Effectiveness of GSK Website - Article Example

CORPORATE WEB DEVELOPMENT PART-I Introduction Qn. a) Effectiveness of GSK website Type of web site As far as GSK website is concerned, it is an e-community based transactional brochure ware. The GSK site is deep in nature as it contains almost all in detail. The objectives of the site are selling, advertising, customer support, customer retention etc. Let’s have a look at the effectiveness of the objectives, Site design and content orientated to its apparent aims. Inference: The web site is well designed with its structured content, layout, specialised logo, and designs with vibrant eye friendly colours and with well optimisation. This could be improved by updating information constantly. The Unilever website is a typical underlying business model. PART-II Qn b) HOW TO FIND OUT GSK’s WEB SITE’S EFFICIENCY? Let’s go through the following checklist. Score each website issue out of 10. 1 is very poorly represented and 10 are well represented. The issues with an asterisk are generally considered to be detrimental to most websites and thus if they are applicable to the sites you are reviewing you might decide to allocate a negative score where -1 acknowledges that the feature is a minor criteria and -10 indicates a major criteria. CHECK LIST FOR CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE OF GSK WEB SITE  ASSESSING QUALITIES  SCORES 1. FIRST IMPRESSIONS  GSK URL  10 Download time - size of home page  9 Look and feel - readability  9 Need to download software  9 Home page on one screen (above the fold)  7 Unique Selling Point (USP) or Value Proposition  10 Ability to take action (Key action point – KAP)  9 Feeling of wanting more - depth of site  9 Contact details  10 Credential validation - certifications, associations etc.  10 Statement from management  10 Use of attractors  10 Are you made to register to get into site?  10 Total score for section  122 2. NAVIGATION   Ease of use  10 Site map  10 Return to Home Page from any page  9 Internal search engine  6 Internal links  7 Broken links  8 Text as well as graphic links (ALT tags)  8 Navigational links visible  8 Opens multiple windows  9 Total score for section  75 3. CONTENT   Useful information  10 Degree of substantiated information  10 Level of interaction  9 Use of valuable graphics  8 Use of valuable animation  7 Use of valuable sound  5 Reviews, testimonials and certifications  10 Content in digestible quantity  10 Up-to-date ness  10 Available in multiple languages  7 Accessibility for the disabled  6 Terms and conditions  9 FAQ’s  5 Availability of follow up discussion  5 Total score for section  111 4. ATTRACTORS   Competitions  8 Special offers  9 Freebies  8 Breaking news  8 Ease of access by External links  9 Newsletter  9 Other (Specify)   Total score for section  51 5. FINDABILITY   Intuitive URL  10 Designed for search engine performance  10 Intuitive keywords  10 Use of meta tags  9 Use of frames  9 Advertising  9 On-line advertising  9 Off-line advertising  9 On-line recommend a friend  7 Partner and affiliate sites  9 Total score for section  91 6. MAKING CONTACT   Email and other details visible  10 Response time to enquiries  10 Automatic email response  10 Personal email response  10 Use of online forms  10 Telephone contact number provided  10 Telephone call back offered  10 Total score for section  70 7. BROWSER COMPATIBILITY   Internet Explorer (1-5)  9 Netscape Navigator (1-4)  9 Mac  9 Resize ability  9 Total score for section  36 8. KNOWLEDGE OF USERS   Availability of utilisation statistics  8 Adaptive website  9 Offers based on buying history  8 Total score for section  25 9. USER SATISFACTION   Robustness/reliability of the site  10 Clicks to completion  9 Acknowledge order/request  9 Order/request tracking online  9 Recognising a pre-inclusion  9 Total score for section  46 10. OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION   Supplier terms and conditions  10 List of products bought by your company  10 Contact details for person in charge of suppliers  10 List of career opportunities  10 Contact details for HR department  10 Financial results  10 Up-to-date financial news  9 The company stock price performance  9 History of the company  8 Cookies 7 Management and geographical structure of company  8 Mission statement  9 Up-to-date press coverage  9 Total score for section  112     OVERALL TOTAL SCORE  844 WHILE CONSIDERING ALL THESE POINTS IT CAN BE NOTED HAT GSK IS A COMPANY OF HIGH PROFESSIONAL VALUES PART-III Qn c) How easy is it to retrieve via a range of search engines and using different search terms? What are the main criteria to set up an effective website? 1. ABILITY TO FIND VERY QUICKLY This is very effective aspect as far as a web site is concerned. The effectiveness of a web site is in the fact how quickly they are converted in to users. As far as GSK I s concerned it is its peak quality. According to the noted Stat Market, high percentage rate of Internet link referrals attract customers through banner advertisements and paid links. (Raïssa Katz-Haas. Society for Technical Communication. User Centered Design and Web Development.) 2. ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONLINE ANF OFFLINE ADVERTISING Offline advertising is an important tool to attract customers which should not be under estimated. In fact it is a traditional advertising tool and found very effective. Online advertising is an effective tool which can be used very effectively. Here we can direct potential customers from other company websites. As far as GSK is concerned, this is not at all necessary, since they are the monopoly leaders of their product. However the system is on effectively there also. 3. URL BRANDING To define the business of a company’s web site, URL BRANDING is necessary. It is calculated that 50% of all Web site referrals are through direct referrals. So the URL is an important marketing tool. So it is mandatory to have it with proper IP address, fax numbers, phone number, e-mail address etc. The key tool should be printed in almost all company brochures and literature wherever given. GSK’s URL branding is so effective and time savvy also. (Professor James Grunwald. Martin Luther College. 1997. Five Principles of Good Web Design.) 4. SEARCH ENGINES AND DIRECTORIES These are the business maker as far as internet is concerned. Search engines can still generate a considerable amount of traffic to the site. Though there are a lot of search engines, 95% of surfers use the top search engines. So if you want to include your company in the top rated list, the performance has to be enhanced to a great extent. Search engines provide web sites to the new users which can be converted in to potential users. E.g.: Yahoo, Snap and Lycos are directories. If you enquire Google, it is an Answer Service and is more like a directory as human beings compile its listing. Questions in English can be given and receive links to web sites containing relevant information, services and products. When we consider GSK’s compatibility, the site is quite user friendly and quickie to all search engines.  (http://www.themanager.org/managementconsultancyindustry.htm) In order to assess the performance we can observe the FMCG websites for e.g. Reckitt and Colman, P&G etc. From all these sites, one thing is clear that GSK site optimising their site constantly for better results. The tags given in GSK site are quite apt and systematic. It has a clear linking strategy. It links with appropriate URL and provides necessary details for the searches. Search engine optimisation is very much relevant to the business aims here in GSK site. Some of the specialities of GSK site are as follows. 1. Search Engines and Directories What is the difference between search engines and directories in GSK? Both are data providers. It is as important as to understand the way in which search engines work before discussing how a web site can be found effectively through them. 2. Search Engines:  Search engines automatically create their listings. They give the data for the users search through what they have found. If you change the web page, search engines find these changes and affect the web page listing. Here titles, content and other factors play a role. Tags can be easily find out good results. 3. Directories:  Site descriptions are submitted to the directory are reviewed by editors. Changing web pages has no effect when it is listing. Directory listing points are different from search engine points. Web sites with original content are to get reviewed again and again than a bad site. 4. Hybrid Search Engines:  An associated directory is being kept by some search engines. Usually a combination of luck and quality are the main criteria to get included in a search engine’s directory.  5. Three major elements of a Search Engine: Spider: Otherwise known as crawler. The crawlers visit a web page, read it, and then follow links to other pages within the site. That’s why it is used as “crawled”. It ensures it checks in a regular period of time for changes and improvements. In fact it is for the optimisation of the web site. This effect on site statistics and increasing the chance of hits as far as the web site is concerned. Index: The found results will be put in the index or known as catalogues. Index contains a copy of every web page that the spider finds. The index is updated with new information if a web page changes. Unless the web page is indexed, there is rare chance to get available to those who searching for it with the search engine. Search Engine Software: Search Engine Software is a unique programme that shifts through the billions of pages recorded in the index. Then it is finding matches and ranking in order of relevance. Considering all these varieties of Search Engines, GSK site is so accessible to