McFilter

Dave Collins runs Shareware Promotions and also writes a blog.

Update: Dave has posted his summary of the presentation on his website.

This presentation will be looking at some of the common mistakes people make with their websites.

Initial Impressions

• Most people arrive at home page
• You only get a couple of seconds to make an impression

Avoid...

A dated/amateurish look

Too much text - it's overwhelming; boring; gets in the way of communication

Too many links

Wrong focus - people want to know what your product can do for them

Not keeping up to date - if dates are included, they need to be recent

Navigation matters

• You want people to venture beyond the homepage
• Needs to be easy and clear

Navigation mistakes

• No clearly marked path
• Users should only ever be 1 click away from the homepage, download andd buy pages
• Lack of links at the bottom - some users will actually read everything on your page and end up at the bottom!
• Difficult to understand/read links; will people realise it's a link

"People don't use your website as you might expect or want them to."

Taming the visitors

• Use clear hierarchy/structure throughout
• Stick to what people know
• Buttons that look like buttons
• "Buy Now"- rather than other wording

Clear communication

• It's not a book
• People need to know what you're selling
• Benefits not features
• Use audience's language
• Credible and linked testimonials are great - don't hide them away on a testimonials page
• Don't scare people with 'tech talk'

Reassurance and security

• Your job is to convince them you are safe
• How?
• Identify yourself
• How old is your business?
• How many customers?
• Where are you located?
• Photo and personal info can go a long way. They tried a few things and found that having a picture at the top of their contact page meant that more people read the page (and a geniune, rather than posed 'press shot'-style photo worked best)
• Keep site up to date even if it's just updating the © notice
• Payment issues:
• Guarantee
• Countries/currencies
• Instant fulfillment
• Don't let your payment provider surprise them
• Keep it all clear and upfront

Info...

• What the product is
• What the product does
• Where to find more into

Use the norms

• Buttons
• Links

Less is better. They use space and color to show main points for people scanning the page. Main detail in text so you can read it if you want it.

Space

• Important
• Don't use too much or too little

Don't have a mission statement

Don't annoy your visitors

Feed your visitors

• Give them what they want
• FAQs are good
• Understand their behaviour
• ANALYZE YOUR LOGS

Examples: The Good

Alert Tape, Get Data, pando, iolo - great multi-product website, ToneXpress, Spy Sweeper, Type Agent - good testimonials, infacta.

Examples: the Boring

Aya Nova, open Contacts Tm, XNetView.

Examples: The Ugly

Ledspace, Crakehall - colour overload, Flowbee Haircut Online, xBlitz, Wain's of Tunbridge Wells, MSY Technology Pty Ltd, IT Wizard 4u, HowDoIDoIt.net, eWebProfessionals, CryptoSms (red lines an grey not good... oops), Layer Eight Systems, Joes Place Arcade Games, Association of International Glaucoma Societies, The Designers Republic.

Making it work for you

• Don't be cheap
• Don't let your site run out of control
• Log analysis!!!

Questions

Website per product or per company?

One per company is better because of the Google ageing delay.

Big long single page sites - done any tests?

Allegedly they work but don't like them. Haven't experimented. Google don't seem to like them at least from an Adwords perspective.

Google Analytics?

Hates it. They've stripped down and ruined a good product. It's hard to find stuff and the data is horribly inaccurate.

What should I look for when analyzing logs?

Look for people leaving the first page or how long they are reading it. Do trials with splitting visitors to one of three pages - but you must use server-side redirect.