GIGO – Garbage In Garbage Out

30 years ago I learnt about GIGO.  It meant ‘Garbage In Garbage Out’ and it was a phrase used in my computer studies lessons at school.  What it basically meant was that if you put garbage data into the computer then you’d get garbage out.

I consider myself lucky that I was one of the first batch of pupils to get hands on computers within the brave new world of computer studies within schools.   I soon learnt that if you put enough effort into what you were doing on the computer then you’d get rewards.   As an example, when I’d done something bad at school I was given a punishment of writing lines so I put extra effort into writing the computer programme that would generate my lines for me.  It was a first in our school – punishment lines created by a computer programme, and I got away with it (whereas the next kid who copied my idea got double punishment for not being innovative).  For me, the effort put into writing that programme correctly produced the right result out of the computer.

Fast forward 30 years and GIGO is more applicable than ever.  The difference is that the situation is worse because ‘computers’ (read: websites in particular) make it extremely easy to put anything you want in and things may look fine to you.   So, you create a page on your website – the computer thinks:

“That’s fine”.

But in reality, what you’ve created is garbage from a human perspective.   Let’s say that you’ve created a website page that gives details about your products or services, but you’ve not included any reference to costs.  The computer (website) doesn’t tell you that you’ve put ‘garbage’ in (promoting products and services without giving an idea of costs is insanity) and the end result is garbage on display for all to see.

I laugh when I hear people say words to the effect of “my website is rubbish, it gains me no business”.   I silently nod in agreement when I see the websites because the GIGO principle has been applied – people putting content into websites that they think is right but in reality it’s garbage from the perspective of the potential buyer who is looking at the website.

Is the word ‘Garbage’ too harsh?  After all, most websites that underperform have had some effort put into them so it may seem a bit much to brand them as being ‘garbage’.  I think that’s a fair word to use though because it’s quite strong and is basically saying “if your website isn’t getting you results then parts of it are probably being viewed as ‘garbage’ by your potential customers, which means that something is wrong”.

Personalising testimonials with pictures

Aegon are a big company. 28,000 employees serving 40 million customers big.  With that many employees you’d think it would be hard to get something wrong on the website.

The screenshot below is taken from the page http://www.aegonse.co.uk/adviser/protection/individual-protection/understanding-claims/case-studies/case2/index.html, which is a case study supposed to get across the message that a customer found it easy to make a claim when their wife died.   The implication is that the man in the photo is the same man who wrote the comment (after all, why would you show a picture of someone else next to something that’s so personal?) …

It’s perfectly feasible that the picture is of the man concerned but if you look at the properties of the picture it’s named as ‘man_portrait.jpg’.  Not Bill Smith, Jack Johnson or anything like that – purely ‘man_portrait.jpg’ – almost as if it was stock photography and not the real person.

It’s feasible that Aegon fully intended to put a male picture there, just to add something to the comment but surely that’d be ‘wrong’ when the testimonial is about something so personal.

There’s a great tool called TinEye (http://www.tineye.com) which lets you input the url of an image, or the page that it’s on and it’ll go off and see if that image pops up anywhere else.  And sure enough, here’s what it came up with:

… which includes a link to Getty Images and the page http://www.inmagine.com/dv1043/dv1043014-photo, which is a royalty-free site.  It’s certainly not a cheap image to buy and perhaps that’s why Aegon used it (so that it wasn’t so obviously a stock image as it wouldn’t show up in many places) but surely they’d realise that some (pedantic) person would find it?

There’s another case study on that site at the page http://www.aegonse.co.uk/adviser/protection/individual-protection/understanding-claims/case-studies/case1/index.html.  This time, a woman looking surprisingly upbeat considering supposedly being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis …

That image, called ‘woman_portrait.jpg’ also appears elsewhere as TinEye unveils below …

There are a couple of points worth making here …

1. If you’re going to use testimonials and link pictures to them then tread carefully.  I only looked up those pictures because they didn’t seem ‘right’ linked to the comments on those Aegon pages.   This makes me automatically think that not just the images have been fabricated but that the testimonial comments may not be genuine either.
2. If you’re considering using images on a website then it’s maybe worth using a site such as TinEye to see where else they appear.  There’s an image that I refer to only as ‘reception girl’ because she seems to pop up everywhere on websites, which confirms that those websites may not actually have such people ready to take calls (which we sort of know anyway!).   You can while away hours putting images into TinEye just to see where else they appear but to make life easier, they have a page of goodies (http://www.tineye.com/goodies) that lets you plug it in to your browsers.

