I’ve been exchanging emails with my nephew, Gabriel Goldenberg. He’s an expert in search engine optimisation — see SEO ROI — and is giving me useful advice.

We’ve been comparing notes over two recent examples of how not to get the user on your side.

Forbes

One was tonight. I wanted to comment on an article in Forbes. You must register to do so.

I had to supply the usual data — a name, email address and password twice. LastPass did the honours, after which I got this message:

Forbes says no

As you can see, there’s no indication of what the message refers to. I thought it meant the password, since it’s near those fields. In fact it meant the user name, out of sight above.

There’s nothing on the blank form to say that. Under the user name field is this: “Must be at least 4 characters, letters and numbers only. We encourage you to use your real name.” How hard would it be to add “lower case only”?

Anyway, I corrected the ‘error’ and tried again. The script sat spinning its wheels for a couple of minutes until I got fed up with the smell of burning rubber and closed the window.

A camping club’s cock-up

There are two main caravan clubs in Britain — The Caravan Club and The Camping and Caravanning Club. I belong to both. They each have a large and widely distributed collection of sites and provide good services at attractive prices.

Last year, the latter club had its Web site reworked by someone with a better sense of style than practicality. For example, one couldn’t specify a range of dates when looking for available sites, which I thought remarkably stupid. The designer also displayed a taste for pointless prettiness and a liking for Americanisms.

A site redesign went on air at the start of this November. Although needing work, it looks more functional. The only trouble is that the back end (or the link to it) is banjaxed.

Two days ago, I went online to find a site. I saw details of a suitable place and checked the price. I travel alone, as the database knows, but the Web page gave me a price for two people. It wanted £106 for a week.

I corrected the entry to one person, whereupon the system slapped on another £100, putting up the price to £206! That’s nearly £30 a night for one person. This time of year I usually pay £10 a night or less.

Not believing anything I read, I rang the site. The patient and helpful local manager took my details and came back with a price of £44.75 for the week. I bit her hand off, in a nice way.

Site managers are obliged to use the same system, and it’s driving them hairless.

Lessons will be learned

That’s what they always say. I hope so in these two cases.

Forbes’s is the lesser offence. It’s irritating but easily corrected.

The Camping and Caravanning Club has, I think, damaged itself. Replacing a sub-standard system with one that’s actively harmful is a major blunder.

Its new system is causing unnecessary stress for its staff and franchisees. It’s also creating frustration for its members and other customers, some of whom won’t return. Did the club not test the system before launch?

Heads should roll, but probably won’t.