Year: 2008

Customers Want To Know When Their Goods Will Arrive

Selling products online? If you are then take note: let your customers know when they should received their order. I’ve ordered from two different online stores in the last 24 hours and neither of them gave me any time frame for delivery. In both instances I received confirmation of my order but no delivery time frame. It’s such a simple thing to include and pretty much essential in my book. It gives the customer peace of mind that their order is important and being shipped as soon as possible.

If you sell products online do you include delivery times? If not I suggest you get onto your web designer straight away and rectify the problem.

The Importance of Website Usability

When most people hear the words “website usability” their eyes glaze over and their attention wanders. But as a concept it’s really not that hard to grasp and if you do you’ll be rewarded with online success you’ve only dreamed about.

What is Website Usability?

The definition of “website usability” is: “The ease with which a User Interface can be used by its intended audience to achieve defined goals. Usability incorporates many factors: design, functionality, structure,

information architecture, and more.”. (Source: sitepoint.com) Put in more reader friendly terms I like to define website usability as having a website that prospects can use – it’s easy for them to figure out what the site is about, find what they’re looking for and carry out tasks – easily. Emphasis on easily.

7 Common Usability Blunders

Usability incorporates more areas that I can cover in this article however by ensuring the following elements in your website are usable will go a long way in ensuring your online success:

1. Confusing Navigation

There’s nothing worse than when a user has to guess what a navigation label means, or worse, click and realises what they thought they were clicking on has no relation to what they have landed on. Confusing navigation causes frustration and increases the likelihood of the user giving up and going to your competitor’s website instead.

Users want a website’s navigation to guide them, easily, through your website to the information they are looking for. Review your website’s navigation for the following:

1. Do the words used in the navigation meet users expectations? If a user clicks on “Contact Us” for example they would expect to find information on the various ways they could contact you. It’s also important to avoid “clever” words which force the user to guess what they will find if they click on the link.

2. Does your website utilise common navigational elements? Over time some navigation elements have become almost standard. For example most websites would contain some, if not all, of the following:

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

Where possible use standard terms to describe navigation and sections as it will make your users life a lot easier.

3. Is your navigation grouped into logical sections? For example Admin type links, such as Privacy Policy, Copyright and Site Map, can be grouped together.

4. Is your navigation consistent? It’s important to ensure your main navigation is consistent in location, ordering and design. Having it change throughout the website will cause confusion and frustration. Think of it like a supermarket – you may visit a store in a different location to what you are used to but no doubt the layout will generally remain consistent.

2. Inconsistent Design

Whatever page of your website a user is on you want to ensure that they know they are on your site. Using

consistent design elements such as logos, colours, layout and fonts will help you to achieve a consistent look and feel. Similarly ensure that your website has the same written “voice” throughout.

3. Illegible Fonts

The use of hard to read fonts, or font colours of similar contrast to the background colour, can make it hard for your users to read your website. Make sure the fonts and background colours you choose are easy to read and offer a good contrast.

Similarly think about the size of the fonts you will be using. Your target audience should help guide you to the right decision. A website targeting the teen market could get away with a smaller font than one targeting an elderly audience who’s eyesight is failing.

4. Unusable Forms

It is vital to design your forms with your target audience in mind. This will help you ensure that your prospect finds the form easy to understand and complete, avoiding form frustration which can often lead to them giving up.

When designing your forms think about your target audience – is it Australian, local, International or a combination? Your audience will help you to determine what standards do you need to apply in terms of address information such as zip code or postcode, country codes, phone number formats and so on.

It’s also a good idea to think about what information you want to make mandatory and what can be optional. Sometimes asking for too much information can scare off the user. Likewise if the form stretches over a few pages clearly note how long the form is and what point the user is in the filling out process – eg Page 2 of 4. This gives the user an idea of what is required, how long the process is and what step they are up to.

5. Badly Implemented Search

How often do you try searching for something using a website’s search function and end up tearing your hair out? Sadly it’s a common problem. I would almost prefer a website to have no search engine than a badly implemented one.

Think of it this way, if someone is searching for something you are selling you want to make it as easy as possible for them to find it. For this reason it’s vital your website has a good search engine that can handle typos, hyphens, plurals and search term variations. In addition if the search engine returns no results look at ways of helping your user find what they are looking for or have clear contact information displayed so they can get in touch with you.

