The aim of this project is to develop a strategy to enable Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to utilize their websites more effectively for marketing their business and giving users such a good experience when they visit that they repeatedly return. This includes making the website easy to use and navigate, bring the website up to the first three pages of search engines and choosing the most effective web marketing strategies.
This is associated with redeveloping the Reading Film Theater website to make sure the frame work is effective and flexible.
2. Project requirements
Based on Federation of small businesses (FSB) there are almost 4.8 million small businesses in the UK which 95 percent of those employ less than 5 people. This makes it difficult for small businesses to achieve what they want due to the lack of expertise in different areas such as web design, web marketing and search engine optimization.
The key problem that this project investigates is how to assist the Small and Medium size enterprises (SMEs) that do not have any expertise in web marketing and design and they do not want to spend their investment on those areas. Therefore it is very helpful for them to have a strategy and a check list of all the steps that they have to follow in order to have a successful E-commerce.
The first thing that has impact on users is the way a website looks and feel. Is the web site attractive? Is it easy to navigate? Can the users find what they were looking for? And the most important characteristic that a website has to be built on is what does the website offer over the competitors?. An effective website design is one of the most important requirements of the strategy that this project follows.
Each month almost 9,175 million people use the search engines. This shows the importance of being visible in search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is long process and most of the SMEs do not have awareness of this option and the ones that have the awareness of this do not have an expertise or knowledge of doing this as this is a very costly process. This is also one of the requirements of the strategy this project produces especially for SMEs to help them to find out what they need to do if they don't want to spend their investment on this costly process.
In addition it is essential to know how to present and advertise a company online which helps to introduce a company aims and objectives. There are many available Web marketing techniques that many company owners are not aware of them. This is also a part of the strategy that this project produces.
There are numerous available studies and articles regarding to web design, search engine optimization and web marketing but there is not any articles or studies that addressed all these three important factors is one place in a easy to understand and none-technical manner. This is critical as most SMEs have not enough expertise in all those three areas.
This strategy will be implemented in parallel with the case study. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the strategy.
3. Progress to-date
3.1 Analysis and Design
Everyday many SMEs website projects fail due to the lack of expertise in website development and business owners taking control of website design and development process without any knowledge in those areas. Hundreds of websites publish everyday but most of them are poorly designed or they do not function properly so they don't help their businesses even though their business owners spent a huge amount of money for them.
It is essential for business owners to understand how their website should be helping their businesses. Also to know how to take control of a web project by understanding the requirements and what is involved to benefit their businesses.
This chapter explains the steps of creating the strategy that helps to give an understanding of what is involved in a web project. This strategy has divided into three sections: 1- Website design, 2- web marketing and 3- Search engine optimization (SEO).
Website design
In real life people learn how to use different things by using them every day. Convention is a very important factor in web design. People use internet on a daily basis for many different purposes and they get use to the way that most websites work or look like. The websites that are easy to use for many people are mostly follow conventions. In many cases it is very difficult for internet users to get use to a new convection. As a result of this the most important characteristic that a website has to be built based on that is to follow the convections. Jakob Neilsen explains "users spend most of their time on other sites, so that is where they form their expectations for how the internet works." It is also possible to reinvent a new convention in websites but there is a big chance that users might not accept the new convention and this get rejected by users. Nielson has three definitions of website design standards and they are as follow:
"Standard: 80% or more of websites use the same design approach. Users strongly expect standard elements to work a certain way when they visit a new site because that's how things always work.
Convention: 50-79% of websites use the same design approach. With a convention, users expect elements to work a certain way when they visit a new site because that's how things usually work.
