Guest writer: Ian Tickle, WebTrends

Best practice makes perfect

I am not a fan of using technology for the sake of it, which is unfortunately what traditionally drives a great deal of web development.

Therefore having a Web 2.0 site for the sake of it is a very dangerous thing to consider; cool as it may be. That’s why a lot of Web 2.0 technology is utilised for microsites or specific campaigns as they can be targeted towards a more specific audience. I can’t see many banks for example being too far along into planning on how they can make their entire sites Flash or AJAX-based.

The most important thing to consider is: Why do your visitors come to your site? Not what you or the CEO want them to do when they get there, but why do they come in the first place? If you don’t know or understand this, you won’t be able to get your search marketing right. There’s no point buying thousands of keywords in the hope that you can ‘attract’ (i.e. potentially ‘kid’) visitors into coming, unless you can measure what works - and in terms of a demonstrable return in the form of conversions or cash, not just ‘traffic’.

It’s difficult to get out of ‘developer’ or ’site-owner’ mode and think about how real people use your site. Usability testing is obviously very handy for this. But don’t’ start at the home page. Start from Google, or any other place you may be using as an influencer, paid or otherwise.

What happens when Joe Public logs on and starts “playing around with your website” (and sadly that’s the attitude a lot of developers have)? I know you’ve got a sign saying “Don’t use the back button” but what happens when I do? And isn’t it absurd to develop something that disallows the use of one of the most frequently used buttons in a browser?

As a geek and heavy Internet user, let me assure you that your ecommerce engine has one chance to get it right. If it breaks, redirects me, bounces me out, loses my shopping cart or tries my patience in any other way, it’s back to Google to find someone else. So unless you have a monopoly on whatever you sell, it needs to work.

The technology needs to support, not lead. By all means redesign the site to take advantage of Web 2.0 design principles, but only if a more immersive and engaging site is going to help you. It should do, but if you want people in and out quickly, it might not be the best thing.

Internet users haven’t changed all that much - yes, they respond to shiny things, but ultimately when they have a job to do (and a lot of what we are talking about here is ‘tasks’ rather than indulgence), they want clean, simple, and easy to use.

Ian Tickle is Sales Director within Northern Europe for WebTrends. He has many years of enterprise sales experience from Tripwire, Tumbleweed and WallData. Prior to his career in the software industry Ian was a Business Analyst for National Westminster Bank where he gained 5 years of experience in selecting solutions that provided true benefit and return to the business.

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