What’s Wrong with IE6?

It was designed when few international web standards existed and the capabilities required to deliver on-screen web content were fairly limited and easy to achieve with a dominant browser solution.

In addition, IE6 is more susceptible to security problems which were not envisaged when the browser was first designed.

Since 1995 web standards have been developed and new browsers have come to market. These browsers have converged to follow international web standards which benefits both consumers of web information and web developers who struggle to deliver rich content on a browser that is not up to the task.

Finally, later browsers provide better internet security features than IE6.

Why should I Upgrade?

Recent security breaches, well reported in the press, had the French and German governments recommending to their citizens not to use IE6.

Additionally, there is a growing movement of businesses and web application developers who are dropping IE6 support. This is because IE6 can no longer deliver the browsing experience expected by visitors because of shortcomings in available functionality and compatibility with other modern browsers.

Which Browser Should I Choose?

There are choices but all of them will give a better and more reliable browsing experience than IE6.

The dominant browser (although becoming less so) from Microsoft is IE8. The next most popular browser is Firefox, followed by Google Chrome, Safari and Opera.

All are available as free downloads with automatic updates as new releases are published.

Business marketing messages, information, products and services shape a website structure. Identifying the information architecture is the process whereby all these elements are brought together. The process identifies the major web pages and how the site will be navigated for intuitive browsing (website usability).

To design the information architecture requires a knowledge of the business. Business First is the process to gain knowledge and understanding thus ensuring the published website reflects the business marketing aims.

Large Websites

The larger the website the more important it is to review the information architecture to ensure information is placed logically within it, and to ensure there is room to expand without significant website redesign.

Reflecting Your Business

One important point worth noting is that the website information architecture should reflect the way visitors see your business from the outside, and not how your business in structured internally.

Simply, a website that has a set of administration pages that allow you to change the site’s content via the same web browser you are using to view this site. CMS and WCMS are generic names for all websites that have this type of administration interface. It is found on services websites (such as this), eCommerce websites and blogging websites to name a few.

CMS Administration and Updating

You administer the site through a web interface; adding, deleting, and changing content, together with adding new web pages and menu items.

No special software is required on your PC to manage your website, and the website management tools are easy to learn.

Finally, you can update your site from anywhere on the planet, providing that is, you have an internet connection!

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process by which a website’s words and structure are polished so that when a potential visitor issues a search request via (say) Google, your site is displayed high up on the search results page.

There are 2 aspects to search engine optimisation:

• On-site optimisation (or organic search engine optimisation). This is attending to such items as page titles, meta tags, text placement, relative font sizes, link text, keyword density and content relevance. This is to ensure your web page link appears in the highest possible position on the search engine search results page, and that the text displayed is sufficiently inviting that the visitor clicks through to your website.
• Off-site optimisation. This is the building of quality inbound links to your website. One of many criteria search engines like Google use to rate websites, is the number of quality inbound links. They work on the principle that if other people reckon your site is good, they will link to you. Quality links can enhance your search result position and vice versa.

Of course, it is possible for even the smallest of businesses to be somewhere on the first page of Google without any inbound links, providing your website is optimised and you have a unique offering. It depends on what you want to be famous for and then reviewing your website content and structure to ensure that they reflect this.

It’s worth remembering that the wider your business offering, the harder it is to be number 1 for everything.

As an ethical SEO company, we are unable to guarantee getting your site to page 1 position 1.

Building a successful website requires an understanding of website usability blending website structure and content together.

Website Structure

Structure should follow established conventions to prevent visitors having to learn new ways of interacting.

Website structure covers for example, ‘look and feel’, search engine optimisation, accessibility and font styles and sizes.

Website Content

Content sentence complexity should be aimed at the target audience.

Web content covers writing style, language complexity, sentence and paragraph construction and information presentation.

Positive visitor experience

• Interaction. Visitors want to interact with your site at their own speed.
• Site navigation. Ensure the site layout and navigation are intuitive and follow established conventions.

Negative visitor experience

• Distractions. Heavy use of advertisements or moving text and images.
• Registration. Asking your visitor to register before providing basic information.
• Incomplete site. ‘Under construction’. If there is nothing to say, don’t say anything.

Visitors increasingly see ‘Search Engines’ as ‘Answer Engines’ to answer their question.

The Challenge

Visitors to your website want answers quickly, and with the minimum of effort expended.

They can be quite ruthless in assessing the benefits of spending time on your website.

This results in visitors ‘information snacking’. That is, coming to your website, collecting a piece of information, then going off to another website for another piece of information.

The challenge therefore is to answer the question and retain the visitor on your site long enough for them to undertake a transaction.

Positive visitor experience

• Content scanning. Visitors interact with your website by scanning content on the web page. If it looks interesting they will read it.
• Information foraging. Your site structure and content should support foraging to enable visitors to find the answer they seek.

Negative visitor experience

• Unreadable text. Block text, small fonts and poor colour contrasts are difficult to read on screen.
• Introduction screens. Visitors almost always opt to ‘Skip intro’ when flash introduction or splash screens are displayed.
• Browser Plug-ins. Don’t expect visitors to download a browser plug-in to see your content.
• Page load times. Visitors are impatient. Too long and they will give up and go elsewhere.
• Browser incompatibility. Failure to display your web page correctly on their browser.
• Poor site navigation. Not knowing where they are and how to navigate their way round the website.