all these categories and very efficient. How Search Engines Rank Web Pages The basic points for a search engine to find are determining relevancy and frequency. In the order of preference to certain topics, Search engines rank web pages on the basis of how relevant they find them. Frequency of web page After analysing key words, it appears in relation to other words in a web page. The web pages with more importance and with a higher frequency will b e given more relevance than other least important web pages. In GSK web site one could see the high rate frequency and its effectiveness. Position of the site The keywords seen in the title are more important to the topic than pages without. Search Engines find the title and the content properly and assumes its importance based on the relevance of the data provided. Then they place the sites as its ranking. Here GSK site is placed some more uniquely.  Different Search Engines and different results When you search a thing in different search engines, it may produce different results. It is as per the data indexed in a search engine. For example if a web page is indexed with a lot of data in the search engine, it first of all compares the data with its data recorded. A search Engine with more pages can provide maximum number of good results when a particular search is being done. Qn d) EFFECTIVENESS OF GSK WEBSITE DESIGN, GRAPHICS ETC Use maximum number of Strategic key words for better results. That will give maximum fruitful results. Place the keywords in the right order at right places. That will give quick results with regard to the searches. 1.WEB DESIGN Some designers use tables for layout images and texts when formatting their web pages. So the use of too much tables make the web page comparatively less relevant since it pushes down the text. While considering the design of GSK site, the multimedia effect, colour combinations and lay out are significantly matching with the theme of life saving health care industry. The graphical contents used are eye friendly and sketchy. The multimedia effect used here in GSK is very attractive. But its some what slow when loading up. It is time consuming and the customer would not have the patience to waste his time. So GSK has to look in to the matter. It is look same in different browsers. It can be personalized for better result. It is segmenting targeting in nature. In fact, the customer get all value propositions as one intended to be. The GSK site is deep in nature as it contains almost all in detail. (Web Style Guide, 2nd ed. “by Patrick Lynch and Sarah Horton, accessed on 2 March 2008) 2. Meta tags and uses This is to ensure web sites, highly ranked by search engines. All Meta tags will not be supported by all Search engines. In fact, the search engines can improve the rating of the site. These are machine understandable information providers. When the page is viewed through a browser, it will not appear .It is there in the head portion of a page providing commentary for whatever thinks to going through. Here in GSK web site, Meta tags are aptly used for the easy compilation of pages. 3. There must be proper Content If you provide a particular key word in your web page, you should be able to give proper standardized content in your page. For that one needs a HTML text, which can read the text properly. Use HTML text when possible 4. Sometimes sites present large sections of copy via graphics. Search engines can’t read those graphics. Therefore they miss out on text that might make your site more relevant. Some of the search engines will index ALT text and comment information, along with Meta tags. But to be safe, use HTML text whenever possible. In GSK web site, one is able to find out the product range, services, R&D, Social responsibilities etc. But I should say the history of the firm could have mentioned in an elaborative sense. That is should give the strong base of the company achieved over the past years.   5. Use of HTML links In order to have a proper display and better conveyance, it is mandatory to use HTML links .There should be adequate hyperlinks to link with. It should be given in the home page itself and other connected pages to give better access. The sitemap with text links will be able to locate pages in the site. Use of Meta tags and smart design will be able to provide better view to the pages. In GSK site, HTML links used differently so as to give a variety of textual analysis and assimilation.   6. CGI code is used for the external function of a World Wide Web HTTP server. In order to have a better performance, use proper symbols and tools for better use.   7. Key Pages submission If you submit better pages, it will give you good result as far the search is concerned. Normally it will take some time to indexing and coding. But it will provide better results. In order to have a file downloading one has to go a very few click throughs’. The Search Column optimizes with the right URL linking. Options can be made available through the browser utilization. Find the adequate files and go for downloading. In fact, it will take only a few minutes and a few click throughs’ for downloading.   