We’ve officially moved out to Waterfall and no longer occupy office space with the SA Web Design crew, but I’m sure we’ll continue to work together on a number of projects we’ve collaborated on over the course of 2008/9. Waterfall is a beautiful place and as you can see in the pic above, my new workspace is really inspiring (for me anyway).

This post is really something to explain whats on the cards for 2010 in a work sense, both for myself and for anyone interested in working with us.

Greater focus on security

This year has taught us some important lessons in web security not only in a local sense. The fact that Twitter got hacked twice in 2010 tells me that its becoming more and more necessary to employ more stringent security measures across the board.

Considering that we work quite heavily with third party content management systems, there will be a far greater emphasis on locking down any vulnerabilities and employing a more structured update regime.

Seeking relationships

The past 5yrs of business has seen a large number of projects pass through our production line (over 150 projects) and it has become clear that the vast majority of success stories are the clients that we have an on-going relationship with. In this vein, we’ll be looking into bundle service offerings which will run over a number of months. Some services to expect early in 2010:

• Web consulting (analysis of  your needs, technical requirements, project scoping etc.)
• Website analysis & strategy
• Design & Redesign of websites
• Content creation and management
• Online advertising and search engine optimisation
• Social media strategy, implementation and monitoring
• Email broadcasting
• Customer data collection campaigns (see our latest viral campaign offering here)
• Analytics and reporting
• Online training

Each one of those topics has a number of sub-categories but listing them all here would be tedious and a waste of yours and my time. Needless to say, the best thing to do is just pick up the phone and call us or drop us an email and find out if we can help you with your online presence.

Allchorn Rebranding

One of the great things about working predominantly in the online medium, is that its not too much trouble to visually re-invent our brand every couple of years. 2010 will see a new look for Allchorn Design. One which we’re quite excited about and one that is still technically on the drawing board. Above is an early preview mockup of how it might look.

All in all, as usual, a new year approaching is exciting, and I’d like to wish everyone a fantastic Christmas and awesome new year!

According to Wikipedia:

“The end-of-life support for Internet Explorer 6 is July 13, 2010″

That alone tells me that it is an actively supported means of people accessing websites for at least another 10 months.

A lot of opinions seem to be around the lack of standards support by the browser and I don’t dispute this fact, but you also can’t look beyond the fact that there are still users out there that are stuck with it. Unfortunate, but true.

Just so you’re clear on my position on the matter; we will support IE6 until there is what I deem to be a sufficiently low enough percentage of visitors using it. There will be exceptions in cases where I know for a fact that the audience of the site/intranet is closed enough and mandated to use a newer or different browser, but by rule of thumb, we will support it.

My clients’ reputations are important to me!

According to w3schools, last month 13.6% of users were still on Internet Explorer 6.

For technology to cause their image to possibly be tarnished to approximately 13% odd of their visitors is simply unacceptable. Especially when those possible problems are avoidable through producing “gracefully degradable” sites where necessary and providing code hacks (a sad reality my geek friends) to have them rendered properly.

Really people… if you’re not in the web design and development industry, and you can’t update your browser, then you probably wouldn’t give a toss about anything besides the fact that you’re inconvenienced by a breaking website! In my eyes, thats not good business.

A good coder should make a site work in all required browsers

The discussion often pops up in forums I frequent, and it’s usually someone having a hard time getting something to render consistently. While I do empathise with them (I have been there too), you need to suck it up, figure it out and make it work… it is your job, do it properly!

Usually someone with a bit more experience will chime in that it’s not that hard when you know how. Those people -in my opinion- are the true professionals. Not the guys whining about it and trying to get everyone to stop supporting it.

Upgrading your browser is necessary

All the above being said, don’t get the impression that I think the www should stagnate and indefinitely be stuck with archaic systems like IE6. There is a world beyond simple browsing, and the likes of the Mozilla Foundation, Google, Opera, Apple and even Microsoft themselves have forged on and created some far more modern, more secure, more user friendly and just better browsers.

