Following the news that Ordnance Survey have released their map data, we’ll be watching with interest to see how they compare with the omnipresent Google Maps.

Google Maps have been open-source from the beginning, meaning that they have been ‘mashed up’ and used in online projects from the sublime to the ridiculous. Council websites use them to show where their public loos are situated; holiday rentals websites can show local attractions and amenities; one enterprising soul is also mapping the cost of a Cadbury Twirl in shops across London. In short, there are few projects which cannot be illustrated with one of Google’s familiar rectangles of cartography, small or large scale, satellite or street view.

Ordnance Survey, which held out against unauthorised usage of its data for so long, has a long way to catch up. However, they are still the best-known name in mapping, in this country at least, and that noteriety will stand them in good stead.

At the end of the day, it will be about how easy the data is to use, and how the end results compare with a Google map. One thing is for sure – it’s always good to have more than one option.

Has anyone ever told you you need a CMS? For many of us, the only answer to that would be a blank face as we tried to take in one more piece of jargon.

Yet, CMS might just be the three most important initials you will come across, if you are trying to start up or run a small business. All the more so, if you understand the importance of having an online presence, but not how to go about it.

When you discover that they stand for Content Management System, you might begin to see the benefit. Effectively, a CMS is a system that allows even the least web-savvy among us to log in and make changes to a website. The interface tends to be extremely simple, so that little web knowledge is required, instead leaving the user time to think more about content and how best to present the business.

If you foresee that your website will need to change frequently – as you add new stock, say, or because of changing circumstances – a CMS is the easiest way forward. And because we understand that small businesses often run to very tight margins, we offer a very economical CMS package. What’s more, it even has a blog thrown in, so you can key into the cutting edge of social media.

Best of all, next time someone asks you if you have a CMS, you can look them straight in the eye and say ‘yes’.

BIA/Kelsey, a US advisory service, recently commissioned research into the usage of the Internet for local shopping – and the results were interesting.

Here are some of their findings, and our thoughts:

• 90 percent of users use search engines … and the other 10% are liars? Seriously, though, this is no surprise. We know that almost all web usage will start with a search. It’s just one more compelling reason why your site needs optimisation to compete.
• 48 percent use Internet Yellow Pages – indicating that while the Internet is becoming more and more of a handy tool, many users still prefer to find information online, and then call or make a visit. Or do they? It’s also possible that many businesses do not have that crucial online presence that would allow for the convenience of dropping you an email. That would also allow you to respond at a time that’s convenient to you, unlike a phone call. Take a look at your website. Does it allow for online interaction? Would your customers need to resort to the Yellow Pages?
• 42 percent use comparison shopping sites – so it’s worth ensuring that you are included in these increasingly-used online directories. Not sure how? Give us a ring; we can help.
• 58 percent of respondents report using an online coupon when shopping for products or services in their local area in the past year – Now there’s something to think about. Typically, online shoppers are looking for a bargain – and your overheads are less than when advertising in print or broadcast media, so why not share some of those savings with your customers?
• 19 percent of respondents report making an appointment online in the past six months (e.g., business appointment, health-care appointment, auto service or personal service such as a beauty shop) – again, worth thinking about. If you don’t have this functionality on your website, the chances are your customers would welcome it – and it’s also something we can build for you, so drop us an email!

Did you hear the one about the technology blog that people started mistaking for Facebook?

It’s a funny story, really, but it teaches us a lot. In a nutshell, ReadWriteWeb wrote a workaday blog post one day, about a new log-in function of Facebook. Now, ReadWriteWeb is a high-ranking well-respected blog, and before long, that post had gained a high Google position for the term “Facebook log-in”.

So far, so good, until the post starts attracting a disproportionate number of irrelevant comments, all saying things like “What’s going on? I just want to get to my Facebook page!”. Yes, you guessed it, these were people who habitually get to Facebook by going to Google, typing in ‘Facebook log in’ and selecting one of the top results.

Having reached that page, though, they don’t think, hmm, this doesn’t look like Facebook. No, they quickly look for a log-in box, enter their details, find they’re still on the same page, and leave a bewildered or angry comment.

At some point during this process, more savvy web-users pick up on what is going on, and start to comment too. The resulting effect is a string of these discontent comments, interspersed with comments saying – with varying degrees of politeness – ‘This is not Facebook! Try typing Facebook.com into your address bar!’.

