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The History of tables

Before tables came along, the web was a pretty dull place. Using tables for layout opened up new vistas of possibilities of visually ?designing? a page. It could well be argued that table based layout was responsible for the popularity of the web and the field of web design.

Worse still, over the last few years, table based layout has come under severe criticism and was widely demonized. Web purists claim that tables were never meant for layout so one shouldn’t use them for such. A rapidly progressive hype seems to be in the air all around.

Reality behind the hype

Despite the fact that pioneers have been talking about web standards for a long time, the majority of web sites are still developed using tables and non standards compliant code .
History has shown many examples of technologies that started out life with one purpose, only to end up finding more practical applications as something else. And it sounds very apt in case of tables. The web itself was never intended to be a channel for edutainment, marketing and information but for sharing research data.

Using tables is a pragmatic approach, if not preferred

The W3c Web Accessibility Guidelines recognize that designers will continue to use table for layout – and so include information about how they can be implemented in the most accessible way. Designers are not going to immediately stop using tables for layout; mainly owning to the reason that this is the default behavior of most WYSWYG (what you see is what you get) Web design packages and; CSS for layout is so difficult to implement successfully.

Moreover, Professionals still argue the use of tables for the layout of pages on the Web, despite the fact that this goes against current standards. They argue it to be a pragmatic approach ? if not their preferred options.

Let’s explode the myths: CSS vs Tables

Most web designers don’t simply feel the need to switch over

The majority of web sites are still developed using tables and non standards compliant code. Because of this, user agents will be forced to handle table based layouts for many years to come. This effectively negates one of the biggest selling points for web standards. That of forward compatibility. That’s why, most web designers really don’t feel there is an overwhelming need to start developing sites using CSS based layouts and standards compliant code.

CSS development has a much higher barrier to entry than table based design

While comparing table based design to CSS based design, the syntax of CSS, for sure, turns out to be is pretty easy. Nobody in their right mind would argue that you need too be a rocket scientist to learn CSS. Nevertheless, some of the concepts can be quite tricky to assimilate.

Continuing in the same spirit it is true that there are so many bugs, even the ?experts? find themselves spending an inordinate amount of time bug fixing. For a novice this must be extremely frustrating. Not knowing if the problem is down to your misunderstanding of CSS or some obscure browser bug.

Perhaps this is why many people see web standards as ?Ivory Tower? and why many web standards advocates come across as having a sense of superiority and a zealous attitude towards web design.

Some things are just easy-to-do with tables

People often find themselves writing fairly complicated CSS to do something that would be trivial using tables. Take form styling for an instance. It’s possible to lay out even very tricky forms using tables in just a few minutes. You can achieve similar results by floating elements with CSS, but it’s a lot more involved. If you’re a CSS guru it’s all part of the fun. However if you’re a regular mortal, it can be incredibly frustrating.

Another such thing is page footers. It’s pretty easy to do using tables. Whilst doing this using CSS alone, it would hardly be any wonder why web developers turn their back on CSS when even simple things are rendered so

If you have the knowledge and patience, you can do most things using CSS that you used to do using tables. Sure it may take you longer, but you’ll get there in the end (or die trying).

CSS benefits. But does it provide you what you need?

It’s true that switching a large site to a CSS based layout can save a huge amount of bandwidth. However, for most sites, this saving would be insignificant or mostly irrevelent.

People want fast loading pages and many advocates have suggested that CSS helps accomplish this. For most sites, the ?design? is spread evenly across the whole site. However with CSS based sites, the ?design? is usually held in one or more external files. These files can be fairly complicated, and even for a simple site, can get big, or even fast.

Search engine friendliness: CSS vs Tables

It’s true that the search engines like semantic pages. It’s also a widely held notion that search engines like lean code. Building a site using CSS and web standards can defiantly encourage the development of search engine friendly sites. However it’s neither magic bullet, nor a panacea either.

There are many table based sites that score very highly in the search engines. It’s equally possible to build a CSS based site that gets a terrible search engine ranking. The most important thing for high ranking is content and inbound links, not whether a site uses tables or CSS for layout.

Issues pertaining to accessibility

There is quite increasing number of people who try to sell web standards and especially CSS based design by playing on client’s accessibility fears.

There isn’t anything inherently inaccessible about table based design. While it’s true that your site needs to be published to a recognised set of grammars to get an AA accessibility rating, tableless design is only a recommendation, not a requirement for the more stringent AAA rating.

The final word

Final Table based design will be around for a long time. However, it is not good enough just to say that it is wrong to use them . In certain circumstances using tables for layout can make much more sense than CSS.

Web standards and CSS based design are defiantly the way forward. However in the rush to advocate these ?new? techniques, people end up being hyperbolic and the reality falls short of expectations.

A sensible approach to get what you continue to seek is the need of the hour regardless of what is in vogue, or blown out of proportions.

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A higher search ranking is what many website owners dream of. What they don’t realise is that by optimising their site for the search engines, if done correctly, they can also optimise it for their site visitors.

Ultimately this means more people finding your website and increased sales and lead generation. But are search engine optimisation and usability compatible? Aren’t there trade-offs that need to be made between giving search engines what they want and giving people what they want? Read on and find out (although I’m sure you can guess the answer!)…

1. Keyword research carried out

Before you even begin building your website, you should carry out keyword research to identify which keyword phrases your site should target. Using publicly available tools such as Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com), you can discover which keywords are searched for the most frequently and then specifically target those phrases.

Doing keyword research is also crucial for your site’s usability. By using the same keywords in your website that web users are searching for in search engines, you’ll literally be speaking the same language as your site visitors.

For example, you might decide to target the phrase, “sell toys”, as your website does in fact sell toys. Keyword research would undoubtedly show you that web users are actually searching for, “buy toys” (think about it – have you ever searched using the word, “sell”, when you want to buy something?). By placing the phrase, “buy toys” on to the pages on your website, you’ll be using the same words as your site visitors and they’ll be able to find what they’re looking for more easily.

