"Follow the pack" with your website ... if you wish

Keywords: HTML, relevance, speed, search engines.

Your website is probably a significant part of your marketing effort and as such must present your offerings and organisation to visitors in the best possible light, quickly and easily.

In communicating over the web you need your visitors to be able to quickly decide if your offering can solve their problems and decide if you are an organisation they want to be dealing with. If they are existing customers you may want them to access further information and support, again easily and quickly.

It is no bad idea to try to satisfy customer needs, rather than your own. Waste THEIR time at YOUR peril.

Why do I see so many websites which appear to be simply following the latest trend whether it improves their effectiveness or not? Many seem, like sheep, to be "following the flock".

As far as I can tell successful entrepreneurs do not follow everyone else, successful organisations do not do this, neither do successful teams in all sorts of walks of life. I believe that success, however you define it, requires some original thought. Is there any reason why successful websites would be an exception?

• Many websites appear to be trying to sell Macromedia's Flash product for them. This is very kind and I am sure Macromedia are absolutely delighted.
• Many seem to be selling Adobe Acrobat and related products for them... Again I am sure Adobe are very pleased about this indeed..
• Some are selling Real Player products and some are selling many different Java scripts and programming languages.

How often have you simply left a website because it required you to modify your computer settings or download yet more software just in order to see some site contents or other.

How often do you just move on to someone else who *has* taken the time and trouble to make your life easier.

I am sure many computer users are fed up with changing their computer settings. I am sure they often get it wrong and then have to waste hours fixing their computer again rather than getting on with what they want to do.

Does a busy purchasing manager have time to set up a flash plugin or Adobe acrobat reader on their computer, do you think they are all confident that the software download your site recommends will not require they restart their machine and in the process perhaps loose their Internet connection which they were trying to use to select a product to buy?

Will you be responsible if they do waste their time or corrupt their settings?

In some cases there will simply be no way of presenting your offering well without using such a product but in many cases the need for their application is very unclear and the actual application less than professional.

• Your visitors should not have to wait for your flash intro to load, well made flash intros do not overload the available bandwidth.

Should these website designers be concentrating fully on improving their presentation of the offering of the company behind the site in question and its effectiveness in browsers and search engines or should they be playing with the latest trick piece of software on that site?

• Can you imagine asking every visitor to your shop to wear special glasses, which they have to go and get, before they can come in and see your products?
• Can you imagine telling people they cannot see your television advert unless they are using a Television set manufactured by Sony?
• Can you imagine telling people they can skip your advert by clicking here to "skip the intro". What on earth was the point in putting it up if the message is so unimportant people can just skip it with your blessing! In fact what about the opposite... what about making the option to view your flash intro rather than not to view it!
• Can you imagine asking people to wait at your shop door while you rewind the video tape on your super animated gif ..... which is just such fun that they must wait outside in the cold and rain just in case there is anything in that * thing * which might interest them?
• Are you a travel agent? no! why have you a rotating globe which takes ages to load on your homepage then? a Geological organisation perhaps then?
• Can you imagine selling your product in Brazil using catalogues printed only in Chinese?

You have 5-10 seconds to make a first impression with your website on whichever page your visitors choose to enter it on.

You only have ONE chance to make that first impression.

The Internet has a universal protocol, it is called HTML!

HTML ("hypertext markup language") pages can be created in a multitude of software products from many different companies, if your critical website contents are in HTML compliant pages they will be viewable by a multitude of web browsing products again from many companies now and in the future and will therefore have "maximum user compatibility".

HTML is not a company specific display product, it is, if you like, an open source Internet display protocol.

You can do quite a lot with HTML before you need to play with other techniques. Sadly many folk appear not to have mastered HTML before moving on to the latest trick.

Search Engines:

I think most people working on the Internet will agree that Search engines are quite an important resource for letting new people know about the existence of your website and what your organisation can offer them.

Search engines understand HTML.

They follow simple HTML hyperlinks and I think all of them will read words that they find in HTML pages.

Did your website developer think about Search Engines when

• they created your homepage completely in flash?
• they loaded the top of all your pages with scripts designed to make a button appear to roll when a user puts their mouse pointer over it?
  • Are you selling rolling images? no I thought not ...... but ..... someone somewhere must be and they must have made a million :-)
• they inserted most of your content into adobe acrobat pages ?
• they used image maps rather than simple HTML hyperlinks as navigation aids?

People visiting your website from a search engine will have found your site in a list generated by their search criteria. At least you hope they will. If your website does not appear pdq (pretty damn quick) after they click the link in the search engine they have a list of plenty of your competitors, whose sites probably will.

Of course If your site used all these super new tricks without consideration for search engine effects you will not have to worry about download speed because you will not be getting the lions share of visitors from the search engines anyhow.

Go back to the future (basics).....

Just how long does your super trick flash intro take to load and just why is it so unimportant that you expect so many people to want to skip it that you have actually given them a button or link to do just that!

Well I cannot claim to be an expert, but I just might fall within your target groups, I would advise you to re-examine the specific reasons why you want to have a website.

Ask a few searching questions while you are about it.

For example:

• Are you trying to show the world that your website creators can play with the latest pieces of software, or are you trying to sell YOUR offering?

• Are you trying to show your visitors that your web people are clever folk, or are you trying to communicate YOUR message?

• Are you trying to sell other people's software or make it easy for your visitors to buy YOUR products?

My simpleton's guide:

If your website includes data that is irrelevant delete it.

If your website excludes data that visitors should be able to access add it.

If your website presents content in a format your target visitors (including search engines) cannot ALL access, convert it.

If any page in your website takes longer than 5-15 seconds to fully display ... rework it.

Of course your use of HTML will still not allow you to communicate within Brazil in Chinese :-)

What about some "original thinking", Why have you got a website again?

PS: I do not in this article say that you should not use Adobe or Macromedia or Sun Microsystems products which offer some great features and some cross platform functions which can be excellent when well implemented. There is undoubtedly a place for all these on the Internet.

I just advise that you think long and hard how you plan to use them rather than blindly following others or allowing your aesthetic taste to interfere with the commercial realities of your goals. What impression will your visitors take away with them?

Are you just another "me-too" organisation.

[Author mark@sticky-marketing.net date 10/03/01]

Top | Home | Articles | Glossary | Sitemap | About
Copyright 2001-2004 sticky-marketing.net