A great question was recently asked on an online forum my company implemented, which I often participate and help moderate:

“Lately I have been hearing people talk about having their websites done on a Wordpress platform so they can make quick changes on their own. Is anyone doing this? If so, is it as easy as others are making it sound? Are there any other benefits to switching over? ”

WordPress (WP), which is the tool or technical engine we use for this blog and many others we develop, is a great option to consider not just for the development of blogs but also for the creation of robust web sites as well. We have developed quite a few sites already using this tool and including the amazing and upcoming site of: Alan & The Gang.
Here are some of the pros and cons whether to use Wordpress to create robust web sites:

Pros:

1. Allow the site owner to publish their own content updates and create new pages. Most such content changes may then be accomplished by a non-technical person.


2. Easier ways of integrating video and audio podcasting.


3. Give complete flexibility to your technical team to design the site to have a unique and outstanding look and feel that does not resemble a blog structure at all.


4. Enable easier interface with RSS so visitors may subscribe to automatically receive your site updates.


5. Take advantage of Wordpress improvements to advance your site functionality.


6. Gain access to a WP community to learn new ideas and implement new software functionality via plugins.


7. Empower yourself with the ability at your leisure to quickly publish revised and new content on your site.

Cons:

1. Security is the biggest issue from my perspective. WP sites are possibly easier to hack into than other sites. I therefore recommend you do update your site and install security patches often.


2. When you update to the latest version of WP, some of your installed software functionality programs (plugins) may not work anymore.


3. The need to update the software and plugins often.


4. You must become familiar with the plugins concept to avoid the possibility of installing harmful code on your site. If you are not sure, read this horror story.


5. May become time consuming to stay on top of the necessary knowledge.


6. Updating the content does require some technical knowledge which not all people are apt to do.


7. Although it may seem that a non-technical user may be able to use this tool, don’t fool yourself. There are many issues that require the knowledge of an expert and when one is used this point should be place in the pros section above.


8. Backing up a worpress site is a bit more complicated than a static site since it contains databases. As basic as this sounds, do not underestimate the importance of backing up your site on a daily basis.

Upon review of probably thousands of web sites over the years, I have come to the conclusion that in order for your organization to be successful on the Internet, 3 key elements must be accomplished to generate such success:

Design: Your site ought to be professionally designed, attractive and engaging and be easy to navigate in order to quickly gain the visitors’ attention and interest. Good use of images is important as well as the use of action shots of you with your clients.

Content: Your site must focus on your visitors’ interest and addresses the question of what’s in it for them and how to improved their businesses and lives. To accomplish this, strong content must be developed in the form of products, services, and intellectual property while constantly evolving.

Strategy & Tactics: What should the business look like and how should it position itself online. What Internet components are critical to make the business a success. How should you reach and communicate with your current and future customers? Should they be able to purchase products, read articles, subscribe to newsletters, communicate through blogs and online communities?

With that in mind, please review the chart below and notice the obvious at the points of interaction of the circles:

1. The Missing Map – This organization has a site that is well designed with great content yet no defined strategy and tactics to create an Internet success. It’s like driving a great car without a GPS system or an effective map to follow. You’ll be wondering why you are not reaching your destination.


2. The Ugly Book Cover – This organization has a site that has great content and powerful and effective strategies and tactics yet the site is poorly designed and navigated. Most visitors would either close their browsers or press the back button to go to their previous site.


3. The Boring Show – This organization has a site that reminds me of going to see a theater show that was well advertised and promoted with great and colorful posters. Yet when you get to finally watch it, there is nothing there. Just a terrible and boring show. Some site unfortunately suffer from the same syndrome.


4. Success - This organization is reaping the most benefits of effective web strategies. Any missing element and success is either delayed or non-existent. Yet when all three circles and elements intersect that ultimate success is achieve.

Where are you?

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

In an article I wrote some time ago, To infinity & beyond – Nine practical techniques to take your web site to the next level, I emphasized the importance of effectively testing your web site. This means that you need to test your site not only when you are ready to launch it for the first time but also when you make frequent changes to it. Let me show an example:

You may already know that when typing a web address in your browser you may save the amount of keystrokes and elect to take a shortcut. This means that you do not need to include the “http://www.” or the “www.” before the domain name. So for example, if I wish to enter this blog name in my browser I may type “chadbarr.com” instead of “www.chadbarr.com” or instead of the entire “htttp://www.chadbarr” which is often used by many.

