Video Transcript: How Not To Launch a Website?

hi guys. Matthew Woodward, here and today, I'm going to tell you how not to  launch a website with a real, live example, your website is a public face of your  business, just like a retail store or a sales assistant represents your brand, so  does your website with each and every visitor you get, you only have one  chance to make the right impression and keep them hooked forever. Get it  wrong, though, and you will lose that person forever or do serious damage to  your brand as a whole. I find a lot of people rush out to build and promote a site  before they take the time to understand their target audience. What happens is  sites get launched before they are really ready, as people are eager to push  forward, all this does, though, is deliver a poor user experience while failing to  deliver what your users actually want in addressing their key concerns, most  people that contact me are only interested in pushing more traffic and pay no  care or attention to the actual user experience. Successful websites will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to promote your business and your brand, they  should build trust and relationships on complete autopilot while extracting as  much value as possible from every single visitor, whether that is through an  email, sign up, social share sales or simply telling their friends. So let's take a  look at exactly what not to do. Let me paint you a quick picture. I'm looking for a  new mobile phone contract and fiber broadband. A new brand called everything  everywhere has recently launched in the UK. They provide both 4G mobile  phone and fiber broadband services under one roof, perfect. It has been heavily  advertised across national media, with some pretty lengthy TV spots. I had  placed an order with their competition, but the sales staff lied to me to get my  order. By definition, I am the perfect lead. So with all of that in mind, I come to  Google, and like many people, will do a search for everything everywhere I see  that they've got the AdWords number one result and the organic result there.  Let's have a look at the organic result. Say hello to the most advanced digital  communications company in Britain, the most advanced digital communications  company, that sounds exactly like what I need at the moment. So let's see what  their videos about. Now, I might just be being picky here, but I would expect the  most advanced digital communications company to be showing off their  technical, technical ability by hosting their own videos, not using a another  company to host, which in this case is YouTube. Perhaps I'm being a bit picky  there, but as a tech guy, if I am buying something from an advanced digital  communications company, I expect them to be serving up that content, not  somebody else. So that aside, let's take a look around at what we can see.  Can't really see much about fiber here, nothing really, perhaps, if we have a look at the shop, e broadband, perfect. That's what I want. Fiber broadband. Click on  that. Oh, well, that's not good. Orange. I'm not on the orange website. I'm on the everything, everywhere website, orange shop, iPads, nothing to do with fiber  broadband here at all. In fact, I'm on a completely different company's website  now, so I really don't know where to go from here. It seems that the most 

advanced digital communications company in Britain can't actually make a  website, so let's try something else. Enter the shop. That might be a good start.  No, no, perhaps No, that's wrong as well. Okay, explore. Explore is always a  good word that will help me to find other information. Let's explore the website  further. Oh, I want to learn about Yes, I want to learn about your fiber  broadband, perfect, or perhaps not. So you kind of get the general idea. It's not  really leaving the best impression on me at all, and I'm certainly not buying into  the claim that you are the most advanced digital communications company in  Britain. Your website does not give that impression. But let's give them a second chance and head back to Google. So last time, we clicked on the number one  organic result. This time, we're going to click on the number one AdWords result. Now they'll be paying for every single person that clicks on this, and they are  also in full control of where the traffic lands. So let's take a look at what they've  got. And as we can see here, the page is loading very slowly, still loading, still  loading. And I'm on 24 mega broadband here, and it's took a good five to six  seconds to load, and I actually get 24 Meg, if I do speed tests, I get the full 24 so it's taken a good five or six seconds for the website to load. Just scrolling down  the page, I'm not really sure what's going on. To be honest, there's no scroll bar  here to navigate, and it's not apparently obvious what to do. Highlighting over  these helps a little bit, but really, that's, it's, it's a bit confusing, especially to  people that aren't familiar with websites and navigation and things like that. You  know, this is second nature to me, and even I'm struggling to to understand how  it all fits together. So let's just click on fiber broadband here. And even clicking  on that is hard work. So there we go, fiber broadband. That's what I want to  know about. Yes, yes, fiber broadband. I've just told you for the third time that  that is what I want to know about. Thank you. Let's click on explore, and now  we're actually getting some useful information about the fiber broadband and  what it offers and the different we can look at speed and coverage, and we can  share the love with our family. So let's see, can I benefit? Can I actually get a  fiber broadband from this company? Let's have a look at their broadband  checker. I'm expecting to enter my phone number or postcode and address  somewhere. No, it's telling me to choose a plan, but I don't even know if I can  get the plan yet. Okay, okay, no, this, this, we're obviously going wrong here.  Let's explore again. Let's go back to fiber and have a look at what's going on  here. By clicking that actually doesn't do anything. Let's try. Oh, the coverage  checker, perfect. That's exactly what we want. Oh, no, that doesn't do anything  either. Okay, hmm, let's try the shop. Maybe the shop will help us out. E brought  fiber broadband. Yes, yes, that's what we want. I know that doesn't do anything  either about this. No, that doesn't do anything. Let's enter the shop. Surely,  entering the shop is a is a good start. No, that doesn't do anything either. So I  still don't know if I can buy the product. And even if I did know that I could buy  the product, I couldn't buy the product. It's it's really bizarre and a bad 

