Yes, this site does look a little different … following the advice of Ian Lurie from PortentInteractive, I have tightened up a few elements of the site – I have a little more to do, but I hope it will all make for a better, more useful website in the long run.
Apologies to anyone who has been messed around – there shouldn’t be any more major changes now.
I picked a company from the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) at random this morning, and spent 15 minutes (I timed it!) reviewing the site to see what instantly jumped out at me as enhancements I would suggest.
Bearing in mind that I usually spend 2-3 weeks researching and writing a report on a major corporate site, I thought that 15 minutes would be an interesting challenge, and would be enough to come up with a few suggestions that the company might find useful. In 15 minutes, of course, I will necessarily have missed out on a lot, so this shouldn’t be taken to be my final view, or a complete report.
[Read more…] about Speed Review: Optimisa in 15 minutes
No matter what size of company you are, details of your registered address should be available on your site. This is a legal requirement here in the UK (reminder) – but is good practice anyway. Larger companies often also provide further details of their various locations – sometimes in the About Us section or in the Careers section.
Tell potential recruits what it is really like
Providing details about your locations can help potential recruits make their decisions. Successful applicants will not only have to work in one of your locations, they will have to live there too. No-one wants to hire someone who decides they don’t like the area you work in and leave; providing information about the area can help avoid losing a recruit later.
[Read more…] about Show the world where you are – and what you are doing there
And not just me, either.
No doubt there are several bloggers and other commentators discussing you, your website and your services out there. Probably more of us if you deal with the retail customer, but nevertheless there are both positive and negative comments available for everyone to see.
I expect you know that if you search on ‘landrover discovery’ the number two site is a blog maintained by a disgruntled (ex-)customer of Landrover, and that there are several anti-Tesco blogs, blogs complaining about telecoms companies, oil companies …
But these companies are not alone. What are people saying about you?
[Read more…] about Do you know that I’m talking about you?
I reviewed a bio-technology site recently which was written in language I didn’t understand.
I did study sciences until I was 18, and have a doctorate (though in ancient philosophy and science, not 21st century science), so I’m not uneducated, but I still didn’t understand it. And I wouldn’t be the only one. According to the Campbell-Ewald Health research of 2006, only 55% of Americans can understand the content on pharmaceutical sites, because the average site requires 12 years of education. Many people browsing such sites will have less exposure to language than this.
The problem for me was simply the terminology used.
Some of the scientific language used could have been rephrased into simpler English, but some of it was essential. To play with language for a moment, it was essential both because it was necessary, and because the science it was describing is the essence of the company.
This problem isn’t true just of scientific sites, of course. Every industry has its own language and terminology. While it is vital to convey the nature of your company, it is also important that your visitors can understand what you’re saying.
[Read more…] about Do your visitors know what you’re talking about?
Not to sell the products or services that you deliver – though that would be great, obviously – but to sell your company to future employees.
Assuming that you’ve got the right people in the right jobs for them, and that you’re keeping them happy with interesting work and great prospects – who could possibly be better placed to sell your jobs to this year’s crop of graduates than last year’s?
The more information that job seekers can get about what it is really like to work in your company, what you do and what your company culture is like, the more informed their decision – whether to accept the job offer or to apply in the first place. And the more informed your applicants are, the easier (and cheaper) it is for Human Resources. You don’t really want them to have to spend time filtering out people who haven’t really understood your company, do you? Or to spend hours answering emails and phone calls with questions that could have been answered by the website?
[Read more…] about Turn your new employees into sales people