Some time ago, a colleague recommended I check the blog by David Meerman Scott who also wrote the book The New Rule of Marketing & PR which I highly recommend. I launched by browser and typed “webinknow.com” and got this error screen suggesting the domain name I type was not found:

Upon further search on Google I found the blog I was looking for:

I then realized that the person who set up the blog did not take into consideration setting it up in such a way that enables visitors to type the shortcut into your browser. No big deal you may say, and although I may slightly agree, why not make it easy for your visitors to find your sites and reduce the chance of annoyance or creating the wrong assumption that your site is down or does not exist?

I then decided to visit David’s main site. When I got to his home page (as displayed below) I  was unable to click on the top right two links which are the Blog and Bio options although they both worked on the interior pages.

This error is quite common in my experience and I am not suggesting that I am immune of it in our own work. But I do suggest however is that if it happens to the best of us it may happen to you as well. Why not take the extra few seconds and test your sites thoroughly and on an ongoing basis?

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

The blah factor is my fancy technical term to describe web sites (not blogs) that have way too much text on their home page. I came across the site below and am depicting it as an illustration of the ubiquitous nature of this problem on the web. During my speaking engagements I often compare and show effective home pages to highway billboards and/or the front cover of most effective books. You only have a few seconds to grab your audience attention and establish credibility. This is not going to happen with vast amount of text and words to convey your message. Remember in this case: “Less is more.” I recommend you significantly reduce the amount of text on your home page, replace it with engaging and professional images or sections, with powerful sound bytes to grab attention that entice the visitor to click, learn more and explore.

The three screen shots below represent the scrolling through the home page of this site that its main focus is to help you become more productive with your time management issues. I suggest they help us become more productive by eliminating most of the text and getting a grip of their home page.

1. It provides another serious and viable option to traditional marketing, which is already and successfully being utilized by the vast majority of organizations.

2. It enables individuals (Customers, suppliers, your staff) to interact with each other, share their experiences of using the products and services, create additional exposure and buzz.

3. It is often quick and rapid to implement.

4. It is often quite economical.

5. It reaches beyond borders and with global exposure.

6. It creates a virtual 24×7 salesman.

7. It allows your customers to interact with you at their convenience.

8. It enables your customers to get instant answers to their questions.

9. Dramatically improve your time to market, which means, leverage the Internet to rapidly introduce and launch new products and services.

10. Stay better connected with your customers, suppliers and your own organization.

11. When the first car was introduced, there were probably quite a few people rejecting the new technology and insisting they keep using their horse. As Henry Ford said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse.” Are you the one to embrace technology or reject it?

12. One of our clients that sells large and expensive machinery used to have to take pictures of their inventory, print them and FedEx them to interested buyers. The buying decision took days or weeks to be made. Then came digital cameras and email, and we expedited the process significantly. And then came a fully integrated web site that enabled the customer to make an instant buying decision.

13. We have just scratched the surface with what is available to be done with the Internet and how to strategically use it to grow our business. Don’t find yourself left behind.

I just spent a couple of terrific days in Rhode Island where I delivered my speech on “Successfully leveraging the Internet to Drive Value to Your Customers” to the current class of Dr. Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting College. One of the items I covered during my speech was how to create instant credibility with your web site. More on that in a future article I will be writing. In the mean time, the key components as I see to create such credibility are: your intellectual property, case studies, your clients’ testimonials, description of the positive results your client receive from working with you and your clients’ list. See chart below:

After my speech and before dinner, we all assembled in Alan’s suite and got to brainstorm and discuss some great topics, while hearing some great stories over red wine. I pulled out my flip video, shot some great ones and uploaded them to YouTube and Alan’s blog. Here is a great sample about asking for referrals:

To see the rest, check out the following links. You are sure to enjoy them, I promise:Click here for the boom box story.

Click here for seven more videos.