PART-IV Qn d) Performance in the FMCG market The GSK site is, in fact, dominant in nature as far as FMCG market is concerned. When comparing it to the web sites of its immediate competitors, namely, P&G, Reckitt and Coleman and many more, the GSK website has its own identity. The site is deep, good in lay out, structure, content and in almost everything. It is very much user friendly too. As far as the nature of competition in the market is concerned, it focuses on its customer care very much. Marketing is very much prominent here in this site. The GSK web site is providing strategic and competitive advantages for this organization in terms of customer care, channel strategies, customer retention and sales boost up to a great extent. The company is seeking to exploit the ample opportunities of the e- commerce by means of its website. But there must be a clear cut strategy formulation is very much necessary to exploit the opportunities in full. As a giant MNC, GSK has many more things to do with the market to make a well defined channel strategic impact. The distribution chain can be well defined and all levels of marketing can be done linked with this site. This could be the immediate impact of the site is concerned. Qn. e) The effectiveness and the critical assessment is given in Qn b. Though it has shortfalls in its operation, the company is very particular in its website. It emphasise in the customer care, retention, corporate commitment etc. In fact, the site is very effective to the company operation is concerned. In fact, it is implementing first wave solutions. Qn. g) Recommendations for effective web presence 1. FIRST IMPRESSION IS THE BEST IMPRESSION 1. You may lose potential clients, if your web site seems not attractive at the first sight itself; hence make URL short and simple. 2. If your site takes only a little time to download proper data, it can give a better impression. No user will wait more for data downloading. In fact all pages should be limited to 40k-60k.The pages should be aptly designed. GSK has to adhere it some more effectively. 3. The home page as well as other s should be neatly organized for better reading. In fact the readability factor is very significant to all ages alike. The color pattern, font etc. should be eye friendly. In no way it should be a hindrance to the reader. Here the homepage provides all necessary data of the company GSK. But the lay out can be featured some more nicely. 4. It is not desirable to ask the customers to download an application tool before entering a site. One on one display is something very attractive for the viewer. The user will be able to view home pages and others alike. It is time savvy too. In our site that is predominantly noticed to a great extent. 5. The key punch point of the website should be written in the home page itself. So that the user can take quick decision to take or leave decision when he has a glance on your web page. It is not necessary to mention the homepage of GSK. 6. If the site provides ample opportunities for the interaction, it can be a boom within a short span of time. The drawback of GSK site is its lack of interaction. But it can be nicely rectified by adding a column for interaction. 7. The site should be able to provide more and more in depth knowledge to the customer since all customers are in exploring nature. The thing is that we should be able to provide him as much as data he wants to get from the site. Moreover, we have to ensure that the customer should visit our site further more. So customer satisfaction is very much needed here. GSK is a winner here. 8. As stated earlier, it is mandatory to provide all contact details in the site. In fact there must be the address, phone numbers, e-mail id, fax numbers etc. That all are superbly mentioned in the GSK Web site. 9. If you are able to provide valid authentications to your site, it will give a cementing concrete base for the customer to rely on. There are 5-7 authentications can be seen in GSK web site through which one can understand the authenticity of the site. It should be mush more enhanced. 