experience. So let's head back a page. Maybe I clicked on something wrong  here. What's this about? Okay, it's super fast. Oh, if I combine it with my mobile  service, I can save 60 pound. Well, that's perfect. My mobile phone contract is  up, and I want fiber broadband, excellent, perfect customer. About about  broadband, maybe that will help me and custom plans, a speed and price  checker. It's, can you see? You see what I'm getting at here? You know, I  actually spent nearly half an hour this morning, and this is what led me to create  this video trying just to find out a price for how much it would cost to have fiber  broadband with them and move my mobile phone contract to them. And it is  absolutely next to impossible. On top of that, you can't even order the fiber  broadband online you have to call them now. These guys are the most  advanced digital communications company in Britain. They are their own words.  Let's see what a competitor can do, plus net. A fiber broadband phone. Break  down the packages nice and easily. There's my usage, there's my speeds. Find  out more. If I want to check availability, I can do that. Enter your phone number  and postcode, and up here, look, you can clearly see that this is a start of a  sales funnel to place the order online. So if a competitor can do that, why can't  the most advanced company in Britain do that? It really is bizarre. It is beyond  me how this has been launched. Another thing that popped up while I was  browsing the site was this asking for my feedback and what I think about the  website. Now, this is really intrusive. I'm just learning about the company, trying  to find out what they offer, just an initial point of contact, if you like, and already  they're trying to push feedback on me, which I'm not in a position to give, really  at the moment. So you'd think it'd be as simple as just clicking on No thanks. But as you can see, clicking on No thanks, no matter how many times you click it,  the message does not go away. But if you click on, take part straight away, the  survey pops up without hesitation. So if you start filling this out, are you over the  age of 16? Yes. How likely would you be to recommend the E website to friends  or family? Definitely wouldn't and well, then they ask you why. You're going to  find out why, just this is just really bad. Look how intrusive that is, and I can't  even get rid of it. I'm actually forced now to return back to Google and start my  search again. It's really a bad user experience. I'll be honest, the site has left an  awful impression on the business as a whole. I certainly do not trust them or feel comfortable ordering from them. How many other visitors feel the same way I  was the perfect lead ready to sign up. How on earth can they fail to convert me  into a sale? In fact, what it actually did is turn me cold. It certainly makes the  competition look more appealing. They had the opportunity to not only gain my  business, but take it away from key competitors at the same time. From now on, any form of everything, everywhere advertising will go ignored. They have lost  me forever, and you can be sure I'll be telling all my friends about it in the pub  later. And every time an advert comes on the TV, I really don't understand what  is going on here. I really do expect more from major brands. This is basic stuff. 

You know, they fail to identify any of the key concerns their potential customers  may have. The site does not provide any answers to those questions and only  confuses the user further. The user experience is basically non existent and is  

currently set up to do lasting damage. It is clear there has been little to no  testing of the site. I'm going to make the assumption that corners were cut to  meet deadlines, budget requirement and appease pressure from decision  makers at the cost of the user. I find it laughable that people get paid big money  to produce sites like this. It's ridiculous, but you haven't heard the best bit yet.  The funny thing about all of this is they've spent 4 million pounds on a national  advertising campaign. It's running across the UK right now, on television, in  press and online. Honestly, I'm not even joking, they are spending 4 million  pounds to promote a website that delivers a damaging, lasting impression. I  really am lost for words. So after seeing that, do you think you can do better?  Remember that budget isn't everything, and that delivering an exceptional user  experience is make sure you put time and effort into getting the basics and  foundations of the site right before any form of promotion, certainly before  pissing 4 million up the wall anyway, you only have one chance to build a trust  and a relationship with your visitor. So whatever you do, make sure you don't  blow it well. If you made it this far, you must have enjoyed the video, so thank  you for watching. If you have any questions, then head over to my blog by  clicking on the logo on your screen now, or leave them in the comments.  Underneath this video, you can check out some of my other videos. Just click on the one you want to watch next. And hey, don't forget to subscribe to my  YouTube channel and my blog. See ya