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Your Web Presence

More Than Just A Website - Create, Share, Engage

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Riverview Homestead Web Presence

The Assignment

Riverview Homestead, a Bed and Breakfast, is a small 2 room B&B located adjacent to the Murrumbidgee River near the ACT in Australia. It is owned and managed by Les and Robyn Beresford.

For some time, Riverview Homestead have offered a country experience within a 1/2 hour drive from the nation’s capital. Besides the wonderful river views, the small farm offers the opportunity to pick hazelnuts in season and spend time relaxing in an idyllic environment.

For the last couple of years, the web presence we developed for Riverview Homestead has provided a constant source of guests from around the globe.

Our Approach

Using our approach to develop your web presence, we captured the vision and requirements for the website to make it topical and relevant.

From there we were able to provide key information for the type of design they required. At the time, it was important that the site be mobile friendly.

The benefits to Riverview Homestead has meant that enquirers can easily find out about the B&B. They can place on-line and telephone enquiries, and make bookings through their mobile devices.

The Design

We researched other sites based on the requirements. Les and Robyn required a simple design that would appeal to people visiting the website with the aim to provide some experience of the property.

We focused on the key elements of the Homestead.

At the time we ensured that photographs were relevant and unique to the business.

We positioned the key information in the appropriate position on the home page so site visitors could quickly access the main points.

The overall website design was practical, reflecting the essence and character of the property and owners.

The Results for Riverview Homestead

Riverview Homestead has a constant stream of guests due to their website.

Riverview Homestead can be easily found on Google.

The website has been vital in connecting with guests globally and locally.

Are you looking for a great country stay close to the heart of Capital? Why not stay at Riverview Homestead? Visit their website today.

Image of the Riverview Homestead Website

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3 Tips To Improve Your Web User Experience WOW Factor

Image of the 3 tips to improve your web user experience with the WOW Factor

In this article I’m going to highlight 3 tips to improve your web user experience with the WOW factor. As a little bit of a teaser it won’t be what you think it is. So let’s get underway.

If you read a lot of web design articles or you are wanting to improve your website you’ll probably get some benefits from this article.

What you will get is three concepts that you need to check for your web presence to make sure your customers and potential customers are engaged and stick around.

Everybody wants their website to have that web user experience WOW Factor

Everybody wants the web user experience WOW factor for their website. You want that feeling that makes you go back time and time again. You want your web visitors to have that same feeling.

The WOW factor usually equates to the appeal of an object, that distinct impression or appeal that an object, behaviour or person has on others.

So here’s a couple of questions when it comes to a website.

  • Is the web user experience WOW Factor related to the look or feel of the website or is it something more?
  • Will a great web design be enough to give the site the WOW factor?

Many times when a business has a website designed, they usually pay a lot of money to have a fantastic graphic design done to engage their current and potential customers.

So when the site goes live, site owners expect lots of people to come to the site and buy things from the site or engage with the site owner for their services.

So here’s what can happen…. You’ve got the great looking site, the visitors get to the site, they get the initial WOW with the look and feel, and then they don’t find anything meaningful that they really want, and then the site visitors are gone elsewhere.

Then you check your stats and end up finding that you’re getting plenty of visitors to the site but not converting people to make the next steps you want, like buying a product or calling for an appointment.

So a great graphic design might give you a “visual” WOW but it won’t give you that “enduring” WOW.  So, there has to be more!

A great looking website is not enough

The Cake - 3 tips to improve your web user experience with the WOW Factor

A web presence and a website are very much like baking a cake.

You need lots of ingredients which need to be added and prepared correctly, and baked at the correct temperature for the right amount of time.

So when someone says you just need a website, that is only one of the ingredients in the whole of a web presence.

There are a lot of other ingredients to be considered, like:

  • image management,
  • minimisation of duplicate content,
  • specific markets,
  • activity measurement,
  • adjustments to better suit my audience,
  • pathways from social media to my site and
  • engagement of my audience over time.

