Expert talks about maximizing Web sites

Francis Morris, CEO of AskMorris Inc., discussed how to maximize Web site performance at an American Chamber of Commerce workshop held yesterday at Shangri-La's Far Eastern Plaza Hotel.

"Industry experts," said Morris, "understand that a truly successful Internet marketing program does not only involve attracting customers but also retaining them."

To achieve better results, Morris recommended understanding Web site usability from the customer's perspective. "Often, teams come up with what, in their view, are really good designs, but the end-user has difficulties or does not like navigating the site."

Marketing departments still have to be told to work closely with professionals in IT. "This requires constant supervision," said Morris. "IT departments may add firewalls or other security measures that slow downloads considerably.

"Marketing staff may not understand that this is affecting user satisfaction if they are not checking out their own sites on a regular basis. Today, most users will move on if they have to wait more than three seconds."

When beginning a Web site, Morris believes that the people involved need to understand where the company is and, only then, determine where it needs to go. "If you do not do this," he said, "you will not have a way to benchmark your results. You have to also understand whether your primary goals are to educate the customer about your products and services, attract new customers or sell products and services."

Morris also reminded the gathering of AmCham business executives that not all users will be accessing the Web site from Internet Explorer or from computers with the dimensions of flat-panel displays. "In many countries, Firefox and Opera are very popular, and some users may prefer to download information on their PDAs or they may be using older computers."

Key to maximizing sales, he continued, is enabling the user to actually complete the purchase. "One study found that 75 percent of shoppers stop because of difficulties in entering the required information. Think of what companies could achieve if they reduced this by even 10 percent."

Web metrics like Web server logs and Web analytic software can provide the necessary information to enable companies to determine whether their Web sites are working properly. This helps companies determine how many users are visiting, what information they are looking for, whether they have difficulty completing transactions, how useful help sections are and how much time they are spending on each page.

Two common tools, said Morris, are Analog and Webalizer. While both are open source, Morris finds graphics and data mining less than desirable with the former despite the fact that it is easier to download. That said, Analog can provide almost too much information. "It overwhelms," said Morris.

Morris also pointed out that understanding the terms involved is the key. "Hits," he explained, is more relevant when evaluating server load, not user visits.

It is also important to structure Web sites so that searches of key words lead potential customers to the site. "Remember though that this happens only with text," said Morris. "That link will not occur if the information is contained in an image file." One neat trick to avoid having e-mails of company contacts "harvested" by spammers is, he said, to put those emails in just such an image file.

Finally, to enable site assessments, pages should not contain too much information. "If you have lengthy text on one page," said Morris, "it makes it difficult to analyze how users are responding to your message."