Before diving into ARIA implementation, let’s be honest about where Atlas is right now.

Atlas’s agent mode is v1.0 technology which is usually slow and error-prone. Early testing reveals that simple tasks can take 10+ minutes, with frequent navigation failures even on well-structured sites. OpenAI explicitly labels the agent mode as “experimental,” and currently it’s available only on macOS (Windows and mobile versions are “coming soon”).

So why implement ARIA now if Atlas barely works? Because Atlas’s use of ARIA navigation, regardless of its current performance, will represent how AI tools will increasingly interact with websites. Website optimization isn’t about the Atlas that we’re using right now. Instead, it’s all about positioning for tomorrow’s AI landscape while also gaining immediate compliance and SEO benefits.

Think of it this way: Atlas is proof of concept. Whether this specific browser succeeds or fails, the idea that AI tools will use semantic markup to understand website structure will become increasingly common. The first AI browser to use ARIA navigation won’t be the last.

Let’s walk through how Atlas actually moves around a website. Understanding this mechanism is critical for knowing what to implement.

OpenAI’s documentation explicitly states: “ChatGPT Atlas uses ARIA tags—the same labels and roles that support screen readers—to interpret page structure and interactive elements.” Unlike visual navigation where humans see buttons, menus, and forms, Atlas reads semantic structure through ARIA attributes.

What ARIA Actually Does

ARIA is a set of attributes that define ways to make web content more accessible. These attributes communicate three types of information:

• Roles: What an element is (role="button", role="navigation", role="dialog")
• States: Current condition (aria-expanded="true", aria-selected="false")
• Properties: Relationships and labels (aria-label="Submit form", aria-controls="menu-1")

Screen readers have used ARIA for years to help users with disabilities navigate complex web applications. Now AI browsers like Atlas use this same semantic information to understand page structure and interactive elements.

The difference between visual and semantic navigation

When sighted users encounter a dropdown menu, they see a button with a down arrow, click it, and a menu appears. That is visual navigation. But for Atlas and screen readers, the visual presentation means nothing. They need semantic navigation elements like:

• aria-haspopup="true" to know a dropdown exists
• aria-expanded="false" to understand current state
• aria-controls="menu-1" to link the button to its menu
• JavaScript to update aria-expanded to "true" when opened

This is where most implementations break. Developers add ARIA attributes to satisfy automated testing tools without implementing the state management that makes them actually work. The result are sites that look accessible but aren’t navigable by either screen readers or AI browsers.

Before diving into implementation guidance, let’s acknowledge a sobering reality from WebAIM’s 2025 Million study: pages with ARIA have twice as many accessibility errors as pages without. 79% of websites misuse ARIA in ways that hurt rather than help screen reader users and by extension, AI navigation.

This isn’t a reason to avoid ARIA. It’s a reason to take implementation seriously.

Why ARIA is Perceived to be Difficult to Implement

ARIA implementation requires thinking differently about website structure. Most developers work visually in that they see what users see. But ARIA requires semantic thinking, which is understanding how assistive technologies and AI tools perceive structure.

Here’s what typically happens: teams add ARIA attributes because automated tools flag missing accessibility features. A dropdown gets aria-haspopup="true" and aria-expanded="false". But the JavaScript to update aria-expanded when the dropdown opens isn’t included. Visually it works perfectly. For Atlas and screen readers, the dropdown is permanently “collapsed” even when open. Thinking about what you see vs what is represented in the ARIA is where people sometimes struggle initially. But with patience and practice, thinking semantically can become second nature.

What Differentiates Proper ARIA Implementation From Misuse?

The sites that implement ARIA correctly share common practices:

• Comprehensive testing: Automated tools plus manual screen reader validation
• Proper governance: Clear documentation, responsibility assignment, maintenance schedules
• Understanding over attribute copying: Teams learn ARIA principles, not just attribute lists
• State management: JavaScript updates ARIA attributes dynamically as element states change
• Ongoing maintenance: Regular audits catch regressions as sites evolve

Following this framework helps sites fall in the 21% who get it right, not the 79% who don’t.

Let’s break down the interactive elements that cause the most navigation issues when ARIA tags are missing or incorrect. These are the high-priority items to audit.

Dropdown Menus and Select Elements

Dropdowns are one of the most commonly misimplemented interactive elements. Not only do you need to add aria-haspopup="true" and aria-expanded="false" to the trigger button, but also the JavaScript to toggle aria-expanded to "true" when the dropdown opens. Otherwise, Atlas and screen readers will have no idea that the dropdown is open.

