A local domain name is important

Nomensa reports that ‘the .co.uk domain name is now an essential part of a company’s brand presence in the UK’, according to research by Sedo (a global domain name marketplace, funnily enough).

I’m not that surprised, really. For many global companies, for example, a regional domain name is a key part of their localisation strategy.

Inspires trust and creates credibility

The Nomensa article goes on to say that ‘the research, undertaken at Internet World 2009 revealed that two thirds of respondents said the domain extension inspired trust and security in a website’s credentials. In addition, 45 per cent of respondents highlighted that .co.uk was their primary domain’.

You’ll notice that this website’s domain name is .co.uk too, which was a deliberate choice on my part. I freelance from Spain and I felt sure that a .es domain name would put some potential clients off, rightly or wrongly (well, wrongly in fact).

Also, I think (correct me if I’m wrong) but .co.uk sites rank more highly in an English-language search than .es, for example. This is important, because my target audience is still the UK market. Once I translate my site into Spanish, I’ll register it with a .es domain for the same reasons.

.com still popular though

‘What about .com?’, you’re asking (maybe). Apparently, it ‘remains the most popular domain extension overall, with 80 per cent of businesses using .com [as] their web address’.

Again, people perceive this in different ways too; for me, .com leads to the impression of a large company or a global organisation. So, even if .com had been available (it isn’t) for my site, I’d still have chosen .co.uk.

Mobile web experience: could do better

People are increasingly using the internet on mobile devices and companies need to provide an equal user experience for visitors accessing their online information in different ways.

However, a recent Gomez/dotMobi report says that mobile web performance is getting worse (in the airline, banking and search industries at least): there’s an increasing gap between ‘traditional’ and mobile websites, with the former getting faster and the latter getting slower.

Are two websites better than one?

Many organisations (such as Vodafone) are producing two websites: a ‘traditional’ one for PCs and another version for mobile browsers. This is generating a lot of discussion in the industry (including among accessibility professionals) regarding the need for – and wisdom of – separate websites.

The arguments are wide ranging, from making the same content available to everyone (without forcing people with different browsers to use a different version of a website) to providing a good user experience across all devices.

It also raises issues of doubling maintenance efforts (and therefore costs) as well as ensuring content is consistent and up to date across both sites.

Mobile performance criteria

The Gomez/dotMobi study looked at the mobile web experiences provided by leading companies in the three sectors, across major wireless networks. It measured:

• availability – making sure customers get the information they need, when they need it
• response time – how quickly visitors can access content and perform tasks
• consistency – consistent user experiences, no matter where they are
• discoverability – how easily customers can find a mobile site from various URLs
• readiness – making sure the mobile website renders as intended on popular devices

American Airlines, Bank of America and Amazon ranked highest among the selected companies in their respective sectors (Google wasn’t included because its mobile web application “did not meet the technical requirements for benchmark participation”).

What are the roots of the problem?

Gomez says that despite consumers’ high expectations for mobile web experiences, quality experiences continue to be a challenge for many businesses. The company says that this should be a concern for both brand managers and technical teams.

I’d be interested to know what the study team thought were the main causes of these performance issues: bloated code, poor navigation and content that’s not fit for purpose, for example? Of course, this is common to all types of websites; not just mobile ones.

The majority of these issues could begin to be addressed by following standards and accessibility guidelines. Sites that do often perform better, make maintenance simpler and decrease related costs. In addition, effective use of CSS can also avoid the need for separate websites for different devices.

I’d be curious to know how some of the other corporate sectors perform, those that aren’t as consumer facing as the three chosen for this study. If anybody’s aware of any reports, let us know.

Further reading

• VNUnet.com: Designing websites for mobile users (May 2009)
• ZDNet.co.uk: Forget the mobile web: One site should work for all (Mar 2009)
• AccessifyForum.com: Mobile-friendly websites and accessibility (discussion thread) (Feb 2009)
• Dev.Opera: How to serve the right content to mobile browsers (Nov 2007)

This post also appeared on Corporate Eye, where I write articles on whole-site issues for corporate websites.

A great interview: Dan Germain, Innocent

I love reading interviews with people who work with words, from copywriters to translators. It’s always interesting to find out how they got to where they are today, the path they took. Roger Horberry’s interview with Dan Germain of Innocent fame is no exception.

I think lots of writers stumble into their profession via a muddle of other roles: some are related, most are not. But it’s still refreshing to read about the success stories that many of us still spend a large proportion of (billable) hours daydreaming about…

Dan “went to university with the three chaps who founded Innocent” and started off “driving vans and delivering smoothies” before moving on to writing the ‘blurb’ on the bottles. And ten years later, he’s head of creative services. He comes out with several words of wisdom; here are my favourites.

“Brilliant copywriting doesn’t demand any explanation. It’s short and sweet and hits the spot first time.”

On golden rules for writing: “…you have your first idea – great, but don’t use it. 90% of people will have thought of that so it’ll be boring. Have another idea – great, don’t use that either. 8% of people will have thought of that. Go for the third idea – that’s what hardly anyone will have got to…”

On writing guidelines at Innocent: “…it’s mainly about being polite. Say hello, write to the person you’re speaking to, get their attention quickly and leave them with something to think about at the end.”

On escaping writer’s block: “One thing I do is start from a random word or sentence [...] like ‘the thing about squirrels is…’. It’s good to have a few opening lines like that to play with and wake you up.”

“Write lots of stuff. Keep writing. Write snappy lines and short stories. Stick your words on a blog. Try writing a bit of everything. But most importantly, just write.”

Read the interview on the wonderful www.26.org.uk, a group for writers, editors and language consultants (I’m a member!).

Learn a language, help your writing, improve your prospects

The Guardian recently reported that “there is increasing demand around the world for [website] translations into English…particularly inside businesses”.

This is an interesting and exciting prospect for me, as a web copywriter living in Spain, learning Spanish and hoping to gain clients here.

Increase credibility and improve search results

As well as needing help translating content into English in the first place, many companies have websites with English (‘the language of business’) pages that, while understandable, could be better.

I already offer help in this area, and have rewritten the English pages for a local Spanish web agency. It recognised that to attract the substantial English businesses in our locality, well-written web pages provided credibility and would help it to appear in relevant search results.

Write appropriately for your readership

But learning a language doesn’t just mean adding another service to your offering; it can help to make you a better writer. John Clifford, Quality Manager at corporate web agency Investis, has a diploma in French translation from the Chartered Institute of Linguists (IoL). He thinks that:

“What [translation exams] assess as much as anything is your ability to write clearly and correctly in the appropriate register for the readership in your mother tongue…so it’s a highly relevant qualification for a copywriter even if most of the work you do is original authoring rather than translating.”

Understand the need for clear and simple content

Another benefit is understanding the need to write simply and clearly in whatever language you speak. Websites are global, which means a large proportion of a site’s potential audience will speak a first language other than the one it’s written in.

If you can empathise with the challenges of understanding and navigating a website written in another tongue, it can only bring greater awareness to your writing.