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Value of Websites |
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 What makes a good website? |
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One of our more popular sections - we pick apart a few websites to show you why they are good, or why they fail to make the grade.
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| The Dark Side of the Internet |
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Read all about the darker side of the Internet in this special section. From spyware to adware to trojans - get up to date on all the latest and the lowest.
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| The Web Site Life-Cycle |
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Read about the process that a successfully managed website undergoes on a continual basis.
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| Myths about Websites |
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It's time to dispel common misconceptions about websites and the Internet. You will be surprised at what you thought you might know but did not.
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What makes a good website?
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The components of a successful website are more numerous than you may think. We have designed a diagram illustrating some of the important components of a great site.A successful (i.e. good) website has many components above and beyond just image and content.
But... content is still King
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Now, we would like to make one small caveat. We noted in our diagram that 'content' was only a small part in the formula for a successful website; but content is probably the single most important element. If you have outstanding content, most people will be able to suffer through a horribly planned, ugly website. But if you have the most elegantly designed and well thought out website on the Internet, but your content is poor and riddled with errors, your site will fail.
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The key to success is making proper use of all the components
- Sound programming
- A well-planned framework
- Goal-driven design
- Effective Maintenance
- Usability considerations
- Accessibility considerations
- Quality assurance
- A great web marketing strategy
- Search engine optimization
- Excellent ISP services
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The Dark Side of the Internet
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As you are undoubtedly aware, not everything that goes on online is sugar and spice. For every legitimate business there is a scam. For every useful utility there is a virus. This special section of our website is designed to inform you of some of the most common pieces of "parasite software", "malware", or unsolicited commercial software, prevalent on the web today.
Spyware
A technology that assists in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet, "spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties."
Thiefware/Stealware
Thiefware causes visitors to certain sites to be redirected to a search engine or other web page of the author's choosing. This practice is not illegal although it is highly unethical.
Trackware, Tracking Cookies
Trackware (a.k.a. tracking cookies or spyware cookies) is software or cookies designed to track your online behaviour and share this and other personal information with advertisers. This is quite common with advertising and affiliate programs and poses little to no risk to you, but is still a violation of your privacy. Ironically, part of what makes Amazon.com so interactive is its heavy use of Trackware. It can track what pages you click on and present dynamic content based on your behaviours.
Adware
Software that may have been installed on your computer by a remote site. Many free utilities that you download from the Internet will install hidden software that sends details of the websites you visit and other information from your computer (which can include your email address) to advertisers so they can target you with popup ads and spam.
Key Loggers
A Keylogger (KeyLogger, Key Logger, or Keystroke Logger) is a program that runs in the background, recording all the keystrokes you make. Once logged, they are hidden in the machine for later retrieval, or shipped raw to the attacker. The attacker then peruses them carefully in the hopes of either finding passwords, credit card numbers, or possibly other useful information that could be used to compromise the system or be used in a social engineering attack. For example, a key logger will reveal the contents of all e-mail composed by the user.
Trojans
Software programs devised by professional hackers to detect activity on PCs allowing the hacker to assume the user's identity.
Browser Hijackers
A trojan that may reset your browser's home page and/or search settings to point to other sites. Such sites are sometimes pornographic sites often loaded with advertising. Browser Hijackers may prevent you from changing your browser's homepage or from visiting particular sites or performing particular actions. They also tend to replace default web pages (e.g. Page not found) with web pages of advertisers.
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The Website Life-Cycle
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The cycle consists of analysis, updating and promotion. If any component if missing, your business will not achieve all that it could. Website promotion and maintenance are the keys to keeping the cycle moving.
Your Website as a Salesperson
Your website is akin to a living, breathing salesperson. If it receives guidance, achievable goals and the proper information, it will succeed. If it is left alone for months at a time, its productivity will slip. Don't let your site get stagnant or out of touch - as your business changes, change your site. Keep your content fresh and visits to your site will stay fresh.
- Analyze what works and what doesn't.
- Brainstorm new ideas.
