Attention All Credit Unions:

You’ve got to improve your web presence in 2006. No excuses.

Personally, I didn’t set foot in any of my credit union’s branches this year. In fact, if they built a branch at every intersection in Texas, I still wouldn’t be dropping in. I do, however, visit their website often, so all interaction with my CU occurs online.

If you want to reach me, you’ve got to do it online. Your outdated site has got to go. It screams unprofessional. Imagine me showing up in your lobby having not bathed or groomed myself in five years.

Don’t wait for a survey to come out to tell you the website needs your immediate attention or for a marketing conference later this year to point it out. Take my word for it.

Begin with this 10-step list. It’s not a total redesign, but hey, it’s a start.

1. Step into your user’s shoes and make sure the website works for them.

• Test your site on several browsers – including Firefox, Safari, and Opera – to make sure it works across the board for all users. Go through the site page by page with Firefox, in particular, as more than 10% of Internet users are browsing with it.
• Change the resolution of your computer monitor to the highest setting allowed (right-click on your desktop and select Properties and then the Settings tab if you’re using Windows). Many of your site’s visitors have already moved away from 800×600 screen resolutions.
• Take fifteen minutes to invent scenarios that would bring a member to your site. After inventing, find the least technology-savvy person you know to perform those tests starting at the homepage. Watch them closely as they browse. Take notes on what confuses them. Examples include:
  • “I’m looking for your savings rates. After I find them, I’d like to apply for an account.”
  • “I’m trying to get set up on the online banking tools, but have never done so before. Oh yeah, it’s during off-hours so I can’t call your help desk for advice.”

2. Compare your print marketing pieces (including Annual Reports, credit card designs, billboards, etc.) to the look and feel of your website. If the styles don’t match, they should. Sending a consistent brand message is crucial.

3. If anything on your website (1) blinks off and on or (2) is animated to scroll across the screen from right to left, remove the animation. That’s fine for your in-branch LED displays but it’s one of the worst things you can do to your website. Why? It distracts from your message, clutters up your site, and is a dated design technique (see example below in 3a). Plus it’s just plain annoying; it would be like a teller going “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” inside of a branch.

3a. The waving American Flag animated GIF circa 1996 (see below) must go bye-bye. Using a still image of an American Flag in your marketing materials is fine; it’s the animated GIF that isn’t.

4. Cut the fluff. Keep your content as short and sweet as possible.

5. Don’t underline anything that’s not a link.

6. Teenage members should never be called “kids.”

7. If you have a splash page, nix it. There are no exceptions to this rule. Splash pages do much more harm than requiring an extra click to get to your real content; they also hurt your search engine rankings.

8. If your domain is www.samplecu.org, make sure “samplecu.org” points to your site as well. Ask your tech department to make it so.

9. Never link your users to a PDF File without indicating it’s a PDF File. Also, don’t make any part of your menu link to a PDF File.

10. Check your site map to see if it matches the actual contents of your site. Broken links must be fixed immediately.

10a. Make sure your search tool accurately searches your site. Try different terms like rates, apply, and join. If you’re disappointed with the results, just think of the frustration your members feel when searching for those same terms.