Cheap aftershaves and website success

One month on, it’s still sitting there.  It’s called ‘Huntsman’ and is an aftershave.

Christmas Day 2010 brought one of those awkward moments that every parent fears: opening up a present from a child and thinking “oh my god!”.

I gracefully thanked my daughter for the gift and gave it a little spray (taking care not to get it too close to any paintwork).  To be fair, she had actually spent quite a bit of her own money on that present and another one she’d bought me and she wouldn’t have understood that a few quid on a bottle of aftershave does not make a pleasant experience.  But it got me thinking that there’s a similarity between cheap aftershave and the website development/SEO/consultancy industry …

If you buy cheap aftershave (or perfume) then it’s not going to have the desired impact.

If you buy cheap web-related services it’s also not going to have the desired impact.

If web-related services were like aftershaves and perfumes, which companies would be behind the locked glass cabinets in Boots and which would be on the standard shelves that even the security guards don’t bother checking?

The numbers of people working in website development/SEO/consultancy have grown hugely in recent years and all the time there are new companies appearing.  While there are certainly some new companies that are good at what they do, it’s unfortunate that many just don’t cut it.  Unfortunately there’s no regulation in this industry, which means that anyone can start up, as is the case in some other industry types.

Where this becomes a problem is when a company has a need for web-related services and those services are offered at ridiculously low (to get a good result) prices.   Companies, perhaps watching the purse strings, will often invest their budget with the ‘cheap aftershave’ end of the web-related industry and although they may have taken a few steps forwards, the reality will be that they could have been leaping forwards if they’d shopped around a bit more and were prepared to invest more budget.

So what’s the answer for companies who are interested in gaining more success via their websites and the ways in which they’re marketed?

The answer is to ask around.  Don’t buy the ‘cheap aftershave’ just because it looks cost-effective, but take the cheap offering and ask other web-related companies/individuals what they think.  Those with any credibility will make suggestions on how the company can get bigger benefits through their skills/expertise.  Although those bigger benefits may involve a bigger financial (and often, time) investment, it would then be clear how the difference in service would have the required impact on the bottom line (compared to the cheaper option).

The buying company, having gained further insights from other web-related companies/people, may still choose to go for the cheaper option but they would at least have had other choices.   They would be like the person in Boots at Xmas, with a bottle of Huntsman aftershave in their hands, asking the shop assistant what would impress the gift recipient, being offered the nice range of aftershaves from the cabinets, but ultimately deciding to buy Huntsman.

I’d suggest though, for people in business, the lost opportunities from ‘buying cheap aftershave’ are huge in comparison to going for the quality end of the web-related services sector.   A website that stinks still stinks long after the service has been paid for whereas the website that’s had the ‘quality aftershave’ treatment smells nice from the start and continues to attract business for the client company.

The key to success for any company considering buying web-related services is to ask around, getting opinions on whether what they’re being offered smells nice or not.

Guarantees on websites

How important is it to have a guarantee on your website?  In our view, very important.

Using the well-worn subject of widgets, let’s say you’ve gone to five websites that sell widgets.  The products are similar and so is the pricing.  But one of those websites has a guarantee graphic that’s highly visible on every page you go to.  The graphic tells you that there’s a 100% satisfaction guarantee and it invites you to click on the graphic to find out more details.  So you do that.

When you get to the guarantee page you see reassuring text that gives you a warm feeling.  On the (hypothetical widgets) website you’re guaranteed that:

• Delivery will be within 2 days.
• The quality will be excellent.
• A no-quibble full refund can be gained within 60 days.
• And more …

Every type of business will have certain things that can be guaranteed.  But it’s not necessarily about guaranteeing a low price.  Taking the widgets website example, it could be that the one website with a guarantee actually charges more for their widgets than their competitors.  However, if someone buys cheaper from the competitor widgets websites there’s nothing as backup in case anything is wrong.  For the person wanting to buy widgets, they’ll likely pay a higher price if there is a strong guarantee in place that is going to save them pain later.

