Internet Strategy SEO & Web Developement

Quebec is an information-age laggard and we need to fix this problem. As a group of business bloggers said in an open letter to the Quebec Government: Quebec need a digital plan. Business need to have the tools to sell online to the Quebec population. As a fact actually only 52% of Quebec small and medium business have their own website. This is a huge space of the economy where our companies aren’t doing any business, so international and especially US based enterprise are taking this virtual space. Statistics from Quebec stat agency SOM Recherches et Sondages, reveal that only half of the $300 million spend by Quebecers online went to non Canadian websites.

More information technology training for youngers

The letter point out this problem and that struck me how really this is need when I realized that one of my younger brother who just get to CEGEP (Quebec institution comparable to colleges) wasn’t able to use a word processing software. Some basic stuff like this should be done at school… I clearly remember word, spreadsheet and basic Internet course when I was in high school. How can they figured out to cut those course is beyond me. Younger are surfing the interwebs, sure they are also gamers but they need to have the basic knowledge it take in this information-age to be competitive.

More information in English from Nicolas Cossette and in French from Patricia Tessier. A friend of mine just did a incredible job to put together a lot of info and blogs about the Plan numerique pour le Quebec.

I did personnaly signed this letter from Michelle Blanc at the last Yullbiz Montreal meeting and I can only urge you to join the Facebook group to keep pushing this to the government.

Bruce Lawson from Opera is right, the gap between web worker working on “traditionnal” agency and on the edge consultant isn’t going to narrow anytime soon. Web workers need to really get their hand (and their directors and the upper management team) on accessibility.

Web Accessibility and Web Standards are good for SEO

You need to get those upper managment people that web standars and accessibility are good for their business. Name it whatever you want but get the CEO buy-in as he’s going to push it down afer for you. Web standars and accessibility aren’t only a geeky dream about a better web, they are real asset for entreprise. As a UK financial services company learned from a web site redesign with accessibility in mind, you get great business benefits :

• huge increase in traffic
• doubled conversion rates and online revenues
• all ROI in 5 months

Some accessibility is better than nothing

The Web Accessibility fanatical advocates are too often blocking the progess in suit and ties corporate environment as this can be see as been only for the IT and techy people. Of course the change won’t be made without those upper managment buy-in, so for all of you as much as I personnaly need to refrain my fanboyism and better get some real key benefits for businesses. Money always talk.