6. Using PDFs for Online Reading

PDF or Portable Document Format is great for saving and printing documents, especially longer documents such as manuals and eBooks. It was not designed as an alternative to users reading HTML pages online. As well as interrupting the users’ reading flow and causing them to have to open more software it is a hindrance to the search engine optimisation process. Search engines love HTML content so convert your PDF’s into HTML and benefit both your users and the search engines.

7. Unclear Links

The only thing worse than an unclear link is having underlined words that are not links, although both are pretty bad in my book. Links are the mainstay of the internet. They allow you to get from point A to point B. As such you want to ensure that your users can find those links easily. They’re also used as a navigation aid to help you work out your current location and where you’ve been.

Make links obvious by choosing bold colours and have them underlined either at all times or when the mouse hovers over the link. If it’s not a link don’t underline it! It’s also a good idea to have a link change colour after it has been visited so a user knows they’ve already been to that page.

Testing the Usability of Your Website

I often hear people say one of the main obstacles to testing a website for usability is the cost. This doesn’t have to be the case. While a web design/usability consultant is the ideal way to test your website you can do some simple testing yourselves.

When testing your website for it’s usability you need a group of people in your target audience who you can observe as they perform tasks. This can be done with family and friends – just make sure they fit your target audience.

Once you have your group set them tasks to perform on your website and record their progress. This will help you determine where uses get stuck or frustrated, what causes confusion and how easily they can perform the tasks you set them. This information can then be used to make improvements to your site.

Some Final Words

Usability testing can appear daunting when you first look into it but the rewards you can reap make it a vital part of your online strategy. if you want to improve sales, increase enquiries, boost your subscriber list or make more money online website usability testing is for you.
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Too Many Web Designers to Choose From?

With the number of web design firms around getting a website should be easy. Sadly too often the opposite is true. There’s too much choice along with too many differences in services and price.

What to do?

Obviously budget is important but I feel it is far more important to choose a company that can meet your expectations. A company that can understand your business needs and provide a strategy, and develop a solution, that will fulfill those needs. A company that will listen to you and explain concepts in a language you understand. A company that understands a website is about more than looking pretty or ranking #1 in the search engines. A company that understands that those elements are just part of the equation – the site must convert those rankings into sales.

Sure look at prices but also look at how they communicate with you and how confident you are in their ability to provide what they promise. You want to build a relationship with your web designer that brings you both success. Focus on that when you’re reviewing proposals and it should help guide you to the right company.

Search Engine Optimisation: Why You Need It

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

All websites have goals such as to sell online, collect leads, attract advertising, reduce costs or brand your business. In order to fulfil those goals your website needs to attracts visitors and convert them into customers.

Attracting visitors, the right sort of visitors, is a vital part of running and marketing a successful website. Where do you find them? How do they find you?

Search engines, such as Google, are one of the primary ways internet users find websites. In fact 81% of internet consumers find websites via search engines*. So website’s that have good rankings in the search engines can see a high level of visitors to their site. And if done right these will be highly targeted visitors who are searching for what they are offering.

So how do you get high search engine rankings? By ensuring your website is optimised for the search engines. This process is known as Search Engine Optimisation or SEO. SEO helps you increase your website’s visibility in the search engines. This is done by defining the keywords your prospects would use to find your products and services, designing your website in a search friendly manner, incorporating your keywords into your website and attracting quality relevant links from other websites to your site.

Search engine optimisation can be performed in conjunction with designing your website or at a later date. I always prefer the two to be done together as designing your website with the search engines in mind from the get go can save you time and money.

Benefits of Search Engine Optimisation

There are many benefits of having your website optimised for the search engines. Some of the main ones include:

Traffic, Traffic, Traffic

Traffic, or visitors, is the main goal of SEO. The more visitors to your website the more opportunities you have to convert them into customers.

Qualified Prospects

Not only are you attracting more visitors you will be attracting qualified prospects, i.e. people who are looking for what you are selling. You are much more likely to convert a qualified prospect than visitors who are “just browsing”.

Low Entry Costs

The more competitive the industry the more you’ll need to spend on SEO but generally speaking once your website is optimised it will continue to send targeted visitors to your website over a long period of time. And incorporating your SEO from the start, when your website is being built, will help manage your costs.

Target Hundreds of Keywords

You can target 10 keywords or hundreds if not thousands. The more keywords you target the more rankings and traffic you will achieve. Websites selling products online, for example, will benefit greatly by ensuring that every product page is optimised for that specific product. This can enable to site to rank for each product they sell.