Here is a list of browsers I recommend:

• Mozilla Firefox (my choice)
• Opera
• Apple’s Safari (available for Windows machines too)
• Google Chrome
• Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8

Since we’re doing a lot more online marketing these days with our new offering and a lot of it involves the use of social media (Twitter, Facebook etc.), it’s interesting to note how things are ever changing. Email becoming old fashioned?! Who would ever have thought that hey?

Let me know what you think.

Here is our checklist.

1. All links checked
   Are your internal and external links all correct? Think about hardcoded links and dynamic links. If your site is database driven, you can check all internal links with a script.
2. Page title tags consistent & optimal
   Your page title tags are those that appear in the title bar above File, Edit, View etc. It’s important for search engine indexing that the title is clear, concise and depicts what is on the page.
3. Search engine friendly URLs
   If you’re using a CMS you should ideally have some form of URL rewriting feature in place that converts dynamic URLs to search engine friendly ones (example.com?pageid=15 to example.com/product-name)
4. Search functionality
   If you have search functionality on your site, does it work correctly? Is it intuitive and are the search results accurately portraying the information the searcher is seeking?
5. Screen resolution
   Does your website display nicely on screen resolutions your visitors are likely to be using?
6. Content rendering
   Sometimes content can become a bit mangled when copying characters from MS Word or other web pages, and as such a good thorough toothcomb inspection of your content should allow you to rectify any issues.
7. 301 redirects
   If you’re redesigning your site, you want people who have possibly bookmarked your old URLs to automatically come through to the new pages. 301 redirects are the universally recognised “change of address” for web pages and to retain existing traffic and rankings this is gravely important!
8. Custom 404 error pages
   When someone hits a URL on your site that does not exist it will display a 404 error page. These can be customised, and are an effective catchment system for preventing the loss of visitors that hit a generic 404 error page. The page should ideally display with the same/similar aesthetic as your site and offer a clear explanation, navigation and search.
9. Analytics implementation
   If you have a website online, you want to measure it’s efficacy. You can track visitors, bounce rates, conversion rates and a multitude of other interesting and useful information by simply installing analytics software.
10. Favicon implementation
    A small visual feature which can give your site a more “complete” look. Not only will it be an icon used in tabs, but also in bookmarks making it easier for people to find your pages if you make them stand out.
11. Meta tag implementation
    Not as important as they used to be, but still worth doing once you’ve researched your keywords. Don’t stuff your keywords in, but rather keep them relative and to the point.
12. XML Sitemap
    A sitemap is an important feature which tells the search engines what your pages are and how frequently they can expect to be updated. This allows them to index your site at intervals which are in line with your updates.
13. Form to email/database
    If you have forms submitting to email addresses or to a database, make sure they all send correctly, and to the right people/places. Make sure those responsible for responding are aware of their duties as well as any autoresponders are setup correctly and working.
14. User administration settings
    If you have more than one user, you’ll need to make sure they have sufficient (and not too much) authority on the system managing your website.
15. Speed tests
    Is your server performing as it should? Are there scripts/flash/large images causing slow loading times?
16. www and no-www
    If visitors access your website at www.example.com, they should be able to also access it sans-www (http://example.com). It’s a setting your host should enable, and if not perhaps consider another host.
17. Browser compatability
    What browsers are your visitors using? Global statistics can tell you initially, and soon enough you’ll know what your visitors are using from your analytics. At the time of writing, we feel it important for your site to work in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.

These items are in no particular order and bare in mind that depending on the project, there could be more or less items to consider (eg: spell checking, proof reading, legal requirements etc.)

As it seems WordPress is the talk of the web publishing world right now, I’m busy with a lot of WordPress related projects. I had to looks for some specific extensions for the system called Plugins. and in so doing, I came across some nifty addons that I’d like to share. Some I will use on client sites, some on my own, and others I’ll just keep a note of for future reference.

Google Sitemap Generator

This one was actually found in a search for a meta tag management plugin for WordPress, and although I discovered that there are other ways to solve the meta tag debarcle (another time), this one was a good find, and already on this site.

