Amateurs are more expensive than professionals
Twitter is an infinite source of information, amusement and just occasionally some very simple home truths:-
“If you think hiring a professional is expensive, try working with an amateur”
- Red Adair
Need I say more?
Ursus Media are a professional web design, development and online marketing company based in Swindon in South West England.
Thanks to @essentialryan and @TLC_Tweets for the quote.
Is your website failing your business? 30 reasons why… Part 3
After another cliffhanger last week here’s the final part in our list of 30 reasons why your website is failing your business.
We meet a lot of people who are wondering whether or not they should invest their hard earned cash in a website redesign. They’ve already spent (sometimes a significant amount of) money and yet, for some reason, their web site doesn’t seem to be delivering results for their business. When we look at their site the reasons are usually pretty obvious but sometimes they’re more obscure.
Occasionally we have to tell people that their site is in fact doing more harm than good and that’s never a happy moment.
Here’s the final part of a list that, although by no means exhaustive, covers lots of the more common problems. Some of these things are more significant than others but they all have an impact. Let me know what you think….
21. Not accessible
I’ve alluded to this elsewhere in this series. In this day and age you have a duty to try and make your site as accessible to as many people as possible regardless of their ability. I know a blind lady who knows more about the internet that you and I put together. She has a large disposable income, shops online regularly and does lots of research online for business. If she comes across a site that isn’t accessible she won’t phone you up instead she’ll just go elsewhere. There is also legislation on the horizon in the UK which will mean that your site (B2C sites first), will have to be accessible.
22. Poor usability
If a user has to engage their brain in order to use your website then it’s too complex. Do the granny test again or ask a five year old to accomplish some tasks on your website. Usability is a science in its own right but think about gadgets and websites that are pleasure to use – that’s good usability.
23. No call to action
You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to attract users to your website but are you asking visitors to your website to do something? Here’s a clue – the answer should be yes? It could be as simple as calling you (’call us now!’), or buying something (’buy now’). The web is direct, immediate and fast. Don’t muck about just ask the question. Be clear and maybe even be cheeky.
24. Long sign up process
Don’t do it. On the web you need to remove as much guff as possible from your sign up processes. Think about Amazon and their one click buying process or The Book Depository with their checkout and sign-up on one page process. The more steps in any process and the more likely it is that people will drop out. The more personal information that you ask for and the more likely it is that people will drop out. Don’t lose business simply because you have some need to know your customer’s inside leg measurement. Unless you sell trousers online of course.
25. Frames
You might not even know if you site has been built using frames but any web designer can tell you – maybe for free. Your customers won’t be able to bookmark pages when they’re in your site so even if they find something they’re interested in they won’t be able to come back. But they’ll be so irritated by this time they probably won’t want to. I wouldn’t. Search engines don’t like them and find it hard to see the content – if they can’t see the content they can’t index you properly so they won’t. If a customer enters on a subpage they might find that some or all of the navigation is missing. Again, do you really want to irritate your potential customers?
26. Excessive use of Flash or Flash intros
Flash is a proprietary software that is useful for creating cool web effects and animations. Some websites are built entirely in Flash. They often look really cool. Oh, unless you’re using an iPhone. Or an iPad. Or you live in the country and have a slow web connection. There’s a lot of debate amongst developers about the use of Flash but essentially content displayed in Flash is largely inaccessible, it can slow down a website, if you’re one of the 2 million iPhone users in the UK it’s invisible and there are alternatives available. As for flash intros, read #3 again and add that argument to this one.
27. Ads that users can skip
There are some very big sites that have video ads that appear when you go to their website. You can skip the ad if you can find the little cross in the corner but essentially you are forced to watch an advert before you can see the content you’re looking for. The only organisations that can get away with this have unique and compelling content that cannot be found elsewhere. If you think you’d like to earn some extra pennies with this kind of advertising you’d better be certain that people will tolerate the ads.
