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.

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.

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.

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.

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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• RT @dgupta5150 #HubSpot #SEO The Ultimate List: 300+ Social Media Statistics http://ow.ly/17mtUu #
• RT @ChrisHusong 7 social media aggregation tools to simplify your stream http://ht.ly/1Exvg #
• 3D Video Recording Coming to a Cell Phone Near You: http://bit.ly/9kIFt7 #
• The Semantic Web: What It Is and Why It Matters [VIDEO]: http://bit.ly/bcJrgo #
• Still think you don’t need to be online? | Web Design | Web Development | Online Marketing | Ursus Media Blog http://ow.ly/1KFXD #
• #FF @biz_oh @Innovateip @BusinessTools4U @magia3e @MRPaulSimon @whiteshutters @samjallen @TheHenleyList @BusinessScience @Econsultancy #
• The numbers you didn’t know you needed | Social Media | Ursus Media Blog http://ow.ly/1KG0R #
• HOW TO: Land Your Dream Job Using Google AdWords: http://bit.ly/bWWH2d #
• RT @RichardCharon: RT @Twitter_Tips 10 Newbie Twitter Mistakes Made By Businesses http://j.mp/bNinzo #
• Social Media Parenting: Raising the Digital Generation: http://bit.ly/aclXEb #
• RT @SarahFinds: Facebook Finally Calls Meeting on Privacy Strategy Black Web 2.0 http://bit.ly/a4aXG9 #
• #FF @artwiz @Jankovitch @Cyberpoint @emma_l_davies @weirdchina @Purple_Pepper @nickwallen @timalmond @MarcDeCaria @digitaltechs #
• How Mobile Technology is Affecting Local News Coverage: http://bit.ly/94qDKi #
• @Innovateip I know. It comes around almost every week in reply to Innovateip #
• @Z_Vana thanks for the #ff in reply to Z_Vana #
• @Jankovitch thank you for the #ff in reply to Jankovitch #
• RT @craighepburn: Absolutely! RT @designthinkers: “Everything is social” “designing social requires different thinking” @emalone #iak10 #
• @samjallen pleasure. in reply to samjallen #
• @nickwallen no problem in reply to nickwallen #
• NYU Students Raise More than $100,000 to Build Facebook Alternative: http://bit.ly/ahWylZ #
• #FF @DutchKarin @ruv @CameronTeamPM @BucksNet @Pierre_Paperon @TheHenleyList @iain_gray @CB_Swindon @kamper @DeanHolmes #
• RT @davewiner: Pretty sure Adobe didn’t care about “open markets” until they got locked out of one. http://r2.ly/3pkb #
• BBC News | Technology | UK Edition: Google answers privacy questions http://tinyurl.com/32sabj7 #
• RT @samjallen: It looks like the clown doll has been sent to hell: http://tweetphoto.com/22343907 & rightly so if you ask me! #
• How Mobile Technology is Affecting Local News Coverage: http://bit.ly/94qDKi #
• @iMommyTalk thanks for following us. #
• @linxtraffic thanks for the follow #
• RT @MarkClayson: This Is What a Spider Nanobot Really Looks Like [Imagecache] http://goo.gl/fb/6M5l8 #
• RT @billfishkin: Cellphones Now Used More for Data Than for Calls: http://instapaper.com/zY10icaL #
• 10 Must-Have BlackBerry Apps for Small Business: http://bit.ly/ajO21O #

If you think that your business doesn’t need to use social media or that it doesn’t even need a website then the following video from the clever and talented people at Socialnomics is going to make you really uncomfortable. Er… sorry.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQZAmr_-WVI

Still, not to worry; getting your company in front of some of these people isn’t rocket science. Here’s an easy to follow plan:-

• Decide what you want to achieve
• Get yourself a well designed and coded website (get it right and your site can grow and evolve with your business)
• Make sure you have some analytics installed on it (putting your efforts into your online channel is pointless unless you can measure the results)
• Write an online marketing strategy (a medium to long term plan that will make sure that you do everything for a reason -- you can tweak it as you go along)
• Learn how to use the right tools so that you’re not wasting time but make sure that you devote some time to this.

Finally some free of charge top tips (are we mad* or are we the kind of people you want to work with?):

Top tip #1: Find somebody in your organisation who is using Twitter, Facebook or maybe writing a blog and make them your social media ambassador. Give them some clear guidelines and a little time everyday and they’ll love you for it.