So when someone says,

  • all you need is a great design,
  • all you need is some Search Engine Optimisation,
  • you need to be on Twitter,

or something with some other “secret web sauce”, then think again.

Remember your web presence is like a cake, it needs the right ingredients, to be prepared correctly, baked at the right temperature and for the correct amount of time.

What are the 3 tips to improve your web user experience with the WOW Factor?

So what about the web user experience WOW Factor?  Is it naturally occurring at the hands of the graphic designer, or is there some planning to help you get there?  The visual element is strong for the WOW Factor, I’m not denying that, but what we need for our sites is the enduring WOW Factor.

I came across this great article of how Honolulu International Airport brought the “WOW” Factor back to travel with state-of-the-art LED displays.

It went from this,

Image of the Old School Departure Board at Honolulu Airport
To this.

Image of the new LED Boards at Honolulu International Airport

According to Airport World, environmental graphic design within airports is often not the first thought when looking to boost revenue, but it has a tremendous potential to influence a traveler’s experience. In fact, J.D. Power and Associates, report that happy passengers spend an average 45 percent more than grumpy ones, or $20.55 versus $14.12, on airport retail purchases in shops and eateries.

Source: Honolulu International Airport Brings the “Wow” Factor Back to Travel with State-of-the-art LED Displays

After travelling around 531,057kms around this globe according to TripAdvisor, I have seen my fair share of airports and their information boards, but when I see something like the second picture, the new board at Honolulu, it grabbed my attention.

So here’s what I gleaned as to why it was more than the “technology” that gave it the WOW Factor….

1. Your web user experience has a purpose

“Rather than be just an information board with some departure and arrival times on it, the board has the potential to influence a traveler’s experience – happy travellers spend more money.”

Now put that into the context of your web presence, your website and your social networks.  Is your purpose to sell things or provide information?  Or is your purpose to enrich your site visitor’s life and experience?

Products, services and information should enrich the lives of users. When that happens, they will begin seeing you as the ‘go-to’ site or person.

To be seen as the ‘go-to’ person, make sure you support it by offering quality, free and relevant information for people to get hold of that will assist them in their daily needs.

As an example, you could offer a free download that is highly relevant and helps users with things like guides, tools, or online calculators.  Whatever it takes to benefits the users.

So, it seems to me that the higher purpose is to influence a visitor’s experience.

2. Your web user experience has strong clear goals

“The goal of the project was to provide departure flight information that could be visible throughout each of the two lobbies that are approximately 120-feet in depth.”

So what are the clear goals of your web presence and more so your web user experience? What can you do to improve things?

Do your goals for your web presence align with your business goals?

For your own web presence you need to set SMART goals. SMART stands for:

  • Specific,
  • Measurable,
  • Attainable,
  • Realistic,
  • Time-based.

Some examples of this could be:

  • Add 300 new subscribers to the newsletter over the next 12 months.
  • Increase traffic by 40% in 8 months,
  • Increase sales of an online product by 25% over the next three months,
  • Increase awareness of an online product to encourage 32% more in-store purchases over the next three months,
  • Connect with 10 people per week on Twitter,
  • Increase brand loyalty on Facebook by encouraging fans to write a message of positive feedback per day.

So, how do you make it easy for your site visitors to achieve their goals for coming to the site and your goals?

Here are some important ideas that could help you in the design area for your web user experience,

Customers:

  • Only require two clicks to buy a product
  • Can easily find product information through the search tool
  • Can quickly find detailed product information within two clicks
  • Only need two menu levels to find information on our services
  • Only need to hover over an object to see a high-quality view of an image
  • Can quickly and easily manage their personal information.

These are typical of some activities to help your customers when they visit your site which will help you achieve your goals!

3. Your web user experience provides benefits with additional value ads

“The LED display solutions at Honolulu airport serves as the central traveler communications platform for an improved experience. Additionally, the airport required that there be additional LED real estate space to show additional content of passenger interest, such as a destination city’s weather and a Hawaii tourism video slideshow.”