Confusion: with these elements, no single design approach dominates, and even the most popular approach is used by at most 49% of websites. For such design elements, users don't know what to expect when they visit a new site." [1]
One of the most important responsibilities of a web designer is to make sure that a website has all the required information and that information is easy to access by all the users. The websites that are poorly designed do not help users to find the required information. This does not encourage the users to come back to the website to obtain more information. [2]
There are few easy to understand resources for both technical and none-technical group of people regarding to web design. The first one is Jakob Nielsen Alertboxes [3] and books [4], [5] and the Nielsen Norman Group offers white papers also a catalog with their reports which includes some guidelines as well. [6]
It is very important to involve none-technical people in web design process. This assists web designers to find out how a website looks like in eyes of none-technical people. Spyridakis, et al., (2005) explain that "Website users would perhaps be surprised to learn that the web-design guidelines on which even experienced web designers rely are often based on conjecture, consensus, laboratory-based studies, and surveys of users' perception, rather than on research conducted with real users in natural settings."[1]
Data gathering and requirements
The first step in starting a web project is to answer few very fundamental questions. If a website is already existed it is possible to design a survey and send it to the current users to find out what they think of the current website and ask them for some advice which is very valuable. If there is no current website the website owners have to answer the interview questions which are the fundamental questions.
It is essential to find out all the requirements and expectations before starting the web design. There are many data gathering techniques such as questionnaire, interviews and observation.
Interview: The first and the most effective data gathering techniques is to interview few people who work closely with the website for instance company owner. The following questions have to be answered before starting a website design.
1. Project Information
Objectives:
What are your reasons for commissioning a new website?
How many pages or sections will your website need?
Specific Requirements:
Please list any known requirements.
2. Perception & Message
Target Audience:
Your target audience for this site (please be as detailed as possible)
Website Goals:
What goals do you wish to achieve with this website?
What is the primary message you wish to convey to your audience with this site?
What makes you different?
What will make people use your website over competitors?
How should your site be perceived? (Examples: masculine, fun, serious, vintage, modern, casual, formal)
Do you have an existing or planned marketing strategy in mind to promote this site? If so, please, describe.
What do you feel is your number one business problem? (Examples: change image, increased customers, promote company, etc.)
Main competitor's websites:
Please list some competitor's websites, followed by what you like or dislike about each.
3. The Call to Action
How do you envisage people using your site?
Arrival Action:
What is the primary action you wish users to take from your homepage? For example: download, begin booking, email, phone call, proceed to another page/section
Departure Action:
If different than the arrival action, what is the primary action you wish users to take before leaving your website?
Key Items:
What elements should be available on every page where possible?
4. The Content
Content Requirements:
Will this site use existing content or new content? If new, will the company provide the content, or will you need it sourced?
Is your content for the website finalised?
Updates & Additions:
Do you intend on keeping this website updated? If so, how often?
Questionnaire: The second data gathering techniques is designing a questionnaire. The questionnaire or survey has to be answered by the website owners and current users (if there are any).Questionnaire is essential for websites that are currently available to the users. It is very helpful to know what users think of the current website and what they would like to be improved. The following is a sample of a questionnaire that helps to find out what users think of the current website.
Questionnaire sample
1. How did you hear about this website?
Search engines O
Advertisement O
Current users O
University of Reading website O
Others O
If others please specify the source
2. What is your overall impression of the current system?
(1=very poor, 2=poor, 3=Average, 4=good, 5=very good)
1. O 2. O 3. O 4. O 5. O
3. Did you find the information you were looking for?
Yes O
No O
If you answered "No" above, please comment why:
4. What was your reason for coming to our site?
5. The number of screens you have to click to get the requested results on the current website:
Sufficient O many O Too many O
6. Please rate your experience of the following interfaces of the current system:
(1=very poor, 2=poor, 3=Average, 4=good, 5=very good)
a. General Functionality
b. Visual design
c. Navigation
d. Information organization
e. Legibility
f. Browse
g. Booking
h. Searching
7. Overall, do you feel Reading Film Theater website needs to be redesigned?
Yes O
No O
8. What would you like to be changed in the current website?
9. Which one of the following is your internet browser?
Internet explorer
FireFox
Safari
Google Chrome
Opera
Other (please specify)
10. Which category best describes you?
Prospective student O
Student O
Faculty O
Staff O
Other (please specify)
11. What is your age range?
18 and under O
19-25 O
26-35 O
36-45 O
46-55 O
56-60 O
60+ O
Observation: In some cases when there is an existing website, it is very helpful and interesting to observe how users interact and use a website, how long they stay on the website and the pages that attract many users. There are many available statistic tools which help to obtain all the required information regarding to users.