28. You hired a black hat
Did someone promise you the top spot on Google? Did you hire them? The only people that can promise the top spot on Google is Google. And they won’t. Apologies to all the self proclaimed ‘web gurus’ out there but that’s a cold hard fact. The chances are that if you hire someone and within a couple of weeks you ended up in that coveted number one spot (for a competitive search term), they did something to deliberately fool the search engines. It’s impressive and exciting. Briefly. As soon as Google et al recognise that you’ve manipulated them (your site remember), they will penalise you and send you tumbling back down the rankings. There are legitimate ways to work your way up the rankings so hire a professional and be patient.
29. Meaningless domain name
Before you leap in and buy a domain name have a good hard think about it. If you sell toffees and your name’s John Smith you should probably steer clear of johnsmith.com. That said jsmithtoffeemaker.com is probably a good bet – not to mention probably available. If possible try to make the name describe an action rather than an identity (although it might be possible to do both). Always go for a top level if you can .com .org or .co.uk. If you end up with jsmithtoffeemaker.tv everyone will think you’re an online tv channel.
30. It’s not your website, it’s you
If you have a website and people get in touch with you then please, please respond to them. Quickly. The web is instant. It’s all about instant gratification, instant information, instant availability, instant everything. If you think it can wait until later, you’re sadly mistaken. I recently made an enquiry for the same product on four different websites. One didn’t respond at all. One responded within 24 hours – not bad. One responded within 11 minutes – much better. The company that got my order responded to me in three minutes flat. They were quick, keen and professional. This stuff isn’t easy but you can develop processes that allow you to respond very quickly even if you’re a tiny company.
Essentially all of these things require attention because they adversely affect the users experience on your website and with your business. If there’s one lesson to take away from this series of posts it’s that visitors to your site will not tolerate a poor experience.
If your web site is out of date we can advise you on a sensible and cost effective way to put it right. If you ultimately need a new site and we design and build it for you, you now know of at least 30 things that won’t let it down.
The next blog post will be along shortly. I promise no more cliffhangers for a while but you don’t want to miss out you can subscribe to the blog. If it’s easier just let us know and we’ll send it to you in an email.
Ursus Media are based in Swindon, Wiltshire and specialise in web design, development, eCommerce and online marketing for small and medium businesses throughout the South West.
Is your website failing your business? 30 reasons why…
We meet a lot of people who are wondering whether or not they should invest their hard earned cash in a website redesign. They’ve already spent (sometimes a significant amount of) money and yet, for some reason, their web site doesn’t seem to be delivering results for their business. When we look at their site the reasons are usually pretty obvious but sometimes they’re more obscure.
Occasionally we have to tell people that their site is in fact doing more harm than good and that’s never a happy moment.
Here’s a list that, although by no means exhaustive, covers lots of the more common problems. Some of these things are more significant than others but they all have an impact. Let me know what you think….
1. Lack of focus
What exactly is your website for? If you don’t know how will your customers? Think about what you want your website to do – is it simply a showcase for your products or services, does it need to encourage people to call you or sign up for an email newsletter, are you selling online? ‘I just think we need a website’ is not a clear business objective. ‘We need a web presence so that users can find and contact us’, is. A good web marketing company can help you define these objectives but you know your business better than anyone. You wouldn’t advertise on the side of a bus unless you had a good reason for doing so.
2. It’s on it’s own with no support
I’m really sorry to have to tell you this but a website is just part of the marketing mix. If you invest in a website and expect it to suddenly deliver customers and revenue you’re likely to be disappointed. The more tightly you can integrate all of your marketing efforts (on and offline) the better.
3. Splash pages
If a web developer is offering you a ‘free custom splash page’, move along and move along now. They are offering to put a free and for gratis barrier between your customers and the information they’re looking for site. It’s beyond stupid. Tell them you want something of value instead. We occasionally have special offers – sometimes we’ll even include something for free. But it won’t be a splash page.
4. Hidden contact details
If visitors to your site cannot immediately see a way to contact you they’ll lose all confidence in you. You must make it easy for people to get in touch in a way that suits them.