So why is it that so many company websites don’t display any form of guarantee?   Perhaps some companies worry that a guarantee might be taken advantage of.  They may worry that someone may call in that guarantee.  But that’s such a short-sighted viewpoint when you look at numbers …

Given a choice of several suppliers of products or services, out of every 100 website visitors, a certain number are going to buy from a particular website.  For ease of maths, let’s say that’s 10%  So if 10 people buy widgets at £50 each then that’s a revenue of £500.    If there’s a guarantee in place then more than 10% are going to buy.  So let’s triple that to 30 people out of 100 buying widgets at £50 – that’s a revenue of £1,500.   Even if one or two people decide to call in on the guarantee, and they get their money back, the overall number of people buying will still have been much higher than if there was no guarantee.

A guarantee highly visible on a website conveys a powerful message to the potential customer that the company is so confident in what they offer that they are willing to guarantee it.   When that guarantee also becomes used elsewhere (e.g. on written literature, in newspaper adverts) then it is even more powerful and reinforcing.

Guarantees can also be carefully worded to protect the company.  For example, if a certain level of service was guaranteed then the proviso may be that the buyer of the service follows certain recommendations that are made.

We’ve often heard companies say “there’s nothing we can guarantee”, to which the answer is: “of course you can!” (followed by examples).

As we go into 2011 we’re entering an interesting period – the VAT increase to 20%, influences such as higher fuel bills, credit cards to pay off …. they’ll all have an impact on the willingness of people to buy products and services and it will affect everyone in some way down the buying chain.   Part of the answer is for companies to make their websites more visible (online and offline) but more important than that, is making the websites strong enough to convert visitors to buyers.   After all, what’s the point in spending money on marketing a website if those visitors may go off to a competitor?

Although many people and companies will be looking for a bargain on products and services, use of a strong guarantee within a website could help to retain your profit margins by encouraging higher numbers of website visitors to make contact because they’re savvy enough to realise that even though you may not be the cheapest provider, the guarantee is actually of more value to them than saving a little bit of money.

Santa Pause – have you got everything right?

While undertaking research for a client today we found a website that demonstrated the importance of spending more time checking that everything is correct.

If Santa Claus left the North Pole and forgot to feed his reindeer he wouldn’t get very far.  A ‘Santa Pause’ to check they’d been fed would be wise.

A ‘Santa Pause’ would have been useful for Inghams, having created the content for their website.  A pause, in the world of website development is taking a bit of time to run through the whole website to make sure that it’s sending out the best possible message to potential buyers.

By taking a ‘Santa Pause’, Inghams (http://www.inghams.co.uk/santa-holidays/) may have noticed this technical glitch that comes up on various pages …

Moving away from technical glitches (which, after all, could have happened well after the website was created), content glitches are worth focusing on.  We went to the page http://www.inghams.co.uk/santa-holidays/resorts/, which shows two Santa resorts but as you can see in the screenshot below, there’s no difference between the description of each resort …

What’s clearly happened is that the website owner has used the same text for both resorts but this leaves the potential buyer thinking “what’s the difference between those resorts?”.  From looking at the page the only difference appears to be that one has an altitude of 200m and the other has an altitude of 230m.

It’s fair to say that the resorts could well be very similar but the website owner has missed a trick by not taking a ‘Santa Pause’ to look at the pages from the viewpoint of the potential buyer.  In times when we’re used to having systems that let us compare products on websites (e.g. comparing a few fridges on the Comet website) we adopt a mentality that it should be easy to compare most things online.  So, when confronted by two resorts that appear to be exactly the same we think either:

1. the website owner has been lazy by using the same content, or

2. the resorts offer exactly the same

Most people would probably think as per number 1 above and would wonder why the website owner didn’t create content that was unique for each resort, which would help the buyer to decide which to click on to see more details.

Whether a website is new or it’s been updated, double-checking how the website pages will look to potential buyers is a fundamental basic for all companies to do.

