Thank you to all who submitted your answers on my previous post Which One Would You Choose; where I asked visitors to select from a choice of four site snapshots, which site they would complete a ESTA form on.

The lines are now closed and the votes are in…  Let’s see how the people chose…

Most people chose A.

The official site to complete an ESTA on is D. If you completed a form on D it would of been free and would be guaranteed to be processed. If you completed a form on any of the other three you would of had to pay approximately £30 – £40. These 3 sites are typical of many that are charging people to complete ESTA forms.

 

Official Sites Versus Unofficial Sites

The results here reflect reports that more people are paying to complete ESTA forms from unofficial sites. It’s important to note that the people who complete the forms and end up paying for them are not stupid. They are victims of well worked campaigns combined with efficient design.  Here are some design related reasons I believe people are paying to complete forms on the unofficial sites rather than for free on the official site:

 

Colour Schemes/Look & Feel

A lot of the unofficial sites appear have utilised ‘American’ colour schemes (reds and blues), flags and American imagery:

Whereas the official site is prodominently green which most would not immediately associate with America:

It’s possible that some people are electing to use the ‘unofficial’ sites as the appear to have more synergy with the USA, and therefore people think that they look more official.

 

Calls to Action & Usability
There are clear calls to action on the unofficial sites. Well placed and noticeable buttons labelled:  Click Here, Instant Download, ESTA Form or Continue, help make it easy for the site visitor to complete what they want to do, in this case fill out an ESTA form.

The buttons and links are placed in a combination of places some at the top of the web page, some at the bottom but they all have at least one call to action that appears on screen as soon as the page appears on screen.

However, the official site has no clear call to action; you have to work really hard to discover what you have to do next.  In fact (as illustrated below) you have to scroll about 1600 pixels down the page (i.e. well below the fold – if you consider that the average screen displays 1020 pixels) before you even see the apply button! Ordinarily we’d recommend that calls to action appear both above and below the fold.

 

It’s possible then that some come to the official site, but lose confidence as it’s not immediately apparent what they need to do.

 

Assurance and Confidence
Here, both the official and unofficial sites do pretty well. Most of the sites in this example use checklists or step by step examples . Each help to give an impression of transparency and encourage confidence in the site.

Example1:

Example 2:

 

Conclusion

One of the most important things to learn from this example is the importance of call to action and usability. Although  27% chose the official site based on a snapshot. Had the test been based on visiting the sites it may have been even less, seeing as visitors have to scroll down nearly twice the length of the screen to even find the apply button.

Every site needs a call to action whether it is to fill out a form, generate a phone call or submit a vote. The clearer the call to action is, the better the site will convert.

Similarly, consideration needs to be given to site look and feel. Use of colour and imagery, and theming to meet visitor’s expectations of how a site should look are key.

 

Suggestions for the Official Site

If I was tasked with redesigning the form on the official site, I’d look specifically at the following areas:

1. The essential difference between the official site and the others is that it is free to complete the ESTA form. Yet this is not mentioned on the the official site . The first thing I would do is alert the visitor that the form is free to complete on this site.
2. I would also address the call to action. I would place an apply now button close to the top of the page with enough white space around it for it to stand out.
3. I would also look to address the design / colour scheme in order to reflect an outsider’s perception of “America”

Within this post we’ll be looking at broken links and 404 error pages – what they are, how they impact users and SEO, how to find them and perhaps most importantly, some ideas on how you might go about dealing with them.

What are broken links & 404 error pages?

Broken links occur when web pages are deleted or moved but the link to the old address still exists.  When a user clicks on the broken link, the page cannot be found, so a 404 error page is displayed.

What does a 404 error page do?

A 404 error page tells the search engines and your web server that a web page cannot be found, this might be because it no longer exists or the url has been changed.

What do 404 error pages mean for SEO?

A 404 page tells the search engine that the page no longer exists. If the page genuinely no longer exists, and you no longer wish to rank for the terms targeted on the page, then that’s fine – over time the search engines will remove the page from their indexes. However, if the page does still exist and you still wish to rank for the terms targeted then you have a problem.

In the event that the page does still exist, but you have moved it, (or changed the url), then in order to preserve your ranking, and avoid returning a 404 error page, you will need to redirect the old url to the new one. How? If the page is moving temporarily, you should use a 302 redirect. If the page is moving permanently you should use a 301 redirect.

What do 404 error pages mean for users?

404 error pages can annoy users and cause them to leave your site as they are unable to navigate to the page which they wish to view. Clearly for this reason alone it’s best to minimise the number of broken links on your site.

How to find broken links on you website:

So how do you know if you’ve got broken links? There are many broken link checkers out there, but I tend to use Google Web Master Tools. If you haven’t done so already, set up a Google Web Master Tools account , then submit your sitemap. Google will crawl and index your website, and if there are any broken links, Web Master Tools will show you which links are broken and returning a 404 web page error.

So now you know which pages are returning 404 errors, what next?

How should you deal with 404’s on your site?

From time to time, you will need to delete pages from your site. For example, if you are an ecommerce site, and you stop selling a particular product. In this instance, it is conceivable that a visitor may have bookmarked the page, in order to return later to purchase. However as you no longer sell that product, the page may no longer exist.

In this instance you have a couple of options:

1)  You might choose to 301 redirect an old product page to a similar product which you still stock; or a page which references the fact that you no longer sell the old product line, but this is the new product which will replace it.

2) Let the default 404 page be displayed.

