Failing to address their audience on the Internet

September 22nd, 2007

Advertising Agencies are not the only culprits. There are many types of organizations that fail in their approach to using the Internet. In this post we are defining failure as not understanding what your audience wants and needs–information.

In a recent post at Web Ink Now titled Advertising agency websites: Digital masturbation David Meerman Scott makes a clear case why ad agencies have it wrong when it comes to their own web sites. Many times they also have it wrong when it comes to the web sites they design and develop for clients. Since ad agencies have made their bread and butter in the mediums of print and television it only makes sense that the would take what they know “works for them” in those mediums and apply it to the Internet. Problem is that this approach simply doesn’t work because the web is a different beast. It is a dynamic, hyperlinked medium that is in constant growth.

Ad agencies are not the only guilty party with regard to not “getting it.” Architecture, Graphic Design, and even Web Design firms are guilty and tend to follow a formulaic approach that most emulate–visit our web site so we can tell you how cool we are and at the same time stroke our egos. Now stroking egos is o.k. (think press releases about winning industry awards) as long as its balanced with content potential clients may need. The irony is that these organizations are versed in communications to a great degree and in this medium most tend to fail at being effective.

People visiting your website are looking for information. You do not have to capture their attention with “bells and whistles” because you already have their attention–they are at your website! You need to immediately offer answers to their questions and easy ways for them to explore to find what they want and need.

Presenting information on the Internet does not, and should not, be devoid of any style or artistic flair. Style and a distinct artistic approach enhances any web site and allows it to stand out in the “sea-of-sameness.” In particular when dealing with assessing graphic and web design firms the “look” of their web site may be the ultimate deciding factor.

However, if the style of your website is getting in the way of the substance it may be time to consider a redesign.

President of HamiltonBerchman Recognized as Founding Memeber of AIGA Regional Chapter

September 21st, 2007

AIGA, American Institute of Graphic Artists, recognized Bert Mahoney, Principal and Creative Director of HamiltonBerchman Design Group, Inc., as a founding member of AIGA’s newest regional chapter located in Santa Barbara, CA. Bert is also an AIGA Board memeber as the Director of Internet Strategy. For more on AIGA, visit www.aiga.org.

About HamiltonBerchman
HamiltonBerchman Design Group helps organizations increase their relevance by designing and developing custom web-based communications and is dedicated to developing a personal and responsive relationship with every client. HamiltonBerchman was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Ojai, CA with their team of professionals positioned in Portland, Austin, Orlando and Poland. www.hamiltonberchman.com

Design Details - September 2007

September 2nd, 2007

Volume 01 // Number 09

September 2007

In this issue

• School Has Started
• The Google Question
• A Founding Member
• Find of the Month

Hi,

This email newsletter comes to you in our never-ending pursuit of helping our friends and clients succeed because your success is our success.

School Has Started

My life is centered around education. Although I am not an educator in the true sense of the word, my wife is a teacher and two of my 3 children are in school. Needless to say its a busy time of year for me when schedules change and flexibility is very important. Things will settle down in a couple of weeks but every year when we go through this transition it makes me reflect on how well I am using my time, how well I handle the unexpected and to fine tune my ability to “go with the flow.” So for those of you experiencing this in your lives right now, I’m with you. And for those of you not experiencing this in your immediate lives, try to show a little kindness and understanding to the co-worker or neighbor as they get through this period.

The Google Question

Recently someone asked me with a puzzled look and a sense of urgency in their voice, “How long does it take for my website to show up in Google?” I asked them how long their website has been online. Why?

Because that is one of the keys to determining the answer. They told me their website had been online for 2 weeks and they were worried because when they typed the name of their website into a Google search box their site did not show up in the results—at all.

So, how long does it take for a website to show up in Google? It typically can take a couple of months. To have your website show up on the first page of search results is an entirely other matter that involves the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I will cover that topic in a future edition of DesignDetails but for now we will focus on getting your site to show up at all.

Search engines use pieces of software, coined “spiders”, that continuously crawl websites and catalog their information. That information is stored and then shows up as the results of your searches on any Internet search tool. The spiders index billions of web pages and it is inevitable that some of them will get missed. When they miss a website it is most likely for the following reasons:

• The site isn’t well connected through multiple links to other sites on the web.
• The site launched after the most recent crawl was completed.
• The design of the site makes it difficult for the spider to effectively crawl its content.
• The site was temporarily unavailable when we tried to crawl it or we received an error when we tried to crawl it. 1

For these reasons it is hard to answer the question, “How long does it take for my website to show up in Google?” Since their website has only been online for 2 weeks it is likely that the search engine spiders have not found the website yet. The inevitable next question is, “Well how do I make it happen faster?”

There are ways to “speed up” the process. The first is to submit your website address (URL) directly to the major search engines and to the Open Directory Project (DMOZ). DMOZ is a directory that many search engines use as the source for, or supplement to, their own data.

There are companies that offer website submission services for a fee, but you can do this for yourself for free. Many companies tout that they will submit your site into thousands of search engine directories. But really, at least domestically, people are using only the major search engines.

Here are some places to submit your website:

• Submit your website to DMOZ
• Submit your website to Google
• Submit your website to Yahoo
• Submit your website to MSN

Ultimately, you need a little patience to see your website listed on the search engines. The good thing is, once it is indexed the first time, the spiders will come back to visit again to see if you have updated your website. If your website is updated, the data is then updated in the search engines.

Let me know if you have any questions about the art and science of search engines, submitting websites, and improving your results.

1The list of reasons referenced at Google’s webmaster help center.

A Founding Member

A few weeks ago I was invited to attend a meeting in Santa Barbara, CA. The meeting was called to recognize the founding members of the newest chapter of AIGA, AIGASB or AIGA Santa Barbara. I had been a member of the Los Angeles chapter, the closest to me, but now have joined Santa Barbara which is much closer.

For those of you who do not know what AIGA is—from the AIGA website:

AIGA, the professional association for design, is the place design professionals turn to first to exchange ideas and information, participate in critical analysis and research and advance education and ethical practice. AIGA sets the national agenda for the role of design in its economic, social, political, cultural and creative contexts. AIGA is the oldest and largest membership association for professionals engaged in the discipline, practice and culture of designing.

I have been a member of AIGA since I incorporated HamiltonBerchman and believe strongly in its purpose and mission. Design is such a critical component of our modern world. It provides a context for understanding, a tool to help the exchange of ideas, and communication to the masses. I feel its importance cannot be denied and goes largely unnoticed by the world at large. By working together with other AIGA members we help raise consciousness for the profession of design and its impact on, and importance in, all our lives.

Finally, Find of the Month

In Every issue we share an Internet destination we have come across that has some application to doing business, getting things done, or just plain cool. This month it’s Basecamp. We’ve known about Basecamp for years, have used it intermittently, and have now started to use it to manage all our projects in studio. Basecamp is a web-based project management and collaboration software tool. It allows you and anyone you invite to collaborate on a project. Basecamp does offer a free option for managing a single project, and beyond that requires a monthly subscription based on the number of projects you are managing. Basecamp creators 37Signals also have other web-based software solutions: Highrise, Backpack, Campfire, Ta-Da List, and Writeboard.

If you happen to sign up for one of their accounts options, we would appreciate you letting them know we referred you. All you do is enter our referral code in the sign-up form. Our code is “hbdg”—thanks!

That’s it for this month of DesignDetails. We’ll talk to you again in October.

Here’s to your success!

Bert Mahoney
Publisher, DesignDetails
Principal and Creative Director,
HamiltonBerchman Design Group, Inc.
details@hamiltonberchman.com