What you state online as benefits must be reflected in the way you do business. If not people may see you as untrustworthy.

List the benefits that you provide to your customers and live up to those benefits.

Have you considered using allies on your site?  Try using the testimonies of your users and having a link to their services.

When people come to your site they will have several things going on in their mind at the same time.  You may well hold the key to helping them in some other way when they see a referral from one of your customers who may actually have the answer for them.

So there you have it.

The graphical element that gives the web user experience WOW factor can be a quick boost, but what you really want is an enduring WOW factor, and the 3 points mentioned will go a long way to helping you get there.

Where to from here

Besides the design elements of your website, here’s an assignment from reading this article that may help you:

1. Get some outsiders, say close friends, colleagues or customers to go your business web site and answer these questions:

  • Do you understand the purpose of our business?
  • Do you think our business website reflects accurately what we say and do with our business? For either a Yes or No, can you please give me some feedback as to why you answered that way?
  • What benefits do you personally gain from visiting our website?
  • Based on our website, would you do business with us? For either a Yes or No, can you please give me some feedback as to why you answered that way?

This will give you a ‘heads up’ on whether what you are saying and what you are really doing is fully aligned.  And also whether your website and web presence reflect that alignment.

2. When you receive this information, take the time to read what people have said and respond to them with a genuine ‘thank-you’ in some way.

3. Have you specifically ‘written down’ any goals for your web presence? Be specific on the expectations of your web presence. How many people do you want to visit, how many people do you want to sign up to your email program over the next 12 months, and so on.

If you put this information together, analyse it.  It will give you some great insights to your current web presence that will help you improve it and help give it that enduring WOW factor. It will also provide you with valuable information in setting your future online strategy.

 

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Your online presence – 5 tips to improve it

Your online presence – 5 tips to improve it and what you’ll learn in this article.

In this article we discover you, your business or your cause needs more than a web site to be successful online and 5 tips to improve your online presence presence.

Who is this article for?

This article is for people who only have a web site and are questioning the value of doing online activities such as social media to assist their business.

The Problem

Many people who have a typical “bricks and mortar type business” struggle with promoting their business online.

They don’t have the time to keep up with the latest trend of what’s happening because they are doing what they do best, serving their customers by providing exceptional goods and services.

They know they are meant to be doing something or doing more on the web but aren’t sure how to do it. It makes it worse when they turn on the TV and see some advertisement or show talking about a new technology, and they say, “what the…”?

The perception to many is the Internet has a “flocking” mentality, you know, like the flock of birds in the picture.

The flock comes to life out of no where and moves quickly together in several directions and then goes away. They expect that things like social media will go away and it will be just a passing fad so why spend money on it?

Image of Flocking Birds - You need more than a Website to be successful online, 5 tips to improve your online presence Att: John Holmes [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

They have questions like:

  • Facebook, why would I be on that?
  • Google Plus, what’s that?
  • LinkedIn, another social network, and so the story goes.

Myths about being online

For many businesses you can become a little cynical over time. The reality is in those flocks or communities, people talk, people ask questions, people make recommendations, people share stuff.

Whether you like it or not, people are reaching into their pockets and handbags and communicating with their communities.

Q. Are you there in that community to be their first recommendation?

It’s amazing how many statements didn’t stand the test of time, here are some

  • The horse is said to stay but the automobile is a novelty – The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Company, 1903.
  • The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication – William Orton, president of Western Union, in 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell tried to sell the company his invention.
  • Television won’t last, It’s a flash in the pan – Mary Somerville, pioneer of radio educational broadcasts, 1948.
  • Computers in the future will weigh no more and 1.5 Tons – Popular Mechanics, 1949.
  • There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share, No chance. – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, 2007.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/26-shockingly-bad-predictions#.jqmQkaZV6

So now when it comes to being online, lets check out the following statements:

Myth 1 – A web site is all I need

There is one thing everyone seems to agree on when it comes to business and the web, “you need to have a web site”. In the 90’s that was probably the case but the web has moved on.
In this age, a web site is only the starting base, and an important one at that.

