ST701 advertises on Google Adwords
SPH is going all out to drive traffic to the revamped ST701! The ST701 ad is being advertised across Google content network i.e. web sites own by you and I who are Adsense publishers. This web site displayed a Leaderboard graphic banner of ST701 ad, the keywords are likely to be “accounting services in singapore”.
As most people in Singapore know, ST701 was originally the online version of CATS job listing. Now, it has more than just job listing - it’s like a classified ads.
Here’s a screenshot of the ST701 web site back in April 2006.
ST701 Navigation Sucks
And you know what? I think the new web site user-interface sucks big time!
The roll-over square navigation box on the right hand side of the page is a stupid idea. For a normal person which moves the mouse from left to right or right to left, it would be impossible for you select the Car Classified! Here, you must move your mouse from the top-down to select the Cars section.
My Question to ST701 is this:
“Why would you want to make it difficult for your visitors to navigate to Cars Classified?”
Go try it yourself and be the judge.
October 19th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Simply visit http://cars.st701.com
October 19th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Well, there are many ways to get to the ST701 Cars… How about using google search?
http://www.google.com.sg/search?hl=en&q=st701+cars&meta=
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Alamak! Vocca and Botta, if people already know about ST701, then yes, they *may* type in “http://cars.st701.com” or Google “ST701 cars” or something like that.
But for me, I’ll type in something like “buy a second hand car in singapore” and guess what, ST701 is nowhere to be found.
Anyway, that’s beside the point. That’s more from the Search Engine Optimization standpoint.
I think the navigation on the right is really difficult to manage - People coming to classifieds are looking for details, and really do not need fancy graphics or irritating navigation, that is why Craigslist is so popular.
If you’d ask me, I’d take away the whole top portion and including the things under “Welcome” and the unlabelled videos (how the heck would I know what they are if you don’t tell me?) and just push up the listings.
Your viewers can get to the deals straight away, and you can charge higher for your ads (since they are moved to the first fold)!
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Hi vocca and botta,
Thank you for stating the URLs here.
You are posting these 2 comments using different names from the same IP and did not enter a valid email address.
Usually, I consider comments from invalid email addresses as Spam. But this time, I checked the IP. And that IP happened to be used by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd, the owner of ST701.com.
So do you work for SPH?
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:55 pm
haha… that’s cool dude… I think the guys are just trying to be helpful to those people who are not able to find the cars section of st701.com
I have checked out the website myself and I have to admit, it is a little frustrating to use the interface on the right. Even though it is quite dynamic and interesting, the novelty quickly gives off to the unintuitive and unfriendly response of the interface.
A quick rectification can be to put the other 3 categories on the roll-over image so that users can easily switch to other categories. For example, when I mouse over “jobs”, there will be 3 iconic links to cars, properties and shops together with the roll-over information. That way, users can still find their desired category even though they have accidently mouse over the wrong cateogry.
However, I would still say that this is just making a bad UI better and does not solve a poor UI design. That said, the ST701.com website is quite cool and web 2.0 looking. Just probably needs a few more tweakings to make it perfect. =)
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Hi Steven,
Thank you for stopping by. This is a rare appearance by you!
Yeah, I agree that it IS “web 2.0 looking”.
I like your “that is just making a bad UI better…”, reminds me of “just making a bad life better…”.
But then, SPH has all the resources to make it good if not the best! And the standard for the rest of us to beat, drool, …
October 24th, 2007 at 1:28 am
Hi Shi,
I have to agree with you and Steven that the navigation box are interesting but not friendly, I can only view one category at one time, also for the Car category, the color for the links are blue when I hover over it and it is against the maroon backgound which makes it very diffeicult to read. Interesting, how they could allow this to happen.
For the Leaderboard ads, I would think the copy writing is not very good — “Get The Right Stuff” ?????? What RIGHT STUFF????? and the url http://www.ST701.com does not tell what the site is about.
Shi, like you mentioned many sites are very fanciful, but the creator has little understanding of SEO, thus it is not SE friendly.
For a good website, besides SEO, webpage usability is very important too.
SEO is more for the SE spiders, where Webpage Usability is for the reader.
For this http://www.ST701.com, in terms of webpage usability, there are quite some rooms for improvement.
To understand more, you might like to read the book “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug.
Talking about AdWords advertising, yeah, there are more and more big companies using this advertising media agressively, to my understanding, many Adsense publishers including me have seen a good increase in our Adsense income, but from my Adsense report, I also realised that whoever did the AdWords campaigns are not doing a very good job in the bid price management which is a good news to us as Adsense publishers.
Anyway, I wonder would the company demand the party who does the Adwords campaign to produce reports on the Leads Conversion Rate, Customer acquistion Cost. I always remember John Reese said that Test Everything, Track Everything and Measure Everything in order to understand your position and where/how to improve.
Shi, thanks for the case study.
Cheers.