Example of Proper ARIA Implementation for Dropdown Menus and Select Elements

<!-- Before: Inaccessible dropdown -->
<button class="dropdown-trigger">
  Products
</button>
<div class="dropdown-menu">
  <!-- Menu items -->
</div>

<!-- After: Accessible dropdown -->
<button 
  class="dropdown-trigger"
  aria-haspopup="true"
  aria-expanded="false"
  aria-controls="products-menu"
  id="products-button">
  Products
</button>
<div 
  class="dropdown-menu"
  id="products-menu"
  aria-labelledby="products-button">
  <!-- Menu items -->
</div>

What this does:

• aria-haspopup="true" tells Atlas a dropdown exists
• aria-expanded="false" indicates current state
• JavaScript updates aria-expanded to "true" when opened
• aria-controls="products-menu" links trigger to dropdown content

Modal Dialogs and Overlays

Modal dialogs are where ARIA implementation complexity becomes clear. Visual implementation is straightforward: overlay appears, background dims. But Atlas and screen readers need role="dialog", aria-modal="true", and JavaScript focus management to navigate properly.

Example of Proper ARIA Implementation for Modal Dialogs and Overlays

<div 
  role="dialog"
  aria-modal="true"
  aria-labelledby="modal-title"
  aria-describedby="modal-description">
  <h2 id="modal-title">Confirm Action</h2>
  <p id="modal-description">Are you sure you want to proceed?</p>
  <button>Confirm</button>
  <button>Cancel</button>
</div>

Plus JavaScript for:

• Moving focus into modal when opened
• Trapping focus within modal (tab wraps inside)
• Returning focus to trigger element when closed
• Closing on Escape key press

This takes significant work because it requires both ARIA attributes AND complete JavaScript focus management. Visual CSS doesn’t communicate any of this to assistive technologies or AI browsers.

Form Elements and Input Fields

WebAIM’s 2025 study found that 34.2% of form inputs aren’t properly labeled. You wouldn’t see this without looking at the code, as forms look accessible visually with labels positioned above fields, but there is zero ARIA connection between label and input.

Example of Proper ARIA Implementation for Form Elements and Input Fields

<!-- Option 1: HTML label element (preferred when possible) -->
<label for="email-input">Email Address</label>
<input 
  type="email" 
  id="email-input"
  aria-required="true"
  aria-invalid="false">

<!-- Option 2: ARIA labeling (for custom implementations) -->
<span id="email-label">Email Address</span>
<input 
  type="email"
  aria-labelledby="email-label"
  aria-required="true"
  aria-describedby="email-error">
<span id="email-error" role="alert"></span>

Validation and error handling:

• aria-required="true" indicates required fields
• aria-invalid="false" changes to "true" on validation failure
• aria-describedby links to error messages
• Error messages in elements with role="alert" are announced immediately

Accordions and Expandable Content

Accordions appear straightforward but state management adds complexity. Visual implementation uses CSS for smooth expand/collapse transitions. But aria-expanded attributes must be updated dynamically with JavaScript, or Atlas and screen readers have no idea which sections are open.

Example of Proper ARIA Implementation for Accordions and Expandable Content

<button 
  aria-expanded="false"
  aria-controls="section-1"
  id="accordion-button-1">
  Section Title
</button>
<div 
  id="section-1"
  aria-labelledby="accordion-button-1"
  hidden>
  <!-- Content -->
</div>

JavaScript must:

• Toggle aria-expanded between "false" and "true" on click
• Show/hide content section
• Update hidden attribute on content div

This is one of those areas where visual implementation is straightforward but ARIA adds another layer of state management to maintain.

If there’s one thing to understand about accessibility implementation, it’s this: accessibility widgets (those floating toolbars claiming instant compliance) do not provide legal protection and may actually increase lawsuit risk.

Here’s the data:

• 1,023 companies with accessibility widgets were sued in 2024—that’s 25% of all digital accessibility lawsuits (source: UseableNet)
• 62% increase from 2022 in lawsuits targeting sites with these widgets (source: UseableNet)
• accessiBe (major widget provider) fined $1M by FTC in 2025 for false advertising about compliance (source: Federal Trade Commission)

Why Widgets Fail

Widgets mask underlying accessibility issues rather than fixing them. Atlas, just like screen readers, navigates the actual Document Object Model (DOM) of the page, not the widget’s overlay. Courts increasingly reject widget-only implementations as insufficient compliance.

A pattern emerges in accessibility audits: sites have widgets installed, owners believe they’re protected, but testing reveals the same navigation barriers widgets claim to fix. The widget creates a false sense of security while actual problems remain.

If you currently have a widget installed: Don’t remove it immediately (some users may rely on it), but prioritize implementing real fixes and plan transition away from widget dependency. Only proper ARIA implementation in underlying code provides accessibility.

Let’s walk through how to audit current ARIA implementation. This assessment will help you prioritize where to focus effort first.

Understanding the Capabilities and Limitations of Accessibility Testing Tools

Here’s the critical reality about automated testing: tools detect only 20-40% of accessibility issues. Running Lighthouse and getting a perfect score doesn’t mean comprehensive accessibility—it means the baseline check passed.

An automated tool is an important part of evaluating accessibility, including ARIA elements, but they can miss out on important parts of a true accessibility audit.

