Saturday, October 6, 2012

Surprisingly Poor Website Interface from Industry Leader Intel

My computer's been running a little slow lately so I decided that perhaps it is time to consider upgrading my computer. I was looking at CPUs on Intel's website trying to compare models and was surprised that they no longer linked features with the related information. To give you an example, if you take a look at this comparing processors web page I loaded up, you will find that, in order to find out information about things like Intel® HD Graphics 4000, Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, Intel® vPro Technology, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology... and other technological advancements, one has to go to Google and then perform a search to find out more about the technology. As a consumer I find this quite frustrating. For Intel I'm worried that by having the customer leave the website this opens the door for competitors like AMD to be able to target the same technology that Intel is trying to promote and state how theirs is better. One thing about the Internet is that it allows almost anyone to design a web page. In the case of this webpage it looks like Intel has decided to hand it over to the computer engineers who know exactly what Intel® VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT) means and didn't think that consumers would be unfamiliar with these high-tech CPU industry technologies. Even the order of the webpage leaves something to be desired. For example, buried at the bottom of the page were the most important features that offered real advantages to choose Intel over the competition. In the more expensive top of the page section they have decided to highlight things such as the bus type, FSB parity, size of the lithography, whether or not the CPU has a supplemental SKU. My suggestion for Intel is take my suggestions and apply them to this web page, get some user feedback and hire someone with a copy writing or marketing background to be able to make it so that the layperson can get a better grasp on what this technology means. Now if you excuse me I'm going to try to figure out if having a 26.7% lower max TDP on my CPU will make any difference to my computer speed.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Has the Website Killed the Sales Associate?

Listening to a couple of Webmaster Radio podcasts recently I heard two statistics about two big retail giants in the US. The first statistic which didn't surprise me much was from office supply giant Staples. The Staples spokesperson said that 42% of their customers are using smartphones to look at the company website while in the store. As one can assume that many business people have invested in iPhones, BlackBerry devices, or the latest Google Android smartphones it didn't surprise me that these customers are using their phones to figure out more product information for the products they have in front of them. This will likely lead to customers stop using the app. The second statistic came from Walmart which said 30 to 40 percent of their customers were using smartphones in their stores. This is surprising as it means that the smartphone revolution has reached the masses and now they are able to take advantage of this technology to make their shopping experience easier.

What does this mean to your business? With usage statistics as high as this the sales copy on your website is now more important than ever. I believe that making sure your products are described as best as they possibly can, through better sales copy and pictures, will have enormous repercussions. With talk of Google maps allowing stores to post internal mapping of a stores products, this may make finding products easier for consumers. The days of hunting around grocery stores, department stores and superstores trying to find a sales associate to help you find the item you're looking for may be nearing the end.

There are already in store retail mobile phone applications out there such as the Canadian Tire's barcode scanner app. This app connects the products bar codes to the item page on the Canadian Tire website. Companies are now working to leverage this technology. The usefulness of this technology however will depend on the quality of the content on the company's website.

Without quality content shoppers will try the new technology to find out that it may in fact provide no more information than what is on the actual package in front of them, then looking for a sales associate for help. I know this is my experience with the Canadian Tire application as their website in the past has provided me with almost no additional details on products.

Bill Turney, one of the Assistant Managers in the retail store I work in as the Webmaster, said “A lot of customers are so sure of the content of the website they walk in with the printout and simply pick the item off the shelf without having to ask the staff questions.” I remember when I started back in 2003 at Forest City Surplus having to answer tons of questions from customers. By spending the time improving the quality of the web pages I saw the tide turn from spending most of my time answering customer questions to setting up a website that automatically answered questions from those who were looking to buy online as well as in the store.

If these retail giants can get their act together and provide good quality content on their product pages, they will see enormous benefits. If they don’t, they will continue to lose ground to online retailers or give up a competitive advantage to their brick and mortar competition.

Has the website killed the sales associate? It all depends on the quality of your website content.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Website Security 101

I suggest that you don't publish a link at the bottom of your website to the secure part of your website.

I noticed recently that the London Employment Help Centre and the John Labatt Centre both failed this most basic security check.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Proven SEO Success

If I was hiring an SEO, the one thing I would look for is a track record. A proven list of results would let me know that the person I was hiring was able to achieve success on Google for the terms that he or she was targeting. I am proud to say that I have a long list of keywords which elevated the sites I work for to rank in the top ten on Google. If you click on the links provided, they should provide you with similar results as to what I have posted. These results may vary depending on the history of the websites you've clicked on and your geographic location. All this can affect what results Google displays for you. With the positive feedback I have received from perspective clients I have been regularly updating these results. The last update took place December 9th, 2016.

Forest City Surplus (look for fcsurplus.ca or fcsurplus.com in the results)

Third discount tools Canada
Seventh army surplus Canada
Sixth survival gear
Tenth BB guns Canada
Eighth pellet guns
Sixth marine speakers Canada
Forth camping equipment
Fifth camping gear
Forth army boots Canada
Ninth outdoor speakers Canada
Sixth freeze dried food
Sixth rain poncho Canada
Eighth extreme cold weather clothing
Third camouflage pants Canada

Real Estate terms for Link 2 Realty (look for Link2realty.ca in the results)
Fifth MLS London Ontario
Forth London MLS
Third MLS Property Search London Ontario

Norspec Filtration (look for Norspec.com in the results) - Updated October 26th, 2017
First Industrial Water Filters


Interested in getting similar SEO results for your company's website?
Contact me today at TimDHodges@yahoo.com or 519-657-3995.