You could call this an advertorial. Maybe it is but it’s also fact:

When we build a new website, even if you don’t commission us to help with your ongoing SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), we will optimise your site for search.

This isn’t us giving you something for free. This is just us being professional and doing a fantastic job with the code, content and pictures that make up your sexy new website.

We lovingly handcraft gorgeous code – Google will fancy you rotten.

If other web designers don’t give you this service or want you to pay through the nose for it give us a call. Seriously… don’t muck about – 01793 554900.

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….

Part three…

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.

After last week’s merciless cliffhanger here’s part two 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 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….

Part two…

11. There’s no useful information on your site

It’s an old chestnut but content really is king. Remove your ego and pop it back in it’s box because your website is not for you; it’s for your visitors. Now provide the information that customers or potential customers actually want, put it in order of importance and then finally design and build your website around it.

12. Poor colour combinations

There are issues here beyond the fact that your site might be ugly and hurt your visitors eyes (although you should probably try and avoid that). If you get the balance of colours wrong you will make your site less visible to people with visual or cognitive problems. Your website should be as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.

13. Disabled back button

If you’re web developer has disabled the browser back button you need to give them a slap. It does not serve to keep people on your site in the hope that they might buy; it just irritates them. And they’ll leave anyway.

14. Too much text

But don’t overdo it. People looking at text on screen will typically only read about 25% what they would on paper. Don’t waste your time or theirs.

15. No or (worse) poor quality images

The web is a visual medium so make the most of it. If the picture on your TV is poor you change channels and visitors to your website will do the same.

16. It’s old

If you haven’t done any work to design or (god forbid), content for the last year your site is out of date. Even if the coding is up to date. Ignore your website at your peril it’s costing you business right now. Update at least some content monthly (minimum), weekly (better) or even daily (ideal). You don’t have to do much but the search engines love a constantly updated website and as an added bonus your visitors will appreciate it too. Regularly making small changes to the design of your site will keep it fresh and save you money. There’s no need to wait for your website to get old and outmoded so why should you. Little and often is key so budget time and money for it and you’ll never have to do a costly redesign.

17. Did you make it yourself?

We can tell, your customers can tell and the people who would have been your customers could tell. You wouldn’t print your glossy catalogue that you send out to 100,000 people yourself using a photocopier, you wouldn’t paint your logo and phone number on the back of your van with a tin of Dulux… well here’s the newsflash: your website is the catalogue that you can put in front of every single person on the planet with a computer. Of all the things that you could try and do yourself building the website for your business has the biggest consequences. I’m sorry if this sounds harsh but don’t devalue your business by cutting corners. Designing and building high quality web sites that can grow and evolve with your business is harder than it looks. But don’t worry – we can help.

18. Poor navigation

Visitors need to be able to find their way around your website and they do so using the navigation – the bits that say ‘Home’, ‘About’, ‘Blog’. Consistent, easy to use navigation is essential for a good user experience and the navigation should be completely unobtrusive. Here’s an apology on behalf of an entire industry – web designers and developers like to show off their skills and this quite often results in navigation that’s too clever for it’s own good. If you’ve got funky but inconsistent, unfathomable navigation your visitors won’t see it as an enticing puzzle. They’ll see it as an irritation and move on. And you’ll never know.

19. Orphaned pages

Related to #18. This is what happens when someone clicks on a link on your site and then finds they can’t get back and the navigation’s disappeared. Again users will get frustrated and just leave. But they’re not the only ones. We’ve done some work recently for a client whose old website had 42 pages jam packed with useful information. Unfortunately because some (quite a lot), of these pages were orphans Google thought the site only had 8 pages. That’s 34 pages that never ever came up in searches no matter how perfect they would have been for the visitor. 34 opportunities to catch potential customers gone. Forever. You get the picture.

20. Click to enter

Don’t do this. Just don’t. The only exception to this rule is if you’re an artist or a photographer with ‘virtual’ gallery of some sort.

21. Not accessible…

…oh no it’s as frustrating as the cliffhanger at the end of 40 year old episodes of Flash Gordon at the Saturday Morning Cinema Club.

Part three will be right along next week. It’s the last one and if you don’t want to miss it you can subscribe to the blog. If it’s easier just let us know and we’ll send it to you in an email.

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.

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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.

This is called usability. This simple word means that if you design with the user in mind, remove all possible technical barriers from their experience and create something that works effortlessly it will succeed.  The iPhone’s user interface – the way that you interact with the device (through screens or buttons), has been built strictly with the user in mind. The aesthetic design is secondary.

Usability is a core principal in web design and yet it so often gets forgotten as designers (and their clients), get hung up on what the site looks like. Don’t get me wrong – everyone wants a beautiful and elegant site for their business and rightly so but it comes last in the process. The key here is to think about what you want people to do when they arrive at your website. Do you want them to watch a video? Great put the video on the home page; up front, central, easy to see and use. Do you want them to call you? Give them your phone number; don’t make them dig for it. Do you want them to register for your newsletter? Marvelous. Give them a free newsletter without registration and in the same place let them register with a really simply form. Want them to buy something from you? …can you see where I’m going with this?

If your website isn’t really easy to use people won’t keep trying they’ll just go elsewhere. You lose.

If an action on your website requires thought, effort or imagination; throw it away and start again. Be like Steve Jobs; I’m sure the Apple engineers got sick of hearing ‘throw it away and start again’, but that’s what Mr Jobs kept saying and with this approach they got the iPhone. Out of the iPhone has come the iPad and Apple sold 300,000 of those on day one.

Ursus Media produce usable, accessible and beautiful websites and they’re all handcrafted here in sunny Swindon. Feel free to get in touch and if you’re in need of a new website take a look at our latest offer.