What Automated Tools Miss:

• Semantic meaningfulness: Tools detect aria-label presence but can’t evaluate whether the label is helpful
• Dynamic behaviour: State changes triggered by user interaction often aren’t tested
• Context appropriateness: Tools flag technical violations but miss user experience issues
• Keyboard navigation flow: Logical tab order requires human evaluation

There are many automated tools on the market. Here are the pros and cons of some popular ones:

axe DevTools (Deque Systems)

• Capabilities: Uses a zero false positives approach, typically detects more than half of the issues
• Best for: Developers who need detailed, accurate reporting
• Limitations: Steeper learning curve; there will still be issues that require human judgment

WAVE (WebAIM)

• Capabilities: Visual overlay showing accessibility issues directly on page
• Best for: Beginners learning accessibility; educational purposes
• Limitations: Catches only basic issues; limited depth for complex implementations

Google Lighthouse

• Capabilities: Built into Chrome DevTools; quick accessibility overview
• Best for: Baseline audits and monitoring trends
• Limitations: Uses axe-core but limited subset; detects only 20-30% of issues

Pa11y

• Capabilities: Command-line tool for CI/CD integration; automated testing on every build
• Best for: Preventing regressions in development workflow
• Limitations: Setup complexity; same detection limitations as other automated tools

Manual Testing is Still Required

Manual screen reader testing is required, not optional. This is where the remaining 60-80% of accessibility issues are discovered.

Basic screen reader testing approach:

1. Windows: Download NVDA (free) or JAWS (paid)
2. macOS: VoiceOver (built-in, press Command+F5)
3. Test critical paths: Main navigation, primary forms, key conversion flows
4. Time investment: 2-4 hours per major user flow minimum

What to validate:

• Are interactive elements announced correctly?
• Do state changes (expanded/collapsed, selected/unselected) communicate?
• Can users complete tasks using only keyboard + screen reader?
• Are error messages clear and actionable?

This is genuinely challenging work that requires both technical skill and patience. Don’t feel like testing everything at once is necessary. Just start with the homepage and primary conversion path as those have the highest impact.

Our experience shows that focusing on business-critical elements first produces the most meaningful improvements:

Tier 1 – Critical (Do First):

• Main navigation structure
• Primary conversion forms (contact, purchase, signup)
• Critical interactive elements on high-traffic pages
• Resource needed: 20-40 hours for average site

Tier 2 – Important (Next 3-6 Months):

• Secondary navigation elements
• Content accordions and expandable sections
• Modal dialogs site-wide
• Resource needed: 40-80 hours

Tier 3 – Comprehensive (Ongoing):

• Full site audit and remediation
• Component library documentation
• Team training for content creators
• Automated testing in CI/CD pipeline
• Resource needed: Ongoing 10-20 hours/month

Think about the most critical user flows on the website. Prioritizing the checkout process, contact forms, and main navigation gives the biggest impact for users AND for Atlas.

Atlas is the first high-profile example, but let’s look at where AI tool navigation is heading and why ARIA implementation matters for the broader landscape.

The AI Browser Category is Emerging

• Perplexity Comet launched before Atlas
• The Browser Company Dia (Arc browser evolution) is in development
• Google Gemini in Chrome represents defensive positioning from Google
• Microsoft Copilot in Edge shows similar strategic moves

Whether these specific browsers succeed isn’t the point. The pattern they represent, where AI tools that need to understand and interact with web content programmatically, will continue evolving. ARIA provides the semantic structure these tools need.

Beyond Browsers, Other AI Applications are Emerging

• Voice assistants navigating web content more sophisticatedly
• Automated form filling and task completion
• Content extraction and summarization tools
• AI shopping assistants that need to navigate e-commerce sites

Search Engine Evolution Matters as Well

Google’s algorithm increasingly favors semantic structure. While Google confirmed accessibility isn’t a direct ranking factor, the correlation exists: AccessibilityChecker and Semrush’s 2025 study of 10,000 websites found a 23% average organic traffic increase associated with improved accessibility scores.

Why? Better semantic markup improves:

• User engagement metrics (longer sessions, more site engagement)
• Mobile experience (mobile-first indexing benefits from accessible design)
• Core Web Vitals (performance metrics overlap with accessibility requirements)

However, Amazon has high rankings globally despite failing most accessibility checks. Other fundamental SEO tactics such as authority, links, and content quality matter more for ranking. Accessibility is just one component of website optimization.

Let’s talk about why this work deserves budget and priority. The business case for ARIA implementation has strengthened with Atlas and similar AI tools, but it rests on three pillars.

1. Accessibility Compliance (Independent of Atlas)

• European Accessibility Act: Requires WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance by June 2025 (six months away)
• 4,000+ lawsuits filed in 2024: Digital accessibility litigation remains high
• 67% target small businesses: Companies under $25M revenue face highest risk
• Penalties are substantial: Germany allows up to €500,000; Italy up to 5% of annual turnover

The EAA affects any company selling to EU customers. Other countries have similar rules. For example, US-only businesses face increasing lawsuit risk from ADA Title III claims.