Traffic-reporting tools
It is very important to know the characteristics of a reporting tool, these help to choose a right tool. Statistics and traffic-reporting tools can display the number of people who visited a website, the popular pages and how long visitors stay in a website. These are the minimum that a traffic-reporting tool can provide. Some of the more powerful traffic-reporting tools can also provide the information regarding to E-commerce sale tracking, goal tracking, search most popular keywords, tracking advertisement campaign and banners.
Selecting the right traffic-reporting tool
First of all it is very helpful to write all the expectations from a traffic-reporting tool and based on that requirements it is possible to go one step forward and choose the most appropriate tool. The following table illustrates the popular traffic-reporting tools.
1
Tool Name
Cost
Website Address
2
OmnitureSiteCatalyst
Minimum £300 monthly
omniture.com
3
Google Analytics
Free
google.com/analytics
4
Yahoo! Web analytics
Free
5
ClickTracks
Desktop edition £700 or £100 monthly for more professional edition
clicktracks.com
6
Webalize
Free
webalizer.com
7
Sawmill
Pro:£250
Enterprise:£1500
sawmill.net
Understanding Google analytics
Google Analytics is an analytics solution that provides users with the web traffic and Return of Investment (ROI).This tool its free of cost and very easy to learn and use. The difference between Google analytics and other statistic tools is that this tool analysis the website traffic and it is possible to set up goals and to monitor the achievements through that goal.
Google analytics installation:
Installing Google analytics is very easy and it is not required to have any web design or programming knowledge. The steps of installing Google analytics are as follow:
Create an account in Google.
Go to www.google.com/analytics and click on sign up now.
In the next page enter the web address that has to be tracked and click on finish.
On the next page Google displays the tracking code that has to be added to the website.
Save the tracking code and click on finish.
This step which is installing tracking code in the website needs some HTML knowledge. Copy the tracking code before the </body > tag in every page of the website and save it.
Google Analytics results explanation
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Figure1: Google analytics results for a website
Analytics settings page displays all the analytics accounts and it is possible to edit them at the same page, in this page it is possible to navigate to the profile setting page which displays tracking code and it is possible to setup goals.
Navigate to different accounts.
Setting email addresses of different accounts, setting the accounts language also to set up email notification.
This page displays all the Google accounts.
This page is a link to Google analytics help center. It searches through the web, Google Analytics Help Group and Google Help Center.
Sign out Google account
This page displays the reports regarding to visitors activities in a website, information about the pages they visit, their browser's Capabilities, network properties, new vs. returning, map overlay and benchmarking.
This page identifies the sources that send traffic to this website. Also information such as the most popular keywords, direct traffic, search engines , referring Sites, Ad versions and AdWords campaigns
This page reports all the information regarding to the web pages and contents, how visitors navigate in the website, the time they spend on each page and landing and exit page.
It is possible to set up goals in Google analytics, all the goals that has been set up display in this page an all the information regarding to the goals such as : goal verification , reverse goal Path , conversion rate, total conversions, goal funnel visualization and abandoned funnels.
This option is only useful for the websites that have sale products on their websites. It displays all the information regarding to sells such as: product performance , top-selling products, transactions , days to purchase , visits to purchase , total revenue, conversion rate and average order value.
In this page "Custom reporting", it is possible to custom report using the required metrics and demotions.
Advanced Segmentation :This option helps to set up reports in the best convenient way
Email: This option helps to manage and schedule reports and completing the setups this will send the reports by emails
This page is the help section of Google analytics which includes frequently ask questions, different tips on how to use information of a campaign
This helps to go to different Google Analytics account.
This section applies the advanced segment that has been created to a report in section 13 and compares that graphs by other graphs.
In this section it is possible to select date and based on the selected date it displays the report.
Displays report by day, week, month, or hour
This section shows data in a graph form, the graph is based on selected date range, graph by view, advanced segment or metric.