Sociable

This plugin gives you a huge selection of social websites that your visitors can use to share the content of your site/blog. I’ll integrate it into this site, but need to do some offline testing before it doesn’t post links below my intro blurb on the front page (my entire site is WordPress driven).

WordPress.com Stats

Now, don’t get me wrong, I use Google Analytics every day, as I believe it to be the most effective and easiest to use analytics software available. However, the WordPress.com (hosted WordPress) stats plugin gives you instant statistics in your dashboard which is handy and doesn’t require you to log into GA for a quick glance at your traffic.

CForms II

To me there is no debate over this being one of the most useful plugins for WordPress. Create, manage and edit your forms for your website. Publish them on pages, posts, whatever. Submit to email or a database. Built in AJAX form validation… etc.

Subscribe 2

Allow your visitors to subscribe to notifications of new posts and content. Even taking your content and sending an hourly, daily or weekly digest of your new additions. This one is really handy to keep those unfamiliar with RSS up to date via email.

Well, those are them. Some are almost essential (CForms & Google Sitemap Generator), while others are nice to haves that definitely won’t hurt.

Recently, I did a (very) small WordPress driven website for a friend of mine for his up and coming laptop and notebook repair service. Things went anything but smoothly in some aspects like moving from his hosts at the time (no names mentioned) and then some controversy three quarters of the way through when someone criticised me to him sparking some doubt in his mind over my costs. This is what caused me to write about lowballers in the web design industry.

I won’t paste the entire email as there are some bits that are not related to this post (and personal stuff), but since he said:

“Feel free to post any of this on your blog, with my email address as a ref. Will be happy to advise others to use your methods.”

I decided to use this one paragraph which sums up the tone of the email and what he was saying:

“Most importantly: Your sites work – you can quote me on that. I think the value of the site far exceeds what you have charged, and I really want to thank you for going out of your way to sort me out on mates rates there. That CMS is absolutely necessary, there’s just no contesting that.”

Well, to me, that makes me feel a whole lot better in an industry where there is a lot to get frustrated about and it’s nice to know there is more to it than just the pleasure of working with technology in these exciting times on the web.

Lowballer
Someone that sells products or services for drastically less than what it’s worth.

This isn’t meant to be a rant, but more an expression of my concern over what seems to be seriously effecting the industry. Not just my pocket, but the quality of the web in general and that effects the website owners themselves. The people I affectionately call clients.

I never used to worry about lowballers much as I always gave prospects the benefit of the doubt that they’d be discerning enough to choose a website creator based on what the output is likely to be rather than solely on price.

A little cheaper or more expensive is natural but…

Sure I used to lose the odd project to a competitor who was maybe 10% or 20% cheaper than me and that didn’t phase me a bit. If someone gains a project by being cheaper… well, good for them. Now it seems as if people are bidding about a third, a quarter even a fifth of my price.

I used to pride myself on the fact that I only ever lost deals to less experienced website designers with lower prices, and I’d often be awarded projects despite the fact that my quote was higher. Not that I bid higher out of greed, but I know what it takes to design and develop an effective web presence created according to web standards and best practice. The time it takes, and the knowledge that can only be acquired through real world experience or extensive studies, or both.

I don’t deal in “cookie cutter” sites, and in my 9 years working on the web, I’ve never sold nor used a “template” (templates as in Template Monster, not Smarty Templates) in the creation of a site.

My “mate rates” are more than somes full client rates

Today I had a conversation with a client, who happens to be a good friend of mine. I gave him an exceptionally low price for my standards, but also lessened the deliverables (fewer design concepts etc.) and we got the project off to a good start. We’re on the tail end of the project now, and while we remain good buddies and we share mutual respect for each other’s professional ethics, he questioned me on my costing as he had been told that I had “ripped him a new one”.

To be honest, he was well within his rights to question me when there are people out there charging so little. He was kind enough to tell me who was so besmearing my name to him, and I went to look at their own site. I now understand why they are so cheap. Leave that be.