2. SEO Correlation (Not Causation, But Meaningful)

Multiple studies show correlation between accessibility improvements and organic traffic increases, including the AccessibilityChecker/Semrush study that we mentioned earlier.

Of course, correlation doesn’t equal causation. Amazon’s excellent rankings despite poor accessibility proves other factors matter more. Think of accessibility as one piece of the SEO puzzle. It’s meaningful but doesn’t stand on its own.

3. AI Discoverability (Future-Proofing)

Atlas demonstrates that AI tools will increasingly rely on semantic markup. Whether this specific browser succeeds, the approach it represents where their AI Agents use ARIA for navigation will become more common.

Organizations implementing proper ARIA now gain:

• First-mover advantage before competitors adapt
• Positioning for whatever AI tools emerge next
• Protection against future algorithm updates favoring semantic structure

Implementation Requires Real Investment

The reality is that accessibility implementation is not cheap or fast:

• Tier 1 priorities: 20-40 hours (critical navigation, forms, high-traffic pages)
• Comprehensive coverage: 40-80 hours or more depending on site complexity
• Ongoing maintenance: 10-20 hours/month for monitoring and updates
• External support: $5,000-15,000 for professional audit and critical fixes

This is substantial work, not a weekend project. Organizations must weigh accessibility investment against other priorities. The triple benefit (compliance + SEO + AI) certainly strengthens the justification, but budget constraints are real, especially for small businesses.

Let’s break down how to actually implement this.

Implementation Options Based on Resources

Option 1: Phased Priority Approach (Recommended for Most)

• Month 1: Audit to understand scope (20-40 hours)
• Months 2-3: Critical path fixes—main navigation, primary forms, high-traffic pages (20-40 hours)
• Months 4-6: Important elements—modals, accordions, secondary features (40-80 hours)
• Ongoing: Comprehensive coverage and maintenance

This option will get organizations to meaningful compliance before the June 2025 EAA deadline, with continued improvement after.

Option 2: Professional Acceleration (If Budget Allows)

• External accessibility firm can compress timeline significantly
• Investment: $15,000-50,000 depending on site complexity
• Faster but requires budget many small businesses don’t have
• Consider hybrid: external audit plus internal implementation with consultant training

Option 3: Minimum Viable Compliance (If Deadline Absolute)

• Focus exclusively on WCAG 2.1 Level AA requirements for EAA
• Defer nice-to-have implementations
• Plan for continued improvement after deadline
• Riskier but achievable with focused effort

Skills and Resources Required

Technical Capabilities Needed for Accessibility Reviews

• HTML/CSS semantic markup understanding (intermediate level)
• JavaScript state management (intermediate-advanced level)
• ARIA specification knowledge (requires focused study, not just documentation skimming)
• Screen reader operation (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver)
• Testing methodology and QA process design

For Teams Without ARIA Expertise

We recommend structured learning. Try implementing one element type fully (e.g., forms), validate with screen reader testing, document learnings, then move to the next element type. This builds expertise as you go rather than waiting to learn everything, then trying it out.

Or you can bring in specialist support. There are many consultants or contractors with ARIA expertise, or try a hybrid approach where a consultant trains your internal developers during implementation. That last option can help save you budget down the road as your internal team can take over ongoing monitoring.

Keeping ARIA and Accessibility Working as Your Site Evolves

Accessibility improvements aren’t just a one and done situation. Ongoing compliance comes down to governance.

• Component library documentation: Each interactive component documented with required ARIA attributes
• Responsibility assignment: Clear ownership (RACI matrix approach) for implementation, testing, and maintenance
• QA testing checklists: Specific validation steps before release
• Regular audit schedule: Quarterly comprehensive audits to catch regressions
• Team training: Ongoing education as ARIA standards evolve

You don’t need to create a 60 page process guide or standard operating procedure document. Just start somewhere! Even documenting the three most common interactive elements with their ARIA requirements is progress.

Here’s what to do next, based on where you’re currently at:

Immediate Actions

1. Audit current state—even just the homepage and primary conversion path

• Use automated tools (WAVE, Lighthouse) for baseline
• Test with keyboard navigation
• Document critical gaps

2. Prioritize based on business impact

• High-traffic pages first
• Conversion-critical forms
• Main navigation structure

3. Start small but start now

• Fix one critical element properly
• Document learnings
• Build momentum for larger work

Timeline Recommendations

• Month 1: Audit and prioritization
• Months 2-3: Critical element fixes (Tier 1)
• Months 4-6: Important element fixes (Tier 2)
• Ongoing: Comprehensive implementation and maintenance

Two steps forward, one step back is still progress. Organizations don’t change overnight—this is a marathon, not a sprint. The time to start is right now, even if it’s just auditing the homepage.

Resources to explore

• W3C WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices: Official implementation guidance
• WebAIM: Training materials and testing tools
• NVDA or VoiceOver: Free screen readers for manual testing

This work is substantial, but it’s also an investment in making websites work for everyone: humans with disabilities, AI tools, search engines, and users who benefit from better semantic structure.

