I’ve recently been asked to look at a couple of small business’ new web sites. Typically the owner thinks it’s great but just wants someone like me with a larger-scale IT background to “check it out and tell me what you think”.
In one case the site was created by an student doing an IT degree, in others by small, local independent web designers or small companies.
In every case the site was inadequate for the purpose intended. These were not e-commerce sites, but just web brochures and contact forms. Even then, some basic issues existed. The owners were always shocked at my reviews.
So, here are my top tips for small business owners to check the web site you’ve been given by your web designer.
Tip 1: Think lazy
Yes, really. Load your home page. Does it tell you, in clear terms (perferably supported by graphics and appropriate colour);
- WHAT the business does
- WHERE it is, or the area your service covers
- WHEN the business is open if that’s relevant
- WHY they should buy your product or service, not your competitors’, and;
- HOW they can contact you (or better, get you to contact them – remember, think LAZY!)
and does it do it on an 800 x 600 screen without scrolling?
Tip 2: Think clean
How many colours, typefaces, type sizes, slideshows etc. are there? You can have too much of a good thing. One sit I reviewed had a banner that took up 25% of the visible page with a slideshow of images in, and another filmstrip at the bottom! The text was tedious too.
Tip 3: You are NOT chatting with your customers!
Text such as
Welcome to our site! We hope you will find all the information you need about our products and services here, scroll to the bottom of the page and click ‘ENTER’ to contine
will LOSE YOU BUSINESS. Nobody will read it. I bet you didn’t read all that either – there’s a typo, did you spot it? See tip 1, be clear, concise, don’t have welcome pages that a visitor has to click through, assume people will do NOTHING unless there is a compelling reason to do it.
Tip 4: How good is the website code?
This is not as scary as it sounds. I’m not suggesting you become a web author to check this. Here are some easy ways to see if the site designer has tried.
- How fast does the home page load? Even on a low-spec test server, with one user (you) the home page should load more or less instantly. After 5 seconds you are losing business. After 10, you may as well not have a site.
- Hover over images. Does some text describing the image pop up? This is called an “ALT tag” and is a good idea for search engines and blind website users who use screen readers.
- Are all the page titles (in the top of the browser window) meaningful, with your company name in? Needed for search engines and visitors who save pages in bookmarks or use their browser history.
- Try more than one browser. We don’t all use Internet Explorer.
- Drop-down menus and other whizzy widgets are fine, but may fall foul of the Disability Discrimination Act unless you provide a plain text alternative.
- Do all the links work?
- Are all the images up to date? None stolen/borrowed from other web sites?
Tip 5: Have you protected your work?
It is possible to prevent visitors copying your text. If you have product descriptions, this is a good idea. Same for images, why let your competitors borrow them or (worse) link to them on your site? Do you have a clear copyright notice? Who owns your domain name, you or the website designer?
Tip 6: Domain names
This is a tough one. Domain names (the bit after “www” in the web address or URL as it’s called) matter. Your domain name should ideally be;
- Short. “bizserv.com” is good. “Johnsbusinessservices.com” isn’t.
- Hard to misspell. Watch for American/English spelling issues. “hicolor.com/hicolour.com” for example. Concatenating words like “businessservices” makes it almost impossible to get right.
- Memorable. Try to avoid cryptic names like “crab99.com”, better to have a word that means something.
- Related to your business or business name. “uniquegifts.com” is better than “mikesgifts.com” for example.
Get alternative domain names too, they’re not expensive. Get “.com” and “.co.uk”, maybe “.tv/.net/.org” if that’s the market you’re in. Get common misspellings too, and names that people will assume are your business.
Good luck, leave a comment if you find these useful or unclear, whichever.
Oh, and create a business blog and link to it from your site, update it often.