Websites under construction – the message it sends out

I’ll admit that this tickled me because of the irony.   A company that deals in the construction of carriageways (roads, pavements etc.) who have a website that’s ‘under construction’ …

While companies may have numerous reasons why a website needs to have an ‘under construction’ page up, it never ceases to amaze me why companies do it.   Is there someone that says “I really hate that website, it’d be better to take it down while we create a new one”?

Looking at it from the viewpoint of the potential customer, what an ‘under construction’ message says could be any of the following:

1. The company don’t have their act together.

2. The company has a genuine, and very temporary reason to be ‘under construction’ (e.g. a website hacked).

3. The company doesn’t realise that it’s ok to have the old website live while working on the new one in the background.

4. The company isn’t very organised.  If there WERE organised then they’d have planned the new website well before the time that it was necessary to have an ‘under construction’ page displayed.

That particular site in the example hasn’t just appeared like that – it’s been like it for at least a few weeks (to my knowledge).   How much potential business is being lost?   How far behind is the SEO potential?  And what person takes ultimate responsibility for allowing the online presence of the company to be portrayed in that way?

It’s fair to say that in many companies there’s a lack of awareness about how to handle a change to a new website.  In the case of Kiely Bros it wouldn’t have taken a huge effort to create one or a few pages that went into a little more detail about the products/services on offer, so that it does at least look like a live website.  The website visitors don’t need to know that a new website is upcoming.

I suppose though this does beg the question – if a website is really poor then is it better to have that live or have an ‘under construction’ page up during redevelopment?    Whatever the answer, all the time that a website isn’t strong and live, potential business is being lost to competitors.

Kent weather – snow, storms, and opportunities

Every now and then I come across a website that’s been created with pure passion but could perhaps capitalise better on what they’ve done.

Today, the snow has fully gripped Kent (and most of the UK) and a decision had to be made about whether to attempt a trip into the office or not.  I searched Google for ‘Kent weather’ and after the usual Met Office and BBC links there was a link to the website http://kent-weather.co.uk/.   I believe that the SEO achieved was probably mainly accidental (and could be easily further built on) but at the same time I don’t think commercial gain is the aim behind this site. 

In a nutshell, the site provides weather updates from someone (see http://www.kent-weather.co.uk/staticpages/index.php?page=about) who is passionate about meteorology and is sharing their insights with people in a way that explains more about the reasons behind weather currently in Kent.   It’s highly ‘regional’ and so is potentially of interest to many Kent people, whatever the weather – snow, storms, heatwaves … this site, and its owner are providing what could be a useful and interesting service to many people.

The Custwin approach to blogs is to provide information, which raises awareness of skills/expertise, and potentially business down the line (in a non-salesy way).  The Kent Weather site doesn’t seem to have any ‘down the line’ objective, and it’s clear there are many opportunities that could be capitalised on (if wished to).

There’s a phrase of “People buy people” but to extend that I’d say that “People buy people who have passion about their subject of expertise”.   I don’t know what Shaun (owner of that website) does for a day job, or whether he’s happy as things are, but I do get the feeling that there’s so much more that could be done with the website.  

For a start, he has huge potential to be the ‘go to’ source in any situation where Kent weather is a topic of interest.  Radio stations, local TV, newspapers and more …. all could have him as a ‘go to’ source.   So, there’s opportunity to become better known via the Kent media, which raises awareness of the brand that he doesn’t yet have.

I looked at the Twitter page, which has 249 followers.  If you took the whole population of Kent and boiled it down to a relatively small percentage who would be interested in seeing Kent Weather tweets, that’s still a huge number of followers that could be gained.  I’ve just made the number 250.   A recent estimate of the Kent population was 1.6 million people.  Just a half percentage of those would be about 8,000 people as followers on Twitter.

So what would be achieved by having more followers and getting publicity in the Kent media?   The answer is ‘awareness’.   Take the current snow in Kent – with thousands of followers on Twitter, an update on the website could be tweeted, which attracts people to the website to see the full details.   People could interact with the posting and whatever the weather, they’re likely to get a warm feeling about the person behind the website (because they’re providing something for nothing).  But none of that makes the website owner any money.  The website owner may not WANT to make money from the website, but with the right strategy, there are many opportunities.