Please note:

“Home” is not an appropriate title tag, not even for your homepage. This is a good health and ability test to apply to any design or marketing agency you are considering partnering with! If their title tag is home, they probably don’t know how to optimize websites properly and your site will suffer as a result.

Squarespace defaults to making your title tag be the same as the name you gave the page for navigation purposes. This means that if you are calling your homepage “Home” so that it looks right in your navigation, by default, Home will become your title tag — and that’s no good at all!

Another example: the page title “About Us” will look great in your navigation, but “Meet Our Caring Vet Team in Seattle” would be a better title tag for SEO purposes.

Title tag optimization serves two purposes:

1. Your site will rank higher if you have an optimized title tag. Include keywords, but don’t stuff it — write naturally!
2. Your search results will be more interesting to searchers. What would you click on if you were searching for a vet: “About Us” or “Meet Our Caring Vet Team in Edmonton”?

It’s important for your navigation titles to make sense and look great. Those are the menu items that your customers and clients use to navigate around your site.

Squarespace Terminology:

Navigation Title — this is what appears on your site in your menu — this is where it is appropriate to use “About Us”.

Page Title — this will be your title tag — you need to put your SEO hat on for this field and use a more robust description like “Meet Our Caring Vet Team in Edmonton”.

Here’s a quick video (15 seconds!) that illustrates how it’s done:

Squarespace explains how to change your title tag here.

A great meta description outlines what is on your page, but also encourages the searcher to click on your result instead of someone else’s. Answer these questions: What does your page offer? Why should someone visit it? What will they get from it?

Keep in mind that Google might not always show your meta description — sometimes they’ll show snippets from your content instead. What Google decides to show depends on what the search was for and how relevant your meta description is for that particular search. The meta description you wrote might show up for one search phrase, and then Google will make their own for another search phrase.

Unfortunately, you can’t control this. All you can do is write the best meta description that you can and then try to make peace with the fact that Google might think it knows what a searcher wants to see better than you do.

Write your meta description naturally. The words in the meta description don’t influence your search engine rankings (and haven’t since 2009), however if you write a great meta description and more people click on your site instead of the others that come up in search results, you will see your site’s rankings improve as a result. It’s worth the time to make your meta descriptions great!

Squarespace Terminology:

Description — this is where you will write your meta description — be sure to stay within 160 characters.

Here’s a quick video (10 seconds!) that illustrates how you can do this:

Squarespace also discusses how to change your meta description here.

Learn more about search engine optimization and how title tags and meta descriptions fit into that with Moz’s guide to on-site SEO.

A great resource on where to start when it comes to writing meta descriptions.

Here are some great tips for writing proper title tags.

Remember: “Home” is not a good title tag.

Read this article to get your site set up in Google Search Console. If you do this, you’ll get some data on what type of keywords bring visitors to your site and how often you come up in searches. However, Google Search Console data isn’t 100% accurate, but it’s the best we have access to at this time!

Us! We’re here to help — get in touch. We write thousands of title tags and meta descriptions each year. For 99% of them, we focus on proper optimization and helping people get what they want and need when they are searching, but sometimes (on our own site) we don’t:

Personas have undeservedly gotten a bad rap from some parts of the digital marketing world, because of poor implementation. Let’s be clear—personas must be based on fact, not fiction. If you use real data to determine your audience segments and then narrow down to a persona from there, you will end up with strong, impactful personas. These data-backed personas empower you and your team to measure the actual impact each of your personas has on your marketing budget.

If you didn’t create personas correctly, you’ll end up arguing over whether or not your persona is male or female, or which stock photo best sums up the happy-go-lucky millennial that you’re trying to capture. You will be guessing and assuming, and you know what happens when you assume!

Personas are a tool informed by data and research that define a specific segment of your market.

When developed properly, personas are not:

• Characters for your next great novel.
• Your buddy Gord who really likes your products.
• Difficult to measure.

When you have a good persona, your boss will start nodding their head in agreement when you begin describing the persona. They know this persona! They can picture several of your current clients who match this persona perfectly.

The second important piece is that the persona must be findable and measurable. By findable, we mean that there is a way to target that persona specifically; by measurable, we mean that there is a plan on to segment and track that persona

If you are guessing you will end up failing. Put that on a poster with a rainbow and hang it up in every marketing and advertising agency in the world.

Empathy. Empathy. Empathy. How many times have you heard or read that word this week? It gets thrown around a lot, in the same way that eye-roll worthy words like “authentic” and “unique” and “passionate” often do. But what is empathy?

Empathy is a key characteristic of a successful marketer, and it’s also what separates an okay persona from a good one. Empathy is what lets you become one of your personas and discover what real world things actually affect that part of your audience.

Don’t make assumptions about empathy—do research to discover what empathy actually means for the people you want to connect with. Collecting demographic statistics about age, gender, and income doesn’t produce empathy. Relying on this type of data alone leads to assumptions and “personas” like this:

You need to go beyond this. Ask questions that educate you about who your audience is beyond just simple demographics (that your competitors likely have the exact same access to).

