Nearly everyone knows by now that most people who interact with an organisation on a meaningful level (i.e. any deeper than buying a low-cost commodity) will check out that organisation's website.

This of course includes customers, suppliers, staff, shareholders, and many other groups of people.

Sometimes without knowing it, these people are judging the organisation by its website.

So one way in which a website should reflect a business is by appearing as professional and trustworthy as the business itself.

But more than that, a website should reflect the processes of the business.

If customers buy from you, is there a way for them to do this (or to learn about it) on the website?

If you offer customer support, can the website help?

If your staff interact with customers, can they use the back end of the website to process those interactions?  And so on.

Every time a business process is put in place, thought should be given to how that could be mapped onto the website.

Whenever this happens, there are potential savings in time and money, and potential benefits in terms of reaching audiences.

Over at Oxford Webware, what we think Web 2.0 is all about is using collaborative ways to create content.

This is a bigger than most people think.  All sorts of websites, from brochures to ecommerce sites, will need to adapt to take advantage of new practices, or see competitors take over.

Web 2.0 can be expressed as wiki sites, forums, product reviews, interactive surveys and polls, and comments (text and video) on blogs, news, and just about any other type of content.

What happens when you get user-generated content?  Lots of things, but here are three to start with:

• Users feel they are engaging with you
• Your website becomes more interesting
• Search engines appreciate the extra content being generated

An interesting take on web 2.0 here.

What is Web 2.0?

The answer, if you look at wikipedia, is mostly about the increased function you see in this generation of websites (i.e. websites in the 2000's) - particularly functions to do with collaboration.

Many of our customers, however, see design as an integral part of web 2.0, citing the bbc's new look and feel (http://www.bbc.co.uk)

Web 2.0 for them means shading, rounded corners, and panels which slide up and down.

What does Web 2.0 mean to you?

When considering a contact form on your website, what do you put on it?

We've found that when our customers add a contact form (in addition to phone + email details) a significant proportion of website contacts come through that form.

In other words, many people don't like to pick up the phone or write an email; they prefer to simply fill in a form and get you to contact them.

Two other variations on the contact form are popular:

"Call me back" asks the user to type a phone number and name (and optionally the best time to call).  This can send an email to your company, or it could pop up a window on a call centre operator's computer if you have many operators standing by to make calls.

"Live chat" is strictly for companies with a decent number of support operatives standing by.  This again pops up a window on an operator's computer and lets the user chat in real time.  Less pressure than a phone call but just as immediate.

Google Analytics is a free tool from Google that can let you examine users' behaviour on any site.

It can be hooked up to Google Adwords, but it can also be free-standing.

Once you have signed up, Google will give you a small piece of code to place in the HTML of your website, which sends information back to Google.  Using this information, Google can give you graphs and usage statistics, including a breakdown of referring websites and search engines. 

You can also use Google Analytics to track goals - for example, downloads and forms being filled in.  Attaching separate pieces of code to these events means Google can let you see how users are being funneled into these events.

To give it a try, browse to: http://www.google.com/analytics

Splash screens are those web pages you sometimes get where you don't have any menu, just an image saying 'click here', or sometimes an animation.

MDs often like them because they look good, and let's face it, they do look good.

However, there's a difference between looking good and working.  If you imagine a beautiful yellow pages entry that doesn't give any contact details for your business you can see what I mean.

Splash screens turn people off, and provide another barrier between your potential customer and you.  Give them the info already!

We've just been through a round of hiring.  From past experience and wise advice, we've learned that interviewees need to be given real coding tasks if they're applying for a coding job, but just as important, need to be interviewed in a number of settings before you can really tell if they're going to work in your team.

Setting physics problems and abstract programming questions isn't enough; can your web developer understand the concept of an online shopping basket?  Can they make decisions about how to manage the shopping basket when faced with unpredictable data?  Only a coding task will test these abilities. 

It can be short, but it needs to test multiple abilities and a wide range of knowledge.  And I suggest that interviewees get treated like employees for this task - in other words, they get to ask questions and use the internet.  If they ask questions throughout, you'll know pretty soon that they're not the one.

Shop around

This applies to every type of business transaction, of course, but particularly when you've never ever commissioned a website, you need to talk to a number of suppliers about what they can offer you now and long term, and what it means in terms of helping your business to succeed. And most importantly you need to choose a supplier you think you can work with in the future. Working websites need attention.

Imitate

“There's nothing new under the sun” said the philosopher, and this is your excuse for copying the fantastic-looking website you saw last month. As long as it's not your nearest competitor's site, there's much to be said for borrowing large chunks of design brilliance from another site. Be as explicit as you can be for your website designer (“I want that header, with this picture”) – that will save them work, which means you get more of their goodwill.

Get a Content Management system

Many website buyers fall into one of two traps:

• They have to pay a designer each time they need to make a change, or:
• They have to understand complicated protocols for uploading new files to the website.

You really need a simple system for uploading content that's not going to break your website. This is generally known as a “Content Management System”. Ask your web developer how it works and get a demo before you commit to anything.

Photographs

This is where knowing a bit of technology will come in handy. If you can crop and resize pictures for use on the website, you will save a large amount of to-ing and fro-ing between you and the web designer once the site is up and running and you need to upload new content. Pick a package, learn the basics, and you can't go wrong. Here are some obvious ones:

• Paint Shop Pro
• Fireworks
• Photoshop Elements
• XNView
• GIMP

Copywriting

Keep the copy as simple as possible, especially on the home page. Remember that the home page is a conduit to other parts of the site, where people will be doing business with you. If they want the company history, they can find that under “about us”. Above all, get the copy checked by someone you can trust, and listen to their advice.

Accessibility is about including everyone in the set of people who can access your website - making sure it can be read by anyone, including blind or partially-sighted users.

You would probably make a lot of effort to make your business premises accessible if you were having visitors, and your website should be too.

The good news is that whe web can be very good at including these users – much better than TV or books, for example, because users can employ devices such as screen readers to give them an appropriate output using the same material.
The problem lies in that some of the material is not suitable for output in this way, and so it is essential that you check that what is being developed is appropriate.
The first step is to get to know the “Web Accessibility Initiative” (WAI) guidelines, which are available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/.

Rather than being simply a collection of words and images, your website has work to do. Before you begin specifying it, it is worth thinking about what that work is. Here are some examples:

• To provide people who have heard of you with more information.
• To attract brand new customers.
• To sell products or services.
• To help existing customers use your products or services.
• To reduce some of the time you spend on communication.

Your website is the public face of your organisation, and as such demands that you spend time working out how useful it's being.  Deciding on a purpose helps you to measure the success of the website, which in turn helps you become equipped to take action. And if the website has a useful purpose, its success will influence the success of your enterprise.