5. Automatic audio/video
If I arrive at your website and it plays a video or music at me as soon as I arrive I will leave. And I might be a potential customer. I might even be interested in your video. You’ll never know. Let your visitors be in control of their browsing experience; it’s not your place to tell them what to do. You can steer them in the direction you want but it’s never a good idea to force a user to do something.
6. Slow loading sites
If it takes forever for your site to load you’ll lose customers and Google will penalise you. If your site takes more than about 8 seconds to load you might want to review how it’s been coded and how and where it’s hosted.
7. Poor page layout
There’s no excuse for this and any decent web designer should be able to get this right. Do the granny test – give your granny a list of 5 or 6 simple tasks that you’d like her to accomplish on your site; find the phone number, add something to a basket, find a core product. If she fails have a rethink… or ask us for some advice.
8. First impression of your business
‘Never judge a book by its cover’. Never has a saying been more wrong. Studies suggest that users make up their mind about a website in less than the blink of an eye. Your website is like a shopfront or the reception at your office. The difference is that it’s not just visible to people on the high street or that visit your office: it’s visible to everyone on the planet with a computer. A website is the cheapest marketing investment you can make in terms of the number of people that you can reach but it’s also the most visible so you’d better do it properly.
9. Animations, scrolling marquees, animated gifs
If your designer has included any of these things please put them back in their time machine and send them back to 1995. There was a time when these things were novel and eyecatching but the web has grown up and so have it’s users. If you ask us to include any of these on a site expect us to be um… honest.
10. Not tested in any browser other than your own
Websites render differently in different browsers. It’s amazing how often we see a site that looks beautiful in Firefox but awful in Internet Explorer. This is often the hardest bit for DIY web designers and developers to get right. You should test and code so that a site works well in all modern web browsers. Older browser often have less functionality but your site should also cope well with these and degrade gracefully.
11. There’s no useful information on your site…
…and that’s what we call a cliffhanger.
Part two will be right along next week. If you don’t want to miss it you can subscribe to the blog or if it’s easier just let us know and we’ll send it to you in an email.
Is there such a thing as too professional?
I’ve had a bit of a shock. Last Friday I had a telephone conversation with a prospective new client who thinks we’re too professional for his company.
This is a person who employs 4 or 5 people in his small but successful business. He already has a website but it’s not really delivering any leads, it’s difficult to update (the original developer has long since disappeared) and it doesn’t really convey the right impression of his firm.
He wants a new website. There’s just one problem in that (in his opinion), his budget’s really small.
He came across our website but hesitated to contact us because, in his words, “you look really expensive”. When I asked what he meant he said that he got the impression that we were “too professional for my budget with project processes and terms and conditions“.
When I asked him whether or not his customers viewed him as a professional, the entire tone of the conversation changed. He agreed to let us provide a quote which we did this morning and he’s just contacted me (Monday afternoon), to commission us to design and build his new website.
He’ll get a lovely new site delivered on time and in budget that will prove the theory that his site could be working harder. Because of the way that we work, if he wants to expand the site at a later date to include, for example, an e-commerce element he can do so quickly and easily.
So again – is there such a thing as too professional? As I understand it you are either professional or not. Which would you rather your web design company were?
Ursus Media undertake web design projects of all sizes for all budgets for businesses throughout the UK. Contact us for a free, no obligation chat and let’s see if we can help you.
iPhone lessons for web design – be like Steve Jobs
Why is the iPhone so great while all others lag behind?
Is that a controversial question? Yes, probably, but you see I’ve used a lot of smart phones. I’ve also worked in the digital media business for a long time. You could say that I’ve been around the block. You can take it from me (and the million or so other users in the UK), that the iPhone is great.
This is not about the device itself though. What’s great about the iPhone is that it just works. It’s intuitive and slick to use. It allows you to do some massively complex things and yet it’s easier to use than any other mobile phone there is. To give you an idea; I’m writing this blog post with my iPhone. Today I’ve also tweeted with it, done my online banking, used it as a satnav device, read both the Guardian and the Telegraph and I’ve watched the BBC Breakfast News. Oh, I’ve made some phone calls on it too. All of these tasks are possible because the iPhone makes them easy. …continue reading
