Mobile Web Apps make life easier!

Web is about convenience. People these days are overloaded with things to do in their day and they do not want to have to think or work things out. If you have a simple fast online service and it enables people to do that things they need to quickly, your in the money!

While we were out for a walk and breakfast the other day i decided to book my flights to New Zealand before it got too late. Upon going to the Air New Zealand website i find that it did not load up a mobile version. I was shocked. A company like this with such a good online booking system and good web presence did not have an automated mobile version of their site. So i tried to use the normal site from my iPhone 4. Some of the fields in the search box would not work with my browser. So i thought, ok i will try the Webjet website because they display all airlines and being a web business they will surely have a mobile version. Sure enough they did! However, it said in small print that i had to login to be able to use the site!! So i tried to login and i got all sorts of weird scripts showing on my phone. I gave up. Later i tried my wife's Samsung S2 out of curiosity on the Air New Zealand site and found i could use the normal site with her phone, albeit hard work.

Both Air NZ and Webjet are two reputable businesses with good online presence. But they are sadly missing the point of web. When we are busy we try to fit things in to our day so we don't forget them later. In my case it was a matter of simply booking some flights while i was out for my exercise and breakfast.

Mobile web is nothing new these days and it is only increasing. If you offer a leisure service or a product that people might want to view on a phone, you should be thinking about mobile web apps. Mobile web applications get away from having to provide updates for downloadable apps and sites can be updated daily. They also do not incur the cost of the mobile app platforms which often charge quite a percentage to deliver them to your audience.

Congratulations to National Australia Bank (NAB) - they have a wonderful mobile web app for their service and moved away from traditional downloadable apps. Using this mobile website is very easy and simple.

The future is web and the future is mobile.

Back-link, don't schmuck-link!

Lately i am asked alot by customers how they can improve their search results in Google. Many have done their own research and found ways to try to improve this but, like most people in today's world, they want short cuts. (We are not talking about Adwords here, because paying for placement is fair enough and actually takes some effort.)

There are companies promising all sorts of things for improving your Google search results. Statements like "first page ranking for $99!", "get thousands more visits to your site!", "how to increase your visits and make more money now!" etc etc. These adverts promise the world and have no foundation.

Recently a 'new' website service has reared its head on the scene promising similar things with a slight twist. SocialMonkee.com - this site is what the owner calls a 'Back-link Builder'. Backlinks are inbound links to your website, which increase your online relationships. It is one of the main ways to improve search rankings for your website. Building up credible back-links requires authentic relationships with other businesses by using referral links relating to service or supply and often in the same or similar market. Social Monkee does this for you without you needing to know anyone! It has its own social bookmarking sites, which it generates links from and to your site. Whether these sites have any real relevance to the market is not in the equation. I can't see Google tolerating this for long as it goes against what Google is trying to achieve, even if Google's criteria is met legally. It's cheating the system whichever way you look at it.

Other Backlink builders do similar, promising posts on blogs and forum sites with links back to your website. They say things like " these are permanent links and will never be removed.." which is total rubbish. Lots of forums and blogs don't let you post links.. or they remove them if they use it as a back-link post. If they didn't all blog owners would get is bogus comments and false posts from web bots or people fudging the system.

Hiding content, using unrelated back-links and making bogus posts with your company web address will only get you black listed or give you a bad reputation. Even if you can rise to the top of searches in some quick way, when viewers arrive, the quality content will not be there and so they will not stay or use you. Eventually viewers will work out your site is false in its claims.

To be found well, write for your audience. Use words they use online and in your market. Give your customers what they want and not want you want to give them. Relate your website to other websites in the market with reciprocal linking and post a regular concise blog to add value.

Ever heard the saying.. "nothing worth having comes easy" ?.. same online.

5 Rules to a Successful Website

1. Make it convenient

Convenience rules our world. It's the one thing that is more important than "cost". If its easier than something similar, they will use it. So, use a simple domain your audience can remember, provide the address on your email, cards, brochures etc. Provide the address of any online tools in literature or maybe supply an App they can download that specifically sources or delivers information for them. Anything you can do to help your audience easily find you, see you or use your service is seen as being convenient.

2. Provide value

Provide service or information that helps customers speed up what they need to do. You must do this over and above what others provide as a normal service and/or over and above a service you may charge for. Giving customers something that truely helps them for no extra charge gains trust. Self help tools are good but they need to be easy to use, work all the time and stay current.

3. Make it easy

When you're doing 1. and 2. well, don't ruin it by asking customers to login or something equally annoying. Equally, make your site easy to use by doing pre-live user testing. This does not need to be expensive or long winded - ask your neighbour, parents or kids to carry out predefined tasks that you have determined your customers might do on your website. Make it easier than your competitors, help customers do what they want to do quickly and they will talk about you as a market leader. Make your website a pleasurable self-help experience.

4. Don't copy competitors

Remember what your teacher used to tell you about copying someone else in a test? The person you choose to copy could be wrong. Just because most other competitors in your market do similar things online, it does not mean they are right. Unlike Offline, Online is still a mystery to many companies so they tend to copy principles used elsewhere. These date fast and were often never right anyway. In my experience, many companies online are not doing things correctly for their audience. Don't be one of these!

5. Do the basics - do not experiment

If you're a manager charged with heading a website project, any success you might achieve online will be largely to do with your willingness to do or help with what it is your customers need to do. Business websites are 99% destinational - they are tools that support and supplement your business offering offline. Websites are not experimental projects where you can afford to waste money on designs to please your boss or yourself. Find the truth, ask your audience and follow these principles. And remember, good things take time, make small tweaks to your site every few weeks and measure the results and re-tweak. This is how those good sites became so nice to use.