Increased Brand Recognition

The more visible you are in the search engines the more recognisable your business becomes to your prospective customers. This helps you to develop trust and awareness so when the prospect is ready to buy they will feel like they already know your business.

Keeps You Ahead of Your Competition

By making sure you are visible in the search engines you will help keep your business ahead of your competitors. You can be sure they will be looking into SEO, if they haven’t already, so you have no time to wait.

Measurable Results

The performance of your SEO campaign can be measured and tracked, which will allow you to analyse what works and what doesn’t. You can use this information to tweak and adjust your efforts to attract in turn more targeted visitors and convert more prospects into customers.

Optimising Your Website

There are no quick fixes when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation. To ensure success you need to do it right from the beginning. Be wary of anyone who’s promises seem to good to be true. Some simple traps to avoid:

  • Search Engine Submission Services or companies that promise to submit your website to thousands of search engines. Ask yourself how many search engines do you know of? The main 3 search engines you should focus on are Google, Yahoo! and Live Search (MSN).
  • Reciprocal link schemes – these definitely don’t work and can in fact harm your search engine rankings.
  • Anyone who suggests they can help you “trick” the search engines by implementing techniques such as using hidden text on a page or creating doorway pages.
  • Anyone who tells you all you need to do is add Meta Tags. Avoid this like the plague.

So how do you optimise your website? You have two choices:

  • Do It Yourself
  • Use a SEO Specialist

Do It Yourself

There are so many online resources focusing on SEO. so if you don’t have the budget for a professional, or you have the time and inclination to learn, this could be the option for you. Bear in mind that you will need to spend a fair amount of time reading, learning, testing and testing some more.

Some more popular resources that I recommend to help get you started include:

Cre8asite Forums
Cre8asite is an online community that focuses on all element of building a website including SEO. I admit I’m biased, I’m an Administrator there, but it’s a great place to learn about creating successful websites.

SEOmoz
SEOmoz is a hub for the search marketing industry, providing a popular SEO blog, SEO tools and premium content.
High Rankings Advisor Newsletter
By well known SEO expert Jill Whalen.

More resources will be listed at the end of this article.

Alternatively there are a growing number of online courses where you can learn about SEO, from professional SEO’s in a structured environment. Do your research and make sure you choose a reputable company with a solid track record and a name in the industry. One I recommend is Search Engine College run by well known SEO Kalena Jordan.

Use a SEO Specialist

Using a SEO specialist will be the option for most businesses. There are a number of different options when choosing who to work with:

  • SEO Consultant

An SEO consultant is an individual who specialises in SEO and generally does not offer additional services such as web design. An individual SEO is a good choice if you already have a website.

  • SEO Company

Same as an SEO consultant but on a larger scale.

  • Web Design Company

If you need a website designed as well as optimised choosing a web design firm that can do both is often a good option.

Whoever you choose make sure you do your homework and that the company you choose can provide you with results. As I said above avoid anyone offering you quick fixes. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Search Engine Optimisation is a vital element in your website success and can deliver increased visitors, increased conversions and increased sales. Who doesn’t want that!

* Source: Forrester Research Inc.

What’s Wrong With My Website?

I talk to a lot of people who are puzzled by the lack of success of their website. After spending some time looking at the site in question I can usually spot a number of reasons for that lack of success.

If you have website that is not performing as it should it’s time to step back and take an objective look at it. It’s time to look at it through your prospects eyes, not your own. Start by asking yourself the following questions:

  • Can I quickly work out what this website is about. Is it clear?
  • Are the colors and text easy on the eye? Is it easy to read?
  • Does the site look professional? Could I trust doing business with this company?
  • Is it easy to navigate? Is it easy to find what I am looking for?
  • Does the design match the message?
  • How can I contact this business?

You might also want to spend some time filling out your own forms. Is it easy? Are you comfortable with the amount of information they ask for? Once you’ve submitted the form is there a confirmation page?

Often looking at a website with a clear objective mind helps you spot those little things that can be overlooked. By spotting them now and rectifying them you should see an increase in conversions and sales.

Finally, remember my golden rule: design with your prospects in mind not yourself. You need to appeal to them if you want any chance of success.

