Julian Nicklin - Business Manager, Micron Sprayers Limited

'I have been working in IT for many years although I have never had to deal with website design, construction or maintenance. I have a limited knowledge of html and a rough idea of how a website should work.

When I received the first Sitemorse™ report I was concerned that:

a. I had failed to spot simple errors ie pages missing
b. I had wrongly assumed that I had inherited a tested, working site
c. I might not have the necessary abilities to put all of the problems right
d. I was letting the company and its customers down

The original summary report showed 151 errors, which was very disappointing on a 105 page website. I looked closely at the website and found most of the errors were simple typographical errors i.e. the links to PDF files (as a manufacturer, distributor and maintainer it is important that our documentation is continually available, internationally). These errors whilst easy to fix were not easy to find, as I had to browse the pages in the same way as visitors do and manually check the links. Even documenting as I went through the process I found myself getting confused with routes that I had checked and routes that I thought I had checked but hadn’t checked. I spent three days (and some time at home in the evenings) looking for errors in the pages and did not make much impression on the problem.

The detailed report was like a weight being taken off my shoulders. It detailed the type of error, the page the error was on and the document attached defined the error as well as giving examples of the problem and where applicable, url’s where standards and information was held. It took me a half a day to fix 90% of the errors listed. There were some more complicated errors that I didn’t understand fully, mainly due to my inexperience. These errors were covered on the attached document; but I found it necessary to look at the associated web pages to get a full understanding of the problem.

In addition to the report and associated error document, the email support and advice on how to improve the Micron site has been excellent. I have received solid information on how to achieve performance gains and how to maintain the site and keep it running at its full potential.

The site is currently error free. I hope to redevelop it in the near future with similar content but a version with text only and links to images for slow connections. I feel more confident now of achieving this knowing that the site can be tested and verified in seconds rather than days or weeks'.

About Micron
Micron Sprayers is a small company located in Herefordshire turning over approx £1.3million per year. The objective of the company has always been to develop and manufacture agricultural spraying equipment that reduces the use of agrochemicals, water, and labour. The company exports to 100 countries worldwide and work in some of the most difficult markets on the globe

The company relies heavily on its website as it is the most cost effective way of showing potential customers all around the world where we are with the latest spraying technology. The website which is designed to run as quickly as possible with third world connections in mind is currently being expanded. I am currently working on French and Spanish pages for all our products and there are some products that are required in Arabic. In addition, manuals and technical information is also required in multiple languages. Having looked at competitor’s websites I am sure that the Micron site albeit agricultural (no pun intended) is of far more use to someone with a very slow connection than some of the expensive hi-tech sites on the world wide web.