Back in the day, you would have advertised through traditional ways such as news print or yellow pages directories.

People found you by following the roadmap to get to your business.

Now imagine before the Internet, you were a business in country town call Joe’s Restaurant and your customer base was mostly people who pulled in off the highway, you would have an ad in the local news for the locals and, you would of put some signs out on the highway, “Eat at Joe’s, next left”!

So, if your customers are people coming from the highway, and there was no sign on the highway, how would you expect people to know where you are?

In today’s environment, a web site is the home base. But it needs signposts on every street to direct people to it, social networks are the streets.

Myth 2 – A couple of ads on Google will get the people coming in droves to your website

Google Ads are an excellent way to attract more visitors to your web site.

If you own a web site, you will be inundated with people who will fill your email with guarantees to get you and your business on top of a Google Search.

I met one person recently who suggested that they paid all this money to a Search Engine Optimisation expert and they didn’t see any value in the service they provided nor did they see any increased business from the efforts.

We’ve found the best way to getter better ranking in Google is this:

“Provide high-quality unique and targeted information relevant to your business and customers” and to stay on top of Google, “keep on providing high-quality unique and targeted information relevant to your business and customers”

Google Ads are a great way to supplement high-quality unique and targeted information relevant to your business and customers. If you target the ads to your content you will see the value of your Google advertisements.

Myth 3 – Facebook and other social networks are fads, just like the “flock” they’ll be gone

More people are moving online, they are “moving into the flock”, in fact, their flock is the online community, like a Facebook, a Pinterest a Redit, etc whether we like it or not.

Some 16 years ago I was part of an organisation moving a government agency online.

They foresaw that people wanted to connect with their services online.

As they serviced a good cross section of the community and age demographics their stuff would need to be easy to use. Some years have passed on now and the interesting thing is the older age demographic have taken up their online services.

So here’s the interesting thing – if the older generations have taken to using technology, they more than likely have engaged in social networks. Now I haven’t talked about their kids or grandkids.

Tech times, journalist Quinten Plummer wrote and article titled “Facebook Losing Teen Audience. Now It’s Just Old People Socialising” and spoke to the reader that Facebook was losing its teen audience, and they were moving to other networks such as Instagram.
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/30603/20150203/faceook-losing-teen-audience-now-its-just-old-people-socializing.htm

That may well be the case, its not going away soon, however, there will always be another network. So if you’re a business is it better watching the flock or moving with the flock? I would prefer to move with the flock.

If I need more than a web site, what is the “more”?

You need an online presence in other word you need a web presence!

A web presence is any place on the internet where you can be found. It can be one or more places such as a web site, a blog, an online store, a podcast, a video channel, a social network, a short messaging service, a forum, or a review.  It’s anywhere online where you can be found.

A web presence is more than just a web site, its the sum of all your online activities working together to help you grow your business. You may have bits and pieces of it but you need it to work like an orchestra, playing together to give this fantastic outcome. To get you thinking about this, here are 5 tips to improve your web presence:

5 Tips to Improve your online presence

1. Be where your customers gather,

People don’t just come and gather at your web site like the corner store  – From what I’ve just shared from the above points its evident there are lots of places to be online.  Without going into brands let’s look at some of those places where you could be connecting with your customers or potential customers

  • Social Networks
  • Short Messaging Services
  • Business Forums
  • Photographic Sites
  • Video Channels
  • Help Desks
  • Web Cam Sites
  • Sound Channels
  • Wiki Sites
  • Review Sites
  • Auction Sites
  • Shopping Sites
  • Review Sites
  • Travel Sites
  • Polling Sites
  • Education and Learning Systems
    and more

That’s an indication of the grouping; within each of those groups there are different brands. Have a think about your own industry within those groups. You can guarantee that within each of those groups you will find likeminded people who will be interested or allied to your products. Its time to start engaging with the audience in each of those groups.