This section displays different account's key metrics
This section displays the place the country of users with the name of the city
Website design
It is possible to start the website design after gathering all the required information which includes questionnaire and interview results and understanding Google analytics results for at least one month.
The first step in designing a website is to recognize the target audiences. Recognizing the audiences helps to adopt the design to that target visitors and make sure the majority of the audiences enjoy the look and feel of the website. Understanding the target visitors of a website is a key to improve the website traffic. Once the first step which is undressing of the target users has completed, then it is possible to start setting up the goals. Setting up goals without knowing the target audiences is very difficult to achieve.
Based on target audiences and the goals of the website it is possible to find out how the website should be perceived for instance: masculine, fun, serious, vintage, modern, casual, and formal.
Branding and logo
Both logo and branding have to be based on the company's aims and objective and target audiences. It is also very important to have a slogan that describes that company aims which is the first thing that attract user's eyes. A logo doesn't have to be very sophisticated and professional; it can be very simple but very effective. There are so many popular companies that have very simple logos for instance Microsoft, Oracle, Google and etc.
Accessibility
Fixing a website that is not accessible after is has been designed and implemented can be difficult and costly so it is essential to consider accessibility at the initiate point of website design.
It is important to design a website that is accessible to all people with different desires also the ones that are disabled. It is essential for any website to have Accessibility statement located in the website and this is normally allocated at the bottom menu of the website. Some of the accessibility features of a website are as follow:
Standards Compliance: a web designer has to follow some standards such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCA) to make a website accessible to disabled people. Another standard that a web designer has to follow is World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This is the international standards organization for the web.
Web site color: It is very important to select the right colors for a website as users react to the website colure more than anything else. Once the target audiences and the way a website has to be perceived based on that has completed, it is not very difficult to choose the right colors for a website. Based on Jiang, et al., (2008) there are three key factors that should be taken into consideration while designing a website. The first factor is properness of color; this means the chosen color has to be consistent with the website content and atmosphere. The second one is Symbolization and association of color; each color has an emotion and symbol; based on this different colors association can add attractiveness in the web pages. For instance red is well known for displaying the important sections and titles but using too much red in a web page makes it difficult for users to read a web page. Finally the last factor is mental feeling of color, this means it is essential to make sure the chosen color has the right impact on the users, for instance luxury, simplicity, sadness, happiness and activeness feelings. [7]
There are few rules that have to be followed in order to have a website which is easy to read even for different type of colure blindness users. The chosen color has to be checked against different types of color blindness conditions.
There are many websites available that help to select colors and the code that is associated with that color. This website www.colorschemer.com/online.html is very useful and straightforward to choose colors and it displays colors codes as well. There are also some websites that offer to calculate the matching colors, there is a colure calculator offered by Session Online by school of Design at the following link. WWW.sessions.edu/career_center/design_tools/color_calculator/index.asp. This tool helps to select three colors based on the color wheel.
Navigation shortcut: it is very useful to design a short menu at the start of each page. That helps users to jump into the parts they are looking for with just one click. Each of these also can have an access key that associated with them.
Access keys: These are the keys that help users to interact with a website without using mouse only by using keyboard.
Cascade Style sheets: Using Cascade Style Sheets (CSS) helps the users with different browsers or devices to see the content of each page clearly even the browser does not support CSS.
Links: Linking text will be written to make sense out of context. Where appropriate, links have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail, for example to advise the customer if the link will open in a new window.
High impact photos
To encourage users to use a website, it is very important to have photos that attract users. Photos have to be very high quality which shows the professionalism of a website. For instance if a website sells jewelry it is very attractive to have a photo of a woman with her fiancé over her shoulder looking both at her engagement ring. This helps to have an interaction with the buyers and it is much more encouraging rather than displaying just the item on its own. There are two options, either to create a picture by a camera or purchase a photo. There are so many websites available that is possible to purchase a photo from them. Some of the popular websites are as follow:
iStockphoto : www.istockphoto.com
BigStockPhoto: www.bigstockphoto.com
Clipart: www.clipart.com
It is necessary for websites to have a high quality of pictures and at the same time perform very fast. A website that uses too much flash and film on the home page and it does not load fast will lose customers as users prefer a website that loads very fast. Based on Jiang, et al., (2008), the most important factors to select or making images are as follow:
"1. The images should be clear, having intense visual effects.
