Foreword: Kev - I have over 50+ blog post titles/ideas I've been saving this past year (but not got around to actually blogging due to personal reasons). This topic reflects the basic ideas I had in mind and a big thanks goes to Matt Chatterley of Mattched IT for picking up the pieces with this guest post.

This one in particular should strike a chord with many businesses and website owners. Although just a brief intro to some of the issues websites present us with, the underlying points are common but often ignored.

If you have a passion for blogging and would like to contribute as a guest blog post, please get in touch.
Well, let's get on with the story shall we, I'll pass you over to the capable hands of Matt.

Websites Should Come With A Health Warning!

It's true. You may not believe me right now, but sooner or later you will. Websites, particularly your own business website, which you look after, can seriously damage your health.

There is a tendency to strive for perfection which, while laudable and to some extent necessary, can lead to frustration and even undue stress if approached in the wrong way.

To take an example, many is the small business owner who has a reasonable website, which, they have put together using one of the many available packages - or had built for them at relatively low cost, which they now maintain.

Eating into your business time

Tweaking and adjusting the website can quickly become almost a daily activity not only eating into precious business time but also turning the entire site into a virtual set of moving goalposts.

Often these changes are cited as "SEO" improvements - whereas in reality, "SEO" may not even be the area most deserving of focus. Ultimately a website which gets ten hits a day and generates three sales could be said to be out-performing one which gets a hundred hits and six sales!

Managing your online presence

Obviously as a software developer and Director of a Web Development agency, I have a vested interest in convincing business owners that they should employ us to build, maintain and manage their online presence. However, it isn't simply because we're better at it than they are (must be careful not to inflate my ego too much).

Objective viewpoint

An external viewpoint with less emotional attachment to a business, website or concept, is more likely to lend itself to an analytical approach - one which lets us review the current situation, determine sets of changes which may produce an improvement and then to make and measure those changes accordingly.

Test, test, test and test some more

If you take nothing else away from this post, make sure you're familiar with "Split Testing" - sometimes something as simple as changing the colour of an arrow can have a dramatic effect.

But I digress! Why a health warning? Get back to the point, man! Imagine a hamster - spinning like crazy in its wheel - the poor little thing isn't going to get anywhere soon. If you change a website daily without tracking and measuring changes, you're doing the same thing - and all you'll achieve is burning yourself out, without making even half the progress you could do.

So read the warning on the label, don't get obsessed or too emotionally attached. At the end of the day, we're all in business for the same fundamental reason - to make money - and your website is almost certainly a tool to that effect. Treat it with the respect you would any tool or utensil - and don't get burnt!

Matt also runs his own business with Steve at MattchedIT as
Web Developers in Hampshire, so be sure to check us all out over there too.

Final Words: - Kev
This topic will be an issue until we all get telepathic implants and are wired up to a central net such as The Borg. The quest for improving is a long road with a fair few bumps in the road (or potholes depending on where you live!)

It's important to take an objective view now and then to discuss specific parts of your website and how you can maximise the results. However as Matt pointed out, there is no point if you are not measuring the results!

Would you like to write a guest blog post?

If you would like to write a guest blog post for MultiLayer Design or for Kev, please get in touch. Of course link lurve is given in return.

Comments

1

Kev
6th August 2010 at 6:08PM

Thanks Matt :), its quite uncanny how we think almost alike lol

Will try and get Steve to join in on the guest blog posts next heheh :)

2

Adam
7th August 2010 at 12:42PM

I'm certainly guilty of making little changes and letting them eat up valuable time But I cant help it..

If I see something that's not quite right I have to put it right even though 99% of people wont have noticed that it was wrong or has been changed.

I've never split test tiny little changes though. I know it's wrong so don't seen the point in testing it..

I suspect that's where it's good to have an external viewpoint.

3

Matt Chatterley
13th August 2010 at 12:18PM

Adam - re split testing it does depend to some extent. Split testing is most important when decision to buy is involved in the page.

Even the smallest change can make a big difference - there are some really good stories about how even changes, which SHOULD improve things can make them worse floating around.

The main challenge is getting the architecture to split-test in place then it becomes easier and part of your process to test changes.

4

Adam
13th August 2010 at 12:22PM

Something I need to look at :p

5

Scott
25th January 2011 at 10:27AM

I have old friends fr[x]om college and the like who are dabbling in website ownership and development and it is hard for them not to[x] get attached and keep tinkering with it. I try and tell them that they should only test or change one thing at a time over a period of time to[x] test its impact but in practice I know this is hard to[x] do.

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