The Canadian magazine Chatelaine does a special feature called “This is 40ish”, where they interview Canadian women between 35 and 45. The questions cover a wide range of topics, including “are you a feminist?” and “do you look good naked?”.

Here are some answers to the question “what makes you unique?”:

Even these tiny story snippets build empathy. You know these 40ish women a little bit better now. Empathy changes people on your website from just numbers on a screen to real people who are affected by your marketing decisions.

You will get pushback when you suggest developing specific personas for your company—especially from people who are used to the idea that you buy a billboard, 80,000 cars drive past every day and then maybe a couple of people will be interested and visit your website or pick up the phone.

If you can narrow down your audience to 1,000 people who reflect who your best client is, and then talk directly to those people in the method that works best for them instead of putting up a billboard and hoping for the best… well, it’s easy to see how that could potentially affect your marketing budgets and results.

When you engage in persona marketing, you end up spending less money on spray and pray marketing techniques.

Your budget is then available to invest in the channels and messages that your personas are actually paying attention to. To put this another way, if your website conversion rate is only 3%, that means that you’re failing 97% of your visitors.

Only in marketing are we allowed to have a 97% fail rate and call it a success.

Put together a list of your best clients. What do these clients have in common? If you are a new business and don’t have current clients to lean on, talk to the clients of your competitors. Please email us if you want to discuss how to effectively make these people feel valued and willing to assist you.

Investigate social media

What do these clients share and where do they hang out? If you don’t already know their social media profiles, you can use FullContact to get their profile information using their email address. You don’t need to be a programmer to get this data, either—they have an Excel spreadsheet you can use. All you need to is sign up for an API key.

If your clients are on Twitter, use BuzzSumo to learn what they tweet about. Use their Influencer search and search for their Twitter @username—for example, if you wanted to view my information, you would search for @danaditomaso, and this is what you would see:

Click the View Links Shared button and you can see all the links Dana recently shared on Twitter. There is even a useful pie chart, which shows that Dana reads The Verge a lot:

You can draw a lot of conclusions about Dana and her online behaviour by seeing these sites that she shares regularly. What do your best clients share?

Pick up the phone

Have casual conversations with your best clients on the phone, and don’t use a script. You rarely gain insight from reading interview questions from a template. Start with some basic questions to get the ball rolling, but then take cues from their answers to build follow up questions. As soon as you go the templated interview route, you open yourself up to perfunctory, bland answers that will do nothing to advance your knowledge.

Embrace the art of conversation and let each discussion flow freely.

For example, if you start by asking why they chose to work with you, and their answer is that they liked your approach, move on to questions that focus on what your client understands about your approach.

“Was it always clear that we would approach X that way?”

“During Phase 2, we shifted our approach based on Y conversation—and we felt that impacted how quickly your team was to respond to Z. What are your thoughts on that?”

We conducted phone interviews on behalf of a client who wanted to find out if their audience was on social media—and if so, what they used it for. Our conversations started off with “what social networks do you use”, and then we would dive into why they joined, who they follow, and what compels them to share something.

Asking something like “would you describe yourself as a Twitter expert” doesn’t work well, but you can ask “how many people do you follow on Twitter?”. If they know the answer, they’re on there enough to be paying attention and that indicates to you that they are a more advanced user.

Ask sales and support

These are the people who know your clients the best. They see your clients at their worst and at their best, and deal with them every day. Start attending sales meetings and listen in on support calls.

• What are the common themes that keep coming up?
• What questions are asked the most?
• What is the number one thing that clients do or say that frustrates your sales and support teams?

Don’t use focus groups

Read this great piece by Erika Hall. If you don’t have time, We’ll sum up—people are really bad at knowing what they want and focus groups are a totally artificial construct. In our experience, one additional problem that comes up is that the loudest person in the room ends up running the show. Avoid.

Tie it together

Through this research, what are the commonalities that you’ve found? How does that fit into your different client segments? One of the tests we use is whether or not we can answer this question for a persona:

I am a (blank)
Who wants to do (blank)
So I can (blank)

When you’re able to come up with several iterations of this formula, you are ready to start developing personas. Remember: this isn’t a creative writing opportunity—these are real people and the attributes you assign to them must be grounded in facts. Empathy first, creativity second.

When it comes to writing out the persona itself, please check out this post by Brittany—it includes a real-life example.

How many personas is too many?

Cap your personas at three to five, at least to start. You may find a brilliant sixth persona down the road and we don’t want to limit you. However, once you start to get towards seven and up, you’ll find that you’re really splitting hairs as to what actually differentiates these personas from each other. Remember— don’t focus on comparatively small details such as gender (unless you work in say, feminine products). That isn’t enough to differentiate a persona.

Now what?

