Gratuitous animation
Flash has contributed to the ridiculous amount of gratuitous animation on the Internet, and – unlike animated GIFs – flash animations do not respond to your browser’s stop button or your keyboard’s escape key. Thus, users are likely to close the entire website down, rather than just a section.

Splash screen renaissance
By comprising smaller file sizes than GIF animations, flash has single-handedly brought back the splash screen, arguably one of the most irritating Internet experiences. Internet users are usually looking for content, and presenting them with a content-free splash screen is a sure-fire way to annoy them and give them good reason to leave. And who can blame them?

Flash websites
Incorporating flash into an HTML page or splash screen is bad enough, but entire websites built with flash are positively evil. First and foremost, flash websites make the browser’s back button and address bar useless, and make book-marking pages inside a flash website impossible. Printing flash pages from your browser won’t work either, nor will intra-page keyword searching. Finally, flash sites disable HTML links’ visited and unvisited colours, and this colour-changing feature is the Internet’s most important navigational cue.

Flash and search engines
Pages that are built entirely from flash – or ones that are heavily loaded with it – suffer from the same ranking problems as frame sites. There is simply not enough content for spiders to determine the relevancy of the site, and no meaningful ranking is ever achieved.

A flash site usually consists of one HTML page (the home page) and all other content is in a flash object. A flash designer’s argument is that the index page is in HTML, which can be read by search engines. They usually say that adding meta tag descriptions will do the trick. Fortunately, we’ve only had one potential client who was naive enough to believe he could achieve good rankings this way.

• a professional Internet presence is a significant part of the overall marketing plan, and the single most effective way to generate potential customers
• online marketing is substantially different than offline marketing
• people judge a company’s credibility by the content and design of their website
• websites do not work without promotion

By overlooking these key facts, website owners are not placing enough importance on their company’s Internet presence. A common belief amongst website owners is that once they have paid somebody for a website, that is the end of it. And instead of outsourcing the promotion of their website to a professional, they assign the task to somebody they know. The resulting website often look outdated and unprofessional, with hardly any fresh content, but plenty of copy in the ‘about us’ section to feed their ego.

Afterwards, website owners ask: how do I get rankings in search engine results? Instead of going to an SEO expert, they cram the meta tag with all related keywords and phrases and hope for the best. Then they sit and wait for traffic to start pouring in. Time goes by, and nothing. Then the website owner wonders why they built a website in the first place.

Some even research into link exchange, but what most of them don’t know is that they need to link with the competition to increase their website’s credibility. Most of the time, however, they avoid linking to the competition, and instead link every known spam website. More time goes by, and the website owner and his designer remain the only two people looking at the website.

Finally, the website owner decides to contract an SEO expert. Instead of taking the SEO expert’s advice, however, the website owners requests an even flashier website and insists on his own design. The SEO expert is forced to go along with the website owner, and tries to build the website in compliance with Internet marketing standards.

The SEO expert insists on regularly updated content, but the request falls on deaf ears; instead, the website owner’s sole concern is the look and ‘feel’ of their website. The website owners demands that the website be within the top ten Google search results, without updating any of the content.

Now do you see how frustrating it is?

Unfortunately, most companies in Spain using an SEO company do not follow the expert advice they have contracted and paid for.   SEO is time-consuming, ongoing and difficult. If it were easy companies would do it themselves. It requires that you:

• accept that online marketing is substantially different from offline marketing
• accept that you know little or nothing about it
• spend time and effort to develop regular in-demand content for your website
• choose an SEO company wisely
• take your SEO company’s advice on board

Contact us for a free analysis of your website. We will look at different aspects of your website and explain what you need to do in order to make it suitable for search engine optimisation.

Regards

Wolfgang Brand

Having the right tools or products alone will not ensure the success of your website. There are many factors to be considered when designing your website – unfortunately, most of these are overlooked by website owners. Here are some important elements for a professional and profitable Internet presence:

Built for speed

Internet users appreciate speed. Therefore, Websites that take forever to load lose visitors. To minimise the time your website takes to load, keep graphics small and compress them where possible. Don’t use flashy animations and limit multimedia to the bare minimum. Remember, not everybody has access to a broadband connection.

Target your market

Before you build your website know who your market is and make sure that your website caters to it. It is important that your website reflects the interests of your potential customers. Is your intended market made up predominantly of business professionals? If so, then it makes sense for your website to be clear, professional and direct.

Or is your intended market teenagers and young adults? If so, then your website should informal, relaxed and interestingly designed. The key is to know your market and build the website around their preferences, not yours.

Establish credibility

The most professionally designed website won’t sell if your potential customers don’t believe in it. Heighten your topic authority, and become the main source your customers come to when looking for information about your subject.

Remember, the Internet is about information not advertising. People surf the Internet to find information on a particular subject, and providing regular articles will make your website an expert in its field, and will build confidence in a potential customer.

Providing a clear privacy statement is also a way to enhance your website’s credibility. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on your website, as well as from any place where you request personal information from your website’s users. Provide legitimate contact information such as your mailing address and phone number, and include your company’s legal registration details.

Keep navigation simple

Make your website’s navigation simple. Smooth navigation adds to the user’s enjoyment of your website, and they are more likely to return. The less clicks a user needs to get to the desired information the better.

Keep it consistent

Make sure that your website is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring to a user than thinking they have navigated to another website. Keep the theme and the style of the text consistent throughout.

Go interactive

Make your website interactive. Add feedback and email forms so that the user can ask you questions, as well as blogs and forums. By personalising your website you will increase a user’s enjoyment, and this should lead to more sales.

Content is king

Good content sells a product. Make sure that your copy conveys the message you want to get across clearly. Make sure that it is compelling to read, and that it leads a user through the sales process. Ask others to critique your copy to ensure that it delivers (try not to ask close family or friends, they always say it’s good!) Finally, always double-check your spelling and grammar – there’s nothing more unprofessional than typos on a website.

Web design is not sex

I’ll try my best not to offend anyone here, but sex is one of those topics that usually steps on someone’s toes. However, sex is the one thing that everyone can relate to, so that it makes the easiest analogy for me to use.

I believe that Web designers confuse the Internet world with the real world. With sex, foreplay is mandatory. You have to set the mood, and entice your partner into giving herself or himself to you completely. But in the Internet world there’s no place for foreplay. In fact, it gets in the way. Without being crude, the Internet world is more along the lines of ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am’. Think of this analogy when designing your website, and you won’t go far wrong.

Remember, you don’t need to set then mood to entice people to your website. They come of their own accord and they visit your website for a particular reason. The sooner you give them what they are looking for the better.

Regards

Wolfgang Brand