2. 200 word minimum per page

Quite simply, search engines love content – the more content there is on a page the easier it is for search engines to work out what the page is actually about. Search engines may struggle to work out the point of a web page with less than 200 words, ultimately penalising that page in the search rankings.

In terms of usability, it’s also good to avoid pages with very little content. A page with less than 200 words is unlikely to contain a large amount of information, so site visitors will undoubtedly need to click elsewhere to find more detailed information. Don’t be afraid to put a reasonably large amount of information on to a page. Web users generally don’t mind scrolling down anymore, and provided the page provides mechanisms to aid scanning (such as employing sub-headings – see point 6 below) it shouldn’t be too difficult for site visitors to locate the information that they’re after.

3. 100kb maximum HMTL size

If 200 words is the minimum page content size, then 100kb is the maximum, at least in terms of HMTL file size. Anything more than this and search engines may give up on the page as it’s simply too big for them.

A 100kb HMTL file will take 20 seconds to download on a 56k dial up modem, used by three in four UK web users as of March 2004 (source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/intc0504.pdf). Add on the time it takes for all the other parts of the page to download, such as images and JavaScript files, and you’re looking at a highly un-user-friendly download time!

4. CSS used for layout

The website of Juicy Studios (http://www.juicystudio.com) saw a six-fold increase in site visitors after switching from a table-based layout to a CSS layout. Search prefer CSS-based sites and are likely to score them higher in the search rankings because:

The code is cleaner and therefore more accessible to search engines
Important content can be placed at the top of the HTML document
There is a greater density of content compared to coding

Using CSS for layout is also highly advantageous for usability, as it leads to significantly faster download times.

5. Meaningful page title

If you know anything about search engine optimisation you’ll know that search engines place more importance on the page title than any other attribute on the page. If the title adequately describes the content of that page then search engines will be able to more accurately guess what that page is about.

A meaningful page title also helps site visitors work out where they are, both within the site and the web as a whole. The page title is the first thing that loads up, often quite a few seconds before the content, so a descriptive, keyword-rich page title can be a real aid to help users orientate themselves.

6. Headings and sub-headings used

Search engines assume that the text contained in heading tags is more important than the rest of the document text, as headings (in theory at least) summarise the content immediately below them.

Headings are also incredibly useful for your human site visitors, as they greatly aid scanning. Generally speaking, we don’t read on the web, we scan, looking for the information that we’re after. By breaking up page sections with sub-headings that effectively describe the content beneath them, scanning becomes significantly easier.

Do be sure not to abuse heading tags though. The more text you have contained in heading tags within the page, the less importance search engines assign to them.

7. Opening paragraph describes page content

We’ve already established that search engines love content, but they especially love the first 25 words or so on each page. By providing an opening paragraph that adequately describes the content of the rest of the page (or the site if it’s the homepage), you should be able to include your important keyword phrases in this crucial area.

As web users, whenever we arrive at a web page the first thing we need to know is whether this page has the information that we’re after. A great way to find this out is to scan through the first paragraph, which, if it sufficiently describes the page content, should help us out.

8. Descriptive link text

Search engines place a lot of importance on link text. They assume that link text will be descriptive of its destination and as such examine link text for all links pointing to any page. If all the links pointing to a page about widgets say ‘click here’, search engines can’t gain any information about that page without visiting it. If on the other hand, all the links say, ‘widgets’ then search engines can easily guess what that page is about.

One of the best examples of this in action is for the search term, ‘miserable failure’. So many people have linked to George Bush’s bio using this phrase as the link text, that now when miserable failure is searched for in Google, George Bush’s bio appears top of the search rankings!

As web users, we don’t generally read web pages word-for-word – we scan them looking for the information that we’re after. When you scan through text you can’t take any meaning from the word ‘click here’. Link text that effectively describes its destination is far easier to scan and you can understand the destination of the link without having to read its surrounding words.

9. Frames avoided

Frames are quite an old-school technique, and although aren’t as commonplace as they once were, do still rear up their ugly head from time to time. Using frames is one of the worst possible things you could do for your search engine ranking, as most search engines can’t follow links between frames.

Even if a search engine does index your pages and web users find you through a search engine, they’ll be taken to one of the pages within the frame. This page will probably be a content page with no navigation (navigation is normally contained in a separate frame) and therefore no way to navigate to any other page on the site!

Frames are also disadvantageous for usability as they can cause problems with the back button, printing, history and bookmarking. Put simply, say no to frames!

10. Quality content provided

This may seem like a strange characteristic of a search engine optimised website, but it’s actually crucial. Search engines, in addition to looking at page content, look at the number of links pointing in to web pages. The more inbound links a website has, all other things being equal, the higher in the search rankings it will appear.

By providing creative, unique and regularly updated content on your website, webmasters will want to link to you as doing so will add value to their site visitors. You will also be adding value to your site visitors.

Conclusion

Optimising your website for both search engines and people needn’t be a trade-off. With this much overlap between the two areas, you should easily be able to have a website that web users can find in the search engines, and when they do find it, they can find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently.

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The needs of screen magnifier users are overlooked when implementing web accessibility on to a website. Screen magnifiers are used by partially sighted web users to increase the size of on-screen elements. Some users will magnify the screen so that only three to four words are able to appear on the screen at any one time. You can try using a screen magnifier yourself by downloading the Zoomtext screen magnifier from http://www.aisquared.com/Products/ZoomText8_mag/FreeTrial/Z8FreeTrial.htm for a free 30 day trial.

The good news is that some of the basic principles for improving accessibility and usability for screen magnifiers users, also increase usability for everyone. To help, we’ve listed six ways to improve accessibility and usability for screen magnifier users:

1. Don’t embed text within images

Text embedded within images can become blurry and pixelated when viewed in screen magnifiers, and therefore completely illegible. This is especially true when the image text is rather poor quality, so if you absolutely have to embed text within images then make sure the image is of high quality. Many screen magnifier users can find it quite difficult to read text at the best of times, so when it appears fuzzy to them it can become difficult to impossible to read.

