Posts tagged as:

web standards

You’re not welcome here. And other nice things to say.

by Tim on August 3, 2009

in Marketing

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a big sports fan. I’m also a big Mac fan. But I mainly use Windows at work. So imagine my surprise this past Friday afternoon when I fired up Firefox on my office computer to check on Tiger Woods in the Buick Open and got this message:

invisible-business.jpg

“Website Requirements”?!? Really?!? Worse, no matter what I did – short of switching to Internet Explorer – would get me past this screen. Forget “requirements.” Why not just say, “Sorry. We don’t think highly enough of you and the choices you make to want your business. Ever. Now go away and stop bothering us“?

OK, you might think it’s not that bad. After all, it’s not like they’re completely invisible. But I’m not sure there’s any difference. Anytime you tell your customers they can’t communicate with you – the way your customer chooses – you’ve likely lost a customer.

In case you think I’m overreacting, consider this: Firefox now has as much as 30% of the market. Some sites see even larger numbers. For instance, 35% of thinks readers use Firefox/Windows, almost tied with IE/Windows. Other sites I know see “only” 15% of their traffic from Firefox/Windows. But, even at that level, would you want to tell 1 out of every 6 customers, “Sorry. We don’t think highly enough of you…?”

I didn’t think so.

Worse, look what Google seems to think the site is about:

warwick-hills-search-results-small.png

Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, does it? How many customers on seeing that description will spend the next fifteen minutes worrying whether they have the “right” browser – assuming they know what a browser is – instead of actually visiting Warwick Hills’ site?

I certainly don’t mean to pick on Warwick Hills alone. Sadly, too many sites still suffer from these same issues. But if you want to raise your profile online, you’ve got to accept how your customers want to talk to you and do what’s necessary to make your site work for all.

What do you think? Did Warwick Hills drop the ball here? Or am I overreacting? Tell us what you think in the comments.

(Hat tip: Thanks to Brian Barr for pointing out the Warwick Hills site to me).


Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Technorati Tags:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , ,

{ 3 comments }

Top 5 reasons your site must use web standards

by Tim on September 3, 2008

in E-commerce, Strategy

You website must use web standardsThere’s an old joke that says, “the great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.” But making sure your website complies with web development standards forms a key part of any successful online strategy. While we don’t normally get up to our elbows in the gory details of how to build websites here, every business can benefit from knowing enough to ask the right questions whether you build the site yourself, select an outside agency or use a hosted service. Standards compliance means using things like the right version of HTML along with CSS to provide your information to customers. Why does it matter? Here are the top 5 reasons:

  1. SEO benefit – We all want our sites listed in Google, Yahoo and Live, right? Why make it hard for those sites’ crawlers to access your content? Sites that aren’t standards compliant can easily limit Google’s access to your content – which limits your access to customers.
  2. Ease of maintenance/lower cost of ownership – Change is inevitable and never more so on the web. Want proof? Check this out:

    That’s just this week’s news. You don’t want to be in the business of worrying about whether your site keeps up. Standards compliance takes that worry away. Plus, building compliant sites gets easier with practice. So what are you waiting for?

  3. Support for disabled customers – Many of the same standards that make it easy for Google’s crawler to find your site also make it easy for customers with disabilities to use your site. And when you consider how many individuals deal with some challenge, it represents a huge market opportunity. It can also limit legal risk. And, at the end of the day, it’s just the right thing to do for your customers.
  4. Improve your site’s speed/lower page weight – OK, this is the gory, techy one. But, with folks like Comcast planning to limit bandwidth for its customers and the impact that slow sites can have on Google Quality Scores (i.e., reduced rankings and higher costs for paid search) and the hosting cost for high bandwidth sites – to say nothing of the negative brand perception your customers may have if your site is too slow – improving your site’s speed with clean, standardized code is a Very Good Thing.
  5. Reach more customers – Finally, more than anything else, you care about ensuring customers can access your information. When you limit customers’ options – whether to certain browsers, operating systems or devices – you limit your sales opportunities. Ultimately, standards compliance makes it easier for more customers to see your site. And that’s the only thing that matters.

Standards compliance doesn’t look sexy at first glance. It’s not in your face. And no one will acquire your business or push you to go public just for maintaining a standards compliant site. But it can save you money and drive more sales. And that might do the trick.


Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tagged as: , , ,

{ 2 comments }

Who should build your website? (Guide to Small Business Ecommerce Strategy)

by Tim on April 10, 2008

in E-commerce

Who should build your website?

Building a website is easy. Painfully easy. Anyone can do it. That’s a fact. Tools like Jimdo, WordPress, Weebly, SiteKreator and Synthasite provide everything you need to ensure your business has a professional web presence.