2. Image artistic conception should be in harmony with the website users.
3. Image colors should be bright-colored, attractive, unique and unforgettable.
4. Application of colors in image should be in cooperation with the content. Symbolic and associated characteristics can make the webpage full of artistic connotation."[7]
Website layout
Website layout is the way that all the pages has been organized for instance the location for the main content, menus, company's logo, advertisements and search. This process has to be done before starting the actual web pages design. This does not have to be done by a professional designer as anybody knows how to organize different things in one place for instance it is very similar to organize furniture in a room.
Accessible for different types of devices and browsers
Users might access a website through different devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. All the features in a website have to be based on ensuring users to access a website through any devices. A website that uses correct information architecture can be accessible via different types of output devices.
Using white space
Web site design process
Web site design process
Step 1: data gathering
S
There is a current website
Yes No
Design a Survey
Design interview questions
Design interview questions
Select an analytics tool an install on the current website
Step 2: Website design
Design the logo and branding
Select the right colors
Select high impact photos
Design website layout
Step3: website development
Validate the website code against W3C standards
Step 4: Web site testing
Accessibility testing (Check against WCAG 2.0 Checklist)
Usability testing
3.2 Gantt chart:
Based on the Gantt chart parts of literature review is in parallel with requirement, design, implementation, evaluation and writing the strategy. Reviewing the literature assists in design, implementation and writing the final strategy. The requirement of the project has been completed.
4. The Case Study
This chapter explains the step of testing the strategy on the case study to make sure the strategy is effective. It is not possible to see the final results in a short term, but it is possible to test the strategy in short term.
About Reading Film Theatre
"Reading Film Theatre was established nearly 40 years ago as an independent cinema with a policy to show the best films from around the world. RFT receives no grants and hires the largest auditorium from the University on a regular basis, using its own equipment and employing RFT staff, many of whom are volunteers.
It aims to screen at least one foreign language film (subtitled in English) each week, the rest of the programme being a mix of both mainstream and independent cinema, primarily from the UK and North America. The majority of films are recent releases, but occasionally a classic will be screened if a new print has become available. The RFT website gives details of the current program with informative links to other sites showing stills, reviews, background and comment. Programmes are published three times a year and distributed to all Reading and Wokingham area libraries, civic centres, information kiosks and schools and are sent out to individual members of RFT." [8]
RTF website has been designed and developed almost 10 years ago. The number one business problem is the lack of customers; the current website may put off many potential audience members (particularly younger ones).The aims of redesigning the Reading Film Theatre website are as follow:
To give users a pleasurable experience while they are looking through or working with the website by improving the look and feel and keeping the user friendly aspects of the current website
To encourage users to come back to the website and use it again
To increase the website traffic
Attract any age groups
Project plan for RFT website
Installing Google analytics on the current host to find out how users interact with the current website and the number of users that visit the website in one month period.
Find out what rank Google gives to the current website
Find out the requirements by interviewing the website owners and sending a questionnaire to the current customers to find out what they would like to change or to keep in the current website.
Choosing the most appropriate web marketing strategies for this business based on the requirements.(e.g. Face book, Twitters, Email marketing, Affiliates program)
Redesign the website
Making sure the new website is accessible via different devices and browsers
Considering Search Engine Optimization (SEO) at the same time with design to make sure the new website is search engine friendly.
Implementing the chosen web marketing strategies.
Getting the second feedback by sending a questionnaire to the current customers and interview the business owners to find out what they think about the new website.
Analysis the results of Google analytics for the new website for one month period.
