“My son’s website is absolutely wonderful”

Posted by Dave CollinsWebsite Usability

We all like praise from our parents, but should you be looking at them to critique your website? Better still, ask a friend. Better still, ask a client or customer. Better still, ask a potential client or customer who didn’t buy what you sell. Best of all, look in your Analytics account. You’ll find plenty of answers, and unfortunately plenty … Read More

Amazon’s navigation simplicity – only in the UK?

Posted by Dave CollinsWebsite Usability

If you’ve ever heard me speak about website design, there’s a good chance you’ll have heard me mention Amazon. Among other things, their website is a great example of simplicity. At least superficially. I’ve always been impressed that despite an astonishingly large number of items for sale, their main navigation contains only 12 items: As someone who works extensively with … Read More

SEO disaster

Posted by Dave CollinsSEO

I remember with fondness the good old days of Search Engine Optimisation. When I could optimise a client’s web page and see the results within a few days. Today that’s changed. Today SEO has become more difficult and potentially more dangerous than in the good old days.

Once an idito, always an idito

Posted by Dave CollinsMarketing, Website Usability

You only get one chance to make a first impression. Get it wrong and you’ll never be able to completely shake it off. At best you’ll be the person who walked on stage with toilet paper stuck to his shoe who actually gave a good presentation. But year’s later you’ll still be remembered as the toilet paper guy. If my … Read More

Perfect Website Equilibrium (looking good isn’t enough)

Posted by Dave CollinsMarketing, Website Usability

Finding the right company to design or radically overhaul a website is incredibly difficult. It shouldn’t be, but it somehow is. In theory you just need to find someone who can produce what you want for a reasonable price. But all too often you’ll find companies who don’t reply to emails, don’t read the brief you send them, can’t follow … Read More

Interruption versus While-You’re-Here Marketing

Posted by Dave CollinsMarketing

Neil Davidson recently wrote an interesting post on Interruption Marketing: Rumors of its Death have been Greatly Exaggerated: “It’s hard to interrupt us, but it can be done. Not by being loud, but by being different. Be witty, tell a story, and tell it to us when we want to be interrupted, and you can leap out from the clutter.“ Google … Read More

Does facebook advertising work?

Posted by Dave CollinsGeneral

Despite the obvious popularity of facebook, their future rests on two factors, both of which lie partly out of their control. The first is their ability to make money from a great idea. The web may have changed the delivery method and reach of interesting ideas, but the fundamental law of business still applies. Profit is required. The second is … Read More

Poke the box is bad for you

Posted by Dave CollinsMarketing

Seth Godin’s new book, Poke the Box, is annoying me. The main criticism I hear of his ideas is that although they’re  brilliant, they’re not practical. Interesting but not actionable. This is true. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Seth speak twice, speaking with him and grinning like an idiot with him once, and have read most of his books. … Read More

Poor support is worse than no support

Posted by Dave CollinsGeneral

I recently bought a new version of an application that securely remembers my passwords and logins. The problem is that it keeps crashing my browser. I brought it to the company’s attention on January 27th. They claim to have fixed the issue five times, but this hasn’t been the case. Their latest piece of advice came on February 21st – … Read More