A Succesful Website Starts With the Strategy

It’s pretty obvious that any good house starts with a solid foundation. The same applies to a website. In order to ensure a successful website that achieves your goals you need to start with a solid foundation. You need to develop a sound website strategy that outlines your goals, target audience, market position, competitors and marketing efforts. This strategy, or blueprint, will help you and your web designer develop a website that will achieve you online goals.

Put it this way if you don’t know why you want a website, apart from because everyone else has one, how will you be able to measure your success? Quite simply you can’t.

So how do you develop your strategy? To get you started consider the following:

What Are Your Online Goals?

What are the goals of your website? What do you want to achieve?

  • Sell products online?
  • Build sales leads?
  • Reduce support costs?
  • Inform people?
  • Attract newsletter sign-ups?
  • Attract advertising revenue?
  • Brand yourself or your company?
  • To reduce time providing telephone support?

Once you’ve defined your goals you can set about working out how to achieve them and how to measure the results.

Who Is Your Target Audience?

Who is your website targeted to? Think about your audience and try to break it down in terms of:

  • Age
  • Sex
  • Location
  • Income
  • Internet skills
  • Other

This will help you to determine your target audience which in turn will influence the look and feel of the website, whether you need to target an international, national or local market, what sort of pricing strategy to adopt, how easy the website should be to use and what sort of ongoing marketing strategies are required.

Who is Your Competition? How Are They Positioned?

Take the time to check out the competitive space. Questions to ask:

  • Who are your online competitors?
  • How do they position themselves?
  • How easy/hard is their website to use? Is it engaging? Compelling?
  • How are they positioned in the search engines? Can you compete?

How Will Prospective Customers Find You?

Once your site is built and launched you need to ensure a steady stream of targeted visitors. Now is the time to start looking at your ongoing marketing and what strategies you’ll need to adopt. Where will your prospects come from? Some to consider:

  • Search engines?
  • Word of mouth & referrals?
  • Offline advertising?
  • Online advertising?
  • Forum participation?
  • Blogging?
  • Other?

The answers to these questions will help you define your marketing strategy and your overall website strategy. For example if you feel search engines will be an important driver of traffic to your website it is vital that that is taken into account when your website is being designed.

By considering the above you’ll be able to put together a clear blueprint detailing your website strategy and how it should be implemented. And in the long run it will help you, and your web designer, create a successful website.

The Recipe For Online Success

I’ve spoken to, and worked with, numerous people who have decided to set-up an online business. And as with bricks and mortar establishments some succeeded spectacularly and some fail badly. I’ve analysed these success and failures and have found some common traits in the successful online ventures. So without further ado here’s my straightforward recipe for running an online business, successfully.

Research Your Market

It seems obvious but this is one of the most overlooked areas of starting an online business. Which is all the more strange when you consider how easy it is to conduct research into a market and it’s competitiveness on the internet.

Researching your market will help you determine whether there is a need for your idea, whether that need is already being serviced, and if so how well. Using a search engine, such as Google, can help you determine the level of competitiveness of your chosen industry. You can use it to see how many relevant businesses come up in common searches (the more results the more competitive it will be) and then check out those websites to see how they are run.

Think about your audience, will you be focusing on a small regional area or aiming for a global market? Is there a reason why a particular demographic would want to choose you over another business? Can you, for example, promote a favourable exchange rate or the ability to work while the rest of the world sleeps?

Finally, it’s important that you take into account whether your idea translates to being sold online. For example large, heavy, fragile products will be harder to ship and therefore sell than smaller, easy to post items.

Set Realistic Budgets

I know I’ve talked about this before but I am again as I can’t emphasise enough how important setting a realistic budget is. If you’re planning on running a successful online business you will need to budget for both the establishment and the ongoing marketing of that business.

If you’re reluctant to divulge your budget when talking to online service providers at least provide them with a ballpark figure so they are able to tailor a solution to fit your needs. You’ll probably find that costs vary from company to company – take the time to do your research and choose the one that not only fits your budget but the one you feel will best help you succeed (more on this below).

Surround Yourself With a Good Team

In order to succeed in your online business you will need to ensure you’re working with a web team that can help you achieve your goals. As a starting point you will need the services of the following people:

  • Web Hosting Company
  • Web Design Company
  • Search Engine Marketing / Internet Marketing Company

You can choose to go with separate companies or select a full service business who can help you with everything. Whatever you decide the most important thing is to make sure you pick a company you feel is a good fit.

The right company will understand the principles of business and selling online, they will understand how to get a website to rank in the search engines and most importantly they will be able to build you a website that prospects find easy to use and converts those prospects into customers.