It’s time to turn to data to segment your personas. One of the easiest ways to track personas is via website visits, especially if you have specific landing pages for each persona. If they visit page X, they must be a part of this persona X—very simple. However, you may have a large website, or a complex buying process, which means that it will probably take more than one pageview to determine if a visitor is a specific persona.

In either case, you can create a custom segment in Google Analytics of anyone who has visited those specific pages.

Here is an example of how we did this for a client. Each persona is a custom segment in Google Analytics, based on their visitor behaviour.

• Persona A’s focus is Goal 5.
• Persona B’s focus is overall conversions—there are many different ways they convert.
• Persona C’s focus is Goal 4.
• Persona D is a negative persona—they will visit an informational part of this site regularly, but we don’t actually expect them to convert.

We used letters for the personas in this example—but you should use real names to keep track of your personas!

The Google Analytics screengrab below shows how this happens on the website:

You need to set up each customer segment—this is Persona D, for example:

You can also use the Sequences option to build more complex personas. For example, let’s say you have a tracking URL that you use in bus ads. When someone visits that URL, it will redirect to your landing page using UTM codes, and the source/medium is OOH/bus. This is what that URL would look like, after the redirect:

http://yourwebsite.com/landing-page/?utm_source=OOH&utm_medium=bus&utm_campaign=amazing-bus-ad&utm_content=v2

In the URL, you will notice that we used the campaign name: Amazing Bus Ad, and named the content: v2—it’s important to include a content variable so that you can differentiate between ads.

What we are looking for is a persona who has come to the site via that bus ad, and then looked for more information on a specific topic after viewing the landing page.

This is what that would look like in your custom segment:

Once you have your personas ready to go, use our custom Google Analytics report to create your own report. You will need to edit this report and add in your own goals.

The report also breaks down the sessions by channel for an even deeper analysis. For example, did one persona’s conversion rate improve after you tried new ad copy, and what happened when you tested a new layout for your landing page?

With this data, you will be able to make smarter marketing decisions. You will save time and budget, and avoid missed opportunities. Perhaps Persona A has a 40% higher conversion rate than the rest of your site visitors—well, then you should then invest more budget on this specific persona.

Or, maybe Persona B looked like a great source of new business for your company, but it turns out that they’re a total nightmare for your support team.

Or, a local publication has approached you about an advertising opportunity, but you know based on your research that your personas don’t even read that magazine.

Decisions that have been difficult are now far easier because you have persona-driven data to guide you.

The answers to your marketing questions are out there, living in the hearts and minds of your current and potential clients and customers—you just need to ask the right questions. Getting these answers builds empathy for you and your marketing team, teaches you to build personas that you can actually use and track, and ultimately, these answers will make your customer and client relationships stronger.

Remember: don’t just hope for the best with guesswork and assumptions—ask questions and perform thorough research and you will actually be able to do your best!

A comScore study in 2013 found that 54% of display ads are never seen. Maybe they were displayed on the page, but they were below the fold, or the person left the page before the ad was fully loaded, or a million of other issues.

This feels like the in-joke of the internet, a wink-wink between traditional agencies and publishers—those that sell display ads to unsuspecting clients and the sites that accept ad revenue.

Both of these parties know that display ad metrics aren’t just inaccurate, they’re a heaping pile of bullshit.

Impressions have ended up being the “look how great we are!” measure that agencies that are more focused on trying to obfuscate what’s really going on so that they look good, rather than report on real results. It’s a big number and it looks amazing to say that your ad had 1 million impressions instead of the sad trombone of 10 clicks. This kind of reporting is particularly rife within so-called “traditional” advertising agencies, who are used to reporting on offline campaigns and are still struggling to understand all this internet stuff.

Impressions are also sacrificed to the altar of vague reporting metrics such as “brand awareness”.

We had a real-life example of this when working with another agency for a mutual client. They claimed that an ad had resulted in “brand awareness” due to the large number of impressions the ad received. But in reality, the creative was boring and blended into the site. There wasn’t even a call to action. Just because your ad had 1,000 impressions, it doesn’t mean that:

1. 1,000 more people know about your company.
2. 1,000 more people feel good about your company.
3. 1,000 people looked at your ad at all.

If you need to measure brand awareness, try measuring it on social media or count people visiting your landing page. Did someone talk about your brand on social? Did they go to your site, maybe sign up for your newsletter? That’s brand awareness! Someone glazing over your display ad on a webpage that they viewed for two seconds isn’t brand awareness.

(Facebook is also guilty of this. The “boost” button on page posts is paying per impressions, although they call it reach. Reach is also a poorly understood metric that’s becoming a stand in for impressions on social media. Buyer beware.)

How did we get here? In the beginning of advertising, we paid per impression. Billboards cost a certain amount depending on how many cars drove by. Nielsen ratings determined how much advertisers should pay for TV shows—sweeps weeks were how television shows inflated their numbers so they could charge more. We didn’t have a better way to measure things.

Then, the internet happened. Instead of thinking “hey, we can measure all kinds of things now!”, pageviews became the default metric of success because it was comfortable and nobody in advertising had to shift too much. You could say “this site gets 10,000 pageviews a day”, put down your client’s money and then tell them that they got 10,000 ad views. Just like buying a radio ad, right?