October 24th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Wow! So much to learn from this Navigation thingy. Very interactive indeed….but I was indeed frustrated when mousing over the CATS on the right, suddenly it changes to something else. CK, you are right! Should go through that book by Steve Krug. Those who want to learn more about it can go to his “Advanced Common Sense” site. http://www.sensible.com - I am definitely doing a simple but practical site myself and following some of the advice he has laid…. I think Steve calls it Web Usability. Very down-to-earth ideas and concepts. Life is already tough… let us make things simple and reduce stress and frustration.
October 24th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Hi CK,
Shhh… don’t let the cat out of the bag. Let them spend the money and go bid for high CPC at Adwords, so that we can continue to make a little more cents!
So, there is lots of not-so-smart money in Singapore-based traffic. Thanks to all those Google resellers, they are doing an excellent job in SELLING! (BTW, Googlereseller.com.sg is a subsidiary of SPH!)
Speaking of web usability, I just read a report published by ZDNet on an interview with Jakob Nielsen, the usability expert. You may want to check out my post on Web Site Stupidities.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Oh yes, Jakob Nielsen is another expert to look for when comes to Web Usability.
Jakob Nielsen has written couples of excellent books on Web usability, go check them out at Amazon.
Shi, thanks for the reference to Jakob’s interview. Wonderful.
Cheers.
October 25th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Hi Kian Ann,
For some unknown reasons, your post was trapped by Askimet! I just discover it and have to de-spam.
I guess SPH, I mean ST701, is not concerned about search engine optimization.
SPH and her portfolio of sites are probably white-listed by major search engines and placed in the “authority” category.
Furthermore, SPH rules the print media in Singapore. They have the financial resources to drive traffic to whatever sites, stomp.com.sg, omy.sg or ST701.com.
ST701 is definitely spending money on PPC. Go search for “used cars” and cars.st701.com is the number one sponsored link at Google.
Data Driven Marketing
And you know what, I think they did not track their ads! The destination URL is clean. Whereas the second listing by Autos.AOL.com tracked their ads, the destination URL:
autos.aol.com/used/?sem=1&ncid=AOLAUT00170000000005
Maybe they didn’t know, unlike print media, Adwords is the best example of data-driven marketing and everything should be done to track each and every ad campaign.
Looks vs Functionalities
I think the management of SPH will cringe at the sight of ST701.com looking like Craiglist.org. Compare them and we can see that Craiglist is ugly!
And then you have to consider the web developers that do SPH sites. How on earth are they going to charge high fees for hours spent on the gorgeous graphics, impressive flash and fancy javascript coding if SPH sites are going to look like Craigslist!
Many big companies with lots of cash are still making the same mistakes of the pre dot-com bubble era!
October 25th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Not only are Vocca & Botta adding interesting comments to your blog and fueling this interesting discussion, the guys from ST701.com seem to have to copy job ads from other online recruiters to create the illusion of job availability!
I have been advertising with Jobstreet.com recently, and was very happy to finally fill the position yesterday. The deluge of e-mails from potential applicants was driving me crazy!
Suddenly, another application arrived from someone via the ST701 system this morning, with wording identical to my Jobstreet ad! I have never advertised this particular position with Straits Times Recruit as stated, and would certainly not post an ad the day after finding the ideal candidate for the job!
Jobstreet version:
http://siva-sg.jobstreet.com/_ads/sg/jobs/2007/10/default/20/1661194.htm
ST701 version:
http://match.st701.com/goToSearch.asp?FieldId=&MLevelId=&CityId=&keyword=simply+aesthetic&Industry=&AffiliateId=3000&FirstSearch=&EducationLevelId=&IsAdvancedSearch=&CompaniesList=&FreeTextUsing=
What gives?!!
October 26th, 2007 at 2:43 am
[...] Its a pity they think we can read their minds and know where to click. And this is not an isolated case. Here’s another one on terrible navigation on websites. [...]
October 26th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Hi Christine,
Nice to see you stopping by this blog.
Alamak! Why’re you complaint? Jobstreet.com should be the one complaining mah! ST701 is giving you free service. You get additional applications, right?
I could not find your listing in ST701.com. Maybe they took it down already.
Aren’t Jobstreet.com and ST701.com competitors? Maybe not, that’s why they are sharing the job listing.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Hahah… This is so funny - get extra advertising also complain!
December 8th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I have fed back to the SPH team regarding the pop-ups and it looks like they have removed it. Their Adwords campaign is probably managed by Hardwarezone - a Google reseller and SPH subsidiary.
SEO? I wouldn’t bet that they’re not concerned.
December 10th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Hi Larry,
Thank you for stopping by.
Yes, I noticed they finally decided to remove the rollover in early November. Good for them.
Are you working on some project with SPH?
December 27th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
[...] Well, the people at ST701.com actually removed that stupid idea of rollover image menu. [...]