help them with usability.

Though not really specific to increasing conversion, here are few usability tips that would help make your visitors spend a nice time on your website.

a) Users Don’t Like to Keep Guessing: Users love web pages that are self explanatory and don’t leave them guessing. We already have too many questions to answer in our life why would anyone like to visit a web page that just adds a few more questions to the list – what is this website about ? which link do I click next ? is that graphics clickable ? Yes, usability flaws basically means your users gets more questions for which they need to find the answers and keep guessing what next .
Provide your users with an intuitive navigation structure, help them move from one page to other in a logical way, provide them with visual clues and easily recognizable links that guides them to their goals – they should be happy with it.

b) Don’t Test Your User’s Patience: If you are offering a product or service to your visitors to test that’s great but it doesn’t allow you to test the patience of your users. The less action is required from users to test a service a random visitor is more likely to try it out. First time visitors would not be willing to fill in long forms or put in personal details. Give them a small form they might fill that to play with your product or service but give them a long form and they are likely not to visit your website again.

People often ask for email address while offering a test service, while I do understand that this is a good way to collect leads and a way to communicate with prospective customers, it would be much better and probably many more people would try the services if you don’t ask for the email address at the beginning. If you need to get the email address, may be you can ask users for a feedback at the end of their first use of your product or service and there you ask there emails.

c) Manage Your User’s Focus: Well we all know that user don’t read but they scan web pages however what we tend to neglect is during this scanning process user’s focus keep diverting. We should understand that human eyes typically move in a non linear fashion and this gives us the opportunity to arrest the user’s focus to any part of the web page and this can be used effectively to give users a better experience on your web page.

For example, bold texts, graphics, text in bigger fonts, videos or animations tends to get the users attention before the other page elements. If these elements can be used effectively to convey the necessary message and then provide hints on the way they should navigate through the pages to reach their goal it would definitely enhance the user experience as well as contribute to increasing the conversion rate.

d) Keep it Simple ( KIS ) – The Keep it Simple principle is just perfect when you are designing with your users in mind. Visitors typically don’t visit a website for the design, they come for information and keeping a simple design helps them to find the information they are looking for more easily. Look at Google, one of the most used website in the world, don’t you love the simplicity of their interface ? Present your information on the site clearly and give your visitors a few options for action without overcrowding them with unnecessary content.

e) Test, test and test some more – Testing is one of the key factors that improves your website’s usability. While it is good to get the site tested by a lot of people it might not be a viable option for new websites. But even conducting a test on a small audience is good. Test from the very beginning, organize the feedback , do changes based on them and test again. Testing is an iterative process and it is important to be organized with the process. Also bear in mind, don’t test your own application or website – you know exactly how it is built and how it is supposed to work so you would likely not see any issues with usability. Get it tested with people who are using the website for the first time and get their feedback.

Please feel free to add your own tips on improving usability in the comments section.

The post 5 Tips on Usability appeared first on Adwords Consultant India : DigitalSRC.