2. People need to discover who you, your business or your cause are

People need to see who you are, what you do and where people can find you. f you have to fill in a profile, make sure you fill in every detail where possible so people can see who you are and understand your personality.

3. Make it easy for people to find you

People need signs and route maps to find you and your business online so be clear.  Make sure you place adequate information online about where your business is use maps.

4. Contribute regularly on your web site, blogs, forums and review sites

People need to see that you are regular contributor – Be consistent online. People need to see that you are out there contributing in a positive way. Being successful on the web requires you to show up regularly

5. Establish and build credibility as the go to person

I’ve had several opportunities to be recognised as credible across my career. Sometime we can think that there is a formula for becoming credible. I don’t think its a formula but its more an attitude and approach to life.

Looking at my career where I had become credible as a technology advisor, I’ve found this:

  1. I was a passionate student, I would learn and suck up any resource to know more and more about the subject, because it really interested me.
  2. My enthusiasm reflected in my work. People hired me due to my passion. The relationships I had built and the work I provided, sustained my re-engagements.
  3. The word got out that I could solve their problem. I love working with people especially when we solved problems together. When we did that, people talked. “Go talk to Chris, he knows his stuff, he can help you”, people trusted my advice.

This was all before I gained any University Qualifications!

The same applies to life online and the community you’re in. Whether you write an article, write a comment, join a forum and connect with people online:

  1. Be passionate, know your stuff
  2. Be enthusiastic, love sharing and helping people with what you know
  3. Be authentic, be the real you and people will see that in the way your write and talk online you’re the real deal!

In closing, living in the online world is ever-changing. Keeping up with the game is an essential element in every business tool kit.

Go out there, engage and make your web presence the best it can be so people are attracted to you your business or your cause.

If you have any feedback on this article, please leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Chris

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EC Perkins 4503

The Assignment

Edward Claude Perkins (EC Perkins 4503 1st AIF 17th Battalion) is recognised as one of the boy soldiers killed in the first world war.

A commemorative was required so that: his story could be shared, his relatives could find out about narrative of his short life and the aftermath and that other people researching boy soldiers could learn more.

Our Approach

Following our process and framework for developing a web presence, we planned and built the website. Being a commemorative website, it was important to relate and reference facts from several sources, being the Australian War Memorial and also other resources such as National Library of Australia.

Agreements were made with the Australian War Memorial to use copyrighted material on the site.

To further inform people about the site, Pinterest, a social media image site has been used as a promotion platform to direct traffic to the site.

The Design

The site had to be clean and simple to navigate. The information was structured around the narrative so people could follow the story easily.

It was important to use graphical images and elements relevant to the story.

An added bonus to the site was for it to be mobile friendly. The colour scheme had to reflect a military presence but not be overtly military in its look and feel.

The Outcome

ECPerkins 4503 has met the goals of informing family members and connecting with people who are interested in the story of a boy soldier in the first world war.

The site has around 300-600 visitors a month.

The Result

An online opportunity for people to know and understand the story of Edward Claude Perkins.

Image of the 4503 ECPerkins website

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Symmetry Electrical

The Assignment

Symmetry provide high-quality Electrical Services. Paul Harmsworth commenced Symmetry Electrical in 2013and required a website to assist in launching his new business. Paul approached us to set his website.

Our Approach

Following our process and framework for developing a website, we planned and produced a site where people would be able to explore services provided by Paul.

The Design

Paul required a mobile first approach so that the site could easily be seen by the potential client base and their access to Internet. We ensured that photographs were relevant and unique to the Symmetry’s services.

The Outcome

Paul’s website has become a valuable resource for people searching for electrical services around Canberra and the ACT.

The Result

Symmetry Electrical’s website!

Image of the Symmetry Electrical Services Website