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What is more
important, the way a website looks? Or functionality?
I have a lot of experience in
the automotive industry and that is why we have so many website
programs for used car dealers.
There is one thing I have
learned along with all car dealers. Slapping a $200 coat of paint
on a a car along with detailing the engine, tires and interior
will sell a car faster than anything else you can do.
I collect classic cars, 30's,
40's, 50's, 60's and most of them need a lot of repair. So I
fix the brakes, replace the engines, modernize the mechanical
systems and make the cars 100% functional and reliable.
But I can never get back
out what I put in, because 99% of the consumers only look at
how shinny the paint is, or if they like the color. Who cares
if the car starts or stops, as long as it looks good.
That unfortunately is
the way consumers think.
This has led to fancy
packaging for products with little to offer in substance.
Companies often spend more on the box that a product is displayed
in, than the cost of the actual product.
Consumers want to see things
that are pretty, new and special. But are they concerned about
functionality?
They are when they get home
and realize the item they bought is a piece of junk and cost less
than the packaging.
But now it is too late, they
fell for the fancy design, shinny paint and the glitz and glamor.
So we find ourselves
alway having to educate business owners that it is better to have
a functional website than a fancy website.
What you should avoid
in a website:
Too much
javascript or AJAX
Too much Flash
and Graphics
Jumping on the
newest browser capabilities
Worrying about
SEO
Copying what
you see everyone else is doing
Too much javascript or
AJAX
The biggest thing to avoid is
Javascipt. In most cases, the website can be built without it.
But javascript and AJAX are used to make the website more
exciting, create slideshows and effects that you can't do with
static html. But in most cases. this has nothing to do with the
functionality of a website.
The problem is, it can tend to
be non compatible with many browsers.
When we add javascript
features for users at pageBuzz.com we test them in all browsers
going back 5 and 10 years but even then, when never versions come
out, changes often need to be made and that is not always
possible if the browsers have errors.
This is very common with
Safari and Google Chrome which both have major problems with
javascript files.
So just because you see
something on a page, that does not mean everyone else does and
that creates problems for people visiting your website.
Imagine if you parking lot
would only fit motorcycles and compact cars. You would never get
customers that drive, minivans or SUV's. That is going to
severely handicap your business.
If you have a website that
does not work on certain versions of Safari or Google Chrome,
they you will lose customers. And for what? Because you wanted,
buttons that move to the left when people mouse over them? Or you
use ajax data validation for forms? Is that worth the cost?
Too much Flash and
Graphics
Another think to avoid is
flash and graphic heavy sites. Having fancy graphics might make
you think your website is better but people don't judge books by
the cover.
As I explained at the
beginning of the article, people might by books because of the
cover, but when they start reading and realize they were sold a
dud, they are angry.
You can't keep customers by
having a fancy website, you keep them by having good products and
services. Fancy images did not get anyone to the website. They
are on the website because they are looking for it or found you
through the searches.
If they can't find the
information they are after they leave. And no amount of flash
animations or images will ever replace text based content.
Jumping on the newest
browser capabilities
The same that is true of
browser compatability with javascript is true when new browsers
come out that have new features. If you use new techniques that
only work on new browsers you lose all of the people that have
not upgraded yet.
I see this all the time.
Webmasters can't wait to show off new toys. But how does that
help you if your website is not functioning for everyone?
Worrying about SEO
Every single person that calls
us asks, how does pageBuzz do with SEO? I am not even sure what
that means.
I usually tell them, it does
as well as you make the pages. The hosting platform does not have
anything to do with SEO, it is what you have on your pages. For
any company to imply that hosting with them helps a website's SEO
is just a lie.
First of all. SEO is not
something you can do without content. A webmaster cannot SEO a
website without having content on the website. So the first step
in SEO is having the site built with as much text as possible.
Then the pages can be tweaked
with page titles and maybe cleaning up the text to better work
for search engines.
Making sure you don't deliver
SEO rich content with javascript or in hidden DIV's that require
users to perform some action to see.
It all takes a back seat to
the actual content and in most cases, just simple page titles are
enough to SEO out content pages. So don't even consider the SEO
when creating a website, just build the website for the customers
and the SEO will come naturally.
Copying what you see
everyone else is doing
My mom always says, are you
going to jump off a bridge just because you saw everyone else
doing it?
Just because everyone else has
crazy features on their website should you do it?
You don't know if anyone is
using their website. In fact many companies that make huge
amounts of money build dysfunctional websites because they pay
expensive webmasters and ask for amazing designs. But that in no
way tells anyone that that is a good design or that their users
like the website or frequent it for anything useful.
