Confabulations

When you get it right, the perfect website should be creative, usable for consumers and structured so that it can be optimised. What is the point of creating a fabulous, show stopping website full of flash and JavaScript, when it is impossible for search engines to crawl, consumers to see, and optimisers to market?  Every client who hires your company to design and optimise them a new website will expect the two teams to work together to create a finished product which does everything they asked in their brief. If the design/development team and the marketing team are not communicating, your site may well end up as a flop, with no traffic, no sales and no success.

This is especially important when it comes to ecommerce sites. People who use the internet to do their shopping have experience with different ecommerce sites, checkouts and navigation. I cannot tell you the number of times I have gone onto a website, put something in my basket, gone to the checkout and got my credit card out, only to abandon the transaction because the payment process was too complex. This problem is simple to remedy. Any SEO will be quick to tell you that a checkout process should be quick, and if it cannot be quick, then the stages should at least be listed so that shoppers can see they are progressing through the purchase.

The checkout is just one area where designers and marketers need to communicate more.  Another area of debate is product images. Product images need to be easily discernible from decorative images so that consumers know they can click on them and it will take them through to a more detailed product page. It is all very well designing a page so that the images float or overlap and look super nice, but if customers cannot use the page because it is all about looks and not about utility; you have not served your purpose of building a profitable site.

If you work for a digital agency, as a web designer, web developer or in SEO, think about how design, crawlability and usability go hand-in-hand. By looking at a website from a user’s perspective, you will be able to design a site that suits their needs as well as incorporating new technologies and special features.

This story in the local paper is proving that website design in Leeds, digital agencies and SEO is beating the credit crunch as they continue to grow and see profits, even during troubling economic periods.

Check out The Harrogate Advertiser’s article here.

If you’ve been outside during the past few days you may have noticed it’s bloody freezing. In fact, if you’ve been indoors you may have noticed the cold too, since Winter has a way of creeping through the smallest of gaps. Even the central heating does little to fend off the chill – it appears nothing less than a full-scale house fire will suffice.

The government have recently made some money available for people to insulate their homes so if you’re sat in your lounge with your breath condensing on the walls you might want to think about applying. Either that or you can buy a slanket.

I bought a new car last week – not because my sunroof fell off (that wasn’t me) but because I test drove my dream car and couldn’t resist. My existing car was also quite old so it gave me a bit of an excuse.

All this talk of the credit crunch supposedly led to people not buying as many cars, so I expected the dealership to be desperate for business. They weren’t though – the salesman said he’d sold 25 cars the week before and their sales weren’t really suffering. Maybe because they were a proper dealer backed by a big car company, and they offered good finance options and they sold nice cars. Whatever, it seems that I’m not the only one trying to prop up the economy with excessive spending.

When it comes to cars, military folk get the best deals. Did you know that if you’re in the army, or if you’re a diplomat, you get all the tax paid on your new car? If you’re posted abroad you get a tax free car too and that means you can save literally thousands. We pay so much tax on everything that when you take it off, things like cars seem incredibly cheap. I don’t think however that you’re allowed to join the army, buy a car and then leave. That would be cheating.

I was thinking the other day about the credit crunch and how it’s affecting our lives. Some people are being made redundant, others are finding their household bills going up. Most of us will probably spend less this Xmas but most importantly, we’ll be cutting back on big expenditures like new televisions and holidays abroad.

The UK holiday market will see a boom next year as those expensive flights abroad look less attractive. Hotels will also suffer unless they can offer a good deal. Holiday parks on the other hand and rental villas will do well because they’re a cheaper option. Self-catering holidays mean you don’t have to spend money eating out every night, and if you’re in a holiday park, even if it’s in some far away place like Orlando, you can pick and choose activities each day instead of spending money travelling around the country.

The humble caravan will make a comeback, and those of us who might have gone abroad will now consider spending a week in The Lakes using a chemical toilet. None of us will be tanned next year, but at least a week cooped up in a caravan while it rains will make a change from a week cooped up in an office while it’s sunny outside.

Has anyone else noticed the desperation creeping into the voice of radio advertisers recently? I was listening to local radio the other day whilst doing the ironing (glamorous I know) and there was an advert for new kitchens – come to our kitchen showroom and all that stuff. The woman kept telling me how I shouldn’t wait until next year to buy my new kitchen, just because I don’t think I can afford it. I should buy it now, because I can afford it. They give free credit. Remember, don’t wait until next year, because I deserve luxury surroundings right this second!

The rather obvious meaning was that if I wait until next year, they won’t be selling new kitchens anymore. Those granite worktops I always dreamed about will vanish in a puff of smoke and that silky-voiced woman will have to go and work on another advert. So goes the credit crunch.