- Implement your ideas and changes.
- Promote your updated site.
- See how the changes perform.
- Start all over again.
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Myths about Websites
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“A website is a commodity”
All sites are not created equally, and all sites will aim for different goals. Your business’ website is a unique marketing and sales tool, and should be perceived, created and managed as such.
“My business needs a website because every business needs a website”
This is not always the case. Some businesses simply cannot benefit from the web at this time. Now, this is not to say that their needs will not grow in time to match what a website can provide.
In truth, it is quite rare to find a business that could not benefit in some way from having a website. Some universal applications include email addresses, company contact information, listings of products and services, as well as brand recognition and proliferation. But getting a website just your neighbour has one is definitely the wrong attitude to take. Your needs and goals will be unique and your website should therefore be unique.
“If I build a website, visitors will come”
 Sadly, this is not true; at least not very true. It is true that, in time, the major search engines will eventually find your website and index it, but this may not happen for many months and they may not index your site favourably (i.e. visitors searching on your products or services may not be able to find your website).
Active and passive techniques should be employed to bolster the amount of ‘targeted’ traffic your website receives (‘targeted’ traffic consists of visitors who are actually interested in your business and its products and services, as opposed to visitors who wind up on your site by accident or misleading techniques). Sg Web Designer’s complete web strategy approach focuses heavily on garnishing high quality visitors to your website. There is an assortment of different ways to promote your site, and Sg Web Designer can help you get started, or take your existing strategy to the next level.
“All I need on my website is my corporate brochure”
While displaying some standard, ‘corporate’ information on your website can be valuable, the ways in which content is delivered and read online vary greatly from the ways it is presented in print. The content you display needs to be written for the web; in other words, it must be short, to the point, highly organized, and very hierarchical in importance.
Also, a website without goals is a website that won’t achieve any. Simply placing your brochure online is not the answer. You must consider certain factors such as ‘what do I want my visitors to do on my website’, and ‘what do I want to tell them’?
“My website’s image should be totally unique from the rest of my marketing efforts”
This is a big mistake. You have invariably spent lots of time and money creating a brand for your business. You have certain fonts, colours, and styles that are already associated with your brand. When someone who knows your company offline visits your website and sees something completely different, they may feel as though they have landed on a different company’s website (who happens to have the same name as your business). This dilutes your brand and can work against your marketing efforts.
Your website should be closely linked and tied in to your other marketing and branding efforts. You need to present a unified front to your customers to be memorable in the marketplace.
“My secretary’s husband’s nephew, Billy, knows computers. I’ll get him to build our site”
This is probably the single largest and most common mistake people make when having a website built. If you think you are going to save thousands of dollars and receive professional results, you are going to be sorely mistaken. Although Billy may know a little about building basic web pages and manipulating pictures of snowboarders, he will almost certainly miss many important aspects of site design, not to mention site management, promotion, analysis, usability, accessibility, etc. After all, Billy's in grade 10.
Most businesses who undertake this low cost approach will be sorely disappointed in the results. Their website will typically lack focus, cohesion and direction, and will not have been built for scalability or the changing needs of a business.
You wouldn’t entrust someone with an interest in watching ‘ER’ to perform your heart surgery, no matter how close of a friend they were or how well they could pronounce 'angioplasty'. You would trust the professionals – that’s us (not at heart surgery, though - we tend to focus on websites - but we do like 'ER').
“I don’t need a custom website. I’ll just use a template”
It is true that using a template or having a junior website firm develop your site for you using a template will save you money. But just keep in mind the age old business adage, ‘you get what you pay for’.
A template site may in fact be a good starting point to ease your business onto the web, but it is definitely not a tool for taking your online strategy to the next level. Your website should have specific and measurable goals, and these goals will be unique to your business. More often than not, a template will be unable to facilitate meeting those goals. It would be like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole – it’s just not a perfect match.
At SWD each site we design and manage is built to exacting specifications based uniquely on your business and its needs. No templates allowed.
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