Pageviews should never have been the default measure of advertising. It’s resulted in awful clickbait headlines (You won’t believe what happens next!) and multipage slideshows (I’m looking at you, Huffington Post). But pageviews are a metric that could be easily measured and sold to people who understood the old school of advertising.

What they didn’t understand (or willfully ignored) was banner blindness. Spend 5 minutes on the internet, and you’ll start to zone out the ads. Some pages make it hard by shouting at you, showing popups, and pushing giant page takeovers, but loud isn’t the new good. You can’t make someone want to pay attention to your creative that was recycled from a billboard.

The internet is not just a cheaper billboard. If your ad isn’t compelling, if it doesn’t speak to me, then you might as well save your money and take yourself out for a nice dinner instead.

The internet, while still a baby, is learning really fast. We can target based on behaviour, what you’re searching for, your age, your Facebook interests, whether or not you already visited our site—a million different ways to show exactly the ad that you’ll be interested in at the moment you see it. But instead, most advertisers submit webpage visitors to the blunt force trauma of multiple ad impressions, hoping for a nice big number they can show on their PowerPoint presentation the next time they’re at a client meeting.

People on the internet aren’t lemmings, just waiting around to be shown something flashy so they can jump off a cliff after it. We all see ads every single day, and we’re smart enough to decide what’s interesting and what’s just more crap to ignore. Recycled creative and scattershot advertising isn’t just lazy, it’s disrespectful to you and to your client. Reporting on impressions reinforces the idea that if you show an ad enough times, we’ll just have to give in to the message. And we all know that isn’t true.

Nine years ago, Yellow Pages reps were still trying to talk people into print ads—for the past several years they’ve switched to pushing them towards what we view as terrible online advertising options and even more terrible Yellow Pages websites.

The Yellow Pages reps continue to tell people the same old BS stories, but they’re getting more insistent as they become more and more desperate. Their FUD runs along these lines:

1. We are the only authorized Google Ads reseller in Canada.

There are two parts to this. First, it implies that being a Google Ads reseller is better than a Google Ads Partner. That’s absolutely not true. You do not receive better rates by working with a reseller — if anything, it costs more and they provide you with less reporting. Secondly, they are not the only authorized Google Ads reseller in Canada.

2. Having a paid listing on the Yellow Pages will improve your rank on Google.

No, not true. But a lie the reps seem to tell a lot, based on what we hear. Check out a Yellow Pages listing. You’ll see that the link to the website is actually something like http://www.yellowpages.ca/gourl/http://www.yourcompany.com— that means that the link actually is a redirect from the Yellow Pages site, not a true link to your site. It may pass along some link value, but it’s of very low quality.

Having a free listing provides you with a small boost for local SEO, but the paid packages at Yellow Pages won’t impact your visibility on Google.

3. The Yellow Pages website gets more traffic than Google!

Absolutely not. The below chart of monthly visitors in Canada will paint the real picture. This data is provided by Amazon’s Alexa Internet, a well-regarded provider of competitive website statistics.

4. We have special ways of making your site show up on Google — no one else can do that.

They’re talking about pay-per-click advertising here. They’re just using the local business options available to any Google Ads advertiser. Nothing secret there, just knowing what boxes to click.

And the worst one of all…

5. If you cancel your ad with us, your ranking will go down on Google.

An absolute lie. Ask them for proof — how will this happen? Ask for specific examples. In our experience, we have not seen any detrimental ranking effects when a client has canceled or downgraded their Yellow Pages listing. If anything, they can improve their reach because of the money they saved and reallocated on better advertising options!

We discussed this issue on Twitter back in 2010, and if the folks at Yellow Pages even noticed, they never said anything. If Yellow Pages was as web-savvy as they claim, they would have picked up on the Twitter mentions by now and gotten in touch.

Updated 2019:

1) Check your contract

We were able to get our hands on a recent Yellow Pages contract, and the terms and conditions mirrored the comments we’ve received here. They put in an auto-renew clause that states that you need to give 3 months notice before your annual contract ends.

2) Call this number: 1-877-909-9356

In many of the comments we’ve received, people have struggled with actually getting a hold of someone to submit their cancellation.

Thanks to Mel for sharing this phone number where she had some success.

3) File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau

If you’re being charged for something you never agreed to, can’t get in touch with anyone at Yellow Pages in order to cancel, or are being hounded by credit collectors, file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. It looks like Yellow Pages is actually responding to most of these complaints, but it’s not clear if they’re truly rectifying each issue.

Help stop Yellow Pages

Frustrated by the FUD business practices of Yellow Pages? Here are some suggestions we’ve received from users on how you can draw attention to their tactics:

• Share your story with CBC Marketplace.
• Report an incident with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
• Warn your friends, family, and business colleagues.
• Post about your experience on social media and tag Yellow Pages.

Updated May 16, 2019.