It’s not usually necessary to embed text within images anymore, as most presentational effects can now be achieved with CSS. By embedding text within images the download time of each page can become significantly greater due to the weight of these images – for users on dial-up modems it can be a real pain waiting for these images to download and render.

If you’re not sure if a piece of text on the page is embedded within an image or not, try highlighting the text. If you can highlight each letter individually then the text is real text and isn’t embedded within an image.

2. Clearly separate sections of the page

Different sections of each web page should be clearly separated through the use of borders and different background colours. Screen magnifiers users can only see one tiny section of a web page at any one time so it can sometimes be hard for these users to orientate themselves within the page.

By using a blue background colour for the navigation, for example, screen magnifier users can quickly move through the page and when they see a blue background they instantly know that the content are has finished and the navigation area begun.

Likewise, by separating different sections of the page with borders, when a screen magnifier user moves over that border they know they’re moving into a different section. One especially common form of this, is using a vertical bar to separate horizontal navigation items.

Separating different sections of the page with background colours and borders doesn’t only increase usability for screen magnifier users – it increases usability for everyone. When regularly sighted users scan through a web page, if the content, footer and navigation are all effectively differentiated it’s very easy to quickly gain an understanding of the on-page layout.

3. Use clear and descriptive headings often

When screen magnifier users move their magnifier across the screen one of the items that stand out to them is headings. By ensuring heading text is large, and perhaps by differentiating it through the use of colour, it will stand out to these users.

Screen magnifier users usually have to stop the movement of the magnifier when they want to read a piece of text, so when they see a heading, they can stop and read it. Because headings (in theory at least!) describe the content contained beneath them, screen magnifier users can read a heading, gain an understanding of the content beneath it, and decide whether they want to read that content or not. If not, they can simply move the magnifier down the screen and stop at the next heading.

Headings are incredibly useful for fully sighted users too for essentially the same reason. When you scan through a web page, headings are one of the items that stand out to you. Again, you can read the heading (or listen to it for a screen reader user), and provided its descriptive, instantly gain an understanding of the content beneath it. You can then keep reading or skip on to the next heading down the page.

4. Ensure link text is descriptive of its destination

Link text such as ?click here’ and ?more’ should be avoided and replaced with link text that adequately describes the link destination. Link text, along with headings, is one of the items that stands out to screen magnifier users (and all users for that matter) when browsing a web page. If ?click here’ is used then these users (and in fact all users) will have to search through the text before and after the link in order to work out its destination.

5. Avoid scrolling or flashing text

Scrolling or flashing text is generally known for offering poor usability, as it means that users can’t read the text in their own time. This is doubly true for screen magnifier users who read web pages at a slower rate – chances are that they won’t have time to read the text at all before it disappears.

6. Front-load paragraph content

By front-loading paragraph content, screen magnifier users can access the main point of each paragraph immediately. Front-loading means placing the conclusion first, followed by the what, why, when, where and how. By placing the conclusion first, screen magnifier users can read the conclusion of the paragraph straightaway and then decide whether they are interested in reading the rest of the paragraph or not.

If screen magnifier users aren’t interested in the content of a paragraph, they can move the magnifier down the screen and when they see white space they know that the paragraph has ended and the next paragraph begun.

This rule about front-loading paragraph content actually benefits absolutely everyone. By putting the conclusion at the start of the paragraph, all users can instantly gain an understanding of the point of the paragraph and decide whether they want to keep reading it (or skip to the next paragraph).

Conclusion

All-in-all, there are quite a few things that can be done to improve usability and accessibility for screen magnifier users. The good news though is that all of them improve usability for absolutely everyone.

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There is of course a huge amount to learn in setting up and running a Web Site, which is why, I believe, that most newcomers tend to put their trust in a web designer, aka webmaster and leave them to get on with things hoping that all will go well. Big Mistake!

It?s only when, having spent quite a lot of money, you find out that your pride and joy is not giving you the results that you imagined, that alarm bells can start to ring. In my own case this took approximately four years to sink in. After a promising start, with some enquiries from the other side of the world, things not only didn?t get any better but got worse!

Of course, if you are running and developing a new business, which takes a colossal amount of time and commitment, you don?t initially have time to worry too much about the success of your web site. After all, a web site will make you a zillionaire quicker than you can spell the long version of SEO! Big Mistake!

I believe it is just as important to designate sufficient time to understanding how a web site is developed, promoted and maintained as it is to spend time on all the other many facets of a fledgling business.

Many new business owners, myself included, thought in the past that just by having a web site and on-line presence AND a webmaster, that everything would be fine. Visitors and sales would surely follow and increase exponentially. Not So!

Probably the pace of change on-line is more rapid than most businesses realise and therefore if you are going to build a site AND do some reasonable level of commerce from it, you have got to study and learn a number of basics.

1. Key word research should really begin before you set about building your site, because it can help with the choice of a suitable Domain name and continue to assist in the titles and scope of your eventual articles.

2. Original and fresh content related to your prospective field is a necessity, and needs to be uploaded on a very regular basis. Unless you are a very large company with an in-house webmaster, this is probably the most crucial aspect of developing a site in terms of getting good search engine results.

3. Writing new pages can be extremely time consuming and unless you have a suitable S.M.S. package installed, enabling you to become your own webmaster, it?s highly likely you will commence the slow but inexorable slide to oblivion, other wise known as Zero traffic.

4. Build your site by all means but make sure that you become your own webmaster, having taken a crash course in the do?s and don?ts. You absolutely must have the facility to control what goes on within your site. If you miss out on this vital aspect of developing a site, the chances are that you will lose interest and stop creating ideas and content.

5. Learning to write your content, even if this seems a bit beyond your reach to begin with is another essential skill to be fine tuned and believe me, once you have got under way it will become easier with each passing day. Looking at how other web sites operate and the standard of their content will help you along the path.

