Google Sidewiki – Death to Static Webpages

Awesome! Now anyone using the Google Toolbar can leave comments for others to see about your webpages through Google Sidewiki.

Screenshot of Google Sidewiki

Luckily you can (through Google Webmaster Tools) create a webmaster entry that will appear on top, but this is a challenging new feature for anyone (like me) who is trying to get a handle on existing webpages that you know are not designed to their full effectiveness. Now users can comment on those type of issues.

This is also going to make it challenging to know the reason why your landing pages are not converting – is it because of the landing page itself, or the SideWiki text?

So much for the line between a website and a blog. Now even static content can have commenting going on whether or not you as a webmaster intended for that to happen.

I can’t find anything within the documentation that makes it easy for you as a webmaster to sign up for a feed of updates on SideWiki comments on pages you own – let me know if you figure out how that can happen. Otherwise I’m not sure (as a manager of multiple websites) how you stay on top of something like this…

Video about Google’s Free Tools

If you’ve been too hesitant to just dive in and start using Google Analytics, Website Optimizer or Webmaster tools, Google now has a 60 minute training video for you. I encourage everyone to watch and start using the tools.