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Blog on the move
As some of the places that my blog turns up are having a problem getting this one to 'stream' the blog has now moved to a new home. You'll find it here: http://readability.wordpress.com/

Abandoned shopping carts
I heard my friend Alan Stevens talking about abandoned shopping carts recently, and had a mental image of a Tesco's cart on its side under a hedge somewhere. However, Alan wasn't referring to the escapees from the local supermarkets littering the countryside - he was talking in much larger numbers.

There are hundreds of thousands of abandoned shopping carts littering cyberspace. Yes, I'm talking about all those half finished purchases where people have become impatient at yet another click and another screen to fill in and given up in disgust. I'd put money on the fact that you've been there yourself - and somewhere you started the process to buy something you'd found online and given up and hit exit around about the 4th screen on the way through your purchase process.

PayPal have got it cracked - sign up once and then you can easily buy without filling anything much in providing the site has the PayPal facility available. However, lots of the bigger online retailers don't offer PayPal, so you have a credit/debit card payment process. That's great if it's name, card number and address - but when they start asking for delivery addresses, verification of invoicing address, what my maiden name was (if I have one), whether I'm single or not, what other products I'd be interested in (at this point - no way), and a multitude of other questions I don't want to and don't have time to answer.

There's not much I want so badly that I am prepared to sit still and fill in endless screens. In fact, if I'm trying to do a quick purchase in a coffee break then it's not only going to stop me, but will probably frustrate me so much that I will tell the next person I speak to of my frustration - and maybe a few others after that too!

If your website sells products and you take payment online - make sure your payment process is as simple as possible - and don't add to the number of abandoned shopping carts littering the world wide web!

What are all these buttons for?
How many menus has your website got? If you have one, then congratulations! If your web designer has split your menu into two then you've already got a problem. If there are more than two menus - go to the corner and stand with the dunces hat on (or send your web designer to do that for you - as he or she is probably the person responsible)!

The whole point of a website menu is to help people get to where they want to be quickly; if they have to search in more than one place then you're providing a hurdle they have to get over to get what they want. I know that some web designers like the 'standard' pages separate so 'home', 'about us' and 'contact us' are sometimes tucked away somewhere away from the main menu, but that really doesn't help me when I can't see those choices in the menu. Particularly when I've clicked the wrong page and can't find how to get back to the home page.

If you have legal and privacy pages, then create them as a sub page from your 'contact us' page, don't tuck them away in yet another menu at the foot of the page. Some web designers like to have a hyperlink version of your main menu at the bottom of the page - which is fine, as long as it's the same menu as all those smart buttons on the one at the top - other wise you're just confusing people.

One word of warning - don't let your web designer's more creative ideas run too wild. I recently went to a website that took ages to load and was full of moving pictures - but that was just the splash page. After clicking on it the menu choices loaded; I clicked 'websites' and went to a blank page. I had to click to get it to load (I checked this out by three or four visits to see if it was just a glitch) and then another graphical image appeared. Could I find anywhere that gave me a means of entering the page for websites? No, I clicked all over the place and moused over the page - couldn't find a way in. If I clicked I was taken back to the splash page, I couldn't find an 'enter here' or anything else. Results, frustration and astonishment that it was so difficult. I contacted the designer - his response 'It's a designer's website'. My opinion 'don't expect any business from it!'

So make getting into and around your site easy!

Leveraging your talents
If you have a small business the chances are you do it all yourself - accounts, admin, sales, purchasing, marketing, dealing with suppliers and debts and everything! How much of your time do you spend doing what you are really good at?

Of course, your business needs all these things doing, but wouldn't it be much better if you could spend your time doing what you love and what you find easy? I struggled to justify getting someone to help me with administration - I didn't think I could afford to pay someone. Then I finally took the plunge - and wondered why I hadn't done it before.

I'm very good at writing - in one hour I can earn about ten times what I pay my assistant. It's better that I spend my time doing what I do best and my assistant does the administration that used to take over my life.

What has this got to do with readability? A good question - my assistant makes sure I deliver much more copy to more clients and my mission to make the copy that everyone reads more accessible takes a tiny step forwards!

What are you talents? Are you making the most of them and what sort of help would help you to achieve your mission? If you need help with written material then you know where to find it!

I don't want to know about you
When I arrive on your website I don't want to know what you do. I'm not interested in who you are and I certainly don't want to be told how long you've been in business or what you're selling.

If I've landed on your website as the result of a search I'm looking for something - I want information about something, or I want to know if you can solve my problem. The first thing I want to know is 'have I come to the right place?'

This means that you need to know what people are likely to be looking for when they are searching for the service or products you deliver. Then you need to make sure that the headline and the copy on your home page tells them what they want to know so NOT:

We're the fastest delivery company in Utopia

but

If you want a fast delivery call us

It's a subtle difference and one which very few companies understand. The secret is the difference between the word 'we' and the word 'you'. If you keep talking about yourself (we, us, our) you won't engage with me. I want to know what I get so talk about me!

There may be little difference in meaning between 'We can give you ... ' and 'You'll get ...', but it makes me feel different. Don't tell your website visitor what you want them to know, tell them what they want to read.

At first it seems difficult, but with a little practice you'll soon get the hang of it!

When your reader lands on your webpage, you want to be sure that you connect with them fast. The longer it takes for them to confirm that they have arrived somewhere that will resolve their problem, tell them what they were trying to find out, or give them advice on the subject they were researching the higher the chance they'll click that back button.

Realistically, you've got a few seconds - probably no more than 7, before they lose interest and disappear. This means that the first thing - and the most prominent - they see needs to be the headline. It needs to be big, bold and compelling!

• It's no good if it's 14pt bold - it will be too small to read without an effort - and websurfers are known for being lazy and impatient; just watch someone (or notice yourself) when it takes a few seconds for a website to load. The fingernails tap, lots of sighing goes on and occasional some bad words are muttered!

• It's no good if it says 'Welcome to our website'. That doesn't tell me anything - how do I know whether you're going to give me the help or information I want from that?

• It's no good if it's all about you 'We can do this'; I'm not interested in what you do - I want to know what I get.

Your page title is not a headline. In fact, if you can get your web genius simply to make the menu choice for that page a different colour, that's all that you need. Don't interfere with getting your message across fast.

Also remember that you cannot guarantee which page people will land on. It depends on the words they've searched for - that means that every page needs a headline, for the content of that page. That includes the About us and Contact us pages.

If your headline doesn't tell your reader they're in the right place and there's something in it for them, they've gone!