On complicated websites
These days I am doing a little pre-purchase research on virtual machine hosting services. The company I work for needs a testing environment for the projects in development and I figured it would be best to get a server on which we could install SVN and make a shadow copy of the most recent version directly in the server root so we can avoid uploading files manually every time we make a change.
I checked the 'internets' for some hosting options and i found out about few. One of the first hosting providers I found was Rackspace. Now, i want to mention that looking for hosting companies and checking thir prices isn't exactly my favorite thing to do, and these companies aren't making my life easier. If you visit Rackspace's website, the first thing your sight lands on is some guy saying "If you're looking for a partner, you can look no furter than Rackspace". Gee, thanks, that's just what I needed, now i just need to find the subscribtion form. Rackspace is one of the leading hosting companies on the market and the experience fron visiting their website is almost like visiting Godaddy. I see a bunch of stuff I dont care about that are only obscuring the link I really need: Pricing information for their services.
It's not rocket science to find out why a visitor is really coming to your website. He needs either support or info about your merchandise (read: prices). If you really want to respect your customer's time the only 2 things on your website would be: A large button saying 'SUPPORT', and a nice, formatted table showing the prices on your different hosting plans. That simple.
It's not just rackspace. After visiting a bunch of websites, it turns out that almost none of the hosting companies have the info I am looking for on their home page.After a while, i got tired of clicking links and if I didn't find the pricing tables on the hompage I just started to click the back button.
The only hosting company who's website I enjyed using so far is Slicehost. For now, they are on top of my list.
Update: I'm going with Slicehost. See how a nice and clean website DOES get you the cash? :)