Click here for the frog story.

I don’t get the thinking with web sites that incorporate the concept of “Under Construction” or “Coming Soon” pages. Some sites I visit incorporate these pages to attempt and let us know that these pages are going to be released soon. Some do that on their home page thus suggesting that the entire site will be launched soon. When I see such pages here is what crosses my mind:

1. You are wasting my time navigating your site, thus aggravating me.


2. You are telling me that you are unable to meet your own deadlines and finish your commitments.


3. Marketing your own company is not a priority for you.


4. The methods you and your Webmaster are using are amateurish.


5. There is a good chance these pages will never change.

Here are my recommendations:

1. Finish developing all the content necessary for all pages on your site and only then should you launch your site.


2. Eliminate all pages from your site that content is not ready yet.


3. If you can commit and guarantee that the pages or your entire site will be available on a certain date, it is ok to announce the following: “Thank you for visiting this page, please check back on xx/xx/xx when this page will be launched.”

The examples below not only illustrate my points above, but they also demonstrate business negligence. These pages have been there for over a year. I suggest they either take the page or site down or complete writing the content.

(click on images to enlarge):

Do you still use the phone book to find a company’s phone number? I personally forgot what one looks like and prefer to save the drawer space for other use. Instead, I rely on the Internet to get phone numbers when I need to contact a given organization. I find it irritating and surprising when companies make it a real challenge to be able to contact them. When I tried reaching AT&T the other day, there was no easy way for me to contact them from their home page. I had to spend the time navigating the site and aggravating myself before finding their phone number. Verizon makes it easier as they enabled the “Contact Us” link at the bottom left of the screen. Apple truly got it! They display the phone# as well as easy links to contact them.

How easy is it to contact you by phone or email or even get your address?

Take a look at the examples below or visit our web site for an effective example.

(click on images to enlarge):

When visiting web sites, how often do you click on a link which takes you to another site? Probably quite often you would answer since this is the basic foundation to how the world of the Internet works. But when clicking on that link, does the next page open in the same browser window or a new one?

Make sure your web master does the following: When developing the navigation for your site, all available links within your own site should open in the same browser window. Opening your own site in multiple browser windows is not only a poor design error but also irritating to the visitor. However, if you decide that you must link to other sites from your own web site, make sure you open up the link in a separate browser window while keeping your site open in the current window. This logic will enable the user to visit the new site, and when closing that window or tab they will be returned to your site which is still open. Otherwise, they are gone and probably will not be back.

Click here for an example of a hyperlink to another browser session and click here for an example of a hyperlink in the same browser window. (You will have to press the go back arrow to return to this page.)

WYSIWYG – This popular acronym (pronounced “wiz-ee-wig”) has become popular when screen graphic presentations become virtually identical to those when printing or displaying them on the web. For example, the way you design your screen graphic presentation in a word document will be identical if printed or published to the web. I would however like to caution you that a serious issue might exist distorting your web site and creating what I call the WYSINAWYG syndrome. “What you see is NOT ALWAYS what you get.”

When was the last time you or your web development partner decided to test your site to make sure it properly displays and works through the major web browsers and even some older browsers? If you think this may not be a big issue, you should read the rest of this post.

We always attempt to take advantage of the latest in programming languages that is available to us when developing web sites for our clients. We also focus on the latest and greatest in browser technology. I come to realize that this might create serious challenges with individuals using older technologies who are not quick to upgrade their software and Internet browsers.

Below are three screen-capture examples from David Newman’s blog. Notice the books on the right hand side displaying properly in Microsoft Internet Explorer browser (click on images to enlarge):

In the next display using the Mac Safari browser, notice that only four books are showing on the right hand side and several are actually missing:

Below is the example using the Firefox browser, which happens to be my default and favorite browser. Notice that the books are displaying diagonally from right to left and are actually distorting the text of the post:

Here is an interesting chart showing that the most popular browsers are Microsoft IE7, IE6 and Firefox (which is constantly gaining popularity.)

Which brings me to my final point and recommendation that you test your web site(s) using these top browsers as well as Safari. Or you too may be surprised that what you intended to be shown is not correctly shown.