Amusing or sad as this whole event might be, it does underline a couple of pertinent points. Number one, there are a lot of users out there for whom the internet feels like an irrational arena, prone to springing unwelcome surprises upon them. Longterm users have, without knowing, picked up an understanding of interfaces and vocabulary that not everyone shares.

Number two, everyone skims. There is so much irrelevant stuff on every webpage these days – ads, invitations to register, alerts, and so on – that skimming is a vital skill if you want to actually get anywhere. Can we blame these people for skimming what, at first sight, may just look like an announcement for a new piece of functionality? Goodness knows the ‘real’ Facebook does enough of that.

There’s a take-away learning from this incident. You cannot underestimate your audience. Make your website as simple as possible, and when you’ve done that, make it twice as simple again. Remove unnecessary clutter. Don’t expect people to read your lovingly-crafted six paragraphs of text. Signpost the way. Your users will follow.

I’m sure we all have experience of projects which go over budget and run past their deadlines – but can you imagine a website that costs you over two and a quarter million pounds more than you’d bargained for, and launches almost four years later than projected?

When we read about poor Birmingham City Council’s website project, which is in just the state described above, we didn’t know whether to laugh or cry in sympathy. Clearly, an ambitious online presence for the council of Britain’s second city is not going to be a simple job. No-one would envy the council as it attempts to deliver an all-singing, all-dancing solution, representing the city’s many stakeholders – and all from the public purse.

A council, one might argue, will always find the money it needs, one way or another. For a business, on the other hand, such budgetary derailing could spell bankruptcy. This story made us realise, once again, the value of our one-price packages. We can certainly guarantee you that we’ll never present you with a bill of £2.8 million, nor indeed will we charge a penny above what is initially agreed.

Firefox recently announced that their internet browser has been downloaded a mind-boggling billion times.

Now, we shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that this means Firefox has a billion users: typically, a single user would have downloaded the browser each time it brought out an update – plus, many people will download out of curiosity, and never use the software.

So, no, Firefox doesn’t have a billion users, but undoubtedly it does have a very strong userbase, and this reminds us of an important point. When was the last time you looked at your website in anything other than the browser you yourself use every day? Be that Firefox or Internet Explorer, or something more esoteric altogether, it pays to take a trip to the other side every now and again.

You may be horrified by what you see: styles that render perfectly in your own rosy world-view may well be spilling out of their neat confines on other browsers or operating systems. Finding out is relatively easy: there’s no need to go and ask your Mac-using, Safari-loving neighbour if you can look over his shoulder. There are a number of services, some free, which will allow you to see your site on a vast array of OS/browser combinations, and, for the sake of your business, I’d strongly advise you to do so, at least when it comes to the most popular combinations.

Employ a reputable company – like us, may I hazard to say – to build your website, and cross-browser testing comes as a standard part of the package. Worried by what you see in that unfamiliar browser? Then give us a call, and we’ll get everything looking hunkydory again, for every one of your hoped-for billion users.

Plagiarism is, of course, frowned upon on the web, just as it is in any other circle, but there are times when imitation is your best friend.

When a new client comes to us with a completely blank sheet, requesting a website, I will often ask “what are your favourite websites?”. It’s much easier to see what works well on other websites than it is to envisage, out of a blue sky, what might work for your own, especially if, as so often happens, you are just too close to it.

Often the same websites are mentioned time and time again: Amazon, eBay, the BBC, the Guardian… and often, I’ll be surprised by some website I’ve never heard of because it is one of the client’s competitors, perhaps in a specialised field.

Now, of course I’m not pretending that I am going to build you the next eBay. Looking at these giants of sites can be overwhelming, and my next question – WHY do you like them so much? – can be a daunting one to answer, beyond ‘they work’.

It’s worth taking the time to find two or three elements from your favourite sites that you would like to replicate on your own. Click around the sites for a while, and this time, think not as a customer, but as an interested observer. Just how do Amazon keep you adding more goods to your basket (you’ll find two or three ways on every page)? What is it about eBay that makes it so easy to sift through thousands of goods for sale – and could you utilise a cut-down version of that yourself, if you have multiple items to sell? How do the BBC and the Guardian both retain an air of authority, and provide such readable copy?

Don’t worry if you’re not sure about all the answers. Just providing the questions will give us a very firm basis for our initial plans – and of course, it’s up to us to know most of the answers. You know your business, and we know the web – and together, we can make you the website that you need.

