October 28, 2005
If you can't read it how can a search engine?
I like to think, or perhaps just hope, that despite the advances in technology the human brain still has a pretty good edge on the machines. If you want your website to show up will in a search engine why not build it so it's actually readable to a human - if you can't read it how do you expect a search engine too?
I like to think, or perhaps just hope, that despite the advances in technology the human brain still has a pretty good edge on the machines. If you want your website to show up will in a search engine why not build it so it’s actually readable to a human - if you can’t read it how do you expect a search engine too?
Seems like a simple enough issue but it amazes me how many times companies still want to build sites that contain underlying code with tables within tables within tables etc that present a search engine with an endless array of
Simple, standards driven design cuts through this and gives you a site that can make sense to someone with virtually no HTML knowledge. So if they can read it chances are Google et al can too and that means they’ll be able to categorise it properly and web users can find it more easily, you might even find site traffic going up?
Posted by harryp at 12:27 AM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2005
Its Not All About You
Common mistakes in developing websites can be avoided if the client and the agency take the time to look further into what they are building a site and who’s the site is being developed for. Sounds simple enough but how many websites seem to have been built with little or no purpose behind them?
Among some the myriad of possible mistakes and mis-directions in corporate website design three of my ‘favourites’ are:
- Building a website without clear purpose or justification
- Designing the site to suite the tastes of the companies executives
- Structuring it according to the organisational design of the company it represents.
- Information hierarchy agreed to avoid upsetting any dept or division who’s not been given equal footing to the one next door.
- Unless client and agency have a clear understanding of Objectives, Goals, Strategy and Measures for the website the chances of getting a good ROI required are limited. This doesn’t require a version of War and Peace for a strategy document, just be able to answer some simple questions such as; Why are we building this? Who’s it for? What do they want? How will we measure success?
- An organisation’s internal mindset, how it sees itself, is not the same as the customer's. Don’t try building a site that will make the CEO and all the department heads happy.
- Architecture, interface and functionality design need to be centred around user needs at each development stage. Information from online surveys, beta-test groups and usability studies are invaluable in this respect.
A few years back, I was leading the online component of a major privatisation project, the client was a large organisation making the journey from the public to private sector. Essentially this involved moving from being an inwardly focused, technically driven, with only one client, to becoming a client, service orientated organisation needing to attract new clients and customers.
The challenge was the client had never had to look at themselves like this before, and the work required to get the organisation into a logical structure from a customer’s view was immense. The hardest part wasn’t designing the architecture taxonomy, but getting the client to get outside of their corporate mindset to understand and buy into it.
We got there in the end, but there where more than a few tears along the way, so what steps can be taken to avoid them?
Posted by harryp at 06:00 PM | Comments (0)