Data Gathering:
Interview outcomes:
The reasons for commission a new website is to increase the audiences at film showings and the key element to this is to redevelop the RFT website. The required WebPages are Homepage, calendar, "About Us", location, contact information, possibly also "News", plus a separate page for each film in the calendar (up to 18). Also perhaps an "archive" page listing films shown earlier in the season.
The current audience consists largely of older, retired people. The aim is not to keep the current users also to attract more people in their twenties and perhaps early thirties. Included in this younger target audience are students. People in their thirties, forties and sometimes fifties tend to be too busy to go to the cinema. Within the older and younger age-groups described here, targeting those who are broadly middle-class, or who identify themselves as such. Members of this group are likely to identify themselves as being cultured, or to aspire to doing so, and are likely to pursue leisure activities which will distinguish them from the "mass."
Ultimately the goal for website redevelopment is to increase the audiences at film showings and achieve this by making the RFT website more attractive to the target audiences described above, leading viewers to return and add the website to their list of favourites. The primary message is to convey the notion that the RFT show quality, cutting-edge films and that it is organised and professional.
The difference between the RFT and other cinemas is RFT shows interesting, alternative films for a thoughtful and cultured audience. It is currently the only cinema in Reading showing non-mainstream films, so other cinemas in the area are unlikely to have the same target audience.
The website should perceive in Contemporary, cutting-edge, professional, independent, alternative, and artful. As an arts organisation seeking to attract people who identify themselves as being cultured, it is especially important that the website incorporates contemporary aesthetics.
The website will be promoted through other forms of publicity (the brochure, emails to email subscribers, social networking websites).
Some of the competitor's websites are as follow:
http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/
This is an arts centre, not a cinema, so the homepage does not provide images/information principally about films, but the RFT website could work in a similar way. The use of colour, the contemporary and professional feel, and the prominence of images -including in the film calendar page are what the RFT is needed.
http://www.gft.org.uk/content/
The prominence of images on the homepage and the use of colures look very professional. However, the menu seems a bit cumbersome and takes up a lot of space. And the website in general seems a bit cluttered.
http://www.broadway.org.uk/index.htm
While this website does not appear to be complicated, the use of colour, and the rounded corners of the film images do not seem very contemporary.
The RFT website primarily envisages users in order to gain information on films to be shown (both about the films and about their scheduling). The primary action that users take from home page will be proceed to information on films featured on the homepage or to the calendar page. The primary action that users do before leaving the website will be making a booking, subscribing to emails, adding to favourites etc. The key items that should be available on every page are navigation bar, logo, general design theme, "back to top" feature where applicable
The web site administrator will provide digital images related to the brochure design, and digital film images. Also will provide links to trailers, official websites etc., blurbs and calendar information.
Everything described in the previous paragraphs will need to be seasonally updated, along with the colour theme and a general message about the season (probably under news). Arrangements of images on the homepage will need to be updated twice weekly, along with the calendar page (where information will also need to be deleted) Everything else would be final.
Reading Film Theatre (RFT) Website Redevelopment: Key Concerns
The website design should be harmonised with the RFT brochure. It should be possible to seasonally update the colour-scheme used in the website to keep it in line with the brochure.
The website should function without hitches in a range of browsers.
The website structure should be uncomplicated and user-friendly.
Images from films should occupy a large portion of the homepage. The largest of these images should be from the film to be shown next and two or three smaller images should be from the films which follow this in the programme.
The website should be developed so that it can be easily updated by RFT volunteers who do not have web-design expertise.
The website should include a film calendar page covering the whole season in which images from films are prominent.
Facebook and Twitter buttons should be available on the homepage linked to RFT pages on these websites.
A field should be available on the homepage in which users can enter their email address for email subscription.
A target date for completion should be agreed which will allow time for RFT Management Committee members to propose amendments if necessary, and for any such amendments to be implemented.
The website should appeal to a young audience without alienating the older people who currently make up a substantial portion of the audience.
Questionnaire outcomes:
The questionnaire has been designed to find out what users think of the current website. The results of the questionnaire shows a surprising number of people seem to think the website is good as it is, but obviously the population only consists of people who have not been put off by the current website.