Budget is important, obviously, but it’s just as important, if not more, to work with a company who understands your requirements and is able to help you to realise your goals and turn it into a profitable business.

Invest in Online Marketing

Once you’ve got your website online you need to market it to attract targeted prospects. A mix of the following internet marketing efforts will be a good start:

  • Search Engine Optimisation – usually best done in conjunction with building your website. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of creating a website that ranks highly in the search engines for keyword phrases related to your business. A motel in Cairns would want to rank well for phrases such as “cairns motel” for example.
  • Link Development – links from credible, related type websites will not only bring targeted prosects to your website it will also help you with your search engine rankings.
  • Advertising & Sponsorships – seek out other websites that you can advertise on. Look for sites that attract an audience you think would be interested in your products and/or services. Consider banner ads, sponsorships, competitions and newsletter advertising, to name a few.
  • Pay Per Click Advertising – the two main players in the Pay Per Click (PPC) market are Google and Yahoo! PPC allows you to create advertisements that only display when specific keywords, chosen by you, are searched on. When your ad is clicked on you pay an amount (or bid), set by you. Bids start from about AU$0.10 and a campaign can be up and running in a few minutes.
  • Online Newsletters – online newsletters are a fabulous way to communicate with prospective customers. It’s an opportunity to showcase your knowledge, provide information about your products and services and promote special offers.

It’s the old adage, you’ve got to spend money to make money. With the right marketing mix and a focus on creating a positive return on your investment (ROI) your online marketing efforts will help you build and run your business successfully.

Finally, remember that the above suggestions are just a starting point. Talk to your internet marketing expert who should be able to help you develop an online marketing plan that will grow your business.

Be Prompt and Responsive

You’ve found a site that sells the exact widget you want. You place your order, and… pray. It sounds awful I know but I commonly hear people say that they’ve contacted a business via their website, or placed an order, and are now wondering if they’ll ever hear from them. You don’t want to be one of those businesses. Clearly state the best ways for people to contact you, let them know when they should expect a response and what to do if they’ve not heard anything.

On an e-commerce site have the order response page acknowledge an order and provide a shipping timeframe. Follow up with a confirmation email again letting the customer know when they should expect their goods. And finally, send them an email when the package has actually shipped.

The internet can seem very anonymous. By continually communicating with your customers and reassuring them along the way they will be confident in doing ongoing business with you. And perhaps even recommending you to their friends.

Measure Your Results

A website that’s not being measured and tracked is like running around in the dark, with sunglasses on. Are you getting lots of visitors and few sales? Are you getting a few visitors but most of them make a purchase? Where are your visitors coming from? What do they look at? How long do they stay?

One of the great benefits of running an online business is the ability to collect and analyse website visitor data. All this data will help you tailor your website and refine your marketing to ensure you’re bringing in maximum visitors and converting them into customers.

There’s no substitute for hard work but with some careful research and planning and ongoing effort into promoting and managing your online business you too can be one of the internet success stories!

Anyone Can Perform Basic Usability Testing

I am researching the competitive market for a new client and have been surprised at how poor the usability is on many of their websites. And these aren’t the sort of errors that could be overlooked – they are basic mistakes that anyone using their website will come across.

If any of these sites had performed some basic usability testing these mistakes would have been found and corrected. And it’s so easy. Grabs some members of your family and friends and watch them while they visit your website. Ask them to perform some tasks (eg purchase a widget, make an enquiry, find the contact details) and watch how easy or hard it is for them. This will give you a good indication of what areas of your website need improving. Then improve them.

Making your website an enjoyable, easy experience will help turn your visitors from frustrated browsers into customers. And who doesn’t want that?

Trusting Your Instincts

I’ve written a lot about how important it is for businesses to choose the right web designer for their online project. Not just the cheapest but the one they feel will best help them realise their goals.

On the flip side it’s just as important for web designers to vet their prospective clients too. A business relationship needs to be mutually beneficial and if your instincts are telling you you’re not sure about a project or client listen to them. I know that can be hard when you have bills piling up, or want the latest iMac, but believe me these are the projects that usually go pear shaped.

The irony is, for me at least, every time I have listened to my instincts and not done a project, another better one comes along. As they say when one door closes another opens.

It may take a while to listen to and trust your instincts but believe me it’s probably one of the best pieces of business advice I can give you.