6. Articles on your area of expertise, submitted to a number of reputable Directories, will almost immediately get you noticed and start to build credibility. These can be modified for use as web pages and will provide ideas for new content on a never ending basis. It has been my experience in the recent past that articles can have a very advantageous effect on search engine results. Credibility is something you can never have too much of.

7. Search engine optimization, a very fancy term, with nearly as many, so called, experts as there are sites on the Web and similar in number to the droves of Web site designers! This is a thorny topic and one best left to the experts, for the behind the scenes work. However, it is my belief that the best results come from fresh and original content put up on your site on a regular basis. Results from my blog of only two months existence, in terms of link popularity, are outstripping my web site that has been on-line for five years. This is all down to regular articles on my chosen topic.

8. A newsletter or ezine, is a very good way of encouraging traffic to your site and building your subscriber list that you can eventually turn into clients, customers and sales. Offering an incentive for your visitors to part with their e-mail address can be by way of a free mini course or e book.. In the case of your newly published E-Book, offering a free download of one complete chapter is something worth considering and is a very popular technique. This is all part of the credibility building process. Once you get used to making regular posts to your newly set up Blog, a newsletter should be relatively easy to produce, without too much stress.

9. A Business Blog is I think, the way forward, for many web site owners who would like to see an increase in traffic of a targeted nature. They are easy to set up and have the advantage of being virtually instant. One of the great things that can help you in becoming more adept as a webmaster, utilising your own blog, is that learning the rudiments of html is not the nightmare that it may appear to be. You can practise away to your heart?s content adding and subtracting code from a blog post and see immediately the result in the preview pane. You don?t even need to publish this post. Again, getting used to viewing the source code of other web sites and seeing how they do things will give you no end of inspiration.

10. Control is the key to success in developing your skill as a webmaster. In a follow?up article on the experiences of a complete Blog novice we will have a look at some of the more interesting facts, figures, and activities that will take you where you want to go, and contribute to the success of your web site, providing you are prepared to allocate sufficient computer time and are not expecting to retire a millionaire in six months!

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Today, most businesses want a website. Some already have one. Others want one. They don’t want to hire IT staff and probably can’t afford any. And in most cases, an in-house IT staff, especially for your typical small business, just isn’t necessary. But, that doesn’t mean that you have to go without or will be forced to use some cookie cutter website or a personal Frontpage experiment gone awry. You can hire a web developer/designer to create a professional website for you, set it up, then hand it over to you for you to do what you want with it. But, how should you go about finding someone to do this? What should you look for? There are literally thousands of companies/individuals out there offering to do your website. How do you pick from this large group?

What Do You Want?
The first step is to decide exactly what you want on your website. This is very important as it will determine what the requirements are and, in turn, what skill set your web developer needs to fulfill your needs. Here are some questions to ask of yourself:

* What kinds of information do you want to have on your site? Approximately how large do you envision the site (# of pages)?

* Will your site require regular updates? Do you want to do these updates yourself?

* Will you be engaging in e-commerce on this website?

* Will you need a database?

* How fast do you need the job done?

* What is your budget?

Start Your Search

Doing a web search for someone that has the skills you will need for your website will still give you a humongous list of possible choices. Referrals are often the best method of weeding people out. IF someone recommends a developer, it is because they are happy with the service they were provided. So, if someone recommends a developer to you, you should check that developer out and see if they have the skills you will need from them.

Often, the web developers you are pondering are not located in your town. In today’s day and age, this is not usually a problem. Yes, there are instances where a face-to-face meeting is really beneficial, and if you are the kind of really considers this meeting important, you should limit your search to developers within driving distance of your location. Otherwise, the internet and phone system provide all the communication you will need, regardless of distance.

The first thing to do when considering a developer is to check out their website.

* IS the website well-designed and attractive?

* Is it easy to navigate?

* Are there any broken links?

* Is the information complete (introduction to staff, company location, contact methods, etc.)?

* Does the site load quickly?

* IS there a portfolio? (Very important. A developer without a portfolio to display is a total question mark. You simply don’t know if the people are good or are snacking on doritos trying to figure things out as they go).

* What skills does the developer have? Do they do design only, or can they do dynamic web development and database design? Also, ensure that they do not advertise themselves as a web designer but focus mainly on print media. Internet design and print design are different ballparks with different requirements. Also, keep in mind that good use of Dreamweaver or Frontpage does not in itself make a web designer. Check their portfolio and ensure the developer really knows his stuff. A person well-versed in internet development should know not only about creating the site, but also maintaining it, marketing it, and promoting it. Ideally, a web developer has successfully done all of the above on his own sites.

* Does the site offer customer testimonials? Read them. And, you might even contact those clients independently to ask them questions of the service you were provided.

Small Freelancers vs. Big Firms
You need to decide if you want to work with a large web design firm or a small freelance web company (or even single web developer). There is more security for the client when working with a larger firm. The skills they offer vary widely because their staff is so large, and they often have a very large portfolio. The caveat, though, is that large web companies often charge more money. The overhead costs for such companies is larger, so they will charge more. Additionally, larger web companies often come with more beauracracy. With so many developers, often communication is just not what it should be, leading to inconsistencies in the project due to miscommunication. Also, sometimes you will find that these companies pay a little too much attention to process rather than simply getting the job done.

Freelance web developers offer better value for the money, and because they are a single person, the communication flow between them and the client is usually much better (one-on-one). If there is a staff, usually the size is small, meaning communication will still be more tight-knit. This will lead to more consistent coding and coordination. Also, you know who is responsible for your project and there is more accountability. In larger firms, nobody is responsible in some cases. (or so they say). The downside of freelancing is that their skill set is their skill set, and if you need something that they don’t know how to do, they must research it. Also, freelancers are limited by their size. If they already have a high workload, then their throughout is limited and it may force you to wait. So, depending on the size of your project, a large firm might guarantee the job gets done quickly.