I managed to explain to my buddy that he has to compare apples with apples and that the quality of their work was so low and their criticisms so subjective and exposing of their lack of experience, that their criticising me is not only bad business (slinging mud), but also shows me what I have to contend with.

He chose me despite my lowest rates being higher than the competition

My friend actually told me that he chose me over them initially besides the fact that I was (much) more expensive than them. He values my experience and is aware of my successful track record. Note that they were much cheaper than my reduced price! I wouldn’t even go that low for a non-friend client, and I didn’t even make profit on the job aside from my restricted design time?! How could they make money on it cheaper than me? They live in the same country, have the same petrol price, don’t live in a shack, surely they drive cars too…

Web designers and web design shops need to look at their expenses. Rent, insurance, hardware, software, the value of their time, profit etc. Also, have some goddamn pride in your work! Learn your trade. Stop polluting the web with your crap and wasting your client’s money by “generating” rubbish that your client’s visitors laugh at and struggle to use.

Spending £200 on a website where established professionals are charging £1,500 for the same specification is more of a waste of money than spending the larger fee. At least it won’t need to be re-built a month after it’s launched, and you can rest assured that the job is done properly, your visitors can use the site, it will look good, the search engines will index you and other sites might even link to you!

You can’t always predict every facet of a project’s lifespan. Things change and evolve as you work on it. As detailed a scoping document you draw up, there are more often than not extenuating circumstances that influence the workflow and final result of any project.

• client expectations may differ from those of the designers and developers
• additional features may be required mid-way through the project
• features might need to be changed or removed during the project
• as much as we’d love it not to be the case, there are always bugs of some sort to contend with.

Believing otherwise is naive. If things on your initial agreement don’t evolve during the design and development phases, you can rest assured that there will be some form of maintenance, additions, changes, repairs or unforseens following launch.

You can’t turn lead into gold

Coming to grips with the fact that things will grow and change, you also have to look reality in the eye. You have to realise that a poorly conceived and hastily carried out project isn’t going to grow into a solid, stable and flexible one.

Making some good choices early in a project’s lifespan is imperative to the successful deployment of a website. Things to consider before starting work:

1. Have you done your homework?
   It’s important to know what you can budget on your web project. It’s not too difficult to look at the expected ROI to justify the expense. By setting a target amount of conversions to have it pay for itself you’ll know what you can afford, and a good website design consultant would be able to tell you if thats realistic or not. You do realise that just publishing a website doesn’t automatically guarantee success? Have you looked at the cost implications of online marketing?
2. Decent web hosting
   Do you own your domain name? Does your host do daily backups? What kind of support do they offer? Do they have all the technologies installed to launch your site? If all these questions were answered with a yes, or a favourable response, then you’re probably on the right track.
   Three last things I’ve learnt over the years…
   1. You do not choose your host based on price!
   2. You do not choose your host based on price!
   3. You do not choose your host based on price!
3. Development team
   It should be obvious, but it’s overlooked time and time again. Your nephew’s best friend might be able to get a little bit done for you… he might even do it quite well. But when he gets offered a job getting paid more every month than you’re willing to pay him for one website, he’s going to take it.
   A website design company needs to be sustainable, and for that, they should preferably show some form of business longevity.
   Client references? Ask, I know I’d be able to give a list of happy clients to contact if you were considering me for some work. If they don’t, either they’re so big that the NDA’s don’t allow them, or they simply don’t have.
4. Design team
   First and foremost here: Print Designers are NOT Web Designers! Web interfaces designed with a print mindset more often than not result in an unusable mess. The coding of which can be more than double the amount of time and money spent than having it designed by an experience web interface designer. Thats not to say that collateral assets cannot be sent to the website designer by the print designer with style guides, colour palletes, CI document etc. Just leave the the page layout and interaction design to those that know it best.
   Portfolios are an important way to gauge the creativity of a team. A good grasp of effective colour use, usable layouts and the general aesthetic value of their work.
5. Technology
   Believe it or not, I won’t even type one acronym in this part. The question here is… do you want to use an open source system (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Typo3 etc.) because it’s free, or do you want to use an open source system because it’s used by such a wide community and will be supported at least in the forseeable future? If the latter, do you know if you can get the support you need in the country (or at least timezone) of your residence? Really? Do they work in their pyjamas or are they legitimate companies like those you chose for development?
   Your other option is to go for a fully supported, homegrown system. Developed, maintained and supported by the people who initially made it. Sometimes this is the best option. They should have the longevity and sustainability that you need.
6. Marketing & Maintenance
   Are you going to maintain content of the site yourself, or at least in-house? Does the vendor of the technology or development team (often the same people) offer training? If something goes wrong with the site, are there people on call to fix it promptly? Remember, it’s not always their fault… it’s like a car. You can’t get angry at a vehicle manufacturer when your tyres wear, or cam belt needs replacing can you?
   Marketing your website is a multi faceted process. It’s best explained by people like Christine at Altersage. It’s a serious topic and one that your development and design team have to take seriously, or don’t take them seriously… seriously.