Have you ever watched a mechanic tune up a bicycle? The changes he makes are generally small: some oil, an adjustment to the brakes, perhaps, and a good pump to the tyres – and yet, when you get back on, everything runs so much more smoothly than before.

In a way, we do something similar to websites: small changes that make them work to the best of their capacity.

What we find fascinating about our business is that sometimes, it only take a few alterations to make a world of difference to your visitor numbers, conversions, or sales. Sometimes those changes are based on a knowledge of typical customer behaviour; sometimes they are based on best practice. It’s always fun to weave some design changes in with some solid SEO work, and stand back to watch the website come into its own.

From the customer’s point of view, the best thing about this is that minor alterations, by their very nature, cost very little.

Today, I’m going to describe some of the small changes we suggested to a client: it’s a perfect example of how a few basic modifications can make an enormous difference to a website.

londonrelocationservices.com – A case study

Screenshot of londonrelocationservices.com

London Relocation Services is the business of Anthony Gallo, who specialises in finding rental properties for Americans moving to the capital. Clearly, when you are based on one side of the Atlantic and your entire customer base is on the other, a website is absolutely crucial. Not only will it help you source your customers, but it must also engender trust. Moving house is a fraught experience, and if you are going to solicit help, you need to be sure that you are going to someone both genuine and competent.

Anthony came to us with an existing website which was performing adequately, in the belief that it could be working harder for him. We agreed.

Assessing the website

After a chat with Anthony, we identified several major issues:

• Architecture: Navigation through the site was not intuitive: like many sites which have grown organically, londonrelocationservices.com had started to break the basic laws of usability.
• Ease of contact: As a general rule, we never underestimate the desire of a web user to find everything on a plate. In the old iteration of the site, the user had to click to the ‘contact’ page before they could submit an enquiry.
• Impetus: Similarly, nothing was impelling a customer to make contact. The facts were there, but it was left to the customer to make a decision to use Anthony’s services.
• Knowledge of the customer: While Anthony was getting customers, he had no real insight into where they were coming from, and no way of discerning which sectors of his traffic were converting the most.
• Trust: As we have already seen, trust is vital in this business. We decided to look at ways in which we could increase the site’s credibility.
• Design: Good design will help to address the trust issue, of course (and shoddy design downgrades one’s opinion of a site within seconds). While there was nothing terrible about the site’s look, we knew that we could provide something more suited to this business.

Our solutions

It’s always best to start with a clean slate, rather than try to tinker with existing labyrinthine architecture. By applying fresh eyes to the business, we were able, after asking Anthony what his basic needs and aims were, to suggest a very simple site structure that adheres to the principles that have evolved since the internet’s inception.

We built the site around it, and the result is a site structure which anyone can navigate. Anthony’s customers might well be web-savvy students who have practically grown up online, or they might be elderly travellers who still find the web a daunting place. Good usability benefits both groups: it’s what the first expect, and what the second need.

Our solution was simple but effective: we put a form on every page. This allows the user to browse through the pages, find the information he needs – and when he has, fill in the form. If Anthony wants to get clever, he can monitor which page of the site most of his enquiries come from, and thus gain insight into what specific information impels the user to make contact. He can then use this knowledge in other, offline media, or in his subsequent calls.

At the foot of every piece of text, a link suggests the next page the user should visit, making sure that they are not left to make decisions for themselves – one of which may be to leave the site!

Those who use relocation services can broadly be broken down into professionals, students, and corporate clients. Clearly, marketing for each of these groups will be markedly different. By providing a category on the site for each group, we were able to optimise each page individually.

What’s more, Anthony can examine his site’s log to find out which page is drawing in the most users via search engines and thus find out where there is the most need for relocation services. He can use this knowledge to control his spends on marketing such as Google Adwords, and concentrate on the sector or sectors which display the highest level of demand.

A small headshot of Anthony, and suddenly the site was transformed: no longer could London Relocation Services have been an unanchored firm, possibly run by any fly-by-night. No, this company has a founder who is not afraid to put his face as well as his name to it. Suddenly, you are dealing with a person.

Our second suggestion in this area was that Anthony start a blog. We always think that speaking directly to the customer, sharing stories of the business’ triumphs and set-backs, and offering frequently-refreshed content, adds immeasurably to the human side of a website. Quite apart from the many SEO benefits which a blog will bring, it will bring you regular readers, some of whom you may even build up an online relationship with. As such, it’s one of the most valuable tools in a small business’ armoury.