Build a business website

Building a website that’s easy to maintain and helps your business meet its long-term goals, though? That can be a completely different animal. It’s not to suggest that these tools won’t work for you. They will, at least for simple sites. But what separates the men from the boys regardless of the development tool is a professional approach focused on you, your customers and how to benefit both.

So what should you look for in someone to build your site? Here are the things that matter most:

Your business needs

  • Does the person you’re looking at understand your business needs? Have they worked with your type of business before? While it’s not critical that they’ve built sites in your industry before (and sometimes it’s preferable to get a fresh approach), what is important is they have a process for learning about your business needs. It can be called discovery, business analysis or – my personal favorite – “uncovery.” But the process matters.
  • Does the person or team you’re working with understand user behavior? Worry about folks who say, “all customers act exactly the same way.” While it’s true that there are common types of behaviors and common types of purchase funnels, without detailed knowledge of your customers, of your business, they could be heading down the wrong path. I have seen many similarities in the behaviors of customers on such diverse sites as web-based training, financial services, hotel reservations (economy through luxury), retail, news, blogs and restaurants. Don’t be surprised if your customers act just like those in a completely different industry. But sometimes subtle differences have huge business impact. The discovery process should take into account the needs of your customers as much as the needs of your business. (And if you think your business needs outweigh your customer needs, you might want to rethink your business).
  • Does the person or team have the time, resources and knowledge to accomplish your project? Getting off to a strong start is important, sure. But finishing is better. Make sure you – and your vendor – leave enough time for (regardless of what they call it) project definition, design, development, testing and deployment. For a simple site, this can take as little as a few weeks. For a larger one, you might be looking at months. But the process takes time to do it right. Give yourself that time and you’ll reap the rewards.

Your technical needs

  • Does the vendor understand meaningful analytics for your business? Obviously, your vendor needs to know web analytics. But do they know how to apply those to your business?
  • Does the person or team you’re working with understand search engine optimization (SEO) practices? Search engines often represent significant sources of new traffic for business – if your site is set up correctly to capture that traffic. Creating an appropriate site structure, finding the right terms, and writing quality content and page titles all represent the types of activities necessary for ensuring your site shows up in the right searches. Does your vendor know how to do this? (Don’t just ask them if they do, get them to show examples of work that ranks well. And run away if they “guarantee the first position.” They’re lying).
  • Does the vendor use web standards? Have they even heard of them? Following web standards – whether industry standards like building valid HTML and CSS, or legal standards like Section 508 compliance – help ensure that your site will work for the longer term and make it easier for you to switch vendors later if you’re unhappy with their performance.

Your financial needs

  • Does the vendor charge a reasonable amount relative to the return you’ll receive? A (very) rough rule of thumb is that a well designed site should cost anywhere between 0.5% to 2% of the revenues it generates. The cost of your site depends on several factors:
    • How much content needs developing
    • How many customers the site needs to support at one time
    • How many back end systems the site needs to integrate with
    • How much research you put into the discovery process
    • How much custom work your developer does vs. how much “off-the-shelf” is available

    Make sure you understand what you’re paying for in each step of the process. If the person claims “it’s too complicated” or “you wouldn’t understand,” send them packing.

Your human needs

  • Do you like the people? While you can definitely get good results from people you don’t like – unfortunately, the reverse is also true – why accept the heartburn of working with people you just don’t like? Ideally, the developer of your site is as invested in its success as you are. If they don’t care, if they don’t accept that responsibility, if they rub you the wrong way, keep looking. Life is too short to waste with people you don’t like. And your business is too important to trust to those folks.
  • What support do they provide you when things go wrong? It’s a sad fact. Sometimes things don’t work out the way we’d like them too. What levels of support is the developer willing to provide you? Make sure you each have a clear understanding of what is – and is not – included. Nothing contributes to changing “I like these guys” to “I hate these guys” more than misunderstandings around how to handle the unexpected. So answer that question right up front.

Your brand/aesthetic needs

I saved this one for last. It’s very easy to get “wow-ed” by a pretty design. But a pretty design doesn’t always work as a website if the designer can’t meet the standards above. Definitely look for people who get your brand, who reflect your vision of the site. But save that as the final test. Then you’ll be sure you get a brand-focused and attractive site that also works for your business.

I realize this is a long list, with lots of detail. But your business is worth it. In fact, is there anything missing from the list above? Are there things that have worked for you? Please tell us about it in the comments.

Note: Really large, high-volume sites requiring significant overhaul could take a year or more to redesign. Do yourself a favor. Chunk that development into components or “phases” that can roll out every 3-6 months. Release early. Release often. Drawn out development processes don’t work. So don’t do that. ;-)

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , ,

{ 2 comments }