10. The value and prospects of the company can be seen only from the top authorities. Hence there should have proper certification from the top management. The annual reports, certificates etc. give all necessary details of the company GSK. 11. There should be an option to register the visitors of your site. This could give a feeling that the company values the visiting customer which can be converted to a potential sale later. It has to be given proper care since there is no option to make a mark there for a common visitor of GSK. 2. NAVIGATION The navigation system should give an easy way to surf through all the data given in the site. The site map will give an option to the customer to use in an alternate way. There should be an option to come to the main page-home page. There should be a link for that purpose. (Patrick Lynch and Sarah Horton 2002 The Web Style guide 2nd edition., http://www.webstyleguide.com) The option of internal search engine can provide more beauty to your site. It will give the customer more comfort and it is a time saver too. Navigation feature in GSK site is so aptly given here in GSK Site. It should be updated continuously. 3. CONTENT When we consider the matter of content, it should be par with the following standards. In fact all the following points have to be neatly adhered in the website. 1. Objectivity 2. Accuracy 3. Wide coverage 4. High level of substantiated information 5. There should authority in the information given. 6. Up to date information. 7. Website should be as interactive as possible providing an opportunity to interact with users. 8. Use valuable graphics 9. Use of valuable animation 10. Use of valuable sound 11. Reviews, testimonials and certifications 12. Content in digestible quantity 13. Available in Multiple Languages 14. Accessibility for disabled people 15. Terms and conditions 16. Frequently asked questions 17. Availability of follow up discussion All the mentioned features are remarkable qualities of GSK site. However the shortfalls have to be rectified to generate a good impact on the public. 4. ATTRACTORS This is a vital point to make more customers and thereby boost up more business. The common attractors are, 1. Breaking News 2. Newsletter 3. Special Offers 4. Freebies 5. Competitions 6. Providing External links 7. Other (Specify) The attractors should be given in more specifically in GSK and it should be so closely adhered to the above features. 5. MAKING CONTACT As stated earlier, it is mandatory to provide all contact details in the site. In fact there must be the address, phone numbers, e-mail id, fax numbers etc. 6. BROWSER COMPATIBILITY Website visit must be much more useful and pleasant experience to a visitor is concerned. Since there are a lot of browsers, the website should be accessible to as many internet users as possible. The features are exceptionally given in GSK site. It can be enhanced much more.   To evaluating the effectiveness of GSK website using the following key issues with regard to compatibility are,    1. Internet Explorer - versions (1-5) 2. Netscape Navigator - versions (1-4) 3. Macintosh 4. 4 Monitor Compatibility 7. KNOW YOUR USERS 1. There should a provision to know your users and their needs in GSK site. That is a better option to make fruitful results as far as the business is concerned. 2. Adaptive website - will record and reminds the preferences of the customers. This feature too could be given in GSK site. 3. The offers should be based on buying history, which must be given in a MNC like GSK. 4. The availability of utilization statistics could be a punch point here in GSK web site. 8. USER SATISFACTION As the scope of e- commerce is increasing day by day, there should give much care on customer satisfaction.  The major criteria needed to ensure prompt customer satisfaction in the GSK web site are, 1. reliability of the site 2. Clicks to completion 3. Acknowledgement of request 4. request tracking online 5. cookies to fill the form 9. OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION The major value points to build confidence and genuineness in the e-customer in our GSK web site are,   1. Terms and conditions of the customer 2. Goods sold earlier 3. Up-to-date press coverage. 4. Person in charge of suppliers 5. HR department and contact details 6. Up-to-date financial news 7. Stock price performance of the company 8. Financial results 9. Management and geographical structure of company 10. Statement of previous history. PART-V REFERENCES 1. Raïssa Katz-Haas. Society for Technical Communication. User Centered Design and Web Development. 2. ANSOFF HI. 1984. Implementing strategic management. New Jersey: Prentice. 3. PITT L. 2000. Strategy in the digital age: five new forces. Management Today, 4. Professor James Grunwald. Martin Luther College. 1997. Five Principles of Good Web Design. 5. bluepenguindevelopment.com/.../pdf/Building_An_Effective_Web_Site. 6. Patrick Lynch and Sarah Horton. 2002. The Web Style guide 2nd edition., http://www.webstyleguide.com 7. Web Style Guide, 2nd ed. " by Patrick Lynch and Sarah Horton, accessed on 2 March 2008. http://www.themanager.org/managementconsultancyindustry.htm; 1. PART-VI APPENDIX-1 RATING LIST OF MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES Search Engine Search Engine Referrals 1.Yahoo 56.4% 2.Altavista 19% 3.Excite 5.7% 4.(Go)InfoSeek 4.7% 5.Lycos 4.2% 6.Snap 3.4% 7.GOTO 3.3% 8.MSN 2.3% 9.Webcrawler 1.5% 10.Ask Jeeves .9% APPENDIX-2 ENCLOSED AS ATTACHMENT Read More