Conclusion & Footnote

This post was sparked by a repair project we’re currently doing. It was a project that started small, on a very small budget, then as it grew it started to trip over itself. Regardless it grew more, changed development teams who made it worse and now it’s broken and in need of a considerable amount of fixing. To the extent of requiring a re-do.

It’s not the only time I’ve encountered this, and I think it’s safe to say that some people never learn, no matter how many times it happens to them. Hopefully after reading this you’ll be wise enough to not let it happen to you.

A good foundation laid by the right people with enough initial research to give you a better chance at success is what it’s all about.

After a brief foot finding session in a user interface that I am more than familiar with (WordPress MU), customised to be inline with their company, and surely tightened up for security, I wrote a piece that you can’t go wrong on. A top 10 list of open source software…. for Windows Vista no less.

I did this last night (9th July) and tonight I am the featured contributor. Maybe a flash in the pan start, but I’m chuffed.

I think this goes to show quite effectively that if you just concentrate on your content, and keep putting things out there that show what you do… for the visitors -not just the search engines- you will reap the rewards.

It’s actually been happening a lot lately. Smaller clients of mine that haven’t invested much, or anything in SEO are achieving nice results. Not enormous amounts of traffic that would impress people with numbers, but rather highly targeted traffic that actually converts into sales.

Case Scenario 1 – Perfect Bounce

Perfect bounce is a pleasant company that offers the construction and maintenance of all sorts of sporting facilities. My contact at perfect bounce is organised, professional and has been a pleasure to work with. They took my advice on how we should construct the site (on a tight budget) and over time, the search engines have picked up their content and ranked them accordingly.

They are receiving traffic for the terms “cricket nets“, “indoor cricket nets” and “concrete cricket nets” amongst others. This shows that people coming to their site are actively searching for what they offer. From that fact, the conversion rate (conversion of casual visitor to paying customer) is very high.

Case Scenario 2 – Active Soul

Active Soul is another one of my smaller clients that offers the production of quality promotional sportswear. At least thats what they started out offering, but as things have progressed, and the demands being shown by the marketplace, they have branched out into other promotional clothing avenues.

The couple that own Active Soul have been awesome, and through my recommendation they commissioned GnuWorld to optimise and market their online presence online. It took a bit of time (as it sometimes does) for them to be ranked effectively in this highly competitive market, but they are now receiving traffic for terms like “sportswear“, “gym wear” and “promotional clothing“.

In Summary

I might come across as an arrogant jerk with the heading of this post, but since Google appointed me that position; at least in their eyes it’s the truth. I don’t really view myself as number one anything, but I do try hard, work hard and aim to provide services that perform for my clients. With a friendly and mutually respectful relationship, these two sites illustrate why I am pretty good at what I do, and these guys are feeling the results where it matters; in their pockets.

If you’re wondering why I linked to those two sites with those keywords, it’s not merely to confuse you or annoy you, but to give them a little link juice from my site which has a relatively decent PR (Page Rank). More on that at another time. Nothing below board, but a healthy recommendation for them, since thats what they do.