Top tip #2: We can help. Engage Ursus Media to design and build the perfect website for you and then let us help you join up all the elements of the what is now a very social web.

*Not mad. Absolutely the people you want to work with.

Social media marketing is a black art for many companies.

Engaging with your customers online can be very scary if you haven’t done it before. Although it has its challenges it can offer brilliant insights into what they think of you. It can also give you the opportunity to head off issues before they get out of control and win support from a sophisticated and sceptical audience.

Beyond the simple idea of talking to your customers in the way that suits them best (which has to be good), it also extends the reach of your organisation way beyond the bounds of your own website and can add a lot of value in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO), which is something I’ll discuss in a later post.

In a previous post I discussed talking to your customers with Twitter. In this superb article, originally posted on Marketing 2.0, Lois Kelly offers another 12 ideas to try.

“Many companies still think of Facebook or blogs when they hear ’social media’.  Here are 13 approaches and my assessment of their value and cost.

Shareable content

1. Social tagging: add social media bookmarks/functionality on every page of your site. This will increase your keyword relevancy and organic search rankings, reducing paid search costs. Value: High/Cost: Low

2. Social mediafy your campaigns: create content people want to share; tap into right social media rigger points, places and people. This will increase viral effect, getting greater reach for less than paid media, traditional PR. Value: High/Cost: Moderate

3. Badges, widgets, ringtones: make it easy for people to promote your company ‘wearing’ badges, sharing branded music. Value: Low/Cost: Low

4. Embed customer reviews/recommendations in your site: Online reviews are second only to personal advice from a friend as the driver of purchase decisions. So why not make it easy for people to decide when they come by your site? Value: High/Cost: Moderate

5. Create a YouTube channel, strategy: We live in a video world. Marketing needs to, too. Value: Moderate/Cost: Moderate to High

6. Take blogging to the next level: move from corporate mouthpiece to more of an online media property with high value to customers and prospects. Value: Moderate/Cost: Moderate

7. Use social sharing sites: Got great content? Share it and tag it where people can find it. Like on Slideshare.net. Value: Low/Cost: Low

Engaging

8. Create a Twitter channel, strategy: There’s a reason why Twitter, which has grown from 4 million 54 million users ini the past year, is disrupting Facebook, email and blogging. Head on over to Pistachio to get all the stats and good business cases on this trend. And then just get on so you experience what it’s all about. Value: Moderate/Cost: Low to Moderate

9. Create ambassador programs: So many of your employees and customers want to help your company by commenting on blogs, Twittering, facilitating communities. Figure out a way to make it easy for people who love you to share the love. That’s word of mouth at its best and social media makes it easy to activate. Value: High/Cost: Moderate to High

Insights/Ideas

10. Create a system to monitor social media conversations: Track issues and trends good and bad to be able to react; ’see’ how campaigns working or not and adjust; get competitive insights, nip problems before they’re big problems; inject Web 2.0 into customer service function. Value: Moderate to High/Cost: Low to Moderate

11. Tap into the wisdom of your crowds: hold webstorm brainstorming sessions and online raves to get ideas from employees, customers, partners on how to solve problems small and big, how to do things better, how to stop doing things that aren’t so valuable. You’ll be able to cut costs, prioritize more easily, find new ideas. Plus when people participate and feel heard they’re more likely to share positive word of mouth about your company. Value: Moderate to High/Cost: Moderate to High

12. Map your social media ecosystem: use social analytics to understand what’s being talked about in your industry about your company; your social media hot spots; who your advocates and detractors are, and what content your audience likes. Value: Low to Moderate/Cost: Low to Moderate

Communities

13. Bring people together: develop specialised communities for like-minded people to share advice, get help, offer help, learn, solve problems, be entertained, create new business models, or change the world. One of the secrets to community success: tapping into deeply-felt and/or widely-felt issues. Check out The Tribalization of Business site, with results from last year’s study and the 2009 survey to learn more about communities. Value: High/Cost: Moderate to High”

Most of these ideas cost very little and present little or no risk to your organisation. Some might not be for you but I would suggest that at least one or two of these things should form part of every company’s social media strategy.

Ursus Media can develop your digital marketing strategy, help integrate it with your overall marketing approach and help you engage with your customers in many different ways. If you’re not sure where to start we run regular courses in social media for business and can teach you how get the maximum benefit from your social media efforts.