For example, the website layout could be easily changed to allow for advertising, advertorial, and more – all from Kent companies or those targeting Kent.   If that advertising had a weather theme (e.g. a Custwin advert saying something like ‘Bring your website in from the cold’) then it may appeal more to the website visitors as it’d be more targeted (assuming the landing point from the advert also kept the theme up).    There is, of course, a fine balance between having a website that’s giving information (with passion) and one that becomes viewed as solely there to gain advertising revenue, but that balance can be achieved. 

The few thoughts here are just the tip of how a passion for a subject, with a geographical focus, could be monetised and there are numerous marketing people (online and offline) who would have views on the potential.   The point is though, that opportunities are there.  What would I do if I was the owner of the website?

1. Make a commitment to keeping the passion/quality of content up.

2. Find outside help (possibly a reciprocal deal, rather than paying for it) to look at the design and layout of the site, allowing for opportunities to place advertising and more on there.

3. Actively build up Twitter followers (there are so many ways to do this) to a very respectable number – 1,000 being an initial target, building to more and, in time, gaining a huge achievement like having 1% of the Kent population following.

4. Then capitalise on all the revenue and reputation generating opportunities, possibly turning it into a full-time business.

5. Think about how to expand further – find people in other parts of the country who have a similar passion and either link up with them or create an infrastructure that makes it easy for them to share their localised weather passion while monetising.

In my everyday work I see tons of websites that have been created purely to capitalise on advertising revenue and so it’s refreshing to see a website prominent in Google and providing a service to the Kent community.   If handled sensitively there’s much more that could be achieved without going over the top.     Look, for example, at Martin Lewis of http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ - he didn’t suddenly get successful overnight (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Lewis_(financial_journalist)) but he had a passion for a subject and he progressed over time.  The subject of weather obviously isn’t as huge as consumer savings but it may still be something that could be monetised, as could many other subjects.

Update 21 December: a recent flurry of publicity, plus the snow, have increased the Twitter followers to 396 – this’ll be an interesting one to see how Shaun evolves what could be a business in its own right.

Deramores – where there’s wool there’s a way

I know many web developers, each who have their own merits but at the same time, many of them have their own gripes about business – in particular, the challenges of clients.  And for each gripe I hear, I respond with the same comment: “You’ve got web development skills so why don’t you create yourself a fantastic online business so that you don’t have to adhere to the whims of clients?”

One such developer, Oliver Mustoe-Playfair, never had to hear that from me.   I’ve known Oliver for a few years and while he’s always been passionate about getting the best results for his clients, he’s also been keen to make even more use of his skills.  Instead of just talking about it though he’s been ‘doing’. 

Oliver started his company Cityswift about 7 years ago and went from zero investment up to a healthy turnover, which gave him the finances to then invest.  He attributes his success to listening to the customer and using processes and systems to optimise every hour of the day.

In early 2010 Oliver incorporated Deramores after discovering that there was no clear leader in the online retail of knitting-related supplies.   Using his web development and business expertise he created the Delamores website and business over a period of months, along the way picking up his business partner, Steve Hollis.  In August 2010 the business started trading and 3 months on they employ 8 members of staff and are turning over in excess of £1 million.   They aim to reach £4 million by the end of 2011 and hope to create an additional 15-20 jobs in the local (Kent) area.

With that sort of turnover and commitment it’s no surprise that Oliver needed to find a company to take over the Cityswift business and now Cityswift is owned by Web One Hundred Ltd, a company that I don’t know personally but I do know that Oliver would have considered very carefully as being the right choice for his clients.

So what’s the point of this blog?   I think it’s to highlight that most people have great skills but can easily get trapped by using them purely for the benefit of others rather than applying them to something that will benefit themselves a lot more.  Oliver has proven that with Deramores and I know for sure that he’ll create other businesses as well in a similar way.  Personally, I think there’s something to admire there – a local businessman who has gone for it, made the most of their skills, added some more skills along the way, and will continue to do more of the same.

“But I can’t just drop the work I’m doing for clients and focus on a new project” I hear several voices bleating.   And they’d be right – after all, clients need to be looked after in order to keep the pennies rolling in.   But as the launch and success of Deramores has proven, where there’s a will there’s a way and if any of us want something enough then we’ll make the time to succeed.