It’s rare that I do an unashamed plug like this in the blog. This is generally where you can come for good quality information about all things webby for your business and all you normally get dotted around my posts are subtle hints that you should be using us for your digital media projects.

Every so often though I’m going to reserve the right to tell you all about something that I think is too good to miss. This offer is for those of you who are just starting out in business or who just need a very simple website. Remember anything that we create for you will be designed and coded to the highest standard and built so that it can grow with your business.

The offer’s really simple: £495 for a 5 page website that gives you everything listed below:

• Unique professional design
• Four pages with your own content (text and images)
• One contact us page with a built in form
• A custom error page just in case
• One .co.uk domain name
• Two email addresses of your choice
• Hosting for your new site for a year
• Coding to the highest, best practice standards
• Guaranteed W3C standards compliant
• Thoroughly tested to work in all standard browsers
• Optimised for the search engines – Google here you come
• A simple CMS so that you can update your own site
• Basic site statistics
• Built to be scaleable to grow with your business in the future
• We’ll project manage things for you throughout
• If you’re in a hurry just let us know – we can be very fast
• You can talk to the project team at any time
• Peace of mind of knowing exactly what it costs: just £495!

The catch? Well there is no catch. You do have to order your swanky new site before 1 May 2010 and some terms apply but that’s it. Read more about the offer.

Related items:

• 10 Reasons your business needs a website
• 7 Questions to ask your web developer

Even in this, the internet age, is it a given that every business needs a website?
The simple answer is yes. Sorry; were you expecting something else?

I suppose that you want me to quantify my answer with good clear reasons. After all someone from a company that designs and develops websites is bound to say that.

1. The internet is a global shop window
   Unless you’re very lucky you’re facing competition from all directions. A good website can extend your reach to anyone with a computer, anywhere in the world, immediately. They can see who you are, what you do and how you do it instantly. They can then make contact and interact with you all the while marvelling at how you’re absolutely the right people for the job.
2. Communicate with your customers and clients
   I guarantee that most of your customers are already online. Perhaps they do business online, their banking perhaps; how many people do you know that have book a holiday online or ordered Christmas presents from Amazon? The web is an easy way to communicate effortlessly with your customers. Encourage them to get in touch with you. Get them to talk to you.
3. Open yourself up to new opportunities
   You can open up your business to opportunities that you didn’t know existed until you got online and your shiny new customers from around the world got in touch. £3.8bn is spent online in Britain alone every month and some of that could be yours.
4. Learn from the people on your site
   At the risk of making myself sound incredibly dull, I love the data that websites can provide. You can get an understanding of what people want and need, not just from what they say but from what they do. The data that you can gather from users of your website is empirical. You can adapt your website quickly and cost effectively based on real evidence as opposed to ‘gut feelings’. I know of a very famous online DVD rental company that increased sales by 10% overnight by changing two simple things on its website. The decision to do that was based on good hard data.
5. Catch up with your competition
   Not a good enough reason on its own but I bet the competition are online. If they use their website effectively they’ll be picking up business from your potential clients. Don’t let them get away with it. Remember too that the web levels the playing field – you get the same access to the same clients as anyone else online.
6. Work around the clock every day of the year
   Your website will work hard for you (at least it will if we build it), long after every other member of staff has gone home. If you sell online you can look forward to coming into work in the mornings and flicking though a pile of orders from around the world as you enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee.
7. Save lots of money
   I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The web is the most cost effective way of marketing and selling that there is. Do it properly and your website will make far more for you than it will cost. Don’t cut corners though or it’ll just be a white elephant with the name of your business painted on the side. The internet is complex and clever so hire a professional whose job it is to deliver value for money.
8. Free advertising
   Your website is the perfect place to advertise. If you have a good flow of traffic you can tell people about new products and services, sales and special offers. You can even let them send information to their friends directly from your website. Remember your reach is global and constant so make the most of it.
9. Portray the perfect image for your business all the time
   Keep your website up to date (little and often is the key here) and you can update your image and develop your brand continuously. The web is by far the most cost effective way to show people who you are and what you stand for.
10. If you think you’re so great – prove it
    Show people how great you are. Show them why your cheese is better than Sainsbury’s, why you can deliver better service than the other dry cleaners up the road, why your widget costs twice as much as your competitors. Sometimes you need to show what goes on behind the scenes in order to make people appreciate just what a great company you are. Make people comfortable with who you are and tell them exactly why they should buy your product or service and they probably will.

So there you are: 10 good reasons why you need a website. And 10 equally good reasons to give us a call and get our help to grow your business online.

Related items:

• 7 Questions to ask your web developer
• Special offer

We at Ursus Media love the internet. It’s what we do for a living. We make new stuff for the web, we make old stuff on the web better and we pay attention like a bunch of eager puppies when something shiny and new comes along. And then we make it work for business.

One of the coolest things about the web is the sharing side of it: sharing stories, sharing clever applications, sharing photos and sharing information. This blog is where you’ll find us sharing information: the stuff we know and the funky new stuff that we find out about. It’s not entirely frivolous though. We want to help you make your business, whatever that might be, thrive online.

So, what are we going to talk about here? Some upcoming subjects, not necessarily in order (just be grateful – this is free*), are:

• Writing for the web
• Web Analytics
• Web design best practice
• Usability
• Accessibility
• Twitter
• Social media marketing

So if you want to follow the Ursus Media blog and learn about the best ways to make the web work for you, you might want to subscribe using the RSS feed.

Remember if you have a project coming up: anything from a new website to some help with a social media strategy, we’d love to help and it costs nothing to contact us.

*And Swindon’s more expensive than it looks.

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