Forum Moderators: phranque
The state of the average small business website here in .dk is truly terrifying.
Here is a no exaggeration list of what I find in 6 out of 10 sites:
My question is: Is it just over here or are all small business sites so ghastly.
What are they like where you are?
Nick
Your bulleted list describes 90-95% of the US small business sites I review. Somebody must have a template.
1. "I've never had a sale from my web site and I'm not going to invest any more money, so it's only there for information."
2. "We get enough sales from our web site but since it's not our primary business why do we need to change it?"
3. The strange ego problems that occur when one of the business owner's children built the site. (Regardless of whether the child is 12 or 32!) The child/designer will admit no wrongdoing, and the parent either:
a. wants to believe their kid is some kind of internet genius, or...
b. doesn't own/doesn't know how to use a computer, so they simply trust the child has done well.
(edited by: mivox at 7:51 pm (utc) on May 15, 2002)
just to add to the bulleted list, I dont like companies that dont use their own domain name, though thats just me as a consumer with a CC in my pocket :)
Some really crappy-looking websites can and do convert extraordinarily well.
And as for 'we've never had a sale': Classic, so true, so sad and so common.
Nick
Nepotism? Would that be nepotistic? Is that even a word? (Just checked dictionary.com... nepotistic is a word. :) )
Its awful - no really awful.
It gets found top ten on Google for some fairly competive single word searches.
No, I don't know why.
Just a simple 'inktomi style' optimisation.
I am too scared to change any of it.
The Customer says "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and is happy with the business he gets.
I almost hope it drops just so I have a reason to fix it.
People should take a look at users on the net.
How and Why are they visiting these business sites?
Often it is to window shop, price and feature compare, or get other product or service information or content.
Next it is to find out how to fix something, parts, or find extras for something.
Lastly it is for other support issues that extend past the above. Talking to other users, finding out other locations, getting phone numbers for contact information, finding manuals that they may have lost, etc...
Approaching a client, if they use the internet, and asking them how or why, then relating the same service to their own company web site may go a bit further and prompt them to change or upgrade.
The strange ego problems that occur when one of the business owner's children built the site.
I've run into a situation where someone asked me for a consultation, and I told them all the stuff wrong with their site. They refused to change it though, because they made it, and they liked how it looked. It was an ego thing on their part (they = 1 person). It's a local business I really support and love too. It's a shame.
I'm soooooo upset over the totally unfair press one of my sites is getting. Oh, boo hoo! I think there must be some sort of conspiracy.
Online Traveler (Memphis Commercial Appeal):
Headline:
[bleep] packed with useful links, leaves frills at homeIt's about as straightforward as a site can get: not especially attractive, but easy to navigate and quick to load.
ResearchBuzz:
Like I said, this site ain't gorgeous. But who cares? It's an excellent example of ...
(edited by: rcjordan at 12:20 am (utc) on May 16, 2002)
Ever built a page for INK?
Do the search engines favor these type of sites, like saying here, have a extra step up couz your so pitiful looking.
There's an old joke about the wife who tells her husband "If the meek will inherit the earth, you're good for a couple hundred thousand acres." :)
I ain't bothered about my competitors, i get a fair deal of the traffic, and know exactly how they are picking up theirs, just a matter of time. As in i never have enough, but the time has come, and a new site is being built as we speak, launch date should be my birthday for a rough version, with tweaks all the way to the conference. Which should blow them all away. evil grin. i suppose thats what i can do when i hang around the likes of yourselve and the rest of the esteemed SEOs/designers and what ever else crawled out of the woodwork to partake on Knowing thy Search Engines.
Do the search engines favor, YES. biggest provider of money is quite a good rule of thumb.
I have not as yet built a site purely for ink, but i do have a few domains, that i could experiment with in the future and just use them as door-fodder to main sites.
They let truly ugly sites in for free... no pfi, nor ppc for me.
One (now not so potential) client could not understand why his web site been up since 1998 did not produce directly or indirectly 1 sale.
Some results
1. the design company went out of business shortly after designing a frontpage template site (no pun intended Bortherhood of LAN) while the dead links "designed by" are still there today on all 32 pages.
2. A press release section indicates (company's new site - 1998) and nothing more. Not even the fact that the company closed two multi-million dollars contracts with two franchise competing companies.
3. Product section has pictures of products and serial numbers. No descriptions, no prices, no method to purchase or method to contact for additional information since the email address reference the company's business name and not the domain (no dot.com extension).
4. And my favourite ... after analysis of the above ... the owner wasn't interested in developing his presence ... he has never looked at the web site because it's just a fad and "traditional business doesn't work that way".
Why not drop the site ... well it's good for information and support only!
its because your special, and long in the tooth in this industry and know every backdoor there is :)
a bad workman blames his tools. Blame the designer :)
But, alas, one has to admit that too many civilians obtain a copy of frontpage and go on to create HORRIFIC "websites."
The vast majority of these eyesores have the telltale generator meta: "Frontpage 4.0"
A press release section indicates (company's new site - 1998) and nothing more.
Classic, that should have been on my original list!
As for FP, no, I don't blame the tools. As martinibuster said this product gets into all the wrong hands.
Perhaps it should come with some kind of warning?
I also use FrontPage. My sites are ugly not because of this ...... it's all me :)
Google gives me a lot of P/P (pitiful page-rank) for my sites. The site in my profile has not made it to Google yet since I just finished it this past weekend but I sure hope I get some of that P/P for it.