We design hundreds of websites every year, and we have a lot of experience in matching the right tone to a range of different businesses. After enlarging Anthony’s entire site from 800 pixels wide to 1024, to take advantage of the average user’s wider monitor screen, we applied a subtle range of colours and an elegant backdrop of a London map, immediately matching the site’s theme to its subject-matter.

When customers are anticipating a new life abroad, they want to be able to visualise it, and no site suffers from the addition of attractive photographs. We encouraged Anthony to source photographs of real properties in which he had placed clients.

It’s hard to imagine living abroad before you have even been there, but photographs allow the user to place themselves in a physical environment, and as such are absolutely invaluable.

So: what were the results?

Anthony’s enquiry numbers increased greatly on the very day the new version of the site was launched. The few simple changes we made turned an adequate online business into one that is performing to the best of its capacity.

Would it benefit your business to be receiving many more enquiries than you currently do?

As you can see, there’s nothing revolutionary or even terribly surprising about the changes we made to the site. As ever, we are happy to share our knowledge, and wouldn’t mind at all if you apply the same precepts to your own site. At Notting Hill Internet Services we like to operate in complete transparency: if you do not feel confident making changes like this yourself, you may hire us to do it for you, and we will do so quickly, efficiently, and at a price you may find hard to believe.

Just how much did this all cost?

Like I say, you may find this incredible. All the changes detailed above cost Anthony only £350.00 – possibly the best £350.00 he ever spent.

Notting Hill Internet services and The Pollen Shop last year announced the launch of spiritualcapital-cardiff.org.uk. The website, funded by the Department for Communities and Local Governments Community Development Foundation, explores the issue of how faith groups contribute to the work of Cardiff.

Spiritual Capital Cardiff was the first website produced jointly by The Pollen shop and Notting Hill Internet Services. It was designed to meet the needs of public sector clients that require flexibility and affordability as well as high standards of accessibility.

Fari Peyman, Managing Director, said:

This partnership will build on our core strengths and enable us to offer great value to new and existing clients. Notting Hill Internet Services already has a proven track record in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Producing sites to a high standard of accessibility uses very similar processes. By combining both practices we will now be able to bring a new dimension to our managed Internet services.

If you are interested in discussing an accessible website, at an affordable price, contact us today.

Wolfram|Alpha was all over the newspapers recently, with many of them describing it as a ’search engine’, while others more carefully replicated its own description of itself as a ‘computational knowledge engine’. I guess ’search engine’ is a little easier for the general public to grasp, although it’s funny to think that even that term required some explanation to most of us only a few years ago

‘Search engine’ is, perhaps, easy shorthand for what is essentially a text box into which users can enter questions and receive knowledge in return. However, Wolfram|Alpha is, indeed, a quite different prospect to Google or Yahoo. It’s all about data and facts – it’ll answer mathematical formulae, it’ll tell you the weather on any date in the past, it’ll pull up statistics on gdp, exchange rates, mortality, and a vast range of other quantifiable data. For many of us, especially the non-academic, it’s a diverting toy; for others, including those needing quick answers for homework, it’s a very powerful tool.

When business people hear the words ’search engine’, they may be tempted to ask, if this is the next big thing, should I optimise my site or look at advertising possibilities? Well, no. In this first version, there are no sponsorship or advertising opportunities, nor are there ranked results – just a definitive display of factual information. It’s interesting when you think about it: looked at like this, one realises that Google doesn’t deal in definitives, but presents a number of alternatives, any one of which may be your answer.

Opportunities for your business may lie in the inclusion of a Wolfram|Alpha search box on your website, if it is helpful to your particular trade. It can deal with exchange rates, weather forecasts, and size conversions, for example, so if you deal with international customers, holidays, or clothing, you can see how these features would aid your customers at no cost to yourself. If you wish to get more advanced, there is a freely-available API, or in other words, you may write your own code to get the Wolfram|Alpha data doing clever things for your website.

Meanwhile, Wolfram|Alpha says there ‘may’ be opportunities for targeted advertisements at some point in the future, so if that is something you’d be interested in, watch this space. If you’d like some advice on placing the Wolfram|Alpha search box on your site, or any other such developments, why not make contact with us?