Success From Websites – A Hadrian’s Wall Analogy

Returning to my Hadrian’s Wall walk earlier this year, it’s possible to draw an analogy between the week of the walk and gaining success from websites.

During the 6 days of walking we stayed at several different guest houses/hotels and by the end of the week we had judged each of them in different ways.  We judged them on the following criteria:

1. Quality of the bedroom
2. Quality of the breakfast
3. Quality of service
4. Quality of the shower (all-important after a hard day’s trekking!)

We came up with the following answers:

1. Best bedroom – Denton Hall
2. Best service – Saughy Rigg Farm
3. Best breakfast – Bistro en Glaze
4. Best shower – Cambro House

You’ll see that no place got top marks for more than one quality criteria.  So, without naming names, negative points that came out of the four places above included having no idea about meals/food, having a horrible bedroom toilet idea, having poor quality of service, and being generally un-customer-focused.

So what’s all this got to do with gaining success from websites?

While it’s technically possible to go to one source to get a website that is:

1. Beautifully designed
2. Expertly created and fully flexible
3. Full of customer focus
4. Well search engine optimised

… the reality is that it’s hardly ever possible.  Yes, if you went to a reasonable-sized agency you could get all those services under one roof, and probably at quite a price as well.   Generally though, it’s just not possible to get all the desired factors right in one place.  In the same way that we couldn’t find a guest house/hotel that had a great room, great breakfast, lovely shower, and fantastic service – all under one roof, you won’t find the skills of web design, web build, customer strategy, analytics, and SEO/PPC, all under one roof either (unless going with a larger agency).

Is this a bad thing?  Actually, no, because most of us don’t expect one guest house to be brilliant at everything and we wouldn’t expect a web company of 1,2,3 people to have all the requisite skills in-house.   However, what we do expect is honesty when dealing with providers of web-related services.

For too long companies have suffered (in terms of not gaining enough from their websites) through being told that the expertise they need is available all under one roof (when the required skills aren’t actually all there).  Hopefully this analogy about the guest houses/hotels will help you when you’re next considering web-related work to be done, or know people who are considering the same.

For the record, Custwin don’t physically create websites or develop pretty graphics.  We advise companies on how websites need to change strategically, ensure web developers implement those recommendations effectively, and then help to raise the search engine visibility of websites while analysing data that shows how each visitor is interacting with the website (so that further refinements can be made).

Photo displays on websites – consider your options carefully

Working on a new website for a cosmetic medicine client I looked around at other websites and discovered a subject worth blogging about – where you can go wrong with the technology used to display images.

The screenshot below illustrates the problem well …

That’s the actual size of the image that appears on the website.  The image is meant to show a before and after of someone who has had Botox to reduce the wrinkles on their forehead.  Apart from the fact that the image is too small (people want to see the detail for such a subject), the technology used means that big ‘prev’ and ‘next’ buttons appear within the graphic, obscuring what people are actually trying to look at!

That way of presenting images on websites is fairly commonly in use and much of the time people get it right, but as the example here shows, it’s also possible to get it wrong.

It’s obvious to most people that website viewers want to see decent sized images and that they don’t want those images to be obscured, but sometimes there are limited choices of image displaying systems available so it’s something worth considering when choosing a web developer.   The website that the image above came from has other similar examples and what’s interesting is that:

1. A company that deals in cosmetic medicine hasn’t applied enough attention to their website – what message does that send out to potential clients of theirs (about the quality of service that’s going to be provided)?  Does it perhaps say “we don’t apply attention to detail but hey, you can trust us to perform procedures on your face and body!”?

2. The company hasn’t picked up on this problem and done something about it.  If they’re wondering why bookings are muted then the first thing to do is to analyse how people navigate through the website, which then flags up such issues that should be obvious to them anyway.

3. The web developers themselves haven’t picked up on this particular issue and rectified it. 

The lesson here is that if you’re thinking about a website redevelopment that will involve the use of photography displayed in a format that allows people to move from photo to photo, then before signing on the dotted line, ensure that the web developers have a system that’s going to portray your business in the best way.