Web Wisdom #2 – Benjamin Franklin

March 14th, 2010

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

- Benjamin Franklin

Back in the prehistoric days of the internet, you know, like, circa 2003, the de-facto purpose of a web site was to serve as an online brochure whose main purpose was to proclaim to the world, “Look how great we are!“

Fast forward to now, and we’re still seeing most web sites continuing along that well-worn path of the digital flyer. Sure, an online flyer is relatively easy to create and requires little-to-zero upkeep aside from the occasional change of phone number or email address. But once our static brochure web site is live for the world to see, the next question becomes…“so why can’t I find my site on Google?”

And the collective answer from Mighty Cyberspace bellows (or perhaps it croons a la Janet Jackson), “what have you done for me lately?“

You see, Google is, for the most part, nothing more than a popularity contest, with popularity being measured in terms of how many other sites are linking back to yours. So if your website is the online equivalent of Ben Franklin’s “man wrapped up in himself,” then your site also probably has relatively little to offer to the vast majority of the world. And all of this makes for the proverbial “small bundle” – and who want to link to a small bundle?

How to make your bundle bigger.

Umm…ok, that came out a bit wierd, but nonetheless, the answer is…

[enter drumroll building into a tinny and abrasive cymbal crash]

Make your website about ME too.

How do you do that? Well, for starters, how’s about keeping a blog that regularly publishes content that’s of value to your target market? Research shows that sites with blogs get 55% more visitors and 97% more inbound links than sites without blogs.

You can also do things like be considerate of the kind folks who are taking time out of their busy day to click in your direction. For example:

Make it so that visitors to your site can immediately understand what it is that your company does. A clear and concise tagline will usually go a long way here.
Make sure that your site isn’t bogged down with huge Flash videos or massive images that slow things down unnecessarily. Remember, after 4 seconds, online folks get very antsy and start looking for the door.
Don’t employ selfish tactics like burying your prices or the telephone number for customer support in obscure places that attempt to force users to click on your site 1,437 times before we find what the %$#@ we’re looking for (!).

The era of the self-centered website is over, so what has your website done for ME lately?

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