Rates and Guidelines
Check out the rates of the web developer. Often, you will not find the rates directly posted on their website. This is usually because they like to do things by estimate, so simply contact them, give them a few specs, and go back and forth until you get a ballpark figure. When getting an estimate, make sure it is detailed and exact. Ask any questions that you have. If you think the price is too high, ask them about it. Don’t be afraid to counter-offer. They can always refuse.

Check out the web developer’s contract. Make sure the client is protected. PAy attention to guarantees of response time. You want to make sure your web developer is available for you. Also, look for their policy on project changes. Obviously, you cannot alter the specs of your project once an estimate is agreed upon without expecting additional fees. Ask them about this. Also, inspect the contract for warranty of work. Who will they handle bugs in the work they have done?

Talk With Them
Any web developer you consider should have a method of being reached by phone. Call them and gauge their personality. Make sure they are good people who you can talk with and bounce ideas off of. See if they treat you right or act like they barely have time for you. Good communication is very important to a successful project, and if you can’t properly communicate to your developer, you should not hire him/her.

Evaluate
Evaluate your potential developers using the advice above and you will be more likely to have successfully completed project with minimal frustration.

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When people think about the Internet, they think about technology. When people hear that I am a Website strategy expert, they see me as a “techy type”.

But for me, the most intriguing aspect of your online business isn’t about the technology. It’s about human connections, and how you can create these in a virtual environment.

It’s commonly understood that “people buy emotionally, not intellectually.” Even when people think they’re making a rational decision, powerful subconscious factors come into play. To sell effectively, we’re told to anticipate our customers’ needs, to demonstrate that we “feel their pain”, and to respond to clues in their body language and tone of voice.

In the “real world” we do this very well. And we know that if we can have a direct, in-person conversation, there’s a pretty good chance that we’ll close the sale or keep a happy customer.

For the online visitor, your Website is the next best thing to that in-person conversation with you, your colleagues or employees. And since so many people are researching products and services on the Web, it’s critical that your site has maximum impact in persuading them to take the next step with you.

So how does your Website connect emotionally with your visitors? Do they feel listened to, understood and appreciated by your Internet presence? Are you instinctively meeting their real needs? Do your existing customers feel supported and valued when interacting with you online?

Or are you failing to evoke the crucial emotional responses which can significantly enhance your response rates, sales and ongoing return on your Web investment?

The Critical Emotions for Website Success

I’ve been working with client Web strategies in a wide range of industries since 1995. Based on this experience, I’ve identified some key emotions that you need to evoke in your online visitors to create and sustain a profitable relationship.

How well your Website does this can have a major effect on the visceral, instinctive reactions of your visitors, and their propensity to buy from or connect with you.

In total, I have twenty criteria for emotional connectedness that I suggest for any Website. That’s too many to discuss in this article, but let’s look at a few highlights:

Do I Feel Recognized?

When we first meet in a business setting, we’re introduced, or we introduce ourselves with some statement about what we do, and why we should connect with each other.

When we talk with customers or prospects, it’s important to show very quickly that we understand their issues and needs, and that we have ideas and solutions to address these.

The most important task for your home page is to accomplish this initial introduction. You’ve heard the “ten-second” rule about how long a visitor will stay on a site that doesn’t engage them.

So, does your home page really tell me what you do? Does it speak to me in specific terms that make very clear what services you provide, and what type of customers or clients you work with? Does it use language that I’ll understand even if I don’t know the jargon of your industry or specialization?

Sounds simple?

There are astounding numbers of Websites that fail to provide basic information on the home page.

If your goal is to get the customer to visit your store, does your home page clearly show your location, and how to get there? Every time you force the visitor to make a decision, such as “Do I click on the Contact Us page to find their address?”, you open up the possibility that they’ll make the wrong choice (from your viewpoint), or worse still, they’ll just leave.

And is it clear to me whether you can – or would want to – help me? Are you geared towards corporate bulk buyers, or small businesses, or both? Do you operate nationally or only in your immediate location? Will your visitors know what you mean by generic terms such as “business systems” or “total business solutions” or should you be more specific as to what you offer?
Do I Feel Engaged?

As we continue our “real-world” conversation, we start to find common points of interest, whether personal or professional. We begin to feel that we can relate with each other, and this helps to build our business relationship.

So your Website has to make the visitor feel drawn in – that they want to know more about your business, your products and your services – but again, from the viewpoint of their needs and interests. And you have to give the visitor a clear sense that you want to find those points of connection, and to learn more about them.

If the visitor doesn’t feel invited in, if they feel left to themselves to find their way around – if they’re overwhelmed, confused, or simply not interested in your site, they’ll leave.

Does your site present a bewildering array of manufacturers, products, or options without any guidance as to selecting from these? Think about the conversation that you’d have with a customer in your store. You’d find out what they were looking for, and then you’d ask a number of questions to help them find the right solution for their needs.

So how can you mirror this process online? You could offer a “Help Me” page that guides visitors through some Frequently Asked Questions or other choices and provides links to recommended products based on their answers. You could incorporate an interactive chat facility with a customer service agent during office hours, or access to a searchable knowledge base.
Do I Feel Convinced?

If the visitor is seeing your business for the first time, they need to be comfortable that you are who you say you are, and that you can deliver what you promise.

One of the most important elements in establishing this part of the connection is to show the “faces” of your business. Have you noticed how many Websites don’t name any of their owners, or the people that customers will interact with? It’s much easier to have a conversation when I know who I’m talking to!

Customer testimonials and other third-party endorsements are critical elements in establishing trust – they say far more about you than your own marketing statements. How many sites have we all seen that trumpet “nationally recognized” or “premier provider . . .”? Prove it!

Include client quotes and success stories right across your site where they’re front and center as visitors are engaged in your content. If you win an award, tell the visitor what that means for them in terms of how you were evaluated.
Do I Feel Motivated?

Towards the end of our “real-world” conversation, we’ll hopefully close a sale, or we’ll talk about some next steps, or we might say “Let’s stay in touch”. To do that with our online visitor, we need to persuade them to buy something, or to tell us who they are, and give us permission to reconnect with them.

