A new Mercedes

A new client happened upon my site yesterday, and got in touch to discuss some online and direct mail work. While obviously a very switched-on business person, the client was unable to say how well their current site was doing.

They didn't even have access to basic site logs - and other things made it very difficult to track the effectiveness of the site.

No wonder so many businesses are still wary of the web. If suppliers are prepared to develop sites which are difficult to measure, their clients will never know what could have been.

Incidentally, the site in question was poorly optimised (swap in "optimized" here, my North American friends) for search engines, and I don't think they'd even thought about accessibility.

It was slightly uncomfortable, but I made sure the client went away knowing things need to change. Because, frankly, the only reason a commerical website exists is to deliver more profits for the site owner. So they, in turn, can go out and order a shiny new hulk of German metal.

The sooner we chase out the unaccountable cowboys, the sooner the internet will be taken seriously by everyone in business. Then us copywriters can start thinking about which colour of leather to specify for our new SL320.