It just tells you, they could
spend $10,000 on a fancy paint job. There may not even be an
engine under the hood, they may not have any brakes or when it
rains do the windshield wipers work?
When it comes to websites you
need a little more common sense than when you are shopping for a
car.
The website needs to work more
than shine.
So what should you be
concerned about when building your website?
The User Experience
So many people forget about
the user experience. Websites use small or almost unreadable text,
because astheticly, text is not as pleasing to the exy as images
and graphics. So text is minimized in design by webmasters, made
smaller and close in color to the page background.
There is only one problme with
that, people can't read it.
People become frustrated with
your website and just leave. They don't want to strain their eyes
to try to read information.
The funniest thing I see from
people building their own websites on pagebuzz website hosting is
that they always do this:
Welcome
to my website!
They make the text as big as
it goes so people can read it. Why, becuase they don't understand
desing and they are only thinking about how they see the website.
That it is easier to read and they don't ahve to put on reading
glasses becuase the text is so small.
I see this in emails, websites
and all over. Because to the average person, reading the text is
more important than having a fancy design.
Remember, you are not
building a website for yourself, you are building it for your
customers.
If you hire a webmaster they
only have to impres one person, you. But they shoudld be more
focused on the functionality of the website and not the fancy
packaging.
Just like the car dealers,
webmasters know a fancy slideshow and other things that move is
so much more impressive than an article on "What is
more important, the way a website looks? Or functionality?".
So they only have to make you
happy long enough to drive of the lot. If you find out later, the
site is hard for people to use, does not work on other browsers
or just lacks any content and never gets listed in the serches,
well, they have already been paid and you are out of luck.
They will tell you the same
thing that a car dealer will tell you. You knew what you were
buying, you looked at it, approved it and paid for it. If you
want to build another wesite, then they can start over again and
charge you a second time.
Programming
Functionality
While business owners are
impressed with teh fancy graphics they forget about the
programming. In fact, a large percentage of our ecomerce
customers will call us moneth or even years after setting up
their website and claim their shoopping cart stopped working.
When I checked the settings
and see that it was never configured to accept payments, I tell
them it never worked. I asked if they checked it when they set it
up. I am usually told, they did not want to buy anything, so they
never checked it.
They spent time building pages,
adding graphics and calling us day after day for help to build
slideshows, add images and make the site look good. But they
never asked or took 10 minutes to check and see if teh
programming actually worked.
Obviosly, a shopping
cart can't collect payments unless you tell it how, your bank
account, processor and where the money is supposed to be
placed when sales are made.
I suppose we could
make the deafult to add the money to our own bank account,
but that would just be mean.
It is all too common for
website owners to just bypass the programs and be concerned about
the looks and not the functionality of their website.
Browser Compatibility
I cannot stress browser
compatibilty enough. Simple designs that work on all browsers are
critical. Since I already explain it, i won't go over it again,
but you need to test, check and make sure what you did is going
to work on all computers, browsers and that eveyone can use your
website.
They more css and javasctipt
you add, the less likley it is to work for everyone.
Loads of Content, Text
based
The most important part of a
website is the content. The text on the pages. That is how the
search engines rank you, it is how people find you and how people
learn about your company.
With out good text, articles
and information, you have nothing.
You can load all the flash
animattions and imags you want, but that is not going to help you
one bit.
There needs to be a ballace of
graphics and text so the text works for you and the site looks
clean and friendly.
Manageability
Lastly, you need a website you
can manage. Having a fancy design is useless if you can't make
changes.
You need to be able to do
updates, change information, addresses, phone numbers, names of
employees etc. You need to add new and updated information about
products and services and add new content regularly.
If you can't do that, no
amazing looking design will help you.
Summary
If you use come common sense,
you can do well with your website. If you chase the shinny ball
and don't look both ways, you will probably get hit by a car.
I always know which buisness
owners are going to fail. The ones that call and spend 2 weeks
working on the website design. Try to get the look just right
before adding even one paragraph of content.
I try to explain, you are
putting the cart before the horse. You need the content first,
then you do the design. But they will always respond, that if
they can't get the design they want, then they don't want to use
pageBuzz.
So for us, it is a "catch
22". The users wants shinny paint, but they are not focused
on functonality.
So we let them play, and quit
in a few weeks because they just don't listen to us. We know,
they won't get what they want, because they are after the perfect website design.
The can't get there, becuase they refuse to add the content which
needs to be transformed into a design.
But if you can focus
on the broader picture. Build the content, make sure the
programming works and worry about the design last and least of
all, your website will serve you better and longer and generate
more income.
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