Too many Web pages tail off with no call to action or directions about where to go next. If you don’t issue a clear invitation, you again leave it to the visitor to work out what to do – and you run a big risk of losing them.

So at every point on every page where the visitor might be thinking “Tell me more”, or “How do I get this?”, provide a clickable link to the next step, to your shopping cart, to your newsletter subscription page, or to whatever you want them to do. Don’t wait until the end of the page – they may never get there! Look for the emotional “tipping points” on every page where they’re ready to talk more with you and grab them in the moment!

Diluting the Connection

Of course, it’s all too easy to undo all the good feeling that we create by frustrating or annoying the visitor, or simply by giving them a dead end.

One of my favorite bugbears is the site search engine that allows me to enter my query, and then tells me “No results found. Please try again with different search terms”.

How is that supposed to make me feel? What was wrong with my keywords or my parameters if the search page allowed me to select them? Am I being stupid? Or do you really not want to help me?

Your visitor is clearly looking for something, and has taken a step towards connecting with you. So how about a results page that lets them know that you can’t immediately answer their question, but offers a link to your contact form so that they can send a question, or some tips or suggestions on how to find more information.

The ultimate customer service feature is an opportunity to interact with a live assistant – if your site offers this utility, the search results page is a perfect place to maximize its visibility.

So how “Emotionally Connected” is your Website?

I hope that I’ve sparked your curiosity enough to take a fresh look at your Website.

Think about specifically why visitors are coming to your site, what might be on their minds, and review your copy and navigation accordingly. Think about new customers and existing ones, employees, media – everyone who might have a reason to visit. Are you doing everything that you can to create an “emotionally connected” experience for everyone?

The right mix will gain you significantly higher time spent on your site, more calls from pre-qualified leads, more signed contracts, happier repeat customers, attention from new markets, offers of strategic alliances and collaborations, and insights into creating successful new products and services.

(c) Philippa Gamse, 2005. All rights reserved.

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This is not written by a professional lawyer or anyone close to one. It is written by a typically business owner of a successful web development company who has no law degree or the budget to hire a lawyer to write a web development contract. However, they are in need of a contract agreement that will assure a project will be well outlined for both the client and the developer as to what the expectations are of the entire project.

I must write a disclaimer that this proven web development agreement is purely based on experience and knowledge of the web design and development industry. Others may write these contracts and agreements differently. This article is written to help others who wish to know how to begin to write a 10 step web design and development agreement. So enough said, let?s get down to the 10 steps:

1. Scope of Services:
Start off with the most important aspect of the entire project. What exactly are you as the developer going to do for the client? Present a general 3-5 sentence summary of the scope of service. Will you be responsible for the design and programming? How will the website be updated? Who will be responsible for the marketing at the end of the proejct? Who will host the website when the project is done?

2. Price and Payments
This is the area where you are upfront and state the exact price payment and terms of the payment is split up into installments. Is the project quoted at a fixed rate? Is it an hourly rate and how is this documented and tracked? Will the payments be made with a certain percentage up front as a down payment and then a monthly billing cycle, or is it a milestone related payment system?

3. Term and Termination
How long will this agreement contract be enforceable? If the client does not want to persue the project

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When creating accessible websites, most web developers and web managers tend to follow the W3C accessibility guidelines. And rightly so – they are the most comprehensive accessibility resource on the Internet after all.

The W3C accessibility guidelines, or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as they’re officially known, could go slightly further however. Fulfilling the guidelines will give you a very accessible website (remember though, they are just guidelines so shouldn’t always be taken literally). For ultimate accessibility though, try implementing some of these techniques too:

Hidden text

Hidden text can be very useful for screen reader users. If there isn’t sufficient text for these users to gain an understanding of a particular section, then you can simply create this extra information and hide it from sighted users.

The most common and useful page items to insert invisible text for screen reader users include:

– Headings – Every single section on each page should have a heading placed immediately before it. This way, screen reader users always know that the preceding section has finished and a new section has begun. So, before the main navigation begins, you should insert a heading labelled, ‘Site navigation’. Although this heading is extremely useful for screen reader users, it may look rather unsightly visually, so you can just make the text invisible.

– Form labels – Every form item must have a label immediately preceding it – otherwise, screen reader users won’t know what the form item is about. Date of birth fields, with three separate fields for date, month and year, are common culprits of not providing form labels for each form field. So, place the date of birth label before the three form fields, and then insert an invisible label before each of the other two form fields, ‘Month of birth’ and ‘Year of birth’.

– Skip links – A skip link is an invisible link that’s placed at the very top of the HTML file. It’s a relative link within the page, allowing users to jump straight to a section on the page, usually the main content. Skip links are really useful for both screen reader and keyboard-only users who can jump straight to the content, without having to work through the navigation.

Succinct, front-loaded and conventional link text

As a method of browsing through a page, screen reader users can call up a list of links on a page and jump to the link in which they’re most interested. It’s common knowledge that link text should make sense out of context, and this is indeed a W3C guideline. Link text such as ‘Click here’ would obviously make no sense in a list like this. It’s also crucial that link text is:

– Succinct – so that it’s quick and easy for screen reader users to work through this list
– Front-loaded – so that screen users can understand the meaning of the link straightaway and jump down to the next one if they’re not interested
– Conventional – so screen reader users can alphabetise the list and jump to the link they’re looking for (e.g. if the ‘Contact us’ link was labelled as ‘Enquiries’ it would be harder to find the website’s phone number)

Link text is additionally important for users that finds it difficult to read online, such as screen magnifier users and those with learning difficulties and dyslexia. For these users when they scan through web pages, they’ll often be unable to make out specific words – instead, they’ll see shapes and colours. Anything that’s in a high contrast colour is obviously a link, so they can stop and read it.

By making link text succinct and front-loaded, and using conventional link text, it’s far easier for users that finds it difficult to read online to immediately comprehend links and what their destination is.