3) Provide users with a custom 404 page, rather than the default one.  Custom 404 pages are a little more user friendly, and if you create a good one, hopefully you’ll keep the visitor on the site.

How to Create a Custom 404 error page
You can configure a custom 404 error page by inserting a default error page command in the HTACCESS file that is on your server. The HTACCESS file can normally be found in the root of the public html folder – an example is shown below:

You will then need to configure your HTACCESS file to display your custom 404 error page as the default error page for your website. Below is the code command to put in the HTACCESS file.

Once you have uploaded the custom 404 web page and configured the HTACCESS file, test it with URL address errors associated with your domain to see that it is functioning correctly.

For example; type www.(yourdomain).com/404test . Your customised 404 error page should display.

Custom 404 error page designs

When it comes to 404 pages, ultimately you can be as creative as you like. However, ideally the custom 404 should be in keeping with the design of the rest of your website and should aid your visitors in finding what they are looking for.

Examples:

1. Apology with a home page link
You can offer website users a brief apology and lead them back to the home page.

2. Apology with a drop down menu
We’re sorry, but the web page that you are looking for is no longer available. Please select a product from the following menu.

3. Apology with a link list option
We’re sorry, but the page you were looking for no longer exists. We recommend you try:

a) Option A
b) Option B
c) Option C

Below are a few examples of custom 404 error pages to get those creative juices flowing!

Image source: Luminous

 

  Image source : Mozilla

 

Seen some great custom 404 error pages? Hit up the comments and share them. Likewise let us know if you’ve got any further questions, or tips you’d like to share.

 

404 image credit : cbede

Thank Crunchie it’s Friday!

Here’s the weekly round up

SEO

Do you want to learn more about SEO? Danny Dover’s Learn SEO in 30 minutes per day is well worth a read.

Link building is arguably the toughest part of any SEO campaign – fortunately Rob Ousbey’s on hand at SEOmoz with 8 great tips. It’s all about the kittens for me

Social Media

Just starting out on the social networking scene? Kim Krause Berg has some excellent advice. 

PPC

Do you geo-target your PPC campaigns? Perhaps you should – Doug Drees explains why…

User Experience

Sometimes we can all get a little web-centric in our approach, I therefore also like to look at real world examples of user experience. Clearly Dustin Curtis feels the same way. The flimsy doorknob and the forgettable reciept are lovely real world examples of user experience, and might encourage you to think about your business a little differently. 

Aaaannnnd Finally, Friday’s Funny

404 error pages explained, courtesy of Dilbert.

Have a lovely weekend :) 

 

Image credit kennymatic

For a Web Designer it is often hard to search through sites and turn off your critical goggles.  As someone actively involved in the world of Art and Design I regularly look at number of artists’ and gallery’s websites and I am often amazed at how many creative people / agencies sell themselves short when it comes to their online representation.

With this in mind I thought I would give a couple examples where I think the artist/ agency’s web site has pretty much got it right.

DeborahCavenaugh.com is an excellent example of a site that showcases the artist’s creative style and offering well.

As soon as you land on this site the artist’s, unique illustrative style is immediately and efficiently communicated. One could argue that the site is a little hectic, however I would argue the consistent layout of menus and generous provision of information allows an interested visitor to delve deeper into the site without feeling confused or lost. 

Ideally from an SEO point of view the menu items should be in text format rather than pictures, and the web page is very image heavy which adversely affects the load time. On a standard  broadband connection (1-4mb) the page takes around 10 seconds to load. Clearly we would not recommend this!

That said, most of the page does load long before the 10 seconds, so you would hope it would retain the visitor’s interest.

All in all, I think this is a very attractively presented site that gets across as much information as possible in a friendly way. I think I would try and optimise the load time on the main landing pages and assess which images are necessary and take out the ones that are not.

www.20×200.com is an online gallery that represents a number of artists.

The idea of an Online Gallery is something that has been around for a while. However, in my experience a lot of  online galleries are actually designed to make money from the artists - be it through a monthly fee, one off payment or tiered membership scheme – rather than focusing on making it easy for visitors to browse and purchase.

With this in mind coming across 20×200 was a breath of fresh air. The simple layout and navigation allows visitors to browse the site with ease. It also seems in tune with user habits – for example there’s a text link to the homepage rather relying on a rollover on the logo that links to the home page.

The main problem an online gallery faces is how to show a  large amount of work by numeroous artists without overwhelming the visitor. This is where I think 20×200 do really well.

Once you click on the ‘browse’ link in the menu you arrive on a page which is set by default to show all art work starting with the most recent in the cheapest range ($20). You then have several more options, to refine your search – date, artist and tag.

My main criticism of the site is that when you click to view an enargement and more information about a picture you are interested in, you appear to hit a dead-end.

The only way to get to the page you were on before is by clicking the back button or by clicking the ‘browse’ link in the menu (which takes you back to the default browse page).  A button to return you to your search results would much improve user experience.

Additionally, there are a lot of links that take you off of the site. Whilst I’m supportive of this, personally I would prefer it if the links that left the site opened in a new window rather than the existing window. I’d then be able to easily switch back to the page I was referred from without hitting the browser’s back button ad nauseum.  

Overall however, the simple and easy to use navigation allows the user an easy and enjoyable experience and makes this one of the best online galleries I have seen.

In looking at both these sites you may begin to notice that the themes that I highlight in terms of good web design refer to usability rather than more traditional ‘design’ elements like colours and graphics used. For me, good web design is about consistency and good navigation not pretty pictures. I bet you never thought you’d hear a designer talk like that!