Visible font resizer

It’s crucial that text is resizable for web users with poor or limited vision – or so the theory goes. In actual fact, user testing has shown time and time again that few web users actually know how to resize text, or that this functionality even exists.

By providing a visible font resizer all users are of course made aware that they can resize the text should they need to. To find out how to put a font resizer on to your website, read this article about stylesheet switching at http://www.alistapart.com/stories/alternate.

(Incidentally, if you don’t know how to resize text simply select ‘View > Text size’ in either Internet Explorer or Firefox; alternatively, scroll with the wheel of your mouse whilst holding down the control key.)

Place instructions first

If you provide instructions for any kind of functionality on your site, make sure that the instructions are placed before the functionality. This of course sounds obvious, but it’s amazing how many times this rule isn’t adhered to.

Screen reader users listen to pages in the order that they’re written in, so if any instructions come after what they’re relating to then that’s obviously going to be too late.

Placing instructions first is also crucial for screen magnifier users. Screen magnifier users can only see a small section of the screen at any one time, so if instructions are placed in an out-of-the-way place they’ll likely be overlooked.

Web forms are perhaps the most common type of functionality to contain instructions. Do be sure that any instructions are placed above the form and not below it. Mis-placed instructions usually include explaining which fields are required and error messages.

Large headings

Headings are crucial for all users to find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently. They are however particularly useful for any user that finds it difficult to read online, such as screen magnifier users and those with learning difficulties and dyslexia.

When these users scan through web pages, they’ll often be unable to pick up words and instead will see shapes and colours. By using a large font size for headings, these users will easily be able to spot these important headings.

Focus state for links

Keyboard-only web users can navigate through web pages by tabbing from link to link (and form item to form item). It can however sometimes be difficult to know exactly where you are on the page when relying on the tabbing method. By assigning a background colour to the focus state of each link, it becomes much easier for these users to orientate themselves on the page.

Large link target

Many web users with dexterity problems will use only the keyboard to browse through a website. Some will still continue to use a mouse but with rather limited control, so wherever possible do try increase the area of the link target. This is of course not possible for regular links, but for vertical based navigation lists it’s easy to extend the clickable area to the full width of the column by assigning the style, display: block to each link.

Conclusion

The W3C accessibility guidelines are of course important, but if you want your website to be truly accessible then there’s more that you can do. Following the advice in this article is of course a great start!

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An additional benefit of website accessibility is an improved performance in search engines. The more accessible it is to search engines, the more accurately they can predict what the site’s about, and the higher your site will appear in the rankings.

Not all of the accessibility guidelines will help with your search engine rankings, but there are certainly numerous areas of overlap:

1. ALT descriptions assigned to images

Screen readers, used by many visually impaired web users to surf the web, can’t understand images. As such, to ensure accessibility an alternative description needs to be assigned to every image and the screen reader will read out this alternative, or ALT, description.

Like screen readers, search engines can’t understand images either and won’t take any meaning from them. Many search engines can now index ALT text though, so by assigning ALT text search engines will be able to understand all your images.

2. Text displayed through HTML, not images

Text embedded in images appears pixelated, blurry and often impossible to read for users utilising screen magnifiers. From an accessibility point of view this should therefore be avoided.

Search engines equally can’t read text embedded in images. Well, you can just give the image some ALT text, right? Unfortunately, there’s strong evidence to suggest search engines assign less importance to ALT text than they do to regular text. Why? Spammers. So many webmasters have been stuffing their ALT tags full of keywords and not using them to describe the image. Search engines have cottoned on to this form of spamming (as they eventually do every form of spamming) and have taken appropriate action.

3. Descriptive link text

Visually impaired web users can scan web pages by tabbing from link to link and listening to the content of the link text. As such, the link text in an accessible website must always be descriptive of its destination.

Search engines place a lot of importance on link text too. They assume that link text will be descriptive of its destination and as such examine link text for all links pointing to any page. If all the links pointing to a page about widgets say ?click here’, search engines can’t gain any information about that page without visiting it. If on the other hand, all the links say, ?widgets’ then search engines can easily guess what that page is about.

One of the best examples of this in action is for the search term, ?miserable failure’. So many people have linked to George Bush’s bio using this phrase as the link text, that now when miserable failure is searched for in Google, George Bush’s bio appears top of the search rankings!

4. Website functions with JavaScript disabled

JavaScript is unsupported by about 9% of web users (source: http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2004/November/javas.php), either because they’ve turned it off (for example to prevent pop-up adverts) or because their browser doesn’t support it. Many forms of JavaScript aren’t accessible to web users utilising screen readers.

Search engines can’t understand JavaScript either and will be unable to index any JavaScript-driven content. Perhaps more importantly, they’ll also be unable to follow JavaScript-driven links. You may really like the look of your dropdown menu but search engines won’t if they can’t access certain pages on your site because there aren’t any regular links pointing at them.

5. Alternatives to Flash-based content provided

Flash, like JavaScript, isn’t accessible to many users, including those using screen readers. Equally, search engines can’t access Flash so be sure to provide equivalents.

6. Transcripts available for audio

Hearing impaired users obviously require written equivalents for audio content to be able to access it. Search engines too can’t access this medium, but transcripts provide them with a large amount of text for them to index.

7. Site map provided

Site maps can be a useful tool for visually impaired users as they provide a straightforward list of links to the main pages on the site, without any of the fluff in between.

Site maps are also great for search engines as search engines can instantly index your entire site when they arrive at the site map it. Next to each link you can also provide a short keyword-rich preview of the page. All links should, of course, be made through regular HTML and not through JavaScript (see 4. above).

8. Meaningful page title

When we arrive at web pages the first thing that appears, and the first thing that visually impaired users hear, is the page title. This latter group of web users don’t have the privilege of being able to quickly scan the page to see if it contains the information they’re after, so it’s essential that the page title effectively describes the page content.

If you know anything about search engine optimisation you’ll know that the page title is the most important attribute on the page. If it adequately describes the content of that page then search engines will be able to more accurately guess what that page is about.

9. Headings and sub-headings used

Visually impaired web users can scan web pages by tabbing from heading to heading, in addition to tabbing from link to link (see 3. above). As such, it’s important for accessibility to make sure that headings are correctly marked up by using h1, h2 etc.

Search engines assume that the text contained in heading tags is more important than the rest of the document text, as headings describe the content immediately below them. Make sure you use the heading tags properly and don’t abuse them, as the more text you have contained in heading tags, for example, the less importance search engines assign to them.

10. CSS used for layout

Screen readers can more effectively work through the HTML code of CSS-based sites as there’s a greater ratio of content to code. Websites using CSS for layout can also be made accessible to in-car browsers, WebTV and PDAs. Don’t underestimate the importance of this – in 2008 alone there’ll be an estimated 58 million PDAs sold worldwide (source: http://www.etforecasts.com/pr/pr0603.htm).

Search engines also prefer CSS-based sites and are likely to score them higher in the search rankings because:

The code is cleaner and therefore more accessible to search engines
Important content can be placed at the top of the HTML document
There is a greater density of content compared to coding

Conclusion

With all this overlap between web accessibility and search engine optimisation there’s no excuses for not implementing basic accessibility on to your website. It’ll give you a higher search engine ranking and therefore more site visitors.

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Last week we talked about how a bad website can do your business more harm than good. That column brought several emails asking what is the key to building an effective business website. I replied with the same answer I always give: building an effective business website is a simple matter of definition.

Before the first graphic is drawn or the first line of code is written, you must define the website?s budget, purpose, target audience, design, navigation, and content. And when that?s all said and done you must define the marketing that will bring visitors to your site.

It sounds easy, but you?d be amazed at how many really bad business websites there are out there. Yours might even be one of them. If so, listen up. For nearly ten years now my company has been building and rebuilding websites for every kind of business you can imagine: from mom-and-pops to multinationals. We?ve designed (or redesigned) a couple hundred websites and along the way I have come to the conclusion that most business websites do a pitiful job of working for their owners.

What?s that, you didn?t know your business website should work for you? You think it should just sit on a server somewhere taking up digital space and collecting digital dust?

Wrong. Every website, business or otherwise, must serve a purpose, and that?s usually where most websites falls short. They serve no purpose because the website owner never gave much thought to it. It?s not the website?s fault. A website is inanimate. It is only what you make it. The only life a website has is the one given to it by its designer and owner. If the human element doesn?t do a good job of defining the building blocks, the website will serve no purpose and eventually die a digital death.

Building an effective business website isn?t brain surgery, thank goodness, since that?s how I make a nice percentage of my living. Building an effective, well-designed website that works for its owner, that actually serves a purpose, is all about definition.

Define the Budget
Every website, no matter how large or small, must have a realistic budget, with ?realistic? being the key word. I can?t tell you how many times I?ve sat with a potential client as they listed off the eight million cool things they wanted their website to do, only to find out that their budget was just a few hundred dollars. I always feel like saying, ?Well you just wasted three hundred dollars of my time, so here?s your bill??

Define the Purpose
Every website must have a purpose. Purpose drives everything: the audience, the design, the navigation, the content, and the marketing. I could do an entire column on purpose, but suffice it to say that there are five categories of purpose under which most websites fall: the purpose to inform, to educate, to entertain, to generate leads, to sell, or a combination thereof. If you fail to define the purpose of the website, all else is just wasted effort.

Define the Target Audience
Your target audience refers to that segment of the public that you hope to attract to the site. For example if you sell shoes, your target audience would be anyone with feet. Taking it a step further, if you only sold women?s shoes, your target audience would be women (with feet) Why is defining your target audience so important? If you have no idea who your audience is, how can you expect to design a website that will appeal to them? Your target audience could be customers, investors, job seekers, info seekers, etc. Define your target audience, then figure out how to serve them.

Define the Design
Website design theory has changed over the last couple of years, primarily because the search engines now ignore graphic heavy websites and give preference to those that take a minimalistic approach to design. If you look at some of the big boy websites like GE, Oracle, Raytheon, HP, and others you will see that in many cases the only graphic on the homepage is the company?s logo. Search engines now give higher preference to websites that offer keyword-rich text over flashy graphics. Don?t fight the design trend. You will lose.

Define the Navigation
Bad navigation is the number one reason website visitors abandon a website. Navigation refers to the chain of links the visitor uses to get around your site. If your site has an illogical navigational hierarchy or too few or too many links or is simply impossible to get around, you?ve got problems. We live in a microwave society. We stand in front of the microwave tapping our foot and glaring at our watch wondering why it takes so damn long for a bag of popcorn to pop. Why can?t a three-minute egg be done in thirty seconds? If it takes a visitor more than 3 clicks to get to any page on your site, your navigation needs improvement.

Define the Content
Content refers to the information on your website, be it graphics, text, downloadable items, etc. Since the top search engines no longer use HTML Meta tag data to index websites, it is vital that your website content be text heavy, succinct and well-written to appeal to the search engine spiders.

Define the Build Method
Next, who will build the website for you? Will you do it yourself using one of the point and click website builders or will you hire the kid next door? Will you hire a freelance designer or a professional firm? Budget usually dictates the build method, but be warned, when it comes to website development, you get what you pay for. Sure, the kid next door will throw up a site for you if you buy them a pizza or make your daughter go to the prom with them, but you will end up a with a website that looks like and performs like it was designed by the kid next door.

Define the Marketing
If you build it, will they come? Not on your life, at least not without a good marketing campaign. Your website should become a part of all your marketing efforts, online and off.

Put the website address on your business cards, brochures, letterhead, and all collaterals. Include the address in your ads; print, TV and radio. If you prefer to do online marketing, figure out where your target audience surfs and advertise there.

If marketing is foreign to you, do yourself a favor and call in an expert. Many businesses fail because they simply do not know how to market their products and services